Stratocaster Build - From Scratch

[Shawn Pixley]

Get old cloth diapers to rest your gutar on. Cheap and non-scratchy.

I put foil on the pickguard as well. No hum here....

[Julie Moriarty]

It's been a long time since there's been old diapers in this house...

Here's where #2 is right now

And yes, I thought I had it all down pat and didn't need to double check to make sure I'm doing everything in the right order... and I forgot to drill the tuner holes before gluing the fretboard and tapering the headstock.

[John Coloccia]

I like the new headstock shape.

[Andy Cree]

The wood is beautiful and you are doing a great job!! I have always wanted to build my own guitar. The body looked like it was thicker than a normal strat. Was that jus the camera, or are you going for a bit heavier, Les Paul like tone?

Andy

[Julie Moriarty]

I like the new headstock shape.

I had to. You threatened to tell Leo on me!

The wood is beautiful and you are doing a great job!! I have always wanted to build my own guitar. The body looked like it was thicker than a normal strat. Was that jus the camera, or are you going for a bit heavier, Les Paul like tone?

Andy

Actually, the body is a bit on the thin side, just under 1.75". The piece of maple I had was a bit rough and by the time I got it smoothed, I was hoping the trem would fit.

It might look thicker because the roundover and arm and belly cuts haven't been done.

Right now I'm doubting the ebony fretboard. It just isn't working for me. When I was polishing it with the Micro Mesh, I couldn't get what I got with the cocobolo. I'm just hoping once the black dye/sand back/red dye thing is done on the body, it will all work.

I haven't done anything with the bass because my SO hasn't given me any answers. But one thing I do know - my arms are too short to use a spokeshave on the neck like I have with the guitars.

[george wilson]

Is that some of that $300.00 wood that Grizzly sells?

[Julie Moriarty]

Is that some of that $300.00 wood that Grizzly sells?

No. I bought a slab from Owl Hardwood Lumber. They have three stores in the area and probably the best selection in the Chicago area. I think the 8/4, 7+" x 80+" slab ran about $225. I looked up the Grizzly wood you're talking about and they don't even give you the dimensions. Something I learned about wood used for lutherie, they use terms like "flame" instead of "curly" or "quilted". And they use a rating of A to AAAAA which is rated by the seller and has no set standards like we're used to seeing from the NHLA or AHEC.

[george wilson]

Grizzly does give dimensions,Julie. I don't think you looked in the right place. I think they want too much money for their wood. And,for some reason,they do not sell spruce for guitar tops,though they sell sets of spruce struts. I don't get it.

They are very bad to never give specifications of many products such as metal lathe chucks and other precision devices. I will not buy a chuck if I do not know how many thousandths it runs out.

[Julie Moriarty]

One happy family, basking in the sun!

I had put the new body in the sun to speed up darkening the grain. Then I figured why not do a photo shoot? I just wish it was warm enough outside for ME to bask in the sun!

I was working in CAD this morning, trying to settle on a new headstock that wasn't designed after I already cut a strat-type headstock. I'm thinking of making some subtle changes in the body too. But I'll seriously have to look into selling something if I plan to keep building guitars. There's roughly $600 in materials for each guitar, and that doesn't include the tool investment. A Rockefeller, I'm not.

[Julie Moriarty]

Today I went Neanderthal

Sometimes you get tired of making dust and wearing a haz-mat suit (it seems like it) to protect yourself from the dust. And sometimes your basement is so cold you can't feel your fingers or toes. Today, both applied. So I decided to put the edge tools, and me, to work. There's something peaceful and satisfying about working with hand tools.

I started with a jack plane on the arm cut.

The top pic was just after planing, the bottom pic after using a RO sander on it. It always amazes me how such a small area of wood grows to such a large shavings pile.

I then turned it over and used a spokeshave to make the belly cut.



I'm beginning to feel my fingers and toes.

I can't get in deep enough with the spokeshaves I have so I'll have to resort to the rotex. UGH! The tranquility and beauty of working with the hand tools loses to noise, dust and mayhem.

[Julie Moriarty]

If I may once again tap the brain-trust here...

I have been enjoying working with hand tools in these builds, particularly the edge tools (as opposed to files and rasps.) So I was looking for some feedback on what planes or spokeshaves to add.

