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Getting down to business with the one piece cocobolo build. As soon as I got my template done things have been moving quickly. Very exciting. I think the outcome will be most pleasing.




About halfway through the cut:



Ta da:




The extra:



Mock up:



Excess neck material cut:



Holes drilled:




Getting ready to draw up topography and start the carve with a drill press planer. Need to route electronics cavity first.

This is my first time doing a skunk stripe on a neck, does anyone have any advice on how tight the fit should be?

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Fit should be snug but leave room for glue film, or the strip will move due to glue starvation.
If say your slot is .250" make strip in the .245-248" range.
I notice that you have routed for HB rings but are building as a 1pc neck flush w/ the top.
Will you be adding a fretboard?
Looks as if you have neck stock for a couple more builds as well.
Have fun

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How long is that in luthyears?

I'll be taking 1/4 inch off the top to "raise" the fretboard. The pickups are routed accordingly. And yes, having some really nice scraps was part of the plan, that's mainly why it took me so long to get started cutting out the body (and also because there's very few other options on doing so). Took a long time to find router bits that were perfect for the job. I wanted the skinniest I could get (save the most wood) that is made long enough to go a full 2 inch depth of cut. Ended up with 2 different 5/8 inch bits, one short, one long. Worked like a charm! Glad I spent all that time making the template too. Makes finishing up the sides much much easier. I measured, and I could get a couple of bookmatched tops out of the scrap if I do some resawing, as well as necks/fretboards/etc. Thanks for the advice on the stripe. I think I'll make it with some rock maple scrap from my last guitar.

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Nice chunk of wood.
I see a face in the grain there.
Why don't you go from the top for your truss rod?
That would be easier,
and look better, IMO.
Lookin' good!!!!!!!

You mean route from the top and glue a fretboard on? Because I want it to be a seamless piece from board to bridge. I've also already routed. That would certainly be easier though.

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Oh!
Now I get it!
Have fun.

Too bad on the already routed. I woulda skipped the truss rod, in the spirit of the build. Cocobolo is nice and strong and dense, ought to hold just fine against electric strings. Just flex it similar to string tension and shape the relief into the fingerboard itself before fretting.

Oh well. Still very cool! Looks like some tricky business with the wiring though, getting holes drilled in tight spaces.

What sort of finish are you gonna do? I might just polish up the whole thing and leave it unfinished... or self-finished with the wood's natural oils, if you will

[quote="DennisK"]Looks like some tricky business with the wiring though, getting holes drilled in tight spaces.
quote]
I had posted a question about that on a blog a while back, because I wasn't sure how one would drill the holes. I looked into thru-neck construction to get ideas, but most of them, although very intuitive, would only work with a thru-neck. I decided the easiest way to go is to just aim a hole from each pickup cavity to the electronics.

We did however think up a pretty clever idea of drilling a hole with a super-long drill bit from the bottom of the guitar where the strap button will go, all the way through to the neck pickup. The only problem with that is the top will be carved and the strap button may not be centered as I would prefer it. Peters instruments said he's had good success with drilling from the pickup cavities before and it achieves the same results I'm looking for, so that's the plan.

As far as the finish goes, I was indeed planning on going as high as I can go with sandpaper grits and then burnishing the whole thing. If I do that and I'm not satisfied, I've heard that doing a layer of shellac as an undercoat works well with oily woods like rosewood and cocobolo that do not take well to an oil-based finish (I know that from personal experience.)

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You might be able to shoot a hole up the middle from the truss rod channel,then a short hole from the bridge pickup to the control cavity.Just rmember to keep the drill as flat as possible to avoid getting the holes too high in the pickup rout.
I have also drilled hundreds from the control cavity to the neck pickup. This can be a bit tricky so mark your cavity locations well.
I would not drill from the front for the neck pickup, you will likely miss your target.
The bridge pickup should be no problem from the front side.
Good luck
One more thing, the long bit I use is a 18" bellhangers bit with only about 3" of fluted length.

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How long is that in luthyears?

Thanks for the tip Faust.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

I have a huge piece of mahogany like that that I've been wanting to do the same thing with. But i've sidlined it as Ireally can't figure out how. So keep the pics comming this is great

How thick is your piece? It's not too complicated if you think all your steps through.

Electronics cavities:





I may need to rethink the flamed maple cavity cover. It's very thin and began splitting when I put the screws in. I glued it up with Elmers but I'm not sure if it will just split again or what. Anybody have experience making wood cavity covers? I might just have to use a stronger wood for it, perhaps some cocobolo from the scrap. Then it would continue the theme. But then I might have to make a coco neck stripe too.

