SwedishLuthier

Steivie Ray Vaughn had one of those swiming pool routed strats, (not NO 1) and nobody has accused him for having a bad guitar sound...

As far as I know you have to sand it way. Oil penetrates the wood, as opposed to a finish that sits on the surface. That means that you have some serious sanding to do.

OK,this is very interesting. Perry. Thanks for sharing. Are you doing it this way? I have considered trying it, but I thought that it seemed 1 complicated 2 very time consuming Or have you developed a system with a preset shape, a “one size fits all”? It looks like you are using a shelf type extension on the nut. That also means that it will be reversible. BTW That looks much nicer than the earvana nut. Have you done some side by side testing with earvana or Buzz Feiten? I'm VERY interested in the effect that this type of compensation will have on open cords. The earvana guys claim that their solution produce open cords in perfect pitch, and that is (of cause) simply not true. Better but not perfect. Never the less I have reached the conclusion (just like you) that a compensated nut is necessary. It would be interesting to know how you do it. …oh-oh, I think that I’m hijacking this thread. Sorry, but I couldn’t help myself. iskim86: How are those measurements going? We also have the exact same problem, but the other way around in this thread. Some info on what to do BEFORE intonating your guitar in there.

I will follow this build with interest. Love Mosrites. Love Ramones. What can I say. You lucky b*****d!!!

WARNIG!!! If you have plastic bindings on the neck (set neck suggests that) the stripper can melt the bindings! If you have plastic bindings I would recommend staying away from the stripper. Mom always said I should stay away from strippers…

Don’t know your level of wood working skills, but I would suggest this: Get a thru body neck from Carver or something similar. Plan down the thickness of the neck, leaving something like 1” excluding the fret board Cut the neck to length, leaving enough to have something to glue into the body Make a jig for a neck pocket and practise the routing on scrap Cut a neck pocket that let the neck sit a bit proud of the body’s face (making away with the need for a neck angle if using a t-o-m bridge) Screw the neck in place This is only the outline of the job. I have skipped a lot of details, but I cannot se any reasons it wouldn’t work. For a much neater job, make if with a neck angle

Not really the same thing. The set up is a little more complex. You actually move the nut towards the bridge. Measure from the start of the freatboard instead.

Why the Earvana? It’s the only system I know of that: 1 works for an amateur, 2 is reversible and 3 won’t cost you a fortune. A Buzz Feiten retrofit cost you (at the only local, certified retrofitter that I can find prices for) 225 bucks while the earvana cost you 29.95. About a tenth of the cost!!! Of cause there are other ways of doing it than the Feiten system, but his is the most known. Do you use the Buzz Feiten system, or do you have a personal system? If so, would you like to share info about your better system? Want one more reason? That earvana can be adjusted for different string gauges by the user him/her self without costly visits to the local guitar tech (bad for me, good for my customers) and without special tuners. And, yes the earvan nut look ugly as that warm place down below (and I don’t mean Australia, Perry), but it is definitely an improvement over a standard nut.

You are sooo out of line Perry. They might not be of your taste, but they are NOT rubbish. I have installed them of most of my guitars (including all of my personal), and I have not had one single customer that had me change back to an ordinary nut. And the guy had problems with the intonation BEFORE he installed the earvana nut!!! BUT I would start this by removing the earvana nut anyway. How come ? Using an earvana nut makes end up with the saddles much more toward the neck than with an ordinary nut. If the bridge don’t intonate with an ordinary nut, there is NO WAY it will work with an earvana nut.

Jup, I can run that fast because I wound a litle loose. With a higher wire tension the wire would brake. Remember I use a sawing mashine motor and I use the speed control to startup and stop very gentle.

I just thought of something: How are the saddles in the bridge shaped? Most Tune-o-matic style bridges have saddles that are reversible. The top of the saddle is angled forward or backwards. Is this the case with the bridge on this guitar? If so, and the saddles are pointing towards the neck it is possible to reverse them and by doing so get a little more adjustment in the bridge, maybe enough to get it to work. Judging from your measurements (and the rest of your description) the bridge is probably a little offset. 4mm of backward travel in the saddles is a tad to little, and can give you this problem. There are a few more things that you can check before going any further with the new body. Not that I consider this guitar the Holy Grail, but I would love to be able to help save this old guitar… When placing the bridge I usually start with the saddles somewhere between the middle and the most forward position. Then I place the bridge so that the saddles are at the theoretical correct position, i.e. the distance from fret 12 to the nut is equal to the distance from fret 12 to the saddles in the bridge. Another thought: Have you, using the StewMac calculator, checked the distance from the nut to the FIRST fret? If the nut is out of place (to far away, leaning away and so on) you can get the same problem. You tune up and compare to the note at fret 12 and it will be sharp. One other thing that can cause this is if the slots in the nut are slightly rounded. If the strings doesn’t have a clean break off point in the nuts fret board edge they will vibrate with a length that is too long and…just look above. A last suggestion: If nothing else works, it is possible to move the neck slightly. Remove the neck, plug the holes and drill new ones that get the neck slightly further away. Cut a new pick guard to cover the gap. Not the world’s finest repair but it will work.

You can always try winding your own. That wouldn't be to hard. I'm planning an electric cello for a friend’s daughter, so I try it myself. I will make a pickup with different coils for each string, and adjustable pole pieces. I might be able to do it for you. PM me

I run 1400 rpm (about 23 turns per second) on my winder and have only broke the wire a few times. Takes a few minutes to wind both coils on a humbucker. I made my winder out of a old sewing machine, the Jason Lolar style. I even hava a spring loaded wire tensioner that I got right of the old sewing mashine. The coils are a little loose wound, but I always pot them, so thats no problem.

To answer your question: Yes the rail pickup will work. It senses string vibration all along the rails length.

Don't know what you're smiling about...it's going to take me at least two days to clean up the mess I made building my guitar ← LOL

Sand it down to fit your neck. A 44mm wide neck will (IMO) be too wide to be comfortable to play. I usualy go for a string-to-fretboard-edge-distanse of about 3 mm on the guitars that I make for myself, so you'll be fine with that. A trick I've used for customers that like narrow necks, but get problems whith the E-string being pulled off, when playing solo, or open cords, is to to place the nut slightly offset, so that the distance from string to fret board edge is larger on the high E-string. You are more likely to pull the high E-string off the fret board than the low one.

I have no room for a permanent spray boot in my shop. Its too small. I use a "spray booth" made from an old kitchen cupboard. I fold it out for use. It wont keep dust out, but it minimise the dust from dry "overshoot" paint in the rest of the room. And if folds up/away in no time, to minimise set up time. I have had no problem with dust getting into the finish, as I clean out the shop before spraying. At least it forces me to clean out the shop from time to time

I think that Allparts at least USED to carry those things (www.allparts.com)

I’m curious. On what are you basing this statement? Have you measured the distance between the nut and fret 12 and compared to the distance between fret 12 and bridge. If the fret 12 to bridge distance is shorter, or perfectly equal to the first measurement, then you are in trouble. Having that said, I really doubt that the quality control of Epiphone would miss THAT big fault. I think that the problem might be another. If the problem is that the saddles in the bridge is adjusted as far back as they go, and your intonation on fret 12 is still sharp, it can be a completely different problem. You write that the guitar has a “nasty bow”. If this means that the string height is extremely high, that will also affect the intonation. Intonation is used to compensate for the extra tension on the strings caused by pressing it down to the frets, stretching the string slightly. Higher strings means that the saddles need to be adjusted further back. Very worn frets might also cause offsets in the tuning. A string is supposed to rest on the top of the fret. If the fret is worn fret the break off point is moved towards the bridge. This also means that the intonation will be off. If you still have the old strings on that guitar you will also have problems with intonation. We have several treads in here describing the problems with intonation a guitar with old strings on. So, before you start to adjust intonation, you need to adjust the truss rod, adjust string height, level the frets, and put on new strings. There in NO WAY that you can intonate before you have done those things. But if the length from fret 12 to the bridge is shorter than from the nut to fret 12 you have to move the bridge.

Removing the fret board is a job that requires a lot of skills. You will most likely have to do a refinish after the switch, if not complete, so at least partial. Are you completely new to guitar building/tinkering? If so, I recommend getting a few book on guitar building. Melvin Hiscocks Make your own electric guitar is considered a very good book, and the one that got a lot of us started. This book will give you some ideas about the extent of this job.

Most steel rulers are very staight, and will cost you less. I'e done coparising tests with my straight edge, and all of my steel rulers is good enought for using as straight edges.

It seems like you have had a look at the tutorial on fretting. It leaves out the part about cutting fret slots and hammering in frets… You need a saw with a blade that has the correct thickness. The thickness should correspond with the thickness of the tang of the frets. Use a calliper to measure the tang on your frets and if you find a saw with a blade that match you can use it. When hammering the frets in, be careful and start at the edge of the fret board. Move on to the middle a little by little. And take a good advice. PRACTICE on some SCRAP before. It’s a quick job to take a piece of hardwood, cut a few slots and bang away…

No need to Google anymore: http://onlineapprentice.com/

I think I understand how that pickup is constructed. If your magnets are roughly the same size as the once in your pickup you can easily be added. If two magnets are placed side by side, they will form one uniform magnetic field. The only problem is that the magnets will try to repel each other (north pole should be placed against north pole, south against south). This can easily be fixed with a good strong not to thick double sided tape for testing. Later on you can use CA. If you are unsure of how the pickup will sound after you add the magnets, you can always make a jig like this to test the sound. This is what I used to test the effect of steel inserts under a pickup, se this thread. If you use tape to attach the magnets you can make a before-and-after test very easy. Mount the rig on any guitar like this with double sided tape. Make sure to stay as far away from other pickups as possible so that their magnetic fields will affect your test object as little as possible. M general idea is that by adding magnets you will get a higher output, mostly in the treble range. But please test it and report the result.

I'm not familiar with the magnet structure of the Rics pickups. Are they like standard HBs? Any chance of posting a pic? It might be a little easier to guess the impact of added magnets. If they have the same structure as a standard HB, an added magnet will increase the magnetic field. This will give a higher output with emphasis on treble.