I saw LN has a couple of little palm block planes. The one with the convex sole looks like it would be the better choice for getting into the belly cut. I've seen Ibex makes planes some luthiers use but I have no idea about their quality.

As far as spokeshaves, I saw one convex shokeshave that looked like it could get into the belly cut. It looked like it was a Kunz. FWW has given some pretty bad reviews on that brand though.

Any suggestions?

[John Coloccia]

re: Kunz spokeshave
It was so bad, I gave it away on SMC if whoever took it promised never to give it back.

I have a LV spokeshave. It's very nice. I also have the smaller Pfeil drawknife, which is also very nice.

The Ibex planes are excellent for carving body countours. I have the larger palm plane, and a couple of the smaller ones, both flat bottomed and convex. I also have some of the Lee Valley miniature carving planes, but I only use the flat and double convex. That's for really fine work.

If I could only have a handful of tools, the ones at the top of my list would be:

Ibex Palm Plane
Good Rasp
Good Scraper

If I was going to splurge, I'd add:
Right and Left violin knife.

I happen to have a couple of Hocks but any good steel will do. I didn't make a handle...I just wrapped it with leather chord. I don't use it a lot, but when I do it's to trim a little here and there, and it's invaluable for fine little details like that.

If you're crazy like me, you add a practically full set of Iwasaki carving files, all sorts of different rasps and rifflers, spokeshaves, drawknives, chisels of all sorts, little finger planes of all sorts, etc etc.

But for body carving, I grab the Ibex to rough it out 99% of the time. For neck work, it's a rasp. For both it's a scraper. That's probably 90% of it right there.




I'm pretty sure I could do all of the shaping I needed to do pretty quickly and efficiently with that list and some shop made sanding blocks.

[Julie Moriarty]

I've gone through a number of different approaches for shaping the neck and body. Each time, I'm always looking for something that makes the job easier and more enjoyable. I remember the first time I told my boss this, "I work very hard to make my job easier." He had this confused look on his face. But that's how I approach every task before me. I'll go to what some consider extremes to find, for me, the best way to do something. When I was using a spokeshave to carve the belly cut, I had already used a rasp to do one and the rotex to do another. Armed with a respirator, ear plugs, eye protection, etc. That wasn't fun.

So when I saw the beautiful figure the spokeshave was producing, without all the PPE, I knew I was getting close to my goal.

Thanks John for the input. You've given me hope I can achieve that goal.

[Shawn Pixley]

Sorry to be late on the uptake here. The spokeshave is one of my favorite tools. Nothing much better in my book. Give me my good Aurou rasp, LN spokeshave and the little LV palm planes and I'm a happy man. Sandpaper is occasionally a necessary evil. But one to be avoided if you can....

[Julie Moriarty]

Sorry to be late on the uptake here. The spokeshave is one of my favorite tools. Nothing much better in my book. Give me my good Aurou rasp, LN spokeshave and the little LV palm planes and I'm a happy man. Sandpaper is occasionally a necessary evil. But one to be avoided if you can....

I'm 2/3 the way there Shawn. I got a couple of Auriou rasps back when I was doing the practice pine body and really love them. But I go from a 12", 9 grain cabinetmaker's rasp to a 6", 15 grain modeler's rasp. I'm considering filling in the gap. I have the Boggs spokeshaves but the round one just couldn't get into the deepest of the belly cut. I ended up using the rasps followed by sandpaper. It's sad to see the sandpaper erase the beauty the edge tools left behind. It would be nice if LN made convex spokeshaves. I've never been disappointed with a LN product. Clifton makes a convex spokeshave. From reviews I've read, they seem to make quality products. But now that I'm done with the body, the urgency of having another tool has faded.

Yesterday I had the body ready for dye. I took the dye and mixed it with alcohol. Something didn't look right. When I went to apply it to the body, something was definitely wrong. I've been using Trans Tint dyes but when I went to Woodcraft to pick up blue and black dyes for Brian's guitar, they were out of Trans Tint. So I bought Trans Fast powder. On Brian's guitar I mixed it with water and had no problems. When working on the first Radicaster , I started mixing Trans Tint with alcohol and really liked the NGR effect. I think in my mind I concluded if TT was alcohol soluble, TF must be too. I was wrong.

I did manage to get a nice coverage of the TF once mixed in water. I think it will be okay.

The darkest parts haven't yet dried.