RickBlacker Posted January 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 (edited) Hey all... Hey all... So here it is so far. I've got everything assembled. The alignment came out awesome! However, the action is too high. I can't lower my bridge any lower than it is. I need about 1/8 at least more height. I can approach it on one of two ways. Either shim up the neck, or route a bridge profile in my body. I'm leaning towards shimming up the neck pocket a bit. I'm not done with the guitar. I still, have to route a bevel around the edges, sand and prep for painting. I'm leaving it as is for a bit for a week or so. Want to get a feel for how it plays. Also will need to give the neck are of the body a nice contour. Edited January 10, 2011 by RickBlacker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Our Souls inc. Posted January 10, 2011 Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 You don't have to shim the neck pocket. You can just rout a slight angle into the pocket itself. That'll get your tilt and allow full contact of the heel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickBlacker Posted January 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 You don't have to shim the neck pocket. You can just rout a slight angle into the pocket itself. That'll get your tilt and allow full contact of the heel. It's not the angle that's the issue. The issue is that the neck simply sits too low in relation to the bridge. The neck needs to be raised because I've lowered the bridge as far down to the body as I can get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted January 10, 2011 Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 You don't have to shim the neck pocket. You can just rout a slight angle into the pocket itself. That'll get your tilt and allow full contact of the heel. It's not the angle that's the issue. The issue is that the neck simply sits too low in relation to the bridge. The neck needs to be raised because I've lowered the bridge as far down to the body as I can get it. The neck angle will allow you to raise the bridge a little. Its easily routed in the neck pocket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickBlacker Posted January 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 So, you're saying that I should put an angle on the neck pocket? I didn't when i routed it out to begin with because the neck itself had a slight angle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted January 10, 2011 Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 Yes, re-route the neck pocket so that the neck is angled towards the player. That will have the effect of lowering the action with the bridge set to its lowest position. You probably don't need much so start at a 1 degree angle and go from there. You could also just shim your neck route template at the bridge by 1/8" and re-route. That would be the simplest and most foolproof way to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickBlacker Posted January 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 Yes, re-route the neck pocket so that the neck is angled towards the player. That will have the effect of lowering the action with the bridge set to its lowest position. You probably don't need much so start at a 1 degree angle and go from there. You could also just shim your neck route template at the bridge by 1/8" and re-route. That would be the simplest and most foolproof way to do it. Shutter.... I did that this weekend. I didn't make my pocket deep enough to begin with, didn't calculate the depth of the template and tried to put the template back in place. Didn't work out so well. Ended up having to scab in some wood so I could re-route the pocket sides. It was ever so slight, but needed to be done. On another guitar, I used a few playing cards strips to shim up the back end of the neck heel. Worked good. Don't want to do that, but taking a risk of having another boo boo does not thrill me either. What I could do is use an over sized bearing on my router bit. This would keep the bit away from the pocket walls. Then use my chisels to clean up the around the edges of the pocket floor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickBlacker Posted January 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 Another question, and this may be dumb, but I've never worked on a non floyd style guitar before. Do I still need to ground the bridge? And if so, would I just drill a small hold up to where the bridge sits over the body and solder a bit of ground wire up to the bridge in an appropriate location? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickBlacker Posted January 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Well, I feel stupid. The neck is just fine as well as the pocket. I took the neck off and noticed a gap up front. There was debris in the pocket that was preventing it from seating properly. Cleaned it out, things were great. Even had to adjust the bridge up a touch. Given the fact that this was my first ever refret I'm completely surprised at how good it turned out. I have the action as low as I have it on my other guitars and no fret buzz. Of course I could get it even lower, but, I can't stand fret buzz so I keep it up just a bit. But it's every bit as good if not better than my factory guitars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Our Souls inc. Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 You will need to ground your bridge. Usually a small hole is drilled from the control cavity to the bridge post hole to facilitate the ground wire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickBlacker Posted January 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 You will need to ground your bridge. Usually a small hole is drilled from the control cavity to the bridge post hole to facilitate the ground wire. Yeah, that's what I found out. Going to have to pull the post back out so I can solder it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 You don't solder it,you just make sure the bare wire is on the side of the hole when you push the post in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireFly Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 You don't solder it,you just make sure the bare wire is on the side of the hole when you push the post in. +1 Soldering it will only make it harder to get in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickBlacker Posted January 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Ok. Tight fit but I'll give it a go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.