jessejames Posted February 4, 2011 Report Share Posted February 4, 2011 I got my pre-slotted nut in today, and the slots they cut are great and whatnot, however, the center between the 3 and 4th slot doesn't line up with my centerline. It isn't off by too much, but I am thinking I need to get a new nut and just slot it myself. I want to set my bridge though, as the slots from the outside to the two e's will probably be spot on with what I would cut anyway. Also, I want a new nut because I only have about 1/16" clearance from the first fret to the bottom of the string. I measured out my 25.5", then used a t-square to square up my bridge, then took my ruler against the outsides and drew lines then measured the distance between the lines on both sides and they came out exactly the same distance, so I know it's square. Then I put strings through and pulled them hand tight to measure the distance from the outside of the fretboard, they look to be about dead on themselves. You think it's okay to go ahead and set the bridge? I just wanted to ask you guys because usually someone can spot something being wrong just on sight. Lots of sharp eyes around here. If you're wondering how I held it in position in the first place, double sided tape...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihocky2 Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 Is this a bolt on or a set-neck? If it's bolt on I would not hesitate to set the bridge. You'll still have enough play in the neck that you can tweak it side to side a little to line up the strings properly before you tighten the neck all the way down. With a set-neck, if you are comfortable with the outside string locations I would still set the bridge. The strings in the middle can be adjusted later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessejames Posted February 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 Set neck, I went ahead and drilled and mounted the bridge. Then I discovered that I needed to get a new nut for it, the one I got was poorly shaped and it would have never been high enough off the fretwire on the first fret on the high e side. Wasn't radiused correctly at all, so I will just buy a taller blank and shape and slot it myself. Look at this thing, just drops off after the D string slot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireFly Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 I would put the neck in place before you do any routing or set a bridge into place. That way, once you get the neck in place, you'll have your center line to work with. Then you can take the neck off, do all your routing for pickups, put the neck back on, adjust for angle, and bang done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessejames Posted February 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 The neck has already been set for a while now. I did wait until I had that done before I routed for my pickup or set my bridge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helldunkel Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 maybe this can help... when I build, I never take reference on the centerline... I build the body and the neck, then I clamp the neck on top of the body and trace a line onto the body from each side of the neck. By shifting the neck, I then make sure that both lines are at the exact same distance from the centerline at the very end of the body (of a top for exemple)... Once its all set, I then take a very small pencil and scribe all around the neck poket aera - this will be the neck pocket which I will then route out... This technique never failed on me and I get dead on target results as opose to take reference on the centerline and route everything according to that which I used to do before. the 2 lines i'm talking about here i'm using them to center the pickups for exemple... PS: dont set the bridge yet, to correct your issue, you could try to shim up the neck pocket and re route it using the technique I just described. If well done you may not even notice the shim because in your case only a tiny bit is required to bring the neck back to the center... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessejames Posted February 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 My neck and body centerline are dead on. I use my straight line laser to align everything when I set the neck. On top of that I set the neck on this one. It's already glued in, there is no shimming it. I found that the nut wasn't slotted, or shaped properly. You can look in the picture above and see the improper spacing of the slots between the G, B, and E slots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narcissism Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 That's cool! I'm pretty sure everyone is reiterating for reference to anyone else who may be reading. That's what i do anyway. The only problem i can see with routing first (and this is a problem that I've had) is if you need to make any corrections to your neck pocket rout because the pocket is too small or too big or whatever, then all of your other routs and mounts will be off. I think it's a safe bet to route for the neck pocket and make sure the neck fits first. I know proper measurements are key and everything to making sure mistakes like that dont happen, but sometimes they do, and preparing for that kind of thing by routing for the easiest thing to fix first will save you a lot of trouble in the future and give you more room for error if the unfortunate should happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helldunkel Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 My neck and body centerline are dead on. I use my straight line laser to align everything when I set the neck. On top of that I set the neck on this one. It's already glued in, there is no shimming it. I found that the nut wasn't slotted, or shaped properly. You can look in the picture above and see the improper spacing of the slots between the G, B, and E slots. Just for the sake of it, try scribing the 2 lines then compare them to the centerline... The taper of your fingerboard could be a little different on each side and this will not show up on your laser... (reason why I dont recommend taking the centerline as a reference) I'm taking the reference of the picture on which you show the bridge, a nut would never make such an impact and put your bridge so off center.. And yeah that's a very badly cut nut, I agree I use a half pencil to transfer the radius and approximative final string heigh onto the nut... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessejames Posted February 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 Well, the bridge is on center, it was just the nut that was off, I knew something was wrong when I put it on there because it was off by just a small amount, and then I saw how badly it was cut and figured out it was just a bad nut, because I know my centerline was dead on. And I did what you said and you were right, the fretboard edges have a slight difference in taper, by about 1/16" (little less than) I like your way of placing the neck, gonna have to use that from now on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessejames Posted February 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 That's cool! I'm pretty sure everyone is reiterating for reference to anyone else who may be reading. That's what i do anyway. The only problem i can see with routing first (and this is a problem that I've had) is if you need to make any corrections to your neck pocket rout because the pocket is too small or too big or whatever, then all of your other routs and mounts will be off. I think it's a safe bet to route for the neck pocket and make sure the neck fits first. I know proper measurements are key and everything to making sure mistakes like that dont happen, but sometimes they do, and preparing for that kind of thing by routing for the easiest thing to fix first will save you a lot of trouble in the future and give you more room for error if the unfortunate should happen. Yeah I routed the neck pocket and made sure it was snug and on center before I routed for the pickup or placed the bridge. I think people are under the impression that I routed my pickup cavity and placed my bridge before the neck was set. Which didn't happen. Here I am mocking it up before I routed And here it is after I routed (notice no pickup or bridge route And when I did mock it up, the original bridge and pickup locations were off, so I was able to adjust them and get them right, THEN route the pickup, and I only finally placed my bridge after I got two strings on and made sure they were equal distance from the outside of the fretboard. 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.