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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:57 pm
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Kong wrote:
I wonder if Ceri's activities have anything to do with this ...

http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1268876954491RA62


WOWOWOW The truth is out! I knew it Knew it knew it!!!! LOL!!!!

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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:05 pm
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Twelvebar wrote:
Ohh the humanity, I just had the thought:
Did Ceri go to bed sober?!?!? :shock: :shock: :shock: :cry: :twisted:

He did! (Actually, he does most of the time. Contrary to all appearances he's in fact a very light drinker. Hasn't had a hangover since 1991... Perhaps all the drinks stuff on this thread should start carrying a health warning along the lines of; "Don't try this without your parents' permission, kids..." Or something.)

Kong wrote:
I wonder if Ceri's activities have anything to do with this ...
http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1268876954491RA62

!!!
I fell off my chair with surprise when I saw that. I have no idea how that happened - I'm modestly embarrassed and deeply entertained. Now just wait while I send a link to everyone in my address book... :lol: :oops: :lol:

Thank you, Kong. :D

Shredd6 wrote:
...As above...

Hi Shredd: noted, thank you. Another element of this thread that should definitely carry a health warning. So I think now perhaps is not the moment to tell you how I use that machine for winding pickups... (JK) :wink:

Oh, and I forgot to address this a couple of pages ago:
tdanb2003 wrote:
I was puzzled by the way you routed your truss rodcover over the headstock until I realized that with the angle of the headstock none of that will remain when you start cutting it out correct?


Ah. Well now - in fact that entire slot is not going to get removed when shaping the face of the peghead. A kind of long teardrop shaped slash will remain, due to the depth of the rod within the neck.

Unlike Fender's traditional curved trussrod, which is actually angling a little upwards by the time it emerges at the nut, these modern double-action rods require the nut to sit a bit closer to the back of the neck. This in turn necessitates a shallow channel to remain, both for installing the rod and for accessing it thereafter. When I first designed my headstock I contemplated hiding that slot behind a cover. But then I decided I quite liked the way it looked and opted to keep it on display. It is a small signature element of a Ceri neck.

Anyhow, you'll see what I mean by the end of this post.

So. A bumper edition of routing photos today. By the way, has anyone else noticed - every time I go back to Photobucket they seem to have added an extra page to the upload process? It is all taking longer and longer to upload the pictures - along with choosing, editing and cropping them (never mind actually taking them all) the whole thing took me two hours at the computer tonight. Jeepers creepers!

Whatever: let's get routing.

After yesterday's little misadventure I'll show you the "old" way I go about making a Ceri headstock. I'm not saying nobody has done it like this before - but I've never seen it. For the little it's worth I dreamed this up for myself. No books or websites involved (and I'm ready enough to credit where I've lifted ideas from when I have, after all. :) )

Here is part of my headstock jig:
Image

Essentially, a bit like my body thicknessing jig from the early days of this thread. It is a flat surfaced "gantry" with a hole in the middle to route through and fences round the side to contain the router base. The difference here is those four coach bolts at the corners, each one running through a threaded insert, as you can see on the bolt lying in front, for explanatory purposes.

So the coach bolts are essentially adjustable legs, which can set the gantry to any height and angle we desire. They are locked in place with the wing nut beneath. Make sense?

The gantry is placed on a bed with four corner sections to hold it in place as you see next, and the neck blank is fed in beneath and clamped in place:
Image

We set the gantry to the angle we want to route the headstock at - and then get routing:
Image

You will see that the first couple of shallow passes have produced a cut running at a diagonal. That means that the gantry is not set quite parallel to the width of the neck blank. But that's OK: we just drop the near side of the gantry (bottom in the picture) a touch on its adjustable legs till the cut is straight:
Image

Now we can continue routing in descending passes till the job is done. Like this:
Image

Here's a side view. A bit hard to read what's happening in that picture, but essentially I can look in from the side like that and see when my cut has reached the working line marked out on the side of the neck blank. And then I stop:
Image

Here's another view (of a different neck blank) that helps see a bit more clearly:
Image

And with the gantry removed:
Image

A detail from the side shows how accurately I can tailor the route to the working lines:
Image

Now you will have notice the ugly stepped section up to the nut where we would prefer a nice curve. I guess it might be possible to invent a jig to produce that curve - but frankly a bit of hand chiselling is just as good at this stage. It's meant to be a handmade guitar after all, right?:
Image

I am nobody's idea of a proper carpenter (as has been seen many times) but even I managed to do this in about two and half minutes flat:
Image

