Posted by Richey Kay on October 21, 2015 at 3:00am
I have always used oak for my necks, and at first I was always frustrated that no matter how well I sanded the wood, the oak's open pores meant that the finish was never completely smooth. After a bit of research I came across grain filler, and ordered a tin of Rustins.
Grain filler is different from wood filler, which is used to fill larger voids in wood. It comes as a thick putty which you thin down with white spirit (mineral spirits) or turpentine to the consistency of cream. You then apply it to the grain of the wood and it does a pretty good job of filling in the pores. I use the 'natural' version for oak, but they do other shades for darker woods etc.
First off, get your neck sanded down as smooth as possible. I do mine up to 320 grit at this point. Then give the neck a wipe down with white spirit to remove the wood dust.
I apply the grain filler all over the neck with my finger, rubbing it lengthways into all of the pores. Once the whole neck looks done I leave it to dry overnight.
This is what you see after the grain filler dries out. At this point I just lightly rub the excess off the surface with my thumb until I see this:
The pores are now filled in. Now it's time to lightly sand again, starting at 220 grit and working up to 600. A quick rub down with white spirit again and you're ready to start applying finish.
As you can see, the grain filler does a really good job of blending in with the wood tones.
The same neck after an additional 6 coats of Tru-Oil, then a final 1200 grit wet sanded coat a week later. Lovely and smooth! I hope this helps.
Posted by Richey Kay on October 11, 2015 at 5:23am
This is something I waited way too long to try. I never really had a big problem with frets buzzing, but having all of your frets perfectly level and polished is a wonderful thing.
There are numerous ways to approach this task, and please bear in mind that this way works perfectly with an instrument with a flat fretboard, whereas the technique would be a little different with a radiused neck.
I ordered myself a fret crowning file from eBay. This one was around £25, and came complete with several grades of sandpaper from 800 to 2500 grit, a spring steel fretboard protector (to use while sanding) and a gummy rubber to clean the file. The file itself is concave and fits neatly over an individual fret, it is a diamond file and will give a good and smooth result quickly. They are custom made by a guy in the UK. Link here
To begin with, clamp the guitar down to you bench/table. I used some soft materials to prevent any scratches to the finish. I also masked off the pickups, so I didn't get any metallic dust in there.
Use a felt tip pen to draw a line straight across the tops of all of the frets. I used one of my daughter's Crayolas as they are easy to wipe off in case I slipped. This will be your reference point, as it will highlight any lower frets as you level them.
Levelling - this is the step that would differ if your fretboard had a radius (of course you can buy fret levelling files for this purpose, and I have heard of sticking sandpaper in your radius sanding block and using that). I ran the finer surface of my sharpening stone back and forth across the fretboard a few times, being careful to apply equal pressure. I carried on until all of the pen marks had gone.
Notice the flat tops on the frets. The two on the left side of the photo have had the pen line redrawn on them. Now it is time to recrown them.
With the crowning file, a few passes across the top of the fret will bring back the original rounded top. You want to keep going until your pen mark is just a very thin line across the middle of the fret. One you're happy with it, time to polish them up.
There are two ways to go about polishing the frets after crowning: Do them individually, using the spring steel fretboard protector and progressing through the grits (800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 2500) on each fret. This took ages! The second time I did this job I simply masked off the entire fretboard (leaving the frets exposed of course) and sanded the whole lot at the same time lengthways. This was much quicker, and I was happier with the result.
Once you're happy with the level of polish on the frets, all that's left to do is to gently brush away any metal filings and dust from the fretboard, and get the strings on.
And there we have it. Despite having no real issues before, the overall feel of the guitar is greatly improved. Of course, if you are experiencing buzz from uneven frets, this fairly simple process will make a huge difference.
So up until this point, we have the basic shape of the neck, and the fretboard is as good as done. This would be a good time to level, crown and polish the frets, if you wish. I wrote a 'how to' on that here:
This would be an ideal time to take another look at your cigar box, and cut the neck to fit neatly inside. In the below picture, I have marked out the cut on the neck to fit under the lid of the box, and allowed for room below the pickup:
Once I have made several small cuts down to my markings, I flip the neck on its side and pop the material off with a sharp chisel. Don't go right down to the line, though - it's easy to make a mistake and remove too much material. I use a rasp, file and sandpaper to neaten things up. Notice the angle on the line - this is to allow for the 'back angle' on the neck.
Now it's time to get sanding. I start with 80 grit, and work all the way up to 320 for the whole neck and headstock. Once I'm satisfied with it, I give the neck a rub down with white spirit (mineral spirits) to remove the wood dust. This will also highlight any scratches or imperfections. If you see any...yep, more sanding:
At this point, it would normally be time to start applying finish. However, I like to use oak for my necks, so I find it necessary to use grain filler to smooth over the pores of the wood, and get a smooth finish. I wrote a blog post about the process here. This adds a few more hours onto the process, plus you need to sand again, starting from 220 grit up to 600. For the end result, its worth it!
