Walnut Stratocaster Or Number 8 - Fretboard

For my latest project I decided to build a copy of a Stratocaster. I chose walnut and maple for this build. In some respects, this will be similar to the Junior project from last year.

As always I start with the fretboard and neck. The first step is to cut the fret slots. I'm using a bird's eye maple for the fretboard.

I decided to try my hand at a binding for the fretboard. I chose to create a three layer wood laminate. In this case walnut/maple/walnut. I used a process that I will describe in another blog post - heat-activated gluing.

After gluing the laminated pieces together, I cut the binding to a 45 degree angles so that I could fit the bottom piece and ensure continuity of wood.

To glue the binding to the fretboard I created a jig using two long boards and one small cut of wood.

I applied the glue to the binding, then pressed it against the fretboard with the extra wood clamped into place.

Here's the fretboard after gluing. This will be cleaned up after I sand the 9.5 inch radius of the fretboard.

New Digs

So, its been over a year since my last post. There have been a few changes. I've moved. I now have a new basement lutherie. Minus the laundromat (that's on the second floor). Here are a few photos from my new setup.

At first everything was just a minor mess. Then in during one of those common Mid-West spring storms, I discovered a major problem - water.

The water was literally pouring into the basement through several holes in the wall on the back side of the house.

The problem was caused by over-flowing gutters on the exterior of the house.

Instead of draining to the street, the downspouts backed up, overflowed and caused large pools of of water to develop and saturate the ground. That water then found holes in the basement walls and poured into my new lutherie.

After the drainage pipes were repaired (and I ran two de-humidifiers), I was able to move everything in.

Then I was ready to start working again.

This final photo is a detail of one of my work benches. I frequently use the tops for scribbling notes and equations. In this case I've used corner to measure the radius for frets and fretboards. Also, Let's Face the Music and Dance.

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

I'm finishing up on a copy of a Steinberger P Series copy. The body is Ash with a Curly Maple top and the neck is a three-piece Maple with a Pau Ferro Fretboard. I decided against using active EMGs. Instead I'm going to go with a passive set of humbuckers. 

I'm a big fan of Seymour Duncan pickups, just looking for something that'll go well with the brighter sound of Ash and Maple.

1987 - Finishing up

I'm down to the final steps on 1987.

I've filled the grain. Stained the Curly Maple top black. Sanded most of the stain off. Re-stained the top blue. The remaining black stain helps the wood's figuring jump under the blue stain. I sprayed the body with shellac as a sealant coat and followed it with a coat of lacquer. 

Coming Soon - Les Paul Custom

This is where the build begins - a Les Paul Custom. Here's a few pictures of the raw wood.
Three pieces of Mahogany, with Maple veneer glued to the edges.

I glued a three pieces of veneer, Maple/Mahogany/Maple, for a triple pinstripe.

I am using a 16mm thick piece of Curly Maple for the Top.

The neck will be a three piece Mahogany and Maple combination and the fretboard will be rosewood.

This is going to be a fun and complex build.

Number 6 - In The Photo Studio

Now that it's completed, I brought Number 6 in to the Photo Studio on Friday.

Specs:
24.75 inch scale
3 piece Walnut back
Book-matched Curly Walnut
Thin Maple veneer separating the Walnut on the body
Katalox fretboard
3 Piece Set Walnut Neck
24 fret neck
Zero fret
Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz Humbuckers
3-way pickup selector 
2 Series / Parallel Switches

Number 6 - Fret Job

So in adition to having problems with the shellac finish, I also was not happy with the overall string height on Number 6. Unfortunately when I lowered the bridge, I discover that I had fret buzzes on the high E and B strings at the 7th and 8th frets. first I tried dealing with the buzz by going after the culprit - the 9th fret. I lowered, leveled, crowned and polished that fret. This cured the problem with the buzz at the 7th and 8th frets... but created a bus at the 9th fret, caused by the 10th fret... so i corrected that problem and... well, you can guess where this went. I was chasing a fret buzz.

I decided to take a different approach to fixing this problem. Armed with my copy of the Stew Mac 2nd Edition on Fret Work, digital calipers, a fret rocker, a fret dressing stick (sand paper), a fret crowning file, an iPad with Apple Numbers, and a finger-nail buffing block (found at the local drug store), I got to work on Number 6's fretboard.

I removed the strings and then used the digital calipers to take three measurements of each fret, on the high-E string side, one in the middle and one on the low-E string side.

I added all of this information into a spreadsheet on my iPad. I then created a chart showing the largest deviations between frets. This helped me come up with a plan of attach.

After pinpointing the problem frets on the chart, I taped off the fretboard and marked the tops of the frets with a red Sharpie marker. I then use the fret dressing tool to slowly sand the tops of the frets.

After sanding the frets, I check the fret height with the calipers. Then I use the fret rocker to check the height of the filed fret in relation to the fret immediately before and after the filed fret. If the rocker lays flat against all three frets, I mark the completed frets with a green Sharpie marker and move on to the next fret.

Once I've leveled all of the high frets, I use the fret crowning tool to round the top of the frets. I follow that by polishing the frets with the four-sided finger-nail buffing block. After completing all of the frets, I remove the tape, string Number 6 up again and test the frets.