Now we just need to smooth that curve up nicely on a drum sander. By amazing coincidence this particular drum sander is exactly the right diameter for the job. Almost as if the headstock had been designed with this tool in mind, isn't it? :wink: :
Image

Erm, I forgot to photograph the headstock at the end of that sanding, but here is the neck a while later after I have rough sawn its outline from the blank. You can see the nice curve a bit in this photo, and there will be more views shortly:
Image

Next. As I say, I have sawn the outline, but only approximately. Impossible for your humble servant to saw accurately enough to produce really good edges to that, so the established way of doing that is to now route the shape with templates. Here's a couple:
Image

In that pic the neck is at the bottom. The darker colored template above it is my master jig for a 21 fret neck. The lighter colored template above that is almost exactly the same, but incorporating a 22nd fret overhang at the heel end.

So first we route the shaft of the neck using that 22 fret template. A pin router would be ideal for this job - unfortunately I don't have one. So I shall be clamping the template to the front of the neck, routing a bit of it, moving the clamps one by one (without moving the jig), routing a bit more, and so on. Very tiresome and a bit risky, because it is so easy to make a mistake when using a heavy overhead router on a fiddly job like this, with inadequate support for the router base.

I invite Mr Shredd to explain everything that is wrong and dangerous about this process. Wise and necessary words of warning to anyone who is not familiar with routers and is thinking of foolishly attempting something like this themselves.

But anyway... Here's the jig clamped to the neck:
Image

(Italian coffee, in answer to the inevitable...)

Now, that template obviously sticks out over the headstock, as in the next pic. Don't worry, it's all in the plan. We won't be routing the headstock with this jig, just the shaft of the neck:
Image

For this task I shall be using my meaty 50 mm / 2" router cutter with a bearing collar on the shaft to follow the template:
Image

In the next pic I've routed part of one side of the neck and have just moved my clamps around prior to routing round the butt end:
Image

Up at the other end you can see we stop routing just past the nut. Don't want to go near that headstock at this stage for reasons that will become clear:
Image

And the same thing from above, just for clarity:
Image

Next, we want to produce our 22nd fret overhang. So now we take the other neck template, the one without the extension at the heel, and clamp it to the back of the neck, like this:
Image

And an overview:
Image

Now I use a shorter router cutter, also with a collar at the shaft to follow the template. Which, set to the required depth, gives us this:
Image

There's a nice 22nd fret overhang for ya. And since he's around again perhaps Mr Shredd can explain why I'm getting that burning on the wood, regardless whether I run the router fast or slow, and as it happens using a nice brand new sharp router cutter? The burn marks will sand out easily enough - but it's a pain to need to...

Anyway: that 22nd fret overhang will get it's corners nicely rounded in due course. I could have built that into the jig, but I left it flat ended to give myself the choice on any given neck of doing a rounded Fender style overhang, or a squared off Charvel type one, or something else. Options.

Here is the template still on the back of the neck:
Image

If we look closer we can see that unlike with the other template it sits snug to the back of the headstock, and so it would be perfectly easy to run the router around it and close-carve the headstock outline:
Image

However, there is a good reason not to do that. Even though the headstock only tilts back by two degrees, nevertheless if we routed its outline with this template the vertical elements would be two degrees out from the face - and that would look subtly but distinctly crappy.

Being Ceri I have to do it a better but more tricky way. :D

In the next pic you see yet another template, this time just for the headstock. You will notice it has a carved nut end to it, so that it will fit neatly over that part of the front of the peghead at the stage it has currently reached:
Image

Like this:
Image

Nice bit of jig making, do you think? Anyway: as I keep saying, the key to accurate guitar making is to derive everything from the center line, and with necks from the front edge of the nut, too. So all we have to do is line that template up with those two positions and away we go:
Image

No way to get clamps and a router onto that surface at the same time. So that template is fixed there with double sided tape. Again, a pin router would be a much better tool for this cut. Mr Shredd (who is being given a lot to do on this post) might care to explain just what a bad idea it is to try routing that small surface with a hand held machine. It's asking for tragic errors, including the wrecking of the work and perhaps a very nasty injury into the bargain. Only an idiot would attempt this.

Luckily, we have one to hand. :D

It worked fine. Here is the headstock with its front face and edges successfully produced. (I'll explain that white template you see there in tomorrow's episode - though it's pretty obvious.):
Image

And there you see the teardrop slash leading into the rod adjuster hole that I referred to before. Like it or not as you choose: but that has become a trademark feature of a Ceri neck. It amuses me.

