Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on December 15, 2016 at 2:34am

Unless the wood you're using begins as perfectly flat, a proper hand plane is the best way to achieve this. But even with a perfectly flat neck/fingerboard, to achieve good action all the way down a fretboard, there will need to be a way to affect "relief".

In other words, when a guitar is finished, strung and set up, there will actually be a slight bow.  In standard guitars and other instruments, the truss rod is adjusted to dial this in, as well as to counter-act the string pressure to keep the neck stable. In time, without a truss rod, the neck can succumb to the string tension and bow even more, or twist.

More members will surely add suggestions. Lots of ways to get it the way you like.

Best of luck, and cheers...now make some wood chips fly.

Permalink Reply by Richard Haas on December 15, 2016 at 3:04am

Thanks Farmer Ted, I had a lot of fun making the first and did learn a lot from it. I guess I am going to have to just try something and if it doesn't work, don't do that again. HAHA. I was expecting neck bow but not as much as I got. I used poplar for the neck and red oak for the fret board. 

I play the bass and pedal steel in the group I play with and with the pedal steel I have to allow a slight increase in tuning for the bar and pressure I put on the strings using it.

Thanks

Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on December 15, 2016 at 2:57am

your 3' level with sandpaper on it will work ok, as long as it is as wide as your fretboard so the cut is uniform across the board, neck relief as Scott mentioned is not as critical on a 3 stringer at this stage, a good hardwood , flat neck is a fair start and very playable and relatively simple, relief is getting a bit more advanced especially considering your lack of tooling etc. That is not meant to say Scott is wrong, as he's not, but given a good straight neck you should be right to go

Permalink Reply by Richard Haas on December 15, 2016 at 3:13am

Thanks darryl.

I knew I was going to have a little trouble with the strings pulling the neck a little. Maybe I ought to just put a rod in the neck first and get that over with to start or just set the strings high and use a slide. And then again just make a lap steel. I play a pedal steel in a band and that would fall right in with my instrument playing ability. Never have been comfortable with a six string guitar anyway.

Thanks

Richard

Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on December 15, 2016 at 7:05pm

I use 4 " by 36" belt sander belt (60 or 80 grit) glued to a relatively flat table surface (mine is a heavy old computer desk) to "deck" the fretboard/neck.  Cross hatch the fretboard with pencil and sand using smooth back and forth strokes of the neck across the table top until all the pencil marks disappear.  At that point you have a perfectly level fretboard.  Using this method, I never have to level frets.  It's an extra step but the results are worth it.

the best, 

Wichita Sam

Permalink Reply by Richard Haas on December 15, 2016 at 11:45pm

Thanks Wichita Sam for the way you do it. Makes good sense your way would work for me. I'll try this on the one I am working on now.

Thanks

Richard

Permalink Reply by Order99 on December 16, 2016 at 1:50pm

 I tend to use the more primitive "sandpaper on a flat stick" method myself-it takes longer though.

 Now concerning the 'neck bow' you mentioned-are you using a solid piece of wood for the neck, and is this a 'neck through' build (all the way through the box) or a 'bolt-on' neck with braced block? On the former build you could be looking at the actual neck bowing, on the latter the bowing could be from the box itself...also,is this a 3 or 4 string build, and how heavy are your strings? I never had a bowed neck with poplar, but I only built 3 stringers with the 3 lightest strings in the pack, light banjo or dulcimer strings...

 You mentioned having access to both poplar and oak-have you considered using 1/2 inch of oak as part of a composite neck, with the oak as a built-in Truss bar? And on a 'bolt-on' build, thin strips of  oak glued in the box make a great reinforcement for the body...

I look forward to seeing your builds!

Permalink Reply by Richard Haas on December 16, 2016 at 2:15pm

Hey Order99 and thanks for the reply. It is a poplar neck with red oak for the fret board. It does go all the way through the body and has a piece under the thru neck that is glued to the inside of box bottom. Also ran bracing on the inside neck front and back sides. It is a 3 string for now. I didn't sand very much on the fret board thinking it was flat and straight. My mistake there.

I went today and bought a 36" piece of sandpaper and a 1-1/2 wide piece of angle iron. I'll stick the sandpaper to the angle iron and on the next neck, I'll sand it straight and flat ( both neck and fret board ). I think I was more interested in seeing if I could make one with the hand tools I have and not worrying to much if it was playable but it did teach me a lot of things I need to take into account on the next one. I am so used to playing the steel guitar that I am thinking  of just using it on my lap and play it that way. I'll take a couple of pictures and post them this weekend. It did turn out nice though. 

I went to the local tobacco shop and the lady gave me 3 cigar boxes and wished me a Merry Christmas. That was very nice of her to do that since she charges $3 each for them.

Thanks

Richard