Keegan

Did you put new strings on them, bluesy? If you didn't, I'd bet it was just the necks setting since they've never been hung before.

I'm not surprised that the brand new one would be flat, because of the new strings, the other ones surprise me though, especially the custom.

This had better be some ugly walnut. Hardware looks good, I hope those tuners will fit the 7th string. Now you just need to start building it =P

Thanks psw and supernova. I think the body is going to be around 1-7/8" when I'm done, so that should give me room for any controls depth-wise. I guess I'll have to take apart my strat again to measure the pots. From memory I'd say they're around 7/8"-1". I think I'll be safe with an inch. I can always go back with the drill press if they don't quite fit.

Sorry I'll have to keep you guys waiting on pictures, it doesn't look like I'll be getting into woodcraft too soon. It'll be best if I wait until I have the hardware before I do any routing, too.

I know there's no substitute for actual experience, that's why I'm asking people who have actual experience. I have figured out most of the stuff for myself, I'm only asking a couple quick general woodworking questions since I have no woodworking experience.

I have started building, but I'm planning ahead so that I don't ruin a nice piece of padouk over something silly. If you don't want to be helpful, you don't even have to reply. At least I'm not asking you what color it should be or what pickups I should use like most of the newbies that come here do.

Some kind of darker wood or something would look nice to border it. It looks great already though.

So I have this tele control plate I want to inlay instead of having it rest on top of the guitar. I'm thinking first I need to make a template the exact size of the control plate, then follow that for a shallow pass the thickness of the plate with a ball bearing bit, then use the brass inlay bushing set I have for cutting the control cavity. This will allow me to use the same template for both parts of the process.

I have a couple questions though:

1. How much width do I need to leave in there for controls? Is an inch enough? This would give me 1/8" sides for the plate to rest on.

2. How much wood should I leave around the screw holes?

3. How deep? Is 1/4" enough wood to leave below the rout?

I've never had trouble, but it's dry as hell here in Colorado, so acoustics need a lot of oil to keep shape. The solid tops like to try to flatten out, but my acoustic has been safe in it's Gator case, even though it smells like dead skunk now(must be the foam in the case or something).

The strat stays on the wall(exterior) and has never untuned itself, well, except for new strings, but they always do that for the first few tunings.

Hmm, I guess it's just my Takamine that's 25"

No, it still buzzes tuned standard.

Octaver? Like what?

Probably uneven frets, rises, dips, etc in the board.

E flat should be no problem, even 9's are ok at E flat, if nothing screwy is going on with the frets.

Am I remembering wrong, or did that Dimebag dude tune down to D using 9's ?

"tension on an acoustic is less" . I think that would only be so if the scale length is different.

Isn't the standard dreadnought scale 25"?

Sorry, I was being a smartass, I guess you didn't appreciate my sense of humor.

Well I just got the top glued on. It kept trying to shift when clamping it though. Good pour out though, would have been nicer if those stewmac cam clamps had some decent pressure.

Edit: Guitar building is nerve-wrecking.

Hmm, it would make a good cap for a Les paul or similar carved-top. Maybe convince people to stop using that damned flamed-maple top.

Sorry, you've completely lost me.

This is the problem with threads like this. Someone comes on, posting about a problem he has with his guitar, but gives no information at all. When someone asks for more info, he provides a bit more.

But it's only after 10 or 20 posts or so that he finally releases another bit of essential info, which makes it so we've been wasting our time earlier in the thread, because that info changes everything.

In this case...you down-tune? Well, why didn't you say that in the first place? Of course you're going to have buzzing problems.

In the meantime, there are setup guides available (believe there's one on the Project Guitar main site). You really ought to follow one.

The important thing to know is that the guitar setup takes place in a certain order. You can't jump from one step to another, because that will screw up the results.

Once you've successfully carried out the setup, and you're still having buzzing problems, that's something else. At that point, people can try to help.

A quick question: why are you tuning down that much? Is it to play metal? Or is it just to make those heavy strings easier to play? (I mean, I use .11s at standard tuning, and they don't feel like piano wire to me. But then again, I play a lot of acoustic, with .12s, so my hands are in pretty good shape).

If it's for the metal thing, then consider that this guitar isn't the right guitar for that. There are guitars built specifically for this music, and for their ability to downtune.

But if it's to make it easier to play, then why are you using such heavy strings if your fingers can't handle them?

I'm just tuning down because I like the sound more. Playing comes to me more naturally at Eb or Db somehow. I can play them just fine at standard E, I learned on acoustic with .013s(though tension on an acoustic is less). I just didn't think of it because I'm always tuned low. The heavy strings sound better at any tuning too.

I'm aware that a strat isn't "made" to downtune, but 25.5" is a pretty long scale, long enough to tune that low with the right strings. I'm in the process of building a baritone so that I'll have that extended range when I need it.