On which, by the way; if you remember when I showed my neck plan at the beginning of this section of the thread I also compared the Stew-Mac and WD Music trussrods. What I was getting at there is that the nut on the red Stew-Mac one sits even lower in the neck and so that teardrop slash would have to be even deeper into the face of the headstock. Too much even for me - which is why I use the WD rods instead.

So hopefully that is all clear now.

One more thing: in some of the pics above you see a neck blank that has a knot in it. I explained how I came by this lump of sycamore timber, and that process left me having to take my wood as it came. It does have a few of these little pin knots here and there, so I have done my best to cunningly place them so as not to interfere with the necks. In this case I placed the knot exactly where the nut slot will be, so that it will be hidden. The knot is too small to come out the other side of the neck, so hopefully that little strategy will work out.

I merely point it out because I think this particular neck, with the knot at the nut, is the one I shall carry through to a finish for the Burnt Strat. So keep an eye on that knot...

Tomorrow we need to carve the back of the headstock to the same angle as the front, and before that drill for some tuners, getting the holes at that same two degree angle so that they are perpendicular to the peghead face.

Toon in, same time, same place...

Cheers - C

PS Big post, huh? I think I deserve a little refreshment...


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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:21 pm
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Nice work Ceri.

I really like your homemade Jig. I have already saved the pictures, and description, consider it burgled.


I can't wait til you start shaping that sucker.

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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:46 pm
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Woah man, looks like you know how to fix/make guitars!!

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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:54 pm
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Looking good Ceri!!!! You can't have to many C-Clamps.

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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:04 pm
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Look'in good man......

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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:00 pm
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Another night of wonderful guitar building dreams are on the way tonight, thanks for the update.

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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:48 pm
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So ends another episode of Ceri's guitar resurrection.The more I see the more I'm amazed and respect your craftsmanship.

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Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 9:53 pm
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Pure awesomeness! Great work Ceri :D

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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 1:24 am
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All eyes fixed on that there knot near the nut slot wot Ceri's got, you got a nut slot knot tool for that there knot or not. :lol: you don't want to be gettin your nuts in a knot if not :roll:


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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:11 am
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Just amazing work. I wonder when we will be able to walk into a store and buy a Ceri guitar. Or could he be the first forum member to get his own Fender signature guitar :?:

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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 10:07 am
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I think that the Custom Shop should offer Ceri a position,then we all could have a chance to get one of his creations.

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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:25 am
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I'm diggin' that headstock. It looks sort of like my T-60's. 8)

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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 1:21 pm
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guitslinger wrote:
I think that the Custom Shop should offer Ceri a position,then we all could have a chance to get one of his creations.

I am afraid if that happened to C, it would turn into "work" and the fun would be taken out of it, thus some of the creativity!! C always does amaze me! It is also interesting how an international community is built on this thread! :D

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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 4:04 pm
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Evening, guys. Thank you for very nice comments! :D

Xhefri wrote:
guitslinger wrote:
I think that the Custom Shop should offer Ceri a position,then we all could have a chance to get one of his creations.

I am afraid if that happened to C, it would turn into "work" and the fun would be taken out of it...

'Zactly. Doing something for money so often drains the pleasure out of it. Just ask Heather Mills-McCartney...

Anyway, we closed previously with this picture showing the headstock completed on the front. That white mount card/matte card template is obviously for positioning the pegholes. There are tiny pin holes in the appropriate spots and I just push a needle through to mark the placement onto the wood beneath:
Image

Then we need to drill out the pegholes, taking care to set the neck at the two degree angle to the drill that will make the holes exactly perpendicular to the headstock. No point in having crooked tuners after all this effort. Easiest way to do that is just to use the jig from the previous post, upside down, and clamp the neck to it. Presto, the right angle is created:
Image

with piloted (brad point) drill bits I probably don't need to drill pilot holes first, but I did it anyway - I just like extra work. Still, it gives the opportunity to further check the exact spacing. I hate unevenly fitted machine heads:
Image

By the way, a side note to anyone here interested in geometry. If you think carefully about the layout of strings that are not parallel to one another arriving at a line that intersects them at an angle - the line of the tuner posts - then strictly speaking the distance between the tuners should not be regular. The high string tuners should be closer together than the low ones.

But how awful would that look? Better to compromise on the mathematics and make it pleasing to the eye - which of course is what all guitar makers have always done.

