Kristian’s Custom Bandsman
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- Kristian’s pickups have arrived
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- The body is marked out
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- Gluing the headstock veneer
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- Side dots installed
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- The frets are pressed in
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- Blending in the facets
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- Carving the neck facets
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- Compound fretboard radius 2
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- Compound fretboard radius 1
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- Gluing the cap onto the body
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- Gluing the fretboard
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- Preparing the neck for the fretboard
I installed the truss rod last time so the next big job was to glue the fretboard and while the glue was drying on that I decided to also glue the cap to the body.
The compound radius of the fretboard was done by hand with a flat sanding block, a straightedge and the two radius gauges. Kristian has asked me for a 10″ (1st fret) to 14″ (last fret) compound radius which is strange as Rohan also wants the same. I guess compound radiuses must be like buses.
There will be no inlays on the front of this fretboard so when I was happy with the shape of the fretboard it was time to put the frets in.
Kristian has specified stainless steel frets which take a bit longer. Stainless steel is three times as hard as the tradition material used for fret wire, it takes about three times as long to do anything with it, wears out my files three times faster and should last three times as long. It is also three time as expensive to buy. I sense a pattern forming here but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Actually installing the frets is no problem with stainless steel, I use by fret press to push them in as normal, but cutting and filing them is a different matter. Also when the time comes to level and dress the frets it will be hard work but my diamond files will do the trick.
The side dots are 2mm mother of pearl. I simply drill a 2mm hole for each dot and fix them in with superglue. The dots are left sticking up slightly and sanded flat later when the glue has dried.
The last thing I did on Kristian’s guitar today was to glue on the Ebony headstock veneer.
The Bareknuckle P90’s arrived yesterday, a ‘Nantucket 90‘ in the neck position and ‘Supermassive 90‘ in the bridge, but we are still waiting for the Ebony pickup covers as requested.
Nantucket’s are hotter, thicker, sounding, but still vintage, pickup – The ever helpful guys from Bareknuckle advised us they are a very versatile pickup as they offer lovely clean tones as well as being quite powerful and the Supermassive P90 should be a good match as it shares the same alnico v magnets.
The body is marked out but I will not do any work on it until the Ebony Pickup Covers arrive- there is a chance that they may not fit so I’ll hold fire until I can sure…
As all our guitars are individually hand made any of them can be ordered customised to your own spec.