Prostheta

Totally. I was going to shout Wilkinson also. The thing is, you soon find that the price difference between a set of Wilkinsons and a basic set of Gotohs is very small. On that basis I would say, if you have a bit more wiggle room then go to the best you can afford. If cheap as cheap can be is the priority then go low. High ratio would mean quality gearing and expense. Locking again tends to add expense. You definitely get your bang for the buck from Hipshot though.

I can't take credit for the Mike Bloomfield spot though. That one is probably the hardest. Still, it allows me to blatantly post this sublime piece:

It might be okay if using slender posted tuning machines. I am 50/50 on this one without seeing it on paper.

I'll put you out of your misery. 28 - Mike Bloomfield 29 - Jerry Garcia 30 - Ry Cooder 35 - Peter Greene Suck it, kids.

So nobody suggested George then, Wez?

I did thanks. I have a bottle coming from the UK (I think, since it is very late) however it is available here in Pori but at €17 for 30ml....no idea what "varnish" means exactly but since I'm not going to experiment with homebrewing finishes it doesn't matter much to me whichever way. ;-) I was in one of the local art stores this week and was almost tempted to buy a pigment to tint the oil....nah....

I think it would be a welcome change to step-by-steps on guitars! Often we concentrate far too much one thing and lose sight of the bigger picture when it comes to working with wood. I'm enjoying my studies in this regard also....

Direct mount seems to be preferred more by those who use lower gain settings. I needed to use the foam rubber pads for my bass, so perhaps next time!

I already have a substantial gut cut in there thanks.

i dont think i have ever actually needed it, never had a guitar not intonate. but in rebuild/repair terms i am happy to have a bit of fudge room existing at the bridge end but there is another factor to consider especially with fender style saddles. putting the saddles 3/4 of the way forward gives more tension on the spring them having the saddle all the way forward. this helps keep them more solid and prevent unwanted vibration at the bridge and i am sure we could argue for a better tonal transfer too Those Fender bridges need all the help they can get :-D

Yep. I had to soften the point of the scroll after puncturing my thumb....

You'll start speaking in tongues soon enough too. :-)

Seconded. Thanks ovation22!!

That would be a great idea, RAD. It didn't seem to be a laboured-over decision, to build a bench! :-) What are you using as reference material?

If you are using active electronics (thought you were using passive HZs?) then no need to ground the bridge, otherwise do so. As for your headstock, check the minimum thickness that your tuners can work within (1/2" or thereabouts including washer usually) since if you have spare thickness left, you could taper the headstock down from the nut to the top. Not sure how deep that cut it, but it is feasible. You took on a hell of a job with a neck-through! I have only just read this thread and didn't realise how far into it you already were....I was going to mention how much of a pig it can be to get the neck and wings jointed perfectly to align up without too much adjusting out. Good work!

Have you ever needed that fudge room Wez? My strategy has always been to set all the way forward and use that as the baseline, compensating slightly on the bass side a few mm if the bridge is especially "intonation-resistant" (ABR-1, etc).

Thanks Luis. All it took was a set of blistered fingers from far too much sanding. It is somewhat difficult to feel the high/low points with sore fingers. Definitely worth the time and effort though, and realistically that's all it requires. There is certainly no "magic bullet" for dialling in bevels like these other than working with the grain, using small wooden blocks to prevent sanding in soft spots and checking a million times over. I can fully appreciate why Carl's instruments fetch high prices given the sheer amount of time poured just into this part of the work.

