Building a Strat Neck Luthier Build Process Part 2

Inside the Luthier's Shop with BigDGuitars.com. Here is part 2 of building a strat guitar neck. This is a nice quarter sawn flame maple piece of wood perfect for a 1 piece neck. This vid features fretting.

[@evilcowboy]

Great work dude. There are 2 cheaper options for slotting the nut. First one is the little torch head cleaning tool, you can find them in the welding area of a hardware store for about 2 bucks. Second option is an automotive feeler gauge with teeth cut by hand into them. One thing I do to get a perfect fit on at least 3 strings is use an old string that is that gauge I am using and use the 3 nickle wound strings so they sort of lap into the nut. For the final 3 you can use a fine grinding paste, sort of similar to lapping a head to match its mating side. I thought of it when I realized I wanted to unseat the string from the nut when I re-string the guitar because it was obvious jerking it through it would file out more material. I like to do my nut to where instead of a point or accidentally making it totally flat I sort of for a hill it sits on like a Floyd rose nut just smaller. As you know there isn't much to cutting bone so pretty much anything the right gauge will work. Those torch cleaners can also be found marketed as carburetor jet cleaners. Honestly they are both two much cheaper options but the stew mac files give you more stability due to its size and not bending when in use. Anyway, again great job, I see a lot of precaution steps to get a much better product, I hammered my frets in on the first neck I re-fretted but I used a radiused block of wood on a drill press to push them in since it doesn't take a massive amount of pressure. I usually try to make my own tools or use an existing tool in a different way to get stuff done. lol.

[@DylanReynoldsMusic]

Taking notes like i'm in school again. I love your videos! Thanks so much for making these!

[@numerus]

This series for the strat has been awesome! Thank you for all the clear and concise thoughts on process and tools. Immensely helpful!

[@TheGorillafoot]

That pencil trick is pretty clever.

[@hobiecat901]

Absolutely Fantastic video. Thanks for your efforts and Explaining on your Videos. A Big Help.

[@bigdguitars]

thanks for watching an older video.

[@DumbleODS]

Nice video. But there are a couple of things I do differently. I use a fret template to saw the frets. Using a ruler, and marking the frets With a pencil, means that you have to be extremely accurate when you saw. I also try to not sand the frets so agressively, and I always use the sanding beam over all the frets, not just parts of the neck. The Whole point of the sanding beam is to Level the frets evenly, so it needs to be over all the frets all the time. But I like to check my frets before I decide if fret leveling is needed. If I'm Lucky, only a few frets are too high, so I only need to file them Down. If there are a few low frets, all the frets need to be leveled..

[@Tricknologyinc]

When I've seen people glue frets up until now they've always used CA, which I never liked the idea. I never saw anyone use wood glue before. I like it! Thank you.

[@daviddaniels6473]

Really nice series! Thank You!!

[@bigdguitars]

Thanks for finding and watching an old video

[@cris_viga_loca]

thanks! you gave me those 2 tips that i needed. cheers

[@pynthymmepale]

Can you be specific so we can learn too

[@johnwillis308]

Great Vid for a basic neck build with limited tools, and will be very helpful to most. Have no issues with a drop of glue on the fret work. Frets will rise a tad, lacquer will lock them in if spraying before leveling, but if using an oil finish suspect not. Have been using hot hide glue on my rosewood board & a drop of cyano after frets pressed in on one piece Tele maple necks, wicked in under the tang from the sides, with no issues. Helps tone as well me thinks. All glues will release at about 135 degrees C with a hot soldering iron applied to the fret to pre-heat, & careful removal with proper tools. My 10 cents worth anyway. Keep the Vids coming, loving all of them apart from the swirls, as giving me a headache. (Only joking) Cheers, John

[@bigdguitars]

yea I was due for a real guitar building vid before another swirling vid. The swirling is killing me...

[@SKULLFVK3D]

Rocking a Rolex while working on wood I hear yah bud plus great vids I watch all of them

[@bigdguitars]

if i had that much money I would have cnc vids...

[@HBSuccess]

I don't get to benefit of yellow glue - it won't bond anything non-porous and it's a lousy gap-filler. Since it is water-based It might be swelling the wood fibers around the fret tang, but plain water would also do that. I hate fretwork on a guitar where the frets were glued like that - it makes a mess when replacing frets. Little bits of dried yellow glue oto scrape out of the slot and more tear-out of the board. Just my .02.

[@recordman555]

Yep - never seen frets set with wood glue - only superglue.

[@gingerjam2192]

It's a mechanical bond. When the glue dries it forms a plastic mass which grabs the fret tang and barbs. That keeps the fret from moving and buzzing.

