Aboutpaul wilczynski Expertise Anything concerning building, tuning, theory of construction. Specialist in finishing (40 years' experience); extensive knowledge of Rickenbacker instruments of all vintages. Rckenbacker factory connection on personal level; ONLY licensed Rickenbacker luthier in the world.
Experience Extensive. I build and restore electric and acoustic guitars (steel string and nylon classicals). I build all of Rickenbacker's acoustic instruments in my own shops in San Francisco and Healdsburg, CA.
I write two online columns with a total of over 15,000 posts since January, 2005.
Google my name or my screen name, "jingle_jangle".
Organizations American Guild of Luthiers.
Publications Mostly automotive and hobby (in the past).
Education/Credentials Manage the University Department workshops(Industrial Design) in SF, also have taught and written design and fabrication classes for almost a decade. Have produced online classes, written curricula, syllabi, etc. Run an online forum for my students (500 in number).
Awards and Honors Awards won for product, vehicle, and preschool toy design in the past.
Past/Present Clients Rickenbacker International Corporation, Waterstone Guitars LLC, many Fortune 500 companies before I worked in guitars (I ran a design studio for 22 years). I have hundreds of individual--private party--customers.
Expert: paul wilczynski Date: 7/17/2008 Subject: construction of neck
Question it's my first time building an electric guitar neck so tell me if i've got this right,
it the construction of the fingerboard i should do the following in this order:
rout for inlays
radius the fingerboard
put on the inlays
sand them down
put on the frets
level, sand, file etc.
apply finish and then attach to neck
i am using ebony for the fingerboard and maple for the neck
also is there any certain kind of finish i should use for maple neck and the ebony fingerboard
Answer You've got it mostly correct--I'd insert the inlays right after routing their recesses, but before radiusing (crowing) the fretboard. This is especially important in the case or larger "block" or "triangle" inlays. Since the inlays are to be considered as part of the fretboard surface, they should be radiused at the same time as the rest of the board, not sanded later. This is the more accurate way of doig it, and saves you an extra sanding step.
As far as finishing the neck, you can use any type of applied finish on the maple. Clear nitro is the most common, but you can use gloss urethane, matte urethane, or polyester lacquer, too. I don't recommend oil finishes for high-wear areas lke necks, because use and perspiration wears off the oil rapidly and you'll end up with dirty gray wood in short order.
On the other hand, an oil finish is exactly what the ebony board needs--my preference is for Dr. Stringfellow's Lem-Oil. Spray it on, let it soak for a few hours, and wipe off and buff with a clean dry cloth.
Do this after the neck is finished and installed on the guitar, but before stringing it up for the first time.