The below picture shows a grain-filled neck, with the first coat of Tru-Oil.
Nowadays I use Tru-Oil on all my necks. It's difficult to work with, compared to Danish etc, as it dries so fast. Here are my Tru-Oil tips:
1. Store the bottle upside down - you do not want the lid to sieze up!
2. There is a foil cover on top of the bottle. Do not take it off - just make a little hole to squeeze the oil out of. This stuff dries very fast when exposed to oxygen.
3. Work on an area at a time. I apply Tru-Oil to the neck and headstock separately.
4. Wipe the oil on with a lint free cloth, give it about a minute and gently wipe off the excess with a clean cloth
5. I wait 12 hours between coats. If you live somewhere warmer than Manchester (not difficult), you might be able to get away with less.
6. Every second coat, I (very) lightly rub the surface with dry 600 grit sandpaper. Give it a wipe down before applying the next coat.
7. I generally do about 8 coats of Tru Oil. Apparently you can get a mirror shine if you do about 40, then polish, but who has time for that?!
8. About a week after the last coat, I wet sand with 1200 grit and Tru-Oil, then quickly buff it out for a silky smooth feel.
This is what you come out with:
So there you have it - a finished neck. Here are some completed pictures of the guitars these necks were made for.
OK - so we're ready to start shaping the headstock. The first job is to mask off the wood, then draw the design. I've also measured and marked out where I want the tuners to be.
The headstock is now pretty much done. I cut out the rough shape with a coping saw, then use half round rasps, files and sandpaper to neaten things up. I use a Dremel with a barrel sander to work on the curves.
Now it's time to drill out the holes for the tuners. I prefer to do this after shaping the headstock, just in case I slip up and need to radically change the design! Again, this job would be much less of a headache with a pillar drill, but I make do with what I've got :)
The shaping of the neck begins. First of all I mark a line down the centre of the neck, and another down each side about 3mm below the fretboard. This indicates the material to be removed. The first job is shaping the 'shoulders' where the headstock meets the neck with a half round rasp:
Then on to the 'heel' where the two pieces of the neck meet. Again, using a half round rasp - take it slow, a rasp can remove a lot of material in a short time:
Then I move on to the spokeshave. Get the neck securely clamped, then take off equal amounts of material from either side, making sure to stay within your markings. Once I'm happy with the basic shape, I use the spokeshave to run straight down the centre of the neck to remove a little thickness. Just a little is all that's needed - mainly to blend in the headstock transition, and give the neck a gentle taper:
Then I round everything over with the rasp, followed by a cross cut file, making sure that the scratches made by the previous tool are all gone. I then take a long strip of 60 grit (a sanding belt is good too) and run it up and down the neck using a 'shoe shining' approach - this is effective for both removing file scratches and ensuring a nice rounded profile to the neck. Just make sure you sand with the grain afterwards with the same paper to remove any cross-grain scratches!
As a recap: I recently made this video, which shows my technique for shaping a CBG neck (sped up to double speed)
Once I'm happy with the basic shape of the neck, I turn my attention to the fretboard. I gently squeeze the mother of pearl inlay dots into the holes with a dab of superglue, then file them down a little, before using 120 grit sandpaper to get them flush with the board. I sand the fretboard down to 320 grit, then apply finish. I find it much easier to get a good finish on a fretboard before the frets are in than after. After a couple of coats of oil, an hour apart, I wet sand with oil and 600 grit wet & dry to get a nice smooth, polished surface on the fretboard. I then use a utility knife to scrape the dust and oil gunk out of the slots before adding the frets:
I then use a resin mallet to hammer in the frets. A few tips on this:
1. Hammer in the fret wire from the centre outwards
2. Cut the fret wire after you've hammered in into place
3. If you aren't able to hammer the fret wire in place (one side is raised, for example), first check your slot is deep enough. If it is, use a soft jaw clamp to hold the fret in place and move on to...
4. Once the fret wire is seated to your satisfaction (i.e. flat across the surface of the fretboard), allow a small bead of superglue to wick into the bottom of the fret slot on either side. This should keep things steady while you dress the ends:
When dressing the fret ends, I use a good quality flat file and simple run it lengthways up and down the sides of the neck, first at an angle, then flat. This gives a consistent bevel on the sides of the frets, and takes those sharp edges off. Keep checking with your fingers until they've all gone. I finish up the job with sandpaper, starting at 80 grit and going up to 600. The fret ends should now be super smooth, and the higher grade sandpaper will give a bit of polish to the fret ends.
