“Jerry Garcia” Guitar Re-Build (part 3)

I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that this build/re-build/repair/re-imagine has taken a turn in direction, but certainly the process has taken on a life of its own. I let it direct me now, rather than the other way around.

The last post was a rambling catch-up post, which saw me trying to establish a new starting point after nearly no progress during semester 2, 2015 (studying hard, and all that), and having done so I just continued tinkering. Which makes this another catch-up post, and there’s quite a bit to catch up on…

I suppose the progress over the last six or so weeks can be divided into two parts: the fretboard, and the general filling of holes and other hole-like-things.

The general filling of holes and other hole-like-things
I had a bout of revulsion at having used Builder’s Bog to fill old screw holes, a bit of the old electronics bay and so forth. Not only is it toxic stuff, but it’s fundamentally bad practice in guitar building. It’s what professional repairers call a botched repair. Without routing everything out and starting over there wasn’t much I could do about the stuff deep inside the body where the electronics once resided, but at least the stuff showing on the surface could be sorted out. I’ll go into that in just a moment because it relates better to another large modification that occurred. The only other place I’d used Builder’s Bog was to fill the screw holes at the neck joint (the neck is plenty glued and doesn’t need screws). With the bog drilled out, dowels were cut from scrap mahogany and and glued in. I did the same on the front of the body to fill the old bridge post holes as the positioning was almost guaranteed to change (I have finally settled on a combined bridge/tailpiece unit upon which I will expatiate in a future post).

Recall the fairly ugly scars on the back of the body where the former electronics bay was filled with a combination of mahogany and Builder’s Bog. Although I had already settled on a sunburst finish to hide some of the less pleasant artifacts of the rebuild around the edges, I remained less than satisfied that this pink abhorrence would be present under the black edge, even if hidden. While pondering this I realised I couldn’t stand the carving that had been attempted on the back, and deciding that a simple, flat back with a small roundover would be far more elegant, set about cutting away the old carved areas and building them up with mahogany. Best see the pictures, as there’s no good way to describe this. The visible join around the old electronics bay that I keep referring to was kissed with a router and filled with mahogany. Much neater, although a CNC machine would have been much appreciated. It took a day and a half to allow this whim to fully play out, and that’s sort of what I mean by allowing the project to guide me.

While on the subject of holes, new electronics recesses were cut out. I messed up the routing a little with the result of non-round holes which is annoying. I’m going to do what I can to tidy those up with a Dremmel or other rotary sanding bits.

The fretboard
During a dry run of attaching the fretboard to the neck… remember the nice piece of rosewood I mentioned in a previous post? Yes well it snapped. Had some very weak grain running down the middle and it just went pop under quite light clamping pressure. At this point I did consider giving the project up for maybe half a day. And then I bought another piece of rosewood.

I opted to glue the fretboard blank to the neck prior to any shaping or fret-slot cutting, primarily because I wasn’t confident that I could marry the two parts together convincingly if I were to pre-shape the fretboard. Because of the odd shaping of the neck (I originally made a sort of bolt-on style neck that was glued in to the body – very ugly) the fretboard needed to form part of the thickness and therefore strength. It also had to blend nicely into the rosewood headplate. So, for these reasons I ended up with a lump of wood crudely attached to the neck of the guitar. Then came the shaping, determining of the exact center, then marking and cutting the fret slots. Next, I sanded a 10″ radius into the surface, and tidied up the fret slots (which had become shallower at the edges for obvious reasons). Oh, I don’t think I’ve mentioned, but because the neck was a fraction too long for my liking, and I wanted to maximize the string span over the body (and pickups), I’m using a zero-fret. The nut acts purely as a string guide, and is shaped from bone.

I should have invested in a set of brad-point drills before installing the fret markers. My ordinary drills wandered far too much for my liking, but the dots are mostly centered correctly. (Edit: during the process of locating the bridge correctly, I strung the guitar up and noticed that the 3rd fret marker is awkwardly off-center. I may attempt a fix at a later date). The frets went in with little drama, just using a hammer and a scrap of mahogany. On the more stubborn frets, a curved scrap of wood and a clamp was used – along with a drop or two of super glue – to get them seated nicely. I don’t currently have any fretting tools, so to smooth the fret ends I found a good straight length of pine to use as a sanding block, and simply progressed through sanding grits until the fret ends were flush and shiny. I’ve not yet attempted any fret leveling, and I won’t until I have some of the proper tools. Ah, and for a final word on fretting: I don’t even own fret end cutters… I used a cheap pair of wire cutters that have one flush-ground side. They were superb for the job, and were even capable of getting a good hold of the tang while I bent a radius into the fret.