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Bailey Custom Bandsman Build – Norwegian Wood – Part 1
Feb 24th
Making the Neck – Stage 1
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- Fretboard and Neck Blanks
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- The blanks are prepared
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- The neck is marked out
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- Test fitting the trussrod
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- The neck is cut out
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- Installing the truss rod
This guitar is based on the Bailey Bandsman with a few extra custom options.
I usually start by making the fretboard, as it is very handy to have for marking out the neck. Instead of using a drawing and transferring measurements, I can use the real thing, so it is quicker and more accurate.
The trussrod slot is much easier to do while the neck is still a square block of wood, using a simple fence guide on the router. Then the headstock angle is rough cut on the bandsaw, before routing it perfectly flat using my jig.
Then the rest of the neck can be cut out. This is a two stage process:
1 – Roughly bandsaw the neck leaving 2-3mm outside the line.
2 – ‘Profile’ the neck using the router to copy a pattern into the wood.
After this, I route the back surface of the headstock until it is the correct thickness for the tuners, usually about 15-15.5mm.
Now the back of the headstock is nice and flat I am able to drill the tuner holes on the pedestal drill.
Having done all that it is time to install the truss rod. A small fillet of wood is glued over the rod to hold it in place. This avoids any problems caused by a loose fitting rod which may otherwise rattle or buzz while playing.
Next job is to glue the fretboard on. I also have to glue the cap to the body blank pretty soon so I can start work on the body…keep an eye on the blog to see how work is progressing
As you can see, all my guitars are individually handmade. I do not have a pile of necks and bodies to go through like in the old days at the factory, so I have the luxury of totally dedicating myself to each one. People often ask me which guitar I enjoy making the most – the truth is, it is always the one I am making right now!
Imagine watching your custom guitar take shape with regular updates and pics? If you are interested, have a look at some more of our guitars. Any of these can be customised to your own preferences, or if you have an idea for your own shape we can build it for you, Contact Us with your required spec for a quote.
Bailey custom one string bass- 4/7- making the neck
Mar 24th
A tip for inlaying into maple
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- Drilling the holes for the abalone dots
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- Left: no sealer, furry edges. Right: the wood is sealed first, crisp edges.
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- The hole is filled with super glue
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- The abalone dots are pressed in with a piece of scrap hardwood
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- Tools for installing the abalone dots
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- After the dot has been sanded
Sometimes when drilling into softer woods the edges of the hole can look a little rough. The wood can be torn by the drill as it enters, leaving a furry edge like in the second picture above.
To avoid this a coat of sealer is applied first and allowed to dry fully before drilling, resulting in a much crisper/cleaner hole. This would be true whatever style or technique was used to inlay the piece- it doesn’t need to be a round hole.
In this case 6mm abalone round dots were used and the same size drill to make the holes. The hole is filled with super glue and each dot gently pressed in with a scrap of hardwood. The inlay should stand just proud of the fretboard surface, so it can be sanded flush after the glue has dried.
When all the abalone dots had been glued in the fretboard was sprayed with matt lacquer. This must be fully dry before I can install the frets so that will be next week…Part 5
How to make a star inlay-1/2
Mar 18th
Ten piece, ‘five pointed star’- Abalone and Mother of Pearl
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- A jig for making the ten triangular pieces for the five pointed star
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- Each piece must have one straight edge to make the first side of the triangle, this sits against the side of the slot as it is being cut
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- A razor saw was used to cut the second side of the triangle…
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- Cutting the third side of the piece
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- The tiny triangle in the middle will become part of the inlay
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- The rubber tip of a pencil helps to hold the tiny pieces while they are cut
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- More pieces are cut to make up the design- five mother of pearl and five abalone
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- The finished inlay- The ten pieces are assembled on top of the paper pattern
The Idea
We recently had Fiona on our build your own acoustic guitar course and she had an idea for an inlay design for the 12th fret. I had to make a blog about this because we discovered a really easy way to make it look stunning and it only took about half an hour!
Her five pointed star design was drawn on a computer and printed out to use as a pattern.
