1987 - Final Photos

So 1987 has now been completed. I began building this Steinberger copy over two years ago. I worked on it between projects. Once plugged in, the sustain is incredible. For such a small body this guitar really has a strong punch. I can not pinpoint the exact reason for the resonance of this build. The neck is a fat D-shape. The neck fits tightly into the body. And the pickup are Seymour Duncan Alnico II's - according to the SD website they are slightly weaker, allowing the strings to vibrate longer.
Here are my studio shots of the guitar:

Here's the Stats:
25 inch scale
2 piece Ash back
Curly Maple top with a Pau Ferro stripe
Thin Mahogany veneer separating the Ash back from the Maple top
Pau Ferro fretboard
3 Piece Set Maple Neck
24 fret neck
Zero fret
Thick D Profile Neck
Seymour Duncan Alnico Humbuckers
3-way On/On/On DPDT selector used as a mini pickup selector

1987 - Headless Build

Around 1987, I fell in love with the Steinberger P series guitar. So naturally this would be a perfect candidate for building a copy. I started this build in early 2012. Hopefully, I'll finish this one up in few months. I've routed the body for two Humbuckers. I've also routed an inset for the bridge. Steinberger's bridge is inset about 10 mm. The JCustom Bridge that I'm using is not as thick. As a result I only had to route about 1.5 mm.

Next up, I'll just need to route the rear access panel and an output jack. Then it's on to final shaping and sanding.

The Headless Body

This represents two weekends worth of work on the headless body. The photo to the left is where the where I stopped Sunday evening. Below is documentation of the progress that got me there.

I started by routing holes in the ash back for the wiring. Then I glued two pieces of curly maple together with a center piece of pau ferro. I cut small grooves on the sides of the maple for clamping. After the maple and pau ferro dried, I glued mahogany veneer to the back.

After the top dried, I glued it to the body. There was about a half inch of overhang on the sides. This was intentional. Later, I cut these edges close to the body, then I routed the edges flat.

The top and the edges are still ruff at this weekend. I started this weekend by using my router to plane the top of the body. I then used the orbital sander to sand from 80 grit to 220 grit. 

After planing and sanding the top, I used the router to smooth and straighten the sides. Here you can see the thin mahogany veneer sandwiched between the ash back and the maple top.  

Here the new headless body sits next to the old Steinberger P-Series body I won on eBay last year. The dimension on mine are slightly longer than the Steinberger. This is to accommodate the neck dimensions. I did not have plans for the neck, so I really was working from scratch on this build. Visually, the only Steinberger aficionados will notice. 

Next weekend, I will cut the rear to match the Steinberger body and route the neck pocket and perhaps pickup and the electronics cavity on the back.

Side Dots and Neck Shaping

The holes for the side position markers have been drilled and the dots places. On the Headless neck I used a 3/32" bit for the slightly larger white dots. On the Firebird neck I used a brad point 2mm bit. I think I prefer the slightly larger bit. Unfortunately the 3/32" bit is not a brad point and has a tendency to drift slightly causing the dots to be drilled slightly off from the desired spot.

On Saturday I carved the back of profile of the headless neck. I started our using a microplane at two spots on the neck, behind the 1st fret and about 4 inches from the base. Then I used a rasp to smooth out the wood. After I finished the two spots on the neck I used a spoke shave to remove wood between the spots I worked on. After taking off the excess wood I used a fine rasp to smooth the wood. Once I finished the rough profile, I proceeded to sand paper, first 80 grit then moving on to 220 and ending with 320. This is still a rough neck and will require more sanding to even out the profile.

On Sunday, I worked on the Firebird neck. I went through the same process as I did above with the Headless neck. Pictures are below.

Inlays and radius

Fret Position Markers

So, I started drilling the holes for the 1/4 position inlays on the Firebird and headless necks yesterday. I first marked the position for each hole in pencil, the lined up the brad drill bit points on the drill press with the intersection of the points. The holes are drilled less than 2mm deep to accommodate the inlay dots. (Window light is the best for photos.)

I've chosen a black abalone dot for the maple fret board on the purple heart Firebird neck and white for the Pau Ferro fretboard of the headless neck. And, yes, I did offset the dots to the bass side of the neck. No real reason for doing this, it's just a personal preference. I superglue the dots in place, leaving a slight bit of the dots elevated over the fret board. This will be sanded down when I radius the fret board.

Fret Board Radius

Both of the fret boards will be sanded to a radius of 16 inches. This will look like a slight arch in the fret board when viewing it long ways. I first clamped down two pieces of wood about the distance apart of the radius block. The neck is then positioned with a piece of wood on either side to hold it steady. (I picked this technique from a Telecaster forum on tdpri.com.) This helps insure that I get an even sand on both sides.

Because of the arch of the radius block more wood gets sanded away on the sides than in the center. The pencil line that I put down the center of the neck for measuring the placement of the dots comes in especially handy here. I'll know that I've sanded down far enough once that line starts to fade and disappear.

This is a fairly labor intensive workout and I need to be careful not to rush the job. I first start with 80 grit sand and use that to take off most of the wood. Once the center line starts to disappear, I slowly move up in grit - 120, 220 and finally 320.

In the bottom three photos, I've cleaned the fret board with mineral spirits to remove the dust and help make the grain jump out.

Next up for these two neck will be to drill the holes for the side dots. Then I'll be ready to start shaping the profile.

Before I get to that I will run the one-piece neck through this same process above. But I'll need to acquire some new white abalone dots first.

Latest Update on the Firebird and Headless Necks

Today was a great day to work on a couple of necks. I glued the fretboards to both the Steinberger-type headless and Firebird necks and cut them straight with the router. On the Firebird neck I also cut a piece of curly maple as a truss rod cover. I followed all of this with marking off the position for the dots on the face of the fretboards. I have not drilled the holes for them yet.

Bellow are photos of the latest update. (note to self: I'm a professional photographer, I really should pay attention the the temperature of the lights. Seriously, it's not that hard to match lightbulbs. I guess I'm just lazy?)

Firebird progress

Steinberger-type Headless Progress

More Neck work, both good and bad

First the good. Today I did some more work on neck blanks. Above is a neck blank for a headless guitar that I have had on sitting on the shelf for the last few months. The body will be a copy of the Steinberger P series guitar at the top of the frame. I picked up the body off of ebay early in 2011. The body that I am building is made from Ash with a Curly Maple top. I've already joined the two pieces of Ash. The hardware was purchased from JCustom, a South Korean company that specializes Steinberger-like parts. They sell through ebay, and deliver in about 1 week.

The headless neck is only slightly longer than truss rod. I routed the channel today and cut the sides straight.

The neck was constructed out of three strips of Curly Maple with two thin strips of Mahogany veneer. Above is a closeup of the heel of neck.

And now the bad. While shaping one of the Purple Heart necks, it splintered and chipped at the heel. While the Maple and the Bloodwood necks routed easily, the Purple Heart appears to be more brittle. This is the precise reason that I don't work on a single neck at one time. Mistakes will happen.

Not photographed today was the progress on the Bloodwood one-piece neck. I routed the front of the headstock where the truss rod adjustment will be accessed and cleaned up the sides.