[@filipefortes1241]

Very nice, im going to try to make one just like it, but tele version. Congrats for the work, and thank you for the helpfull build process.

[@bennyhill7806]

your the man! great job, wish i had the confidence to build my own neck

[@bigdguitars]

the even fretboard and truss rod are critical. it just takes a little time and practice.

[@floydloonie4880]

Nice job constructing all the different areas that are necessary to build the neck and fretboard. You should have a guitar that you will be very proud to play for many years to come. I'm so tired of seeing all the young people on KZbin that think it is cool to buy a crappy cheap Chinese Chibson, and they are so happy to have a fake knockoff guitar that fools hardly anyone into thinking it is a real GIBSON guitar. They are just stupid punks that think cheating and lying is a good way to live. I'm glad to see you working hard at building your own guitar that will be so much better than those other kids have.

[@6xcchamber971]

Great series! Have you ever scalloped a fretboard? B

[@johnnypk1963]

Big D. Ive found when I get the neck perfectly flat prior to fretting, using the stewmac radius beam/truss rod adj and use good fretting technique that i don't need to leveling/recrown all the NEW frets. In fact my last guitar had about 6 high spots that i dressed w 2k paper on a fret file. Im also using Gold Evo or Stainless steel fretwire which is difficult to dress b/c its so hard. But Am i missing something here??? To me, leveling/recrowning is mainly useful for fixing badly worn frets w divots and such but w new frets u ruin a perfect crown that is difficult to get back.

[@lauriedepaurie]

Hey ***** could you show the finished neck-through firebird in a vid. I'm still GASsing over it.

You buff the frets in a the wrong way.. actually you have to rotate the machine 90 degree, so the buffing puck will roll the same way as you pull off the strings.. Anyway great job

[@drummondF]

Crimson Custom guitars sells some cheaper nut files. I have a 5 of them and they seem to work well -- definitely much better than basic needle files.

[@singtall]

probably not a bad idea to tape up that first fret before cutting the nut.

[@alg1573]

I love great teachers

[@markdearborn1828]

Hey just saw this little problem, spacing guide has a bass and treble direction which you had backwards. If this is a left handed guitar then no prob but you were filing for a right hand so....oops

[@starman2928]

I am in no way or shape luthier, but from watching this, it seems that you are making a lot of extra work for yourself, especially with the frets, I just don't get why you have to sand them with so many different grades of sandpaper. I was thinking of building a guitar from kit form, but this looks so hard, I don't think I could do all that, if they're level and smooth with no edges and at the right height would that be ok? I would also ask your experience on what would be a good size work bench to use for building a guitar,and what kind of wood would be best for the bench. I am not pretending to be a luthier, but I would like to make some guitar kits with a view to using them, or if good enough to sell, then do that. I appreciate any help you can offer.

[@jlondon53]

My comment is meant to be constructive only. Just letting you know that in using the dremel wheel at 6000 rpm to polish your frets, your frets got white hot within a second, heated the glue under frets, and completely reversed your previous efforts in gluing and clamping frets to prevent movement. Same as using a soldering iron to heat frets before removal. I'm surprised you didn't burn your fingers. How do I know this? Let's just say a little birdie told me a long time ago (grin).

[@pamcarr4003]

Nice! Thanks!

[@mr.altz0534]

Can i ask what's the type of glue you use for installing frets, is it wood glue or a super glue? thanks

[@richardscarlett7942]

@ 00:21, thats not a ruler, its a square

[@jmd182]

Did you fret level with the radius beam?

[@SKULLFVK3D]

Looks like a gold sub mariner to me

[@drutgat2]

love it.

[@5barkerstreet]

you should clean the oil off the frets ?

[@urgamecshk]

Why not make it so you canhook a drill up to your fret bender?

[@stephenc2903]

Pretty sold on stewmac, then.

[@pavkamd]

Wow, gah. I hope Stew Mac is paying your kid's college bill for all the plugs they got. Dang.

[@bigdguitars]

+Paul Flowers I wish. Sometimes they are the best option

[@shutterspine]

im building my first guitar, and i can tell ya im not looking forward to fret work!!! dear lord, does it ever end? lol

[@MrHumpah12]

Hey, how did it go? I've built my own via kits, but I'm curious about building from scratch

[@larryhind2947]

Why are the dots on the bottom of the neck?

[@ashleyswanson7680]

reverse headstock?

[@bizarrapmusic]

So its all basically going back and forth xD

[@squareyes1981]

Back and forth, yes.

[@alecr666x]

Wow. Never seen a pro being so clumsy with hand tools while making a lot of extra work for themselves. As for the fretwork? Oh dear.

[@stu4116]

I agree, all done in the wrong order from the very start, badly!