Stratocaster Build - From Scratch

[John Coloccia]

John, I think that headstock just might be my signature thing. I'd like to do a re-design but is there really anything that already hasn't been done?

Not really...somethings, I guess, but it's like painting. Is there anything subject that hasn't been painted? There's still plenty of room for self expression. That two piece headstock is honestly something that I can't recall ever having seen. I'm sure SOMEONE must do something like that, but I don't think I've ever seen it before.

[george wilson]

Julie, if you don't want to just make a clone,you will have to design a guitar that is all yours alone. I think other reasons the Strat is copied so much is it is not terribly hard to make,and was played a lot by bands. Gibson made their Les Paul guitars with arched tops specifically because they knew that Fender did not have a carving machine. When I was just beginning,I couldn't bend sides without them getting wavy from top to bottom. So,I made solid bodies for a while. And what did I copy? Strats,of course.

The originator of a style gets all the allocates. I have known banjo players who could play rings around Scruggs. But,he invented the style and is famous,not his copyists. Not that you are trying to be famous,but being original is the best thing. I was PAID for years to make copies of 18th. C. tools,but it was not what I really wanted to do. In the evenings I made things like that drill,which is unique.

[Joe Leigh]

Great job Julie! Love the two piece headstock.

Whenever I think of a Stratocaster, two words come to mind immediately; Ritchie Blackmore.

Nuff said.

[Julie Moriarty]

Yesterday and today were taken up mostly by the fret videos John generously loaned me. Seems like there's still a lot of work to be done!

After watching two of the videos I checked what I learned with the neck and did some fine tuning. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable moving on to the installation of the fret wire.

I wrote David Fletcher of Fletcher Guitars and thanked him for the videos he posted on YouTube. He responded saying if I need any more help to just ask. You meet the nicest people in the music world.

[Julie Moriarty]

While at Woodcraft yesterday, I picked up some 5" Micro Mesh pads (1500-12000). These were intended for polishing the lacquer. Today I was doing the final prep on the neck getting it ready to fret. On a whim I took out the 1500 Micro Mesh and used it (by hand) across the fingerboard. I took it all the way to 12000 and WOW! The bare wood looked like polished lacquer.

I know some players don't like any finish on their fingerboards but all players like the fingerboard smooth. So I have a question: Would taking a bare wood fingerboard to a high polish, without any lacquer, oil, etc on it, be an acceptable way to finish it?

[John Coloccia]

I would never finish ANY fingerboard except maple. The only exception might be if it were something unusual, like cherry, and then I'd have to weigh the pros and cons. I forget...what did you use? Every common fingerboard material, except maple, is almost universally left unfinished. In fact, I wouldn't even polish it. I would sand it to about P400....maybe P600, and call it a day. TOO polished can feel sticky. The only exception is maybe something like ebony, where some builders do like to polish it, but that's it.

On new guitars, I do the final fret polish on my buffer. I go out of my way to tape off the fingerboard before buffing specifically so I don't accidentally buff the fingerboard.

Personally, I also wouldn't buff a maple fingerboard. Even with finish on them, the neck and fingerboard feel better when they're taken to a satin finish. High gloss almost always feels sticky.

[Julie Moriarty]

Just rambling through my thoughts...

Why would only a maple fingerboard be finished? It's a very hard wood so it should stand up better to play than rosewood. And rosewood is an open pore wood so I'm not getting why it's such a go-to wood. I get ebony being a good choice though.

In the first case, the lacquer would present a slick, non-porous surface until the strings wore that away during play. Skin oils and dirt would have no place to imbed while the lacquer finish was still intact. Why wouldn't that become sticky?

With unfinished woods, the pores in the wood would be places skin oil and dirt could imbed and fill the pores, creating a smoother surface. It would seem with the oils and dirt, that surface would get sticky.

In both cases, through play, the strings would wear away whatever finish was there. It seems like no matter which way you go, an equilibrium will eventually be reached. So the perfect finish to a fingerboard would be whatever that equilibrium is. Am I close?

[John Coloccia]

Exotics are typically oily woods. There's nothing you really need to do to protect them. In fact, just the act of playing the guitar, and getting oils from your hands on the wood, keeps the playing surface in good condition without having to do anything to it at all short of maybe gently cleaning it every now and then. Bare tropical wood fingerboards pretty much always feel good with practically no maintenance required.

If you did that with maple, the maple would almost immediately turn black...and does when you wear through the finish. That's partly why Fender switched to rosewood necks in the 60s. Also, maple is not an oily wood and bare maple doesn't really feel all that nice under your fingers.