We decided that the inlay would be made from ten triangular pieces – five each of abalone and mother of pearl to make up the star. Alternating them makes an almost 3D effect and is much more pleasing than if we made it from one large piece which might look a bit flat.
The problem was how to make ten identical triangles that would fit together perfectly to make up the desired shape. It’s not easy to do that if they are hand cut one by one but I was struck with a flash of inspiration which I wanted to share.
How it was done
I realised that using a mitre block which guided a saw to cut at the correct angles, the same shape could be cut repeatedly and accurately with ease.
Making the jig
I used a router and edge guide to make a shallow slot down the centre of a block of scrap maple. Then I cut the two angles into the block to guide the saw when making the actual inlay pieces. To find the angles I cut one of the small triangular pieces from the paper pattern. This was placed into the routed slot and used as a guide to make the two saw cuts . It only took about ten minutes to make and we found it really easy to use.
Using the jig
The inlay material must have one flat side which makes up the first and longest side of the triangle. This is easily sanded on with a flat block if necessary. The second and third side are cut by placing the inlay with the flat edge against the edge of the routed slot and running a modellers saw through the guide slots. We found that even very small offcuts of inlay material could be utilised by using the rubber end of a pencil to hold them firm. For consistency it is important that the pieces do not move between the first and second cut.
About 20 mins. later Fiona had made all the pieces and laid them out on the pattern to check they fit together OK (The original pattern was destroyed to make the jig so we printed it out again). It is now ready to be inlaid into the fretboard.
Bailey custom one string bass-3/7- making the neck-2
Mar 17th
…Work continues on the one string wonder…
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- Planing a rough radius onto the fretboard
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- Perfecting the shape with a 12″ radius block
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- Checking the shape with a 12″ radius gauge
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- Carving the neck
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- The neck is now ready for inlays and frets
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- Individual string saddle with piezo pickup, acoustic preamp, and midi circuit
The neck is almost finished after completing the headstock, radiusing the board and carving the neck- It feels great and its a lot of fun to make. I’m starting to really like this.
Although there is only one string right down the middle, the tuner is not located centrally to the neck as you might expect. To work out the position it is offset by half the width of the tuner post plus half the thickness off the string. This way the string will go straight through the nut to the tuner. This is sometimes called ‘straight string pull’
I drilled the tuner hole and checked that it fits ok. At this point all I have left to do is put the inlays and frets in and make and fit the nut. Then I can put a string on it and check how it reacts. I have not put a truss rod in this neck as there will be a lot less tension than the usual four, five, or six stringers. It is a very high quality piece of quartersawn maple and very stiff so i’m not worried but I’ll test it out anyway…Part 4
Custom Bailey for Skerryvore…Design Session
Mar 16th
…Choosing the wood and making the blanks…
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- Alec drawing his headstock design
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- The finished drawing
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- Checking over the wood
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- Alec taking a picture of the wood for his custom guitar
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- The fretboard and neck blank for Alec’s guitar
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- The fretboard is being glued on to the neck and the ‘drop top’ is glued to the body
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- After removing the clamps
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- The body with it’s ‘drop top’ maple cap
Alec is the front man (guitars and voice) for West coast band Skerryvore. He visited at the weekend to finalise the drawing and spec for his new Bailey Custom. He drew his own headstock shape it will be a unique one off custom and requested that the guitar have a ‘sustainer unit’ built in and probably EMG pickups (still to confirm).
After seeing Steve’s guitar made on our build your own guitar course, he has decided to have it sprayed with the same red wine burst so it will be a stunner.
Alec brought his favourite old guitar for me to copy the neck, so I took all the dimensions.
While he was here I got out the wood I had selected for him to check over. It will have a maple neck with a birds eye fretboard. The body is ash with a 4mm highly flamed maple ‘drop top’ cap. This means that the ‘elbow carve’ is cut into the ash body blank before the cap is bent and glued on top.
I took him back to the train station with some homework. He is going to work on an inlay design for the 12th fret and decide for sure which pickups he wants.
When I got back from dropping him off I got started straight away gluing up the body blank. I also made the fretboard, roughed out the neck, and glued the fretboard on before calling it a day. Next job is to put the truss rod in.