Next we want to check the fit of the tuners. Just to emphasise that with the angled back headstock we can use any machines we like I am deliberately not using lockers with staggered poles. Instead, here is a pretty set of Gotoh 503s with pearl buttons. Tarty, I know - I just fancied 'em:
Image

Officially, those Gotohs fit 10mm (approx 13/32") holes. However, I find that leaves things a tiny bit on the loose side. Not enough to matter, but... So what I do is underdrill the holes using a 9mm bit and then enlarge them exactly the right amount using a "cello peghole reamer":
Image

Regulars have heard me witter on about this tool before. It is stupidly expensive for what it is, so this sort work is an opportunity to make it earn its keep.

Even though it is so long it still cuts at a slight angle, so I ream from both ends of the hole, shaving off a couple of thou' at a time till the tuner just fits. There will be no lacquer getting into these holes so we can make things pretty snug - though not so tight that the wood might split if it shrinks a little in dry weather. We should be able to slide the tuners in and out easily with the fingers:
Image

Only now do we come to carve the back of the headstock. The reason for waiting is so that if there was any tearout from drilling through the pegholes the damaged wood could now be removed. In fact, my drill bits are in fine shape and there was no tearout (as you can see), but it's a good principle.

Here is the line showing to where the back of the headstock needs to be carved:
Image

This really is simple. We just use the same jig as in yesterday's episode, except we turn it round 180 degrees so that it is now sloping in the opposite direction. Then we feed in the neck backside up and get routing:
Image

Et voila: a fully carved headstock:
Image

A bit of sanding to round over the edges a touch and there you have a finished Ceri peghead. Now we need to continue at the back of the neck, but first we just have to do a little more work with the tuners:
Image

Since the wood was a touch thicker a few minutes ago when we first reamed the pegholes we'll just double check them, and indeed a couple need a tiny adjustment. Then it's a matter of lining all the machines up perfectly straight to check everything comes out nicely:
Image

Once they are perfectly aligned we can center punch the placement screw holes with a thick needle to precisely mark those positions:
Image

And then drill out the screw holes, using a bit of masking tape on the bit to find the right depth. It is easier to do this with the Dremel than on the pillar drill - take my word that this photo is not representative of the angle I'm drilling the holes! I just can't hold a heavy camera and a drill very well at the same time...:
Image

Next we shall think about the heel of the neck. One of the great things about Fender's design is that the flat of the heel and the flat of the back of the headstock are in the same plane, which makes things very simple. The angled back headstock changes all that, since its tip lies further back in space than the back of the heel. Therefore, the whole neck has to be made from a deeper blank of wood - and so the back of that blank is not the back of the heel. Does that make sense?

This picture makes it much clearer (you can also see that I've now shaped the 22nd fret overhang):
Image

That horizontal line shows where the back of the heel needs to be in order for the finished neck to be the right depth and so sit in the neck pocket at the right height for the strings to correctly address the bridge. (Phew - very wordy!)

No worries: we just put the neck back on my thicknessing jig from much earlier in the thread:
Image

Another shot shows the tip of the router cutter descending onto the neck ready to start carving down into its thickness. In addition to the clamps this is all being held in place by double sided tape. Actually, the clamps prabably aren't needed at all:
Image

Although as usual the cut is achieved in several descending passes I have first done just the heel end so that you can see how much is coming off:
Image

There is also the possibility to leave it at that point. The purpose of that would be that the raised section keeps the neck nice and flat on a work surface, which makes the next stages of radiusing the fingerboard and installing the frets much easier. If we carve back the full length of the neck then the tip of the headstock is behind the rest of that surface and so the neck won't lie flat, which just makes things slightly more troublesome.

However, I've worked it both ways and this time I shall plane back the full length of the neck, to show that version of the process. Here it is done:
Image

A closeup shows that there is an imperfect join between the headstock and the new flat surface of the back of the neck - but then that is because I wasn't working hard to make it perfect. It isn't an issue since all that wood will be coming off when the back of the neck is finally profile-carved:
Image

That's it for today. Tomorrow well start radiusing the fingerboard and maybe cutting the fret slots if I get time.

However, I now have to give a word of warning. This week has been busier for me than I expected and I have made much less progress on the project than hoped. I did have a desperate plan of finishing the guitar by this weekend, but it ain't happening.

That is a problem because early Monday morning I am on a flight to sunnier climes (you may have noticed how grey and wet it has been in some of my photos over the last few days). I'm only away for a week, and then we really will finish this project!!!

Just giving fair warning. Life has a habit of getting in the way of these things. Still, you can all talk about volcanos again - while I go and climb one! :D

Cheers - C


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