A fret end dressing file is useful to take off the tiny sharp bits on the corner of the frets. I think I saw someone mention using an emery board to do this. I haven't tried it but it sounds a good idea!
I don't claim to have invented this design, but here's how I make a robust neck through with a heel, leaving plenty of space under the lid for pickups/bracing etc. There are plenty of ways to go about this, and no right or wrong way. However this design helped me overcome a number of obstacles in my early builds. I will skip over quite a few basic aspects of CBG building so it might be an idea to have a grasp of scale lengths etc. first.
This article is not aimed at seasoned builders, but rather those who were just starting out. Or even more specifically, myself about 3 years ago when I started making these!
The only thing this diagram doesn't show is 'back angle', which I use on all of my builds to improve ergonomics. Just imagine the block at the front on the box is lower than the one at the back. It's that simple, and can make a big difference to how well a guitar plays. This, along with some other tips is covered in another how-to here.
So - you need a 1 metre length of hardwood, and a separate fretboard (6.5mm/1/4"). Cut the neck blank into 2 pieces. This will depend on the kind of box you are using. You want the upper piece to extend into the box by about 100mm, and the lower piece to extend roughly 40-50mm from the front of the box, creating an overlap of roughly 6"/150mm (see the picture above). You can use whatever headstock design you prefer, scarf etc.
The first job I do is cut and glue up the scarf joint. I cut the scarf using a jig and a big chop saw. Along with the Dremel and drill, these are the only power tools I use to make necks.
To glue up the scarf, I clamp the two pieces of the neck to the bench and then apply a clamp at the joint. If it slips, move the pieces back and try again. You want to get this right. Some people swear by sprinkling a little salt on the glue to stop it slipping. I haven't tried it myself. Once the glue has fully cured I slice off some material from the top side to bring the thickness of the headstock down to about 15mm.
While this is drying, time to take a look at the fretboard:
So at this point I've marked the frets using a metre ruler and Stew Mac's Fret Calculator, scored them with a knife and they're ready to slot. It is worth investing in a purpose made fret slotting saw and mitre box for this job. I've drawn a centre line and marked across the frets diagonally to place the marker dots. Carefully drill them out to the required depth. This would be much easier with a pillar drill but I don't have one.
Once the fret slots are cut, I taper the fretboard. This step is completely optional, but since trying it I have found it impossible to go back to square necks. If you want some tips on doing this, I wrote a 'how to' here. Once you're happy with the shape of the fretboard, you can add your side dots, if you wish.
In the below picture, I am gluing all of the remaining parts of the neck together; the fretboard, the lower portion of the neck that runs through the box, and the headstock 'wings' which will allow me to get a bit more creative with the design. These are made from fretboard scraps.
I leave the neck in the clamps for 24 hours. I know many people would say this is unnecessary but I prefer to err on the side of caution. This is what it looks like after taking the clamps off. In this picture I have already used my mitre box to create a 'slope' where the two neck sections meet which will be the basis of the heel.
...and after tapering. Again, this is an optional step, and there is a 'how to'here.
So here's the neck so far. Time to get shaping - in part 2!
Lots of people seem to like the bridges I make for my builds, and I've often said they're quite simple to make. It's not really my design - it's similar to a banjo bridge and there are a few other builders on CBN who use similar bridges. I've been meaning to do a how-to for a while, so here we go:
I start off with a bit of scrap wood, most likely an offcut from the fretboard. For these two I am using walnut and maple, but any hardwood is fine. The little bone pieces are from a 80x10x3mm bridge blank which I cut into 4 pieces. I mark the bridge's full length, then mark where to drill to make the slope on the top and the 'arches' on the bottom. I work out the height the bridge needs to be first, then subtract the 3mm for the bone and mark it out on the wood.
I carefully drill out the holes with the piece clamped to a scrap of wood to prevent tear out.
Now the bridges are cut out and are beginning to take shape. Next the bone pieces are glued onto the tops of the bridges. I use superglue for this.
The bone is glued on and the tape is removed. Time for some sanding.
I clamp a piece of 60 grit sandpaper to my bench and sand the bridge at an angle to blend the bone and wood, and to make a 'sharp' peak along the top of the bone. This is also handy for flattening the bottom of the bridge. the curves are done with the rounded corner of a sanding block.
These are both finished now after being sanded to 180 grit.
A few coats of Danish oil and they're done! Measure the string spacing you want to use and carefully file some shallow grooves with a triangle needle file.
Of course there is plenty of opportunity for individual expression with this design. In the photo above I doubled up the thickness, so the blank was 1/2" thick, and used half a bone nut blank. I also went without the centre 'foot'.