And here's the 1/4 inch taken off the top:





Starting to really look like a guitar.

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That is coming out wonderfully!

Mark,

You have plenty of extra Cocobolo. Loose that Flamed Maple and loose it fast. Make your own "plywood" for the cover with the top veneer as close a match as possible to the body. You only need three .040" layers to make a cover that will last but you can use stock .024"veneers if that's easier. More layers will be even stronger. You could use some 1/8" plywood for the sustrate if that's available to you. And don't be worried about using any expensive veneers, you can color maple or birch quite well with a permanent black marker.


BTW, Sweet guitar.

Steve

Thanks! So you've made these before then? I'll give it a try.

In the meantime, here's the topography all done up:






Now it's really taking shape. Still got plenty of work ahead of me but things are coming along nicely.

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Spectacular!

If you don't mind my asking, what is the neck width @ 24?

Will you be using a single rod or double expanding.
I ask because the anchor on a single will take a bit of doing and a double expaner may push the fiiler strip out.
If you have not worked that out yet, think about a single with a 90 deg bent end, so the rod will not rotate.LMI sells just such a T rod.
Just curious to see how you have worked that one out.
Hope all is going well,best of luck in your build.

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How long is that in luthyears?

2.16 inches.

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This is still a concern of mine. I do plan on using a double action rod. I originally bought a stewmac hotrod but then after stressing over the idea of the strip popping out, I found some other rods that are a bit slimmer, just enough to make a difference I think. I have read forums of some folks that have used these successfully on a back-of-neck routed slot so that gives me hope. I'm probably going to wrap the rod in a plastic bag or something and then use epoxy to glue in the strip.

I'll get it to work one way or another. I think this should hold up though.

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This is a really gutsy build. Over the years, I've seen several people ask about it a lot...building out of one piece of wood, but have never seen someone try it. You're doing it justice.

Regarding the control cavity cover...if you choose to not make the plywood one, using a softer wood is an option, that way it doesn't split, just smooshes around the screws. Not a softwood, but a wood that will have a little more pliability.

Great job!

Darrin

Mark, that is amazingly cool! I have never seen a 1 piece guitar in person and frankly didn't realize such a thing existed. How do you route the electronics access panel cover and corresponding recess?

Ken

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I think you should rout a wider control cover channel rabbit,
and use a piece of scrap coco for the cover.
Reason why wood cracks is the screws are too close to the edge of the cover.
Sweet!

I got some work done, but couldn't document the progress because my camera was away from me. Things have been going a little slow lately as I have a full time day job on top of this. I've also had to deal with other problems like my laptop going kaplooey and getting a nice band saw blade that's too big for my machine.

But I did manage to get the top all smoothed over and did a sort of test finish by sanding all the way to 2000 grit and then buffing the top. It looks shinier when you look at it sideways than it does from the top. I may try resanding to 2000, then turn the paper over and use a block of wood or just my palm and some serious elbow grease to burnish it before buffing it. The plain buff gives it a nice look but I would like it a tad shinier, which I may just try some polishing compound and see how that works.

I also installed the strap buttons so I could do a weight test. It's a little on the heavy side but I do think the end product will still be doable.






That could be an option but the edge of the cavity is already too close to the edge of the body. I'll tinker with it till it's perfect.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

I've been making a lot of progress, but not a lot of posting.

First off, here's where we left off:




So here's a jig I made to make my neck stripe the right width to fit the slot. I made it because my local shop refused to thickness sand a strip of cocobolo I cut. They said it was "too short, it will shoot out the other side." I call bull, I've sent shorter pieces through their machine just fine, but that was with the old man who works there that appears to have experience.

Tip: since the slot is 1/4 in, this jig can also be used to thickness sand fretboards.

Start with some 1/4 in MDF:


Then cut strips and bolt them down on the MDF on top of a flat wooden board. Noticed I placed some sandpaper in between to compensate (it'll make sense with the pictures.) for the sandpaper on the glass plate. Make sure to counter sink the holes:


Then tape some 60-80 grit sandpaper to a piece of glass like so:


I bolted my board into place:


And then sand it like this:


Works pretty well. The glass slides on the MDF nicely.



So I then glued in the strip:


And got to slotting the frets:





And on to the carving of the neck. This may be my favorite part of building guitars:








I have more pictures coming, just haven't put them on the computer yet. Keep in touch.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com