Copy an electric neck that you like. Ensure, however, that the depth will work with your chosen truss rod (i.e. enough wood surrounding the truss rod). If the profile is small enough, you might consider reinforcing the neck to make it stiffer. Some narrow/thin mahogany necks on some instruments are like whammy bars: they move all over the place, making accurate intonation wishful thinking.

Thanks Charles !! That sounds great, will do.

Cheers,
Fran

Forgot all about this one, was asked for a photo as well vee email.

Before - During and after

http://www.mirwa.com.au/images/000.15M.JPG

How is your build going, any new photos?

Steve

Wow looking great Mirwa.
I had my first son, and been kinda busy lately. Had to stop working on the guitar for a while, but I'm finally back :)

Got the chance of gluing the kerfing and blocks to the sides, and closed the box. I also carved the neck to the profile I liked, and installed the truss rod.

Can't wait to routing the binding channels, and glue the bindings and purflings in place.
I will be using a maple binding with some b/w strips and abalone purflings.

I'm really pleased with the way this is turning out. Closing the box was tricky, since braces go through the sides, and wanted to get a tight fit through the kerfing.

Looking forward to posting some pictures of the process as soon as I get back home.

Cheers,
Fran

Season's greetings to all!

Just a quick update on my build with some pictures.
I routed the binding channels and bent the maple bindings. It was tricky to get them bent, for they needed much more moisture than the rosewood sides to prevent splitting.

Hope you like how it looks.

https://fotos-22nf.s3-eu-west-1.amaz...110420_800.jpg
https://fotos-22nf.s3-eu-west-1.amaz...191024_327.jpg
https://fotos-22nf.s3-eu-west-1.amaz...122240_365.jpg
https://fotos-22nf.s3-eu-west-1.amaz...122240_366.jpg
https://fotos-22nf.s3-eu-west-1.amaz...122240_367.jpg

I'm about to glue the bindings in place with some abalone strips and purflings.
Think I'll apply shellac first, and once all bindings and purfligs are fitted in place,use thin CA glue like I did when gluing the rosette. The thing is the bindings need quite some pressure on the guitar's waist to fit perfectly into the binding channel.

How could I fix the binding in place in that area prior to applying the CA glue? Using tape would not seem enough. Any advice?

Thank you!!
Fran

And the neck:

https://fotos-22nf.s3-eu-west-1.amaz...160144_001.jpg
https://fotos-22nf.s3-eu-west-1.amaz...160143_999.jpg

Are you using solid abalone or Zipflex? Solid abalone is usually installed after the balance of binding/purfling is glued with a temporary plastic spacer strip. Wood binding adheres great with wood glue as long as all of the other purfling is wood. Then use CA with the Zipflex.

With Zipflex I use elastic bands tape. But you need to be careful because CA also sticks to the bands. Waxed paper solves that problem.

Work your way around the perimeter with the CA. Move the bands laterally as you move along. Be sure that the Zipflex surface is below the finished surface and covered with CA. The abalone is only a few mils thick and could be scraped off if too high.

This is Ziplex:

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/cAbe3TU.jpg[/IMG]

I'm too late to help on the bridge plate question, but if it's any help for anyone else here's a quick shot of a small body I'm doing just prior to closing the box.

When I get done with this one I intend to post the CAD print of the entire instrument. It's a bit unusual as an all mahogany 14 fret with deep unbound body with an arm bevel. It's slightly smaller than a 00, but not "parlor-sized". X brace and tone bars are 5/16" wide but relatively short, so it's not as over-braced as it might appear.

https://i.imgur.com/f5hjmfG.jpg

Thank you guys,

Yes I'm using zipflex, great tips JonWint! I'll further bend the binding strips to better fit the routed channels and use your elastic bands and wax paper method.

It'll be great to have that cad drawing Ruy4, thanks for sharing.

Bindings and zipflex are ready to be glued, but I'm still having a hard time cutting the purflings to size :(

I guess I'll have to do this using handtools, since I don't own a bandsaw.
Purflings are made from black-white-black vulcanised fibre sheets (0.5mm thick). 1m length, 10 mm width.

Purfling channels are about 4mm deep, so I need to cut my 10mm purflings into two pieces of roughly 5mm which could be easily scraped once glued.

Tried with a veneer saw, but purflings are 1,5mm thick and the saw gets stuck after cutting around 1mm.

How would you do that without a band saw? Tried different approaches but the resulting cut was not accurate enough and I ended up having two purflings of irregular width.

It would be great to hear your advice, can't wait to finishing the body to further working on the neck.

I’m not sure that I’ve fully understood the issue you are having. Assuming I have ...

I buy wood veneer and fiber sheets to make my own purfling. I cut single strips, one at a time by placing a long straight edge on the sheet of veneer or fiber. I then use a sharp knife to cut against the straight edge. It works quite well and doesn’t take much time.

Thanks charles, sorry I couldn't explain this too well.

In my scenario fibre sheets are already glued together, making a complete purfling strip of 10mm x 1000mm x 1.5mm

I need to cut this strip into two 5mm x 1000mm x 1.5mm smaller strips.

If the fibre sheets were not glued, I could easily cut them with my veneer saw and straight edge, or even with some scissors, but since they are already glued, the strip is too thick for the veneer saw to cut that deep.
Tried with a sharp marking knife too, but again the strip was too thick to be cut.

Hi guys,
Got some time to work on the guitar again.
I eventually ended up building this small jig for cutting my purflings to size. It worked great!

https://fotos-22nf.s3-eu-west-1.amaz...318_193336.jpg

https://fotos-22nf.s3-eu-west-1.amaz...318_193410.jpg

Now, all bindings and purflings are bent and cut. I just test fitted them in place.

https://fotos-22nf.s3-eu-west-1.amaz...318_193523.jpg

I'll be gluing the back bindings using titebond, since there is no abalone involved, and front bindings/purflings will be glued using CA glue.

Hopefully I make no big mistakes, can't wait to finishing the body.

That's a beautiful guitar you have coming along! Looking forward to seeing more.