Never had this problem on violin family instruments, but wonder if this would work:
Pre drill your holes in the body neck heel.
Make a plywood extension to the neck with a shim to take up the discrepancy in height between the front of the body and neck face. Clamp in several places down the neck, clamp to the body using protection eg cork tile/whatever.
In the correct final position, of course.
Turn over and support body and neck clear of the clamps as necessary.
Use your existing holes in the body heel as pilot holes and drill.
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Thanks, and yes, it will have to be along those lines.
While I’m still procrastinating over fixing the neck into position, I decided to make the fretboard more complicated by using small sections of 6mm aluminum tube as fret markers. Shamelessly copied the idea from a chap on youtube.
Lots of careful filing and sanding later and I some ultra smooth and shiny fret markers.
Happy with that, mainly becuase I didn’t bugger anything up the whole time.
Need to buy some 2mm aluminium rod for the side markers.
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Visit to a nearby Timber merchants first thing this morning, have been on their waiting list for a delivery of Sapele. It arrived Wednesday so I had a good choice. Bought a slab that’s 1500 x 330 x 50mm.
Absolutely perfect, a standard electric guitar body is typically no more that 325mm wide meaning no jointing or a center line to disguise. I can get 2 bodies and 3 necks from it with little more than sawdust as waste.
90 quid, which is less than half, probably closer to a third of what this would cost buying predimensioned wood from the internet with the mandatory guitar body tone wood tax.
Had a look at the table saw to the left of this picture, the blade was approx 700mm diameter brutal!
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Nice.
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While I’m still pissing about with the neck for the red guitar. I’ve made a start on a hollow body electric guitar. This is going to be a challenging and lengthy project.
The slab of Sapele is lovely wood, very pleased with it. Hand planed down part of it from 50mm to 38mm (killer workout that was) then rough cut the shape on the band saw. With the help of a premium body template to aid the the routing, I used the big radian template bit to trim to size and then set about removing wood to create the chambers with a selection of forstner bits. Reattached the template to tidy up the chambers with the router.
As it stands the body is 38mm deep, the cavities are around 30mm leaving the back at 8mm thick.
Ideally I’d like to use a book matched, quilted maple top which I’ll have to buy.
This type of thing
They’re quite spendy so will take my time to find a nice one. I’ll be routing an f hole in the top and attempting to fit binding around the body too
I hope to eventually end up with something like this.
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Had a crack a jointing a book matched pair 7mm maple top plates with the help of a big shooting board I made.
Got creative and used a sheet of 18mm MDF and some nails as a jig to apply pressure while the glue set. Removing the thin strip of wood and pushing the middle down created significant tension to hold the joint tight.
With some sanding I reckon it’ll look quite ok for a first attempt. Rather unnerving as the maple cost more than the massive slab of Sapele, really didn’t want to bugger up, I’m saving that for cutting the f hole, which is next.
No7 plane ftw, made light work of the edge grain.
Ignore the LP outline - that wasn’t me.
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I can’t wait to see your f hole G
Looks like at least 5 neck changes along with truss rod, pick ups and strings might be due Graham.
Not sure much of the final iteration of the Black Strat was original!
Thought of your efforts when watching this, gave a bit of an insight about what a top level guitar tech is supposed to do!
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Chopped into the maple top that cost quite a lot of money. A jig saw with a fine metal work blade did the business, it was slow to cut but was easy to control and left a surprisingly respectable finish. Worked with hand tools to tidy things up to the line. More work to do, but really very happy with how this is going, it isn’t anywhere near as shit as I mentally prepared for.
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Looks great Graham. What’s the plan for the controls? I assume it’s 2 f holes you cant put a standard Tele control strip on there?
Something along those lines, (except I’m going to install p90s or HBs and use a modern hipshot style bridge). The yellow guitar has larger f holes, which I’m not keen on. That’s likely been done so the pots and switch can fit though the middle of the hole and be secured to the top reasonably easily.
The holes on the brown guitar are smaller, like the ones I’ve gone for. Getting the pots and switch in is going to be a pita coz they won’t fit thought the top. Have to route a cavity from one of the pickups and pull them through with a piece of string. Way more fiddley but worth it to have the smaller holes, imo anyway. I may well fit the switch in the same postion as an LP, top right.
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I was just offering options for Nick to visualise. Switch being top left is an excellent idea given the space and acoustic limitations.
This build has impressed me more than the previous.
Great work G.
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Yes I realise that.
I was just elaborating a bit. Sorry if you thought something else.
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No need to apologise. I’m lovin’ this shit 
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Pickup switch in the LP position looks to be the best choice. From the cutout of the body chambers I assumed this would be single f hole.
Watching with interest/envy 
You were right to think that, I changed my mind yesterday and went for 2. I will need to remove some more material from the body with the router. Making it up as I go along from here.
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Glued the top on this afternoon. Prior to that I thinned down the wood around the back of the holes and sanded it to 240 grit, it looks very nice under artificial light.
Also added some discreet access from the (yet to be created) neck pick up cavity for the tone and volume pots and I remembered to check the switch will fit under the top, which it does, just.
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Lovely work. Wish I were just half as talented.
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