DIY "High End" Guitar Neck | Trussrod, Inlays, Frets etc.

hey guys this is mikko from ammo sound lab and today i'll be showing you how we made this guitar neck for this particular guitar the specs for the neck are pretty cool we have a really beautiful piece of flame maple then a really thick piece of ebony as the fretboard looming lace a really handy place for the truss adjustments many cool things let's check it out and this is where it all begins once again just have a look at the sick figure on this piece of maple that we're using we'll be using our template for 27 inch scale length it's gonna be a baritone guitar so a little bit longer what this enables me to do is to tune the guitar really low right now i have it at g so it's definitely kind of a gent tuning but it's a six string and really easy to play obviously you can't play any high leads because you don't have the really high notes on the guitar but who wants to hear that anyways okay what we have here in the background is my friend janne cutting off all the excess and then using two-sided tape to tape on the template and once again we'll be routing out all the excess edges to get them really fine-tuned for that smooth finish that we want to get and this is the first time that we really see the figure on the neck and really happy how it came out this is us sewing off the excess from the fretboard and this is a piece of ebony if you didn't know ebony can be white or black we have a small stripe of white ebony there we'll be using two-sided tape to tape on this fretboard onto this plate that has these places for frets so that has the fret markers for the scale that we're going to be using so 27 inch scale and we'll be using this saw to sand the holes where we'll be inserting the frets so this is kind of uh actually easier way to do this we don't have the side by hand let's speed this up and as you can see the tools that we're using here are very much custom built by ourselves or actually by yande and it just makes this process so much easier a really fast way to get the fret holes and you don't have to actually saw them by hand this is us cutting the nut hole this is where the knot will be okay so we're kind of getting there this is the neck and the fretboard and where we are right now the next thing we need to do is make a hole for the truss adjustment really need to take a long time to measure things correctly and do this before we glue the fretboard on the neck we'll be using different size router heads to make it really tight we need to have the truss rod be really tight in the hole so it doesn't move so it doesn't make any sounds when you're waving your guitar around stuff like that it needs to be tight and this is yana using the different size router heads making it fit to the measurements we made once again one more size and this is the last route for the truss rod and as you can see the hole is pretty tight and the truss rod goes in there and there's no space there for it to move around or make sounds when you clap on the neck or something like that and what this means is that the neck and the fretboard are now ready to be glued together so we're measuring the central lines so we can actually fit them together obviously doing a really good job at measuring is important here or else you'll have crooked frets also to ensure that these stay straight we're drilling through the fretboard to the neck and then we'll be hammering on some inlay through there so what it actually does it makes sure that the alignment stays the same because many times when you'll add some glue and then try to glue it on there'll be some movement and you have crooked frets once again so this is just a really good way of ensuring that there's no movement in the gluing process so like i said we used some extra inlay that we had for the top inlay and we're hammering that plastic through here this is going to be under the frets so you'll never see this in the end it's just here to make sure that the frets are dead straight and there's no problem in the gluing process now we're cutting out the excess ebony so we're just marking down where the edge will be and sawing off the excess pretty simple right also one cool trick and tip is to use tape here because it's really hard to see a pen on the black ebony also it keeps the ebony from chipping okay the next thing we're doing is adding some tape on top of the dress rod and we'll be cutting out the excess but what this does is prevents the glue from going into the truss rod and your truss rod actually works pretty important stuff okay and this is just adding some tight bond uh very simple adding a little bit too much as you'll see soon but you know better to be safe than sorry we'll be using the finger to really get the glue everywhere and as you see the tape is still left underneath just to secure that you know the truss rod will not get the glue in there and this is us using those inlay holes that we marked before to ensure that the fretboard is in the exact place where we wanted it to go and this is where you'll notice all the excess glue coming out this also shows the purpose why we taped the neck so now that the excess glue is coming out we can just get it all off really easily by just taking the tape off and after letting the glue dry this is what we have next thing we need to do is route out the excess ebony to get the edges perfect and smooth this is once again sped up to save everyone's time obviously we will be sanding this a lot throughout in the end but just wanted to show you how big of a difference it makes once you