I have spent this weekend working on the neck for my EGS demo guitar. My original thought was to use an old Ibanez Allan Holdsworth neck and replace the fretboard with a fanned fret version that I would make myself. But as it turned out, the Ibanez neck had somewhat of a back-bow and I also got a truss-rod idea that I wanted to try out. I had this old blank laying around from my Kebbon Bass build. It is what was left over from underneath the neck of this through the body construction. So, it’s been drying and settling for about 20 years… Now, I have nice fret-slot jigs for regular scale lengths, but not for fanned frets. So, I made a really simple one with a CAD-printout as a base and an aluminum saw guide that I moved around and clamped in each position. Here is a tip for cutting fret slots to the right depth: I used bamboo barbecue skewers on each side of the fretboard. As the saw came to the right depth, it would roll on the bamboo skewers rather than cut through them. My saw is a Japanese razor saw, which is incredibly sharp, so this really helped. I created a routing template...
Learn MoreI need a demo instrument, and I need it quick. Those of you that have been following this blog since its inception know that the reason I started developing hardware is that I don’t have access to a wood workshop, but I do to a metal one. Since then, just keeping up with the hardware has taken all my available time. But now with my second batch coming up, just in time for the Uppsala International Guitar Festival, I thought I would have something more to show than my nylon string mockups that I had last year. I have put every single idea I originally had on the shelf in order to gain some time: Torzal twist has become fanned frets, after testing Rick Toone’s Dove Carbon fiber neck has become slaughtering an old Ibanez Allan Holdsworth neck and replacing the fingerboard. I do have a slab of laminated wenge cut out from under a through the body bass neck that is the right size for a headless neck, but I don’t think I will have the time to make it into a neck. Carbon fiber backed body with sculpting to fit body has become flat swamp ash Carved top has become flat 3 single-coil Alumitones has become 2...
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