The Sharkfin Shall Rise Again.....

[oipunkguy]

here's after i applied my first coat of grain filler.

[oipunkguy]

after spraying the first sealer coats of lacquer. more to come.

[Veenture]

Thanks for that terrific walkthrough of your cool project, Aaron. Always interesting to follow a project and see how it progresses. Yours is something that evidently involves a lot of sharp thinking, nifty fingers and a LOT of work. I think I'll just stick to buying guitars ...or maybe sweep the floor of your workshop

[KRamone27]

That's some nice grain on that body

[oipunkguy]

thanks Paul. and you make a good point Kev. I noticed that too. It's almost a shame to paint the guitar white. it even got me thinking of making another one in a sunburst. serial number "0002" lol. At the rate I'm going I'll produce as many guitars as semie did if I lived to be 500 years old.

[mrmomo]

This is fabulous, Aaron! I can build computers, but I couldn't build a guitar to save my life.
Your walk thru is quite educational and enlightening.
Are you taking orders?
-John

[oipunkguy]

Absolutely John! And Delaware is close enough I can hand deliver it! Just PM me.

[maxkat]

Hey Aaron,
great job - but I don't like it that you will succeed before I will...
If you want to see my proceedings you can find some new pictures here: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4361&start=10
Cheers, Max

[dubtrub]

Hi Aaron, Great project!

Looking at the photo of the trussrod I noticed a couple of things that concern me and I don't want to sound critical.

One, the truss rod channels seems to have an excessive amount of space around the rod which would allow the rod not to function properly. Second, the truss rod appears to be a single rod as used on a Fender. For that type of rod to function, it is necessary to have a tight fitting channel route that is curved in depth from one end to the other and filled with a matching curved space filler. That actually makes a straight rod curved and when tightening the nut, the rod being curved tries to straighten itself and subsequently it puts pressure on the neck causing it to bow in the desired direction. That is hoping the curve is in the right place. I don't know if it's too late and you already glued on the fretboard, but if not I would change it out to a two way truss rod that isn't anchored on one end, plus use filler would to sleeve that loose channel. Those double rods are designed to use in a tight fitting straight channel. Plus they are removable by sliding in and out the open end.

I'm glad to see you jumping into this project as so much can be learned plus the satisfaction of building you own from scratch. I see you have a Schatten winding machine and will follow with interest your results of self wound pickups.

Good luck with your project!

Edited: Woops! My post was too late. I hadn't reviewed the entire topic and now see the neck construction is already completed.

[KRamone27]

Hi Aaron, Great project!

Looking at the photo of the trussrod I noticed a couple of things that concern me and I don't want to sound critical.

One, the truss rod channels seems to have an excessive amount of space around the rod which would allow the rod not to function properly. Second, the truss rod appears to be a single rod as used on a Fender. For that type of rod to function, it is necessary to have a tight fitting channel route that is curved in depth from one end to the other and filled with a matching curved space filler. That actually makes a straight rod curved and when tightening the nut, the rod being curved tries to straighten itself and subsequently it puts pressure on the neck causing it to bow in the desired direction. That is hoping the curve is in the right place. I don't know if it's too late and you already glued on the fretboard, but if not I would change it out to a two way truss rod that isn't anchored on one end, plus use filler would to sleeve that loose channel. Those double rods are designed to use in a tight fitting straight channel. Plus they are removable by sliding in and out the open end.

I'm glad to see you jumping into this project as so much can be learned plus the satisfaction of building you own from scratch. I see you have a Schatten winding machine and will follow with interest your results of self wound pickups.

Good luck with your project!

Edited: Woops! My post was too late. I hadn't reviewed the entire topic and now see the neck construction is already completed.

I agree with all of this HOWEVER Gibsons truss rod construction is similar. They have a compression rod which is mearley a straight 1/4" rod with an anchor at the heel and adjustment nut at the head and they use a filler strip to keep everything tight.