Glossy lacquer isn't as slick as you might think. Do this. Rub your hand against a clean window. Now go into your shop, and rub your hand against a sheet of plywood. Which is stickier? If something is too smooth, your hand against it has a tremendous surface area and almost acts like zillions of little suction cups. I've never had anyone ask me to gloss up their neck, but quite a few have asked me to knock back the gloss and take it to a nice, dull satin.

I can tell you that I don't know of any guitar made, anywhere on the planet, that has a finish sprayed over any fingerboard other than maple.

[Patrick McCarthy]

Julie, John, George and all others contributing to this thread: THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! This thread has been very educational and enjoyable. I love guitars but

I am musically challenged; so much so that when I sing in shower the neighbors call 911 . . . because they are sure someone is dying.

Best regards, Patrick

[Sotos Patistas]

I can tell you that I don't know of any guitar made, anywhere on the planet, that has a finish sprayed over any fingerboard other than maple.

From what I've read, Rickenbackers have a finished bubinga fingerboard. Vinyl sealer, then varnish. I'm not saying it's a good idea, just saying.

Now that I've un-lurked, I'll add that I appreciate all of the knowledge that everyone posting in this thread has been generous enough to share. I have aspirations to turn a slab of walnut I've had stashed into a tele one day, and this thread is pushing me to make that sooner rather than later.

And great build Julie, your slow steady approach seems to be paying off in the quality of your build.

Thanks again to all.

[Jim Creech]

No one has ever called 911 on me but I have been visited by PETA a few times. Something about strangling a pig. I don't understand?

[John Coloccia]

From what I've read, Rickenbackers have a finished bubinga fingerboard. Vinyl sealer, then varnish. I'm not saying it's a good idea, just saying..

I forgot about them. I'm not sure they actually use any sort of rosewood. I see specs that say "African Rosewood", and I can only assume they mean Bubinga. I would have to think if I'd finish over Bubinga. It doesn't really have much in common with a real rosewood. But you're right that they DO put finish over all of their fingerboards, apparently.

[Julie Moriarty]

I can tell you that I don't know of any guitar made, anywhere on the planet, that has a finish sprayed over any fingerboard other than maple.

What I'm talking about is polishing the bare wood of the fingerboard, without any finish. I do not plan to put any kind of finish on it and never have. Sorry if I didn't state that clearly. And thank you for the info on why maple is finished. That makes sense.

Here's what I did on the cocobolo. It's just bare wood polished to 12000 Micro Mesh. I could probably get a mirror finish on it but for this "experiment" I just wanted to see how the wood polished so I went through the 9 grits pretty quickly. But I do love how it polished the pearl dots!

I could easily knock it back to 600 or even 400. But before I do that I just wanted to understand the physics involved.

[John Coloccia]

With stuff like this, it's always a matter of do whatever feels right to you, Julie. There's really no right answer. A lot of people like their ebony fingerboards with a high polish on them. That Cocobolo looks great like that and probably feels great too. It's a very oily wood...so oily it can sometimes be difficult to glue. It really doesn't hurt to try it and see how you like it. You can always come back later and rub it out with some steel wool if you'd like. Eventually, it will all become whatever you get by rubbing your fingers on it, anyway

I have to say that it looks very cool like that, though

[Julie Moriarty]

Well, I decided to keep the fingerboard polished. Funny thing is, as I handled it, the sheen began to fade. Maybe it's the oil in the wood. Or maybe it's just trying to become accepted as a normal fingerboard.

Time to do the fretwire (took long enough, didn't I? )

I wanted to clip the tang back a bit so it won't show once installed. I'm going to lay some cocobolo dust in the slots on the sides and dab a drop of superglue on it to finish the edges.

I cleaned the fretwire with acetone then ran it through my homemade bender to put a radius bend on it. In all the videos I've seen, the luthier cuts all the fret wires and lays them out or puts them in a holder that has numbers on it to correspond to which fret it is. I decided to tap the ends in on each one then take them to the press.

The black "pliers" are tang nippers.

I found a sand-filled bag in the garage my older son left from working on his '72 Mustang and used that for supporting the neck during the press-in. I started with a 7.5" radius insert, then finished with a 12" radius. The bag was iffy. You have to set the neck firmly in place but the sand still moves under pressure.

After all the fretwires were pressed in place, I took a file and went over the edges until the file just kissed the wood. Then I finished each fret with a small fret end file. John "Erlewine" showed me how to do that.

I'm thinkin' I might actually have myself a geetar one day.

The neck bowed back a bit but not enough to cause concern. I'm guessing the string tension will pull it back pretty easily. There's a nice .005" fall off just after the 15th fret. It's all looking pretty good so far.