SwedishLuthier

Just out of curiosity. Do you have a link to those four string bridges? Never know when one can need one... To create a mathematical correct (don't actually know if thats how its done...) you can use a standard 24 3/4 fretboard and chop it iff at the 5th fret, That will leave 18.542" witch is pretty close to 3/4 of the original scale. I just finished a shorter scale 6-sting acoustic together with my daughter were we chopped of the tree first frets to create a slightly smaller guitar. Worked pretty good, although the scale length ends up at "just over" 21", not spot on.

Dimensions will probably be fine. You need to change body transition and a lot of other stuff but width and thickness can be used fro those drawings BTW, what hardware are you planning on? Have you found a 4-string bridge, pickup(s) and things like that?

I found this: https://eastwoodcustoms.com/projects/eastwood-astrojet-tenor/

Welcome to the forum! I have not seen many tenor plans at all. However my auction (far from an expert) is that it is a more or less ful size traditional guitar body (from parlour to dreadnought) with a slightly shorter and thinner neck. So with a bit of creativity you might be able to take a standard drawing (lots of free ones out there), thin down the neck and move the nut/head to were the second or third fret is on the drawing. If that doesn't work out let me know as I might be able to draw something up for you and convert it to PDF so that you can print it at a print center or similar. Oh, I didn't notice that this was posted in the solid guitar section. So read my answer with that in mind

Very Nice. Is the neck oiled? Locks like no lacquer at least...

I had not seen that yet. I'm going to have to check it out. I actually had you figured for a powered blade system. SR Nah, my table saw isn't accurate enough and I don't have space for another machine so I have to stick to the Stewmac mitre box

Thanks for the info. I checked their inventory and there wasn't much to show, but I'll keep an eye open. I would love to get my hands on a top like that to match the neck blank I already have.

Agreed. I ordered the newest version with roller bearings and wow, that is even better.

If you are concerned about installing the bushings for the bridge before the finishing for a test fit you can do one of two things: finish it with the bushing in place (put a screw, rolled masking tape or whatever in the holes and you should be fine) or place the bridge on the face of the guitar with a few washers in place of the real studs. Just make sure that the bridge is clear of the face of the guitar and that will be the reference point of the lowest possible action. I would use a shim for this. As Custisa mentioned it is but way if you're not totally confident in your woodworking skills. Make stack of veneer or get a few different bit os wood with different thickness and place this in the body end of the neck pocket. When you find the action you like with the bridge in place and a steel ruler placed on the bridge/first fret you can measure the thickness of the shim. Then you can make a wedge that taper from that measurement down to nothing and make it fit the pocket perfectly. If you feel for it you can even glue it in place. Personally I like the synthetic string trees. They are slippery and doesn't grab the strings as a traditional Fender one.

Watching youtube for sound comparisons... good luck! The sound is compressed and very few of us have even half-decent speakers connected to our computers. The story proves exactly that: We want to hear a specific thing ans tend to look for the proof that support our case. Re: microphonic pickups. Her's an interesting experiment (at least somewhat scientific) that is easy to conduct at home. Connect a pickup that is un-potted to your amp, no instrument at all, just straight to the amp. Now tap the pickup with your finger, just knock on it. There will be sound produced by the pickup. Do the same thing with a vacuum-potted pickup and there will be virtually no sound at all. Now the theory: Those two pickups will sound different in the same position in the same guitar. Even if they are CNC-procuced to extreme tight tolerances with the only difference that one is potted and one is not. Why? Because the vibrations of the complete instrument is affecting the sound. one pickup will "pick up" the vibrations of the guitar in a different way than the other. If we continue the same thought experiement: Will changing the way we attach the pickup to the guitar affect the sound? Probably, as it will change the pickups relation to the strings vibrations. Will changing the material in the bridge affect the sound? Probably as it will change the way that the vibrations from the strings are transferred into the body and thus changing the way the pickup vibrate in relation to the strings. Will "magically" changing the wood in the neck affect the sound. Probably, in exactly the same way. An so on. However: Is there a "holy grail of tone wood?" In my opinion no. The use of specific wood are down to tradition. There is an at least somewhat scientifically project called the Leonardo Guitar Research Project were a set of as identical as possible acoustic guitars were made, half of them made from tropical wood (except for the tops) and half of them from other wood like pear, walnut, oak, ash, alder etc. In blind tests neither the player nor the audience could tell which guitar were made from traditional wood and which were made from alternative wood. However when knowing what guitar was made from what material there were a significant bias towards tropical wood. My point? There are certainly "tone wood", however it might not be the species we think that will produce the best guitars

There are more factors that need to be taken into consideration, like how deep your neck pocket are, or thick your neck is in the pocket area, the make of the pickups etc. Unfortunately "strