Batfink

OK Neil, seeing as you asked: 1)...if you have the Stew Mac routing template - chuck it in the bin. I don't know who came up with that but chances are they had modifying a standard Strat in mind, it's fiddly, confusing, not very well thought out and urges you to take more wood out than you need to. 2)...buy a Kahler if you play like a pansy. If you're used to a Floyd a Kahler gives the same feel as deleted by mod OK, from the image you posted it would sort of work but i'd not make the ledge quite as wide as you can get the base plate hitting it before the fine tuners are at their full depth so it'll try to pull the base plate away from the studs. You can champher this transition to help ease the situation or as i said earlier, just start the deeper route a little closer to the studs but leave around 1/8" between the edge of the stud and the new depth. As for having the whole route at the same depth - not the best idea and will depend on exactly how deep you need to be. Having the studs half way up their travel isn't ideal as you've indicated. The main thing you need to consider depth wise is the height your neck sits from the body, obviously if you have the chance to reduce the heel depth then you have the chance to reduce the depth of your floyd route. If you have anything specific send me a PM on the UKGB forum as i rarely log into the mail address that PG is connected to.

I'm with you, i never used them so invariably don't put one on unless the guy ask's for one.

Well, i don't know about the guitar version but every bass player i've met who has the bass version (which they've been making for years) say it's the absolute dogs nuts and most have retired any basses that don't have one.

I don't like turbo fan compressors one little bit and i've never seen anyone in the automotive trade ever touch one with a 10 foot pole. For that sort of coin i'd lean more towards a decent gun like a Devilbiis Sri or a Sata Minijet and a normal compressor, it'll be a lot more versitile and give you better results in the long run. Oh, and as for painting your house i'd follow Maggotbrain's advice and do it the normal way, it'd be much quicker. And one last thing, if you do decide on buying a pro spec gun do not, in any circumstances, put household paint through it. The pigments and carriers are no where near as refined as 'proper' paint and it'll do the gun no favours at all.

Yep, January 2011 VAT will be 20% in a vague attempt to claw back some of the money that Tony and Gordon pissed up the wall

India ink isn't very lightfast which means it'll fade quite quickly (and probably come off on your hands as well)

One word - Longevity. If you gig on a regular basis you'd be amazed how quickly certain import guitars can deconstruct themselves. Hardware and electrics are well documented but the worse thing, to my mind, is strap buttons that pull out with the 'wood' (i'm being kind here) being so crap that i've ended up drilling a 13mm hole out so i can plug it with something that will actually hold a screw. For plinking around in your bedroom fine, but if you're planning on some hard work consider how your image suffers when your guitars constantly break down and how annoyed your lead guitarist (your's truely) gets fixing the shyte all the time !

It depends on the type of rod you'll be using. Most 'two way' rods, like Stew Macs Hotrods, use a flat channel but 'traditonal' single anchor rods need a curved channel.

Or even: http://www.john-boddy-timber.ltd.uk and that's round the corner from you

The Schaller floyd's have shorter string locks so if you plan to recess it the OFR string locks won't fit in the recess. You can obviously overcome this by moving the template but check, if you are going to recess it, that the string locks fit the recess before you paint it.

A wide surround of 'fill' could look a bit scrappy, why not use corian - it's cheap and would be much easier to get a defined outline.

Well, EBMM seem to be behind it: http://www.ernieball.com/email/roasted_maple/index.html

Gotoh copy - do yourself a favour and buy the Gotoh one, absolutely no issues.

And if nothing else the Floyd template from Stew Mac's is a pile of arse !

No problem.