MIMF

Thanks Chris and Bob. It sounds like good advice and I definitely feel better prepared for the next one. I am going to finish this build, since I have nothing to lose. It sounds like I may be able to get a playable instrument out of it, even if it's not a showpiece.

Rich

I just closed the box on my first acoustic build -- tenor ukulele with wenge back and sides, mahogany top. It had been going pretty well, but I now can see a critical issue. The body is very warped when I sight along the soundboard. I doubt I can recover from this -- it's all titebond 1, so no joint...

I like that idea, David. I'd been starting to think about filling the bed with something, but, as a wood-oriented guy, I never got to Bondo. That seems a good choice. And I'd never even heard of turcite, but it looks perfect for what I need. $118 is practically what I paid for the sander, so there's...

I recently picked up a used drum sander (Performax 16-32) on Craigslist and have been getting it back in working order. Getting everything cleaned, turning, and aligned has been pretty straight forward. I'm not sure how to solve one issue with it, though. The bed the conveyor belt runs on is warped....

All excellent ideas. Thank you.

The next one is going to be beautiful

I finished my first guitar recently (thanks for the nice feedback) and I'm applying a critical eye to it. One of the things that bugs me is wood discoloration around the headstock. I have a mahogany neck with an ebony headplate. I cut the headstock to final shape using a router and a cnc-ed template...

Thanks, Gordon.

Upper fret access is OK, but definitely not free. The cutaway slopes away from the neck pretty quickly, and my steeper-than-planned neck angle combine to make things a little harder to reach. For me, that's not a big deal, as I don't spend much time that far up the neck

Thanks, Dan. I appreciate it.

It sounds good, Jason, thought I'm still in my honeymoon period and my not be entirely objective

I used the SD Slash signature bridge and neck, and I like them a lot. Simple 2-wire design, very big and crunchy lead, warm and fuzzy when I dial it back. I think they were a good choice for me.

A final view of the headstock. I should have made it bigger. I'd have had enough room to fit the tuners in without resorting to an angle grinder and I'd have had a little more wood on top to protect the G tuner from impact with anything on my left side. Also, I lined up my inlay with the centerline ...

The body with a half a dozen coats of Tru-Oil. At this point, my wife walked into the garage and said "Wow, it actually looks like a real guitar". I am totally legit. Also, you can see I added a shim to the neck pocket. This was another big mistake. When I drew up the plans, I determined t...

Here's the pickup ring before I got lazy. I sanded them against the carved to to ensure I had a matching profile. IMG_3649.jpg Headstock with inlay, ready for sanding. I'm sure lots of folks here have had the feeling, but putting my initials into the headstock made me giddy. It was probably my favor...

I made the fingerboard entirely on the CNC as well, cutting a channel for the nut, it's final shape/taper, the 12" radius, and the fret slots on the CNC. This was actually really interesting as a process because I found it pretty difficult to get the results I wanted with CAD tools (I have a fe...

Building the neck was almost entirely conventional woodworking. I didn't use any CNC on the neck except for the templates I'd made on the CNC to help with the headstock shape and the neck tenon. Neck blank, cleaning up the scarf joint IMG_2897.jpg Headplate glued on and truss rod slot routed on the ...

For my build process, it was a combination of hand tools, power tools, and CNC -- I started on the CNC. It's a machine that I built from basic materials and a set of plans I bought online, so frankly, I'm pretty pleased with that, too ;-) Getting ready to start CNC routing the back IMG_2833.jpg Cont...

I recently finished my first scratch-built electric. As a kid, I built one from parts and always planned to come back and do more. I finally got around to it, and I'm very happy with both the process and the results. It was one of those projects where I learned a lot -- i.e. I survived my mistakes, ...

Thanks for the perspective on it, Barry. I let it sit for a couple of days while I worked on other steps/issues. By the time I resolved my electronics problem (two tones, no volume instead of one of each, due to incorrectly connected pickups), I wasn't sure I could hear the issue when playing. I may...

The nut making proper contact at the low E, so I don't think that's affecting things. Edgar, that's a nice looking repair, concealed well by the thumb wheel. I doubt I'd pull it off that well and with the height of my bridge the stud is a lot more exposed, but I'll keep the option in my back pocket....

I'm in the final stages of making my first scratch-built solid body, and I've hit a problem during the setup. The bass-side of my tune-o-matic style bridge is about 2mm too far forward. I've been able to correctly set intonation on all strings except the low E. The E saddle is all the way back and i...