route out the edges okay next up we'll be starting to work on the tuner holes we're using our template for the headstock with markers for where the holes need to be for sixth string and then it's just drilling holes through the headstock you may notice that it's still quite a thick headstock it's not going to be like this in the end so the next phase we will actually use our own kind of method that we're not using anymore we're using a really cool sander tool for this these days but here we're essentially routing out layer by layer to get that headstock thinner and this also gives the strings the angle so there's the pull against the nuts and now it's perfect and ready nope a lot of sanding still to do it's actually a problem in some guitars like music and guitars if you get a really early one they'll have this part kind of sticking out and you'll have tuning stability problems it's really really crucial to get this out of the way on the strings and as i won't before it's time to start sanding a lot so the next phase is sanding the edges of the neck to ensure that the ebony and the maple are level and also using a razor blade if i didn't say this in the last video building a guitar is like 50 sanding so um if you hate sanding then you may want to reconsider this here you see our measurements for the neck shape and we also have our custom tool for making this essentially we're routing out a layer of wood out so it's much easier for us than sand the neck shape we're starting off by routing a hole essentially to the heel of the neck you see it there then doing the same thing closer to the headstock you see it here and then routing out the in-betweens this is just so we don't have to sand this imagine the time it would take for us to sand this piece of wood away this gives us a really even thickness throughout the neck and then when we start sanding it's going to be so much less effort and this is uh sanding a 16 inch radius to the neck we're using chalk to mark where the sanding is actually biting so you'll see once you've gone far enough personally i prefer to have thick fretboards especially if you have ebony because it's a really strong wood and this keeps your neck straight that's at least my experience with it you may disagree but if i have a really thick ebony fretboard i feel like i never have to find you in the neck it's always going to be dead straight the way i like it and if you didn't guess it already here in the background you're seeing us measuring where we will place the inlays on the fretboard so we're actually going to be drilling holes into these intersections here and in those holes we will be gluing the abalone that kind of matches the greenish color of the guitar and here we go we're going to be drilling these holes obviously not through just enough so we can actually glue in the inlay let's speed this up and i'll shut up and let's just enjoy janna doing what he does best oh yeah okay and now that we're done we're gonna be adding some glue into the holes and then placing the abalone inside and hammering the abalone in there and what's really funny looking is once you speed this thing up so let's have a look right now i'm thinking about all the guitars that don't have any inlays and how much time they kind of spared not doing that obviously some people enjoy the look of not having inlays but i'm sure the factory guys and the guitar manufacturers love it when they don't have to do this saves them a lot of time and money so um if you really imagine this measuring out drilling out holes gluing in a piece of something then needing to sand it off yes we need to send this to be level after this it's actually a lot of work okay and this is us measuring where we'll be putting the inlays and i think i said this already this will be looming lace that glow in the dark so if you're on a dark stage you can still see where your guitar is and where your hand is these will glow green of course because the guitar is the teal color so all the color schemes match perfectly and once again drilling a hole and then gluing in some looming lame so this is jan actually doing it hammering in some lumen lay then cutting off the excess using that same piece and gluing that to the next hole and cutting it off obviously speeding this up once again to save some time um there goes the last one and now what we have left is the inlays are sticking out so what we need to do is sand them off once again with the radius block we'll be sanding until we get a really even surface so as you can see abalone is now getting sanded away and for entertainment purposes let's speed this thing up so this is the understanding away the inlay exists and i think this is a good time to remember that young is such a good guy he essentially built me this guitar and it's a lot of work and i realized that with these videos janna's instagram has kind of gone crazy and many of you guys are asking him to build a guitar and just remember how much effort it is to make guitar so you're asking a lot but um never say never but be gentle also if you want me to work on your guitar this is what i can do i can point out where you need to do a better job once again same thing for the lumen lace now you need to sand off all the excess from the lumen lace and let's speed this up once again need to get that edge even and then it's ready to go the next thing that we'll be doing is the neck shape and obviously this has a big effect on the feel of the actual instruments we're going for a symmetric shape i would say it's a c shape a modern c shape yana kind of has his