A finished? neck

Here she is, one neck for the new guitar. Roasted maple, rosewood, 22 1650 frets, abalone face & side dots, three coats of OSMO polyx oil, Gotoh 381 height adjustable magnum lock cosmo black tuners and .... no nut .... well I'm told you can't have everything. So how did we get here.



















All that was left to do was installing the tuners after applying the third coat of oil on Wednesday evening.

 So this is what will be going in

So the first order of business yesterday (well after cleaning some floors & the dining room table, doing some laps swimming, making sure the kids didn't drown while ... not drowning ... and putting some gas in the car) was to locate the holes for the tuner screws . . . small little buggers - make sure you don't loose them in the shuffle - one of the reasons I did this on the dining room table and not my messy work table.

Add blue painters tape to write on.

And assemble the tuners with their ferules finger tight . . . . then line them up & mark the holes

Which are just about visible here, and should be in a straight line - of course. They are, so I'm good, next step ... the ALL important punch the holes - ALWAYS punch the holes for accurate locations when drilling and accurate is definitively in order here, wouldn't want clown tuners would I ???? The approved method of course is to use a punch but ... ... ... DARN . . . I don't have one that small . . . . galvanized fence nail to the rescue (sorry no pics . . . I need to grow another arm first) . . . make sure the headstock is supported or . . . . once again I'm only responsible for my OWN stupidity ... anyone else's is their own business. 

Sorry for the crummy photo . . . screws seem 0.7 mm through the hole (yes I'm european so it's cm & mm for anything small . . . more divisions and less confusion make for more accuracy, easier calculations & thus less stupidity). The drill bit is a 1/16 which seems just a TAD large for these BUT then again they just need to be tight to prevent the tuners from rotating . . . no 'pull' strength needed . . . I'll drill the holes to 5 mm so the last 2 mm will provide some more 'hold'.

Drill bit chucked to 5 mm . . . check
Headstock taped off . . . check
Headstock clamped . . . check . . . do NOT attempt to do this without clamping the neck, at least have someone hold the neck, you DO NOT want this swinging around should the bit grab . . . you'll tear out the hole, break the bit off in the hole, hit something that shouldn't be hit ... and you really want to hold the drill with 2 hands to be as precise as you can be . . . . a $5 glue clamp is a must . . . . a drill press would be ideal but . . . once again I'm only responsible for my OWN stupidity ... anyone else's is their own business. 

You can see where I tore off the protective tape when drilling, fortunately nothing got damaged . . . 

Tape removed and test . . . . pfffff . . . . everything lines up as intended.










So screwing things down use the RIGHT size screw driver - do NOT even attempt with a normal #2 philips - the slots in these little buggers will strip. Put some soap or beeswax on the threads and they should go in with 2 fingers on the screw driver, if it takes more . . . back out, put on more soap / wax and try again, if it still doesn't go check the holes. Do NOT try to force it . . broken screws are ........ Anyway don't tighten the screws all the way . . . . 

Add the ferules to the face of the headstock to just before finger tight using your ........ fingers. Turn over, make sure the tuners are lined up and THEN tighten the screws, once again . . . . 2 fingers on the screwdriver, don't over tighten and strip the holes; you are not planning to hold an elephant in place with them . . . . then again maybe YOU are, what do I know.





Then tighten the ferules to the face of the headstock. I use a socket and my fingers, again do not over tighten, they are just tuners no need to torque it to .....

Oh and if anyone can explain the fascination with socket sets I'd be grateful . . . I just can't get it.

And we have a neck . . . . . well minus the nut anyway and the back may get another coat of the oil when I'm doing the body but for now it's done.

And here is a pic of the height adjustable posts . . . they are already staggered to begin with . . . no string trees needed . . . . or so the documentation claims . . . . we'll see

Here Is how it probably will look next to in relation to the body.

THE neck - part deux

So here is the neck after it's third coat of the OSMO oil. The color hasn't changed any further that I noticed - indicating that the wood is now probably saturated - ... of course a direct side to side comparison is pretty much impossible.

The test strip below is a piece of mahogany (the same strip is below the neck) that started out almost the same as the body. The ends just have 3 coats of the oil, the middle was stained with minwax red mahogany stain first ... the right end was a test how well as strip of painters tape would do in making a straight edge ... OK it turns out.

When applying the first coat of oil part of the stain rubs off - this is after the first coat - ... the rubout of the second coat still had some ... the third rubout has almost none indicating the stain - and thus the wood - is now sealed. I think this is pretty much what I'll do with the body.

Finishing a neck

Would you believe that BOTH of these pieces are maple?? The neck is roasted maple with 2 coats of the OSMO polyx oil - from the can in the picture - the piece on the left is regular maple, the top (above the two pencil lines) is uncoated but below the 2nd pencil line it has 3 coats of the OSMO oil. While the regular maple's color didn't change much with the application of the oil, the color of the roasted maple underwent quite a dramatic change. After the first coat it was a nice dark honey ... and after the second it's now more of a caramel (like lightly finished & aged mahogany) ... the tint got at least 2 to 4 shades darker and the grain - while already more prominent than in the test piece - just popped out .... quite pleased with these results. The oil was a recommendation of Seth at best guitar parts who made the neck.

The feel of the finish at this point compares very favorably to my current favorite finish on a neck (hard lacquer finished to 600 grit) and may turn out to be even better . . . after 2 coats it pretty much retains the feel of bare wood ... I like it a LOT.

                                                               

If you look at pictures before the application of the OSMO oil (top) you can see that the neck and body are almost the same tint ... after 2 coats of the oil (bottom) that is definitively NOT the case anymore. The difference is actually more prominent than in the photo . . . . The picture above is a better representation of the color.

Raw wood

Two coats of OSMO oil on the neck

NOTE TO SELF; if I ever use this in the future, test on a 'real' piece for color.

A note on the OSMO oil; When applied to the regular maple it has a 'tacky', maybe 'sticky', surface after it's been rubbed off until it's completely dry (even when it feels dry to the touch in still 'sticks'). On the roasted maple on the other hand it seems to soak in more (?) and after wiping it off it's very nice immediately, nothing 'tacky' there.

AND yes I still need to clean up that work table, it's a good thing you can't see the rest of the room.