I found that new project I was looking for...

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3 Dots? You're going to take 3 Epi Dots, and merge them into a 3 neck Super-guitar?
 
jelloman said:
Oh hell no...
Click to expand...

What?

Yes, I tore the white guitar apart again.
Here's the story...

After I got to playing the thing regularly, I realized that the problems I had weren't going away and I found a few others as well.
If you all remember, I mentioned all along that I had a narrow string spacing issue. That was caused by me inadvertently "pinching" the bass side of the neck around the 7th fret, making a 1/16" deep "dip" in the width there. The result was that I had to custom cut the nut and bridge to accommodate as a workaround. This left me with a 1 5/8" equivalent nut width and bridge string spacing akin to a typical banjo. Lol. The thing played like a Ric or something.

Second, I had tuning issues at the first three frets on the bass side. I finally figured out that I had planed a dip into the fingerboard out there and it dropped off just a hair. Not much but enough to cause noted to go sharp on open chords.

Lastly, jumbo frets. I hate them.



Solutions:
1. Pull frets.
2. Re-plane fingerboard.
3. Trim fingerboard and install binding.
4. Install face dots. Every time I jam with Foo, he complains I have no position markers and that makes it hard for him to follow. Plus, I like dots.
5. Install smaller fretwire. I chose Jescar 47095.
6. Reshape neck profile. The giant D I had was kinda crazy. I decided to pattern it after my old Silvertone and went for a V profile.
 
So, the major work is done. I knew this was kind of a last ditch salvage effort and wasn't sure if it would work or not so I kept it under wraps til I was sure it worked.
The binding is made from walnut, ebonized and treated with Watco Danish Oil finish.
The dot inlays are also cut from walnut, ebonized and treated with oil. I used a plug cutter and took them from some of my scrap stock, as I didn't want to use dowels with end grain showing.
The headstock face is now also blackened with ebonizing solution and treated with Danish Oil.

I got it all strung up earlier in the week and everything seems to work. Now, I'm finishing up the neck shaping and getting ready to respray the neck.
 
Judging from your posting time stamps, all that work took about 6 minutes. You, my friend, are da MAN!:thu::wink:
 
No, more like six weeks and it's not done yet. Hopefully, some paint will fly this weekend and I can get it wrapped up.

But this being my 5th fret job, I'm starting to get the hang of it.
 
Some fresh pics.
As I said, the headstock is now ebonized walnut. The all white-out look was kinda cool but just too much. I'm also ebonizing the truss rod cover (after I punch a hole in the new headstock face, that is.)

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The entire fretboard. Haven't polished it out yet but I like the walnut dots. I tried white plastic pearloid stuff and black but they didn't fit the aesthetic. These look good next to the matching walnut binding. And I managed to get them in a straight line without using a jig. I was proud of myself for that that one. Lol.

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And the new neck carve. I didn't reduce the depth any; it's still a full 1" deep at the 1st fret. It plays much faster now, though, with the cut off shoulders. It's really thin at the edges and I rounded over the fretboard edge quite a bit. Feels really nice.

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I bought a new Tusq nut precut for Gibson. I had to trim a little to account for the difference in radius but the spacing is perfect now. And bridge spacing is full now, too. The E strings actually line up to the outside of the bridge pickup pole pieces now where before both were well inside. Never measured the bridge spacing in inches but it went from 48 to 52mm.

And Kevin says "Hey."
 
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Closer look at binding and dots. The dark stains around the dots are ebonizing juice residue. It'll come off the rosewood in the polish phase.
The Jescar fret wire is noticeably harder than the Fender brand wire I had before. Filing and polishing is a much more time consuming task.
The binding, I added on thicker than I needed, then strung it up and sanded the binding straight and evenly spaced on the strings on both sides. Looks really nice with strings on. Everything lines up perfectly. I even did the 45 degree mitre joint at the end of the board for the extra touch. Lol.

Haha. I just noticed the little epoxy dribble on the fretboard in the second pic. I had to redo that last dot the other day...it's a 7/32" hole drilled and filled with white marine epoxy. Lol. Perfect dots every time.
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