Thanks - I have some Tru-Oil on the way and have sources in Finland now. I might try rolling my own when I have the luxury of being able to experiment with recipes, however for this build I would rather stick to things tried and tested within my experience. Still, sounds like a fun idea....perhaps I might do this on the guitar stand I really really need to be building....! In other news, the bass was brought home for autumn break. A nut has been cut plus the bass was strung up with an old set to check geometry, etc. The neck pocket could have done with being a couple of mm deeper yet. I didn't have a long enough template cutter available this week and I made a personal promise to myself to have the neck fitted so I could move on with the proper build when I return to study. This has meant that the pickup sits too low when rammed to the body as originally intended so the rubber strips have been fitted underneath. No big deal. The bridge also needed raising a couple of mm or so rather than it being rammed against the body also. Again, no big deal since the original plan was designed to put these items at their minimum fitment heights to get the maximum use of their adjustment ranges. The bass plays very well despite not having been given any kind of proper setup or fret levelling as of yet. Just basic intonation and string height. The pickup is wired directly to the recessed barrel jack so will sound far better when not loaded in this manner. Pre-amp PCBs are not here yet, but no problem. Forgot to bring the cavity cover and truss rod cover home so I am unable to install them right now, but since the Tru-Oil isn't here either the bass will be on hold for a while. I learnt exactly what I wanted to learn from this prototype which I will take forward onto the proper "Night Rainbow". That is, that the super-thin 30mm body could be taken down up to another 5mm or so however it would leave major issues with locating a jack socket (perhaps not a barrel jack), batteries, etc. The neck joint could easily work with a 25mm thick body. On that basis I will keep the 30mm thickness for the final build. Very pleased with that bit. The location of the bridge and recessed tailpiece work very well feels good to me and my playing style. There is plenty of room to dig in if I want, plus the pickup works nicely as an anchoring point. I'd like to experiment with using a ramp between the neck and the pickup on the NR build, whether it be secured using recessed Nd mags or whatever. Not 100% sure about the stainless steel fretwire. The bass in its unfinished state plays with some strange overtones through the pickup, so whether that is anything to do with the pickup, fretwire or whatever I am not sure. I'll fault find this out when the pre-amp is here and I do the full fret dress and setup. Taming the treble will easily smooth this out. SS is a PITA on many levels despite being better than nickel-silver stuff so I will likely stick to EVO and equivalents. From hereonin if it indeed causes these strange sound overtones. The usual "tonewood" non-discussion can be blown straight out of the water too; despite this bass having been built with "warm" woods the sound is still bright acoustically and amped up. The propagation of sound is slow however, which is in line with Mahogany-like woods such as Sapele and is pretty much what I expected. I pulled a couple of really nice flamed Birch boards out yesterday which I think will work really nicely when hollowed. The original idea of a straight gloss black finish on the NR is likely to be changed to trans black or some finish that will leave the back and neck black with the front inky black with the movement of the flaming still visible. The formation of the figuring is quite wild and "cloud-y" which suits my idea well. I wonder if there is such a thing as trans black paint that looks like petrol on water....? Allan?

Unless it requires very specific placement I don't mark out the bridge location until the neck is in place or can be located properly. For example, in my recent bass build I marked a rough location of the "scale end" as worked out as a quarter of the scale length from the mark on the body where the 24th fret would lay. This was satisfactory enough until the bridge came to be fitted in which case I dropped all of the saddles as far forward as they could go in their intonation range and measured that up against the bridge post locations, drew these up and fitted the bridge, etc. I'm best off writing this up in a tutorial anyway, which is my intention. Sorry that this doesn't really describe anything useful....hangover, etc....RAD's threads are certainly an excellent place to start reading on bridge placement.

I would say "race ya" but I have no space for a Roubo bench at home and I don't think there is space at the shop where I study either. Well....maybe.... Both the wagon and leg vice can have their threads cut from wood which is particularly appealing. Good mental exercise.

The split top has reversible inserts similar to dogs which allow you to plane crosswise in addition to with the grain. Most useful for trueing. Here you go....1:16....

I plan on a split Roubo style bench with a wagon vice and a leg vice. The lower shelf can be closed off with cupboards if needs be. I will likely use red Beech for the top or perhaps Birch. Befriend somebody with a wide thicknesser!!! http://benchcrafted.blogspot.fi/2011/09/build-split-top-roubo-with-wood.html?m=1

Okay, so lets jump forward in time somewhat. The neck pocket was routed and the neck fitted using a similar method to the "Myka jig" which I should really build rather than tossing together a routing template from scrap birch. Still, it works which is the important thing. Spent far too long finessing the neck transition and blending into the bevels. Currently halfway through sanding at 240 grit on the body, however I still need to work on the neck profile and headstock before bringing them up through the grits. My Tru-Oil hasn't arrived yet so I hope I haven't hit a crappy eBay seller on that one. Don't suppose anybody knows of a reasonable source of Tru-Oil in Finland? I should be working up to about 800 grit depending on my patience; normally my weak point in any project. The finishing post is pretty much in sight....

That is an immensely cool bit of work. Stop making me GAS for superstrats!

It is a mix of soft and sharp. PRS gets away with it because the carve is sharp and throws defined reflections. The Ibanez body is all about constantly shifting radii so they don't mix well. Even a little softening of the headstock would improve the marriage.