The build is starting to get real.

The Warmoth neck arrived tonight. The workmanship is beautiful. The ebony fingerboard is solidly black with no streaking, and the inlays are beautifully done. The fingerboard is fairly thick, and this had to have involved a serious chunk of wood. This neck cost a pretty penny, but it was worth every last one of them.

The Birdseye Maple has plenty of character and the back of the neck is splendid, which will offer a pleasant view while I’m playing. The headstock, you can see for yourself. The profile is fairly thin, but not so thin that it’s uncomfortable.

I had to make one change. I had intended to use Planet Waves, Auto Trim, Locking machine heads, but I have recently lost some über expensive Thomastik flatwounds to locking machine heads with thumbscrews. It seems that the thumbscrew can break the core of the string, and at roughly $9.00 per broken string, I thought that it would be prudent to use a different style of locking machine head. So, I arranged an RMA for the Planet Waves and ordered a set of Grover 406. When those arrive, I will take a shot of liquid courage (not really) and begin the first step in the process of building my dream Jaguar.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

SilverFlash wrote:

Hello gorgeous! That is one beautiful neck, certainly worthy of a dream guitar! Congratulations on getting exactly what you wanted. I hope the body matches the same standard (and that it arrives soon!)

I had never heard of Grover 406s, so I did some quick research. Here is what I found: "Insert your string through the string hole, pull to tension by hand, and start to tune. As you begin tuning, only the locking cam in the string post turns. The string post begins to turn once the string is locked. In under one string post revolution, you'll be in tune." Very interesting. I take it that your issue with ordinary locking tuners is that over tightening can crush the string. Manufactures only offer helpful advice to "not over tighten." The buyer is left to sort that out through trial and error. So, these Grovers are, pardon the expression, idiot proof. Nice! I'll keep them in mind the next time I'm in the market for locking tuners.

Thanks, synchro, for sharing all these details of your build. I'll keep watching and learning.

Thanks for the kind words. I’m pretty stoked. The quality just astounds me.

I use Thomastik Jazz Swing flat-wounds on most of my guitars, and love them. They are nearly immortal and sound great for Surf. I had a set on a Telecaster with Fender locking machine heads, and the low E would be flat, every time I picked it up. What I believe was happening was that the string was slowly coming apart, under the thumbscrew. I thought that the Fender machines were at fault, so I slapped on a set of Hipshots. I put on a new set of Thomastiks, and the low E cracked at the core, as soon as I tried to tune it to pitch. I’m glad that happened when it did, because I realized that thumbscrew style lockers and flatwounds are not necessarily a good mix.

I have locking Gotohs on a couple of guitars, and the flat wounds seem to work quite well. The Gotohs are a cam style, just like the Grovers, so I feel fairly confident that these will work fine for the new Jag’. I have a high opinion of Grover machines, and I like the appearance, as well. I’m also thinking in terms of some custom buttons; possibly ebony, to match the fingerboard. The buttons are a secondary goal.

The Grovers are arriving tomorrow, and I’ll look into fitting them, over the weekend. I may end up needing to come up with some tooling, in order to align them as perfectly as possible, so it could take a while before I actually drill some holes. Measure (more than) twice; drill once.

More updates coming.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Looking forward to seeing the progress on this build!
Off to a great start

Kuk wrote:

Beautiful neck!

I have been using GOTOH SD91-MG "automatic" locking tuners on my favorite Jaguar for a few years. They seem to operate similarly to the Grover 406 tuners.

Last December, my E string (Thomastik JS44) core broke inside a tuner while tuning. I replaced the string with one from an unopened JS110 pack. Same sad story. I did not detect any defects in the tuner.

I ordered some single replacements from JustStrings at $11.04 each. I replaced the tuners with Kluson KTS-6B-NMs. The Klusons are the "Safe-T-Post" design. No problem with the Klusons so far.

I think I'm done with locking tuners.

I’ve wondered about that myself. If I have any more problems, I can swap out with standard Grovers. I’m not really married to the idea of lockers, but there are some advantages. I’ve used the lock-back approach for a very long time, and quite successfully.

I have SD-91s on my Bass VI, and so far, no problems with the LaBella flats I use on that instrument. In fact, the reason I went with locking machine head was that I had de-tensioned the strings to change to an AVRI tailpiece, and one the the strings broke where I had bent it to lock back. By putting on a set of Gotohs, I was able to salvage that set of strings. I have the same lockers on my Squier Jaguar, but that has round-wounds, so there’s no real comparison.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

First steps …

It’s just mocked up; I haven’t drilled and used the mounting screws, but that will happen soon.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

The final result was nearly perfect. The B-string machine head, and possibly the High-E-string, is very slightly off. I think that the bore for the location of the shaft-hole of these machine heads may be off by 0.001 - 0.003”, or so, and I can’t get those exactly perfect, but it’s close enough to be all but undetectable and we’ll within the quality standards of guitars from major manufacturers.