I was mostly just asking to figure out if it was more likely the frets or the action. Now I know, and I'm following Ilikes2shred's action/relief guide to remedy it.

http://www.nsa.gov/

I'm sure they can help you.

Aluminum will vibrate like aluminum, which is a cool sound if you're so inclined. Nowhere near a spruce sound though, as it resonates wayyyy more.

It will be exactly as wide, but a 12" radius is flatter on top, and a wizard neck profile is thinner on bottom.

Well, you can string anything up with EMGs and play metal.

Not to mention, the Warmoth 24 fret extension covers part of the neck p/u cavity....

No p/u in the neck position.

Already mentioned.

I'll have Wayne Charvel route only the bridge pickup, so that I can make my adjustments for routing the other 2 pickups with the 24-fret neck

The strawberry ice links are dead.

My pickups should be hot enough, they're all wound to 10k+, and I'd probably only use it with the bridge, which is 12k, and they're pretty close to the strings.

I thought about the EMG PA2, but I didn't want to boost the noise that the guitar is already making.

I found some diode part numbers in some of the old threads I might try though, 1N5817 specifically. It's .45V to put it into clipping, the lowest I could find. Can I check the voltage of my guitar by simply using a multimeter at the end of the cord? Also what do G, RL, and RLG in the diode part numbers mean? Do I want to avoid those and get ones that are just 1N5817(as opposed to 1N5817RLG or something like that)?

Well now I feel stupid, they're fine at Eb, except for the 4th string, it's still buzzing at frets 3-7.

Edit: Tuning it higher or raising its action doesn't help at all. All of my locking tuners are tight.

I use a set of spark plug gap guage thingamajigs to measure the relief -- I like about .25 mm at the 6-7th fret. I find it impossible to eyeball these measurements -- maybe someone with years of experience can, but it's easier to use measurements. You might also check your saddle heights once the relief has been sorted out.

If the buzz started when you had a new nut cut, I'd go back to the shop and tell them to fix what they screwed up. I mean, if a tech cut the nut for you, there should be no need for a shim. If you bought the nut off the rack, that's something else. Though usually those aren't cut to the final depth, they shouldn't need a shim either.

A question though -- did you put the heavier strings on before or after the nut was cut. How heavy are we talking about? Going to .10s won't make much difference, probably wouldn't have needed much of an adjustment to the truss rod, if at all. Going higher than that would have given you problems with the nuts slots anyway, since they're not cut for that.

The frets on my 20 year old MIJ strat are still going strong, and this guitar has been well played.

It was cut by someone with years of experience, and I had him size it for the set I'm using, .011-.054". He did screw up the first nut he cut for me on the 3rd string, but he did a second one for free. The second one didn't have any obvious problems, except that the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st seemed a little "tinny" but that was probably just because I was going from plastic to bone. He didn't set it up at all, only cut the nut, put it in, and strung it up to check his work.

I guess it started after that, I haven't done anything except change to a wound 3rd of the same size(the plain .022 3rd string had way higher tension than all the other strings, so it sounded a lot brighter) and I disassembled the guitar to polish the body and take a look at the neck pocket. I had a good look at the frets while the neck was off and they all seemed pretty uniform except for some scratches from the wound strings. Then I strung it back up, and set the action/intonation again.

Maybe the bigger strings just need more action. I'll try resetting it at 2.5mm. I don't remember what it was at before, but it was way up at 3mm after I put the neck back on.

Also, I tune 1 and a half steps low, they probably need more wiggle room that low. I haven't checked to see if it goes away at a higher tuning. I'll try Eb, at E they're like piano wire though. I'll do this first before I mess with the action.

MIM Strat, 10 years old,

I'm surprised there isn't noticable dents in those suckers. Just one notch above that Asian wire that seems like aluminum.

Nope, no dents. I don't think the previous owner played it much. He spent a lot upgrading it to Highway One specs though.

Orange is the complement to blue, it should just make it stand out more.

I might have screwed up the relief because I tightened the truss rod when I put heavier strings on. It doesn't seem any straighter than when it had 9s on it though.

99% sure that is your problem.

Press down on the first fret and the last fret and look under the string at around the middle of the neck. There should be a *very* small space between the string and the frets. If it's touching, your need to loosen up the truss rod, if there is a wide gap you need to tighten it until there is a very slight gap.

And to check if your nut is the issue just put a capo on the first fret to take the nut out of the equation. If it's still buzzing, it isn't the nut, the nut only affects open strings.

There's still a gap, small, but I can still ring a note if I pick it with my thumb while holding it down at both ends. And it still buzzes with a capo.

I hope you're oil finishing it. The headstock wings should be something dark, like the bicote, or the same as the fretboard wood. And just bevel the edges, you need to keep this thing looking mean.