Glenn Hutchinson

Good man six stringer thanks for taking the time to reply. The Schaller roller bridge should do the job but I'll have to route the top of the body and drop it in a little. I should have mentioned that the guitar has a glued neck joint and there is no neck angle. I was looking for something similar to a strat style bridge. At least I know now that I have one option.

Cheers

Does anyone know what is the smallest string spacing you can get for an electric guitar bridge and who makes it. I've been looking at all types of bridges and the smallest spacing I can find is 2 inch. Has anybody seen one smaller than that.

Thanks for all the help. I think it's gonna be a 300k pot first. I'll let you all know what happens. Cheers

Thanks very much for your time guys I know you all have your owns stuff to worry about. It's good to be able to come here and chat with people who have been down the road before you and are willing to give up some of their time to help other people.

The pots I've used are 2 x 500k Alpha. I've used 1 x 500k tone pot with a 0.47 400v Sprague (1 inch orange type)

I was thinking maybe some of this bright tone was coming from the bone nut, the hard frets and the ebony fingerboard. Maybe it would be wise to play about with some different pots and caps before I change the pickups

I've built a guitar and I need some advice on which pickups I should be looking at. Here's my problem..

For the body I used a very old piece of mahogany that I found in my dads shed. This was the hardest lump of wood I have ever tried to work on.

The neck is a one piece sapele mahogany with ebony fingerboard and headplate

I made the nut from an old piece of bone I found

frets are gold evo medium size (these are harder than nickel frets)

24 fret fingerboard with the neck glued to the body and string through method

Pickups are seymour Duncan Phat Cat P-90's

The whole guitar has been finished with Tru-Oil

current strings on it are 11's

The guitar sounds great but it doesn't sound how I would like it to. It's a very heavy guitar but it sounds a little too bright for my liking.

I'm thinking maybe the P-90 isn't the way to go so I need to know which humbuckers are the best on the market for getting that rich warm bluesy tone.

I'm not looking for cheap pickups I'm looking for the best pickups so if you have any thoughts on this I'd be glad of some help on this.

Thanks guys

If you go to your local gun shop they should have a kit for finishing rifle stocks. It has three little bottles - walnut stain - tru-oil - sheen conditioner. The kit also includes sand paper and steel wool. I bought it a few days ago and it cost me about £20. There is more than enough to complete a guitar.

If you can't find it in the shop try ebay

Hutchinson Inlay

When I was 15 years old I bought a guitar from my local music shop for £30. It was a sg copy and the body was really badly chipped. I just slapped on some car body filler then sprayed it black and sold it for £80.

A 430mm radius fingerboard means that you will need a 16 inch radius sanding block.

The reason for this is, if you have a look at the shape of the board you will see that it is not flat. It's slightly thicker up the middle making it an arch shape. If you used a flat sanding block you will end up with flat areas along your neck resulting in fret buzz. By using the correct size radius sanding block you will save yourself a lot of work in trying to keep that perfect arch the whole way along the board.

Hutchinson Inlay

Some of the guys in this forum might be able to tell you what size of a fingerboard radius is on an Ibanez USA Custom, I really wouldn't know myself.

The best way is to measure it yourself using a radius gauge. You can buy them from almost any luthier supplier. It's just a flat piece of steel with the 4 sides cut to different radius so all you have to do is hold each side to the fingerbaord and find the one that fits your neck.

Here's a link to a supplier

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Measurin...ius_Gauges.html

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_suppl...ing_Blocks.html

Good luck

Hutchinson Inlay

I'm really amazed at this. Did you buy these guitars as brand new? If so I would send it back. It also looks like the frets have not been crowned very good.

The best way to fix that is rip all the frets out and sand the fingerboard flush using the correct radius sanding block. I know it seems like a lot of work but it's the only way to get 100% finish.

No matter what you fill that crack with it's always going to be there. If you go ahead and finish the guitar you will look for it all the time and say I wish I had fixed that. Now's the best time to do it and it wont take that long. It looks like a simple piece to make so I would take it out and try again.

Good luck

Hutchinson Inlay

I would mix some ebony dust with glue

Thanks for all the help guys I'll let you know how it works out.

I just had a look at the LMII website and ordered some of their gold fretwire. Since the guitar I'm making is only a test model I thought I'd try this wire and see how it goes.

They say that it's a copper alloy. It's not as hard as stainless steel but it is harder than nickel/silver

Hope it's good

I have this guitar that I've been designing and making for a while now. All the hardware is gold and I was thinking of using brass fretwire. I read in a book that brass fretwire should be avoided at all costs.

I was just wondering if any of you guys have any experience of using this and what your thoughts are. I know it's a bit softer than other materials but is it really that bad. How much playing will someone get out of it before it needs a refret.

Also, does it make any difference to the sound

Hutchinson Inlay

http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Hutchinson-Inlay__W0QQ_armrsZ1

http://www.youtube.com/user/GlennHutch?feature=mhw4

I could make it for you if you like. what size does it have to be.