The only other parts of the build that cause me any concern are the wiring, placing the string retainer and shimming the neck. Wiring, is within my sphere of understanding, but it’s not my favorite thing to do. The string retainer is probably not going to be a problem, but it is highly visible, and shimming the neck sounds potentially a bit fiddly, but hardly a technical challenge.

One other big question revolves around the pickguard. Warmoth sells pickguards and I have a tortoise shell guard on order, which should arrive with the body. By their generosity of an SG 101 member, I also have a reddish guard, so I’ll be doing some comparisons. I’m also very attracted to a pickguard material known as tiramisu, which calls to me.

I love the color, but wonder if it will visually conflict with the sunburst. One other possibility would be to order a black pickguard, which would be in keeping with the ‘70s style inlays.

One last thing, which is small, but still important to me; the side dot markers on this neck are abalone. If I could have gotten abalone block inlays on the fingerboard, I would have, chosen that, although the MOP inlays are truly beautiful. I first became aware of abalone when I was a child, and always wanted to have something so naturally beautiful, and this guitar neck has fulfilled that wish.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

SandBug wrote:

Very cool, Syncro!

I think choosing a pickguard is a really fun stage in the build because it's something that is so easily switched out there's no pressure settling on just one.

And that Rosewood is nice'n dark.

Looking forward to seeing it completed.

Indeed, pickguards are a perfect place for self expression. I’m not skilled with Photoshop, or the like, but I’d love to do a mock-up of Tiramisu on a photo of the Honeyburst body.

That rosewood is as dark as it is because it’s actually ebony. When I spec’d the neck, I went a bit crazy, and spent all kinds of money, including a couple of Benjamins for that chunk of ebony. There’s just something about an ebony fingerboard, that I can’t resist.

That having been said, I sincerely hope that rosewood situation soon improves. From what I understand, use of rosewood in guitar building is not really problematic, but rosewood has also been used in fine furniture, and caused some supply issues. It’s really an exceptionally beautiful wood, and very, very hard, although not as hard as ebony.

I’m sort of a wood freak. A few years ago, an ordered a Warwick bass with a bubinga body, a wenge neck and a thick slab of ebony for the fretless fingerboard. It’s almost too pretty to play.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

DeathTide wrote:

I have one custom jag neck, and it is wenge with an ebony fretboard. It feels absolutely amazing. It's unfinished. When I was talking to the builder, he mentioned that wenge and ebony are both dense woods, and will age and like living stuck together. He said Maple and Rosewood are less dense and that's why they livr together nicely. This makes me very interested and impressed that you went with maple and Ebony!

That pick guard looks really cool!

Hopefully, it will work well.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

rfcii wrote:

Looking fantastic! The tiramisu is both very cool looking and possibly pretty busy for a sunburst. As mentioned above, this is a fun part of the project and I am sure whatever you choose will come out great.

The body is scheduled to ship in 1 - 3 weeks, and the pickguard along with it. The operative plan, will be to look at it in person. It’s quite possible that I will like the looks of the tortoise shell guard. I’m not skilled with photo editing software, so doing s visual mock-up of the Tiramisu colored guard isn’t likely. It may be too visually busy for use with the sunburst finish.

I need to get started on pre-wiring the control plates, but that will happen soon. I’m still contemplating whether or not to use small crimp-on jacks and plugs to tie the various control plates together and for the pickups, but I won’t be able to know if that is feasible until I have the body in hand.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

SixStringSurfer wrote:

I am just now seeing this thread... I am really excited for you! I can't wait to see the finished project.

Me too. The body is supposed to ship in 1-3 weeks, so it could come at any time after that. If I don’t get too fancy, I could assemble it immediately, and that’s probably what will happen. I still would like to use solderless plugs, so I could swap pickups at will, but I’m in no hurry about that, so I’ll probably wire it conventionally, to start with. The StayTrem arm was at JFK that last time I checked, so I should see that soon.

One thing I’ve learned, already, is that it’s a good idea to pre-fit everything, because it’s the simple things that can mess you up. For example, the washers to set the output jack to the correct depth are one minor hassle. Fortunately, I have plenty of time, but I will have to source some thin washers, which I can’t find locally. I’ve learned to fit everything ASAP, which is better than finding out that you need one more screw or washer at the last minute.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.