own system for making this he's trying to get it as perfect as he possibly can i think jan has measured my music man petrucci neck and this is pretty close to it just takes a lot of effort to get it perfect by hand with no cnc machines obviously after this phase is done it's all going to be rounded so this edge will be gone now and once again i feel super fortunate for not being the guy doing this jana is a perfectionist he will work on it until it's perfect he enjoys it it was me making this probably would have skipped a few faces but i'm lucky that gunner is making this guitar here we're sanding off all the awkward parts and making it feel super smooth in your hands once again and once the shape feels cracks we'll be smoothing out all the harsh parts and finally sanding it to be butter smooth i feel like i'm saying butter and smooth a lot in these videos but i think that's just because that's the feel of the guitar in the end and this is sanding the fretboard for the final fine sanding i promised myself i wouldn't make a nut hole choke because i'm a mature person so this is jan making the hole for the nuts absolutely nothing funny about that nothing and janna just loves to file holes then it's time for the final sanding for the fretboard because once we put on the frets nothing you can do about it anymore so need to do a good job here and here we go hammering on the frets very lightly and then pressing it with the fret press afterwards we're cutting out the excess from the sides and then duplicate the process 23 more times so let's speed this thing up and there's a safety measure just hammering on where we feel like maybe we could have pressed a little bit harder damn you yonder do a better job and we're using this very special tool which is a fret and file probably has a better name but that's the one that i just came up with turn it sideways and you get the angle for the fret as well really handy tool after that we're kind of rounding off the edges to feel like the guitar has been played for a hundred thousand years exactly by iron man okay and the moment of truth this is what's gonna oh no that's the wrong cop ah yeah it's the base coat okay a couple layers of base coat and then we'll be adding the ml teal on top now it looks correct and some lacquer on top of that and then we'll be kind of buffing or polishing that lacquer into a smooth and buttery finish once again okay next up we're doing the fret work it's a lot of work but before you start doing it it's crucial to get the neck straight so that's what we're doing here another important task is to tape off everything you don't want to get dirty and stuff like that so we're taping off the edges and then taping the fretboard even so none of the dirt that comes from the frets will be going into the fretboard nor the neck would especially when we don't have any finish on the neck yet i'll be using a marker to mark the top of the fret so once we start filing we can see once things are level [Music] and now you probably understand why we did that so once we start sanding or filing off the top of the frets you'll quickly see where there's blue left and if it's blue then it's still not quite level with all the other frets so repeat and do it again repeat and do it again until you get it perfect once you do get it perfect we use a marker again and now we're filing the edges of the frets so they're not flat on top so what we're trying to do is leave just a little bit of that marker on top of the and kind of file the edges so what you end up with is these perfectly inline frets that are kind of sanding with a sharp edge the feel is just amazing honestly i have a bunch of premium guitars i would say that yonder's fred shop feels better than most of my guitars i feel like taking all of my bad guitars and making that do the fret work but as you can see it's a lot of work asking for a lot when you do this okay and uh now young is using steel wool to polish the threads to make them really shine and feel even better once you're playing with them and after that phase janna is taking off all the dirt from the threads so after working on them and sanding them you will still have some dirt on them to make them really shine you get rid of all the dirt from the frets so keeps your guitar clean as well and after this face we're adding the oil finish to the neck which really gets the wood grain out and it starts to look really beautiful also it gives you this satin feel it doesn't give you that lacquer sticky ikigi in your hand and i feel um we're using crimson oil people use gun stock oil or tung oil or stuff like that we use the one that creams themselves i feel like it's really good for this purpose and it's really easy to put on really made for this use case and i have to say i'm pretty happy with how this neck came out like just look at that figure that we have the flame is crazy on this neck and jana did an awesome job getting this perfect okay and that's it for the neck as you can probably tell there's still something to do before the guitar is finished so subscribe to the channel and stay tuned for the third and most likely final part for this diy guitar

Channel: ML Sound Lab

Views: 106,483

Keywords: ml sound lab, impulse response, cab pack, amp pack, fractal audio, fractal audio systems, axe-fx iii, axe-fx ii, axe-fx 3, line 6 helix, line6, line 6, line6 helix, hx stomp, helix stomp, kemper profiler, kemper profiling amp, djent, irotlas, janne riikola, luthier, guitar build, diy guitar

Id: TCEweeEvGhM

Length: 20min 38sec (1238 seconds)

Published: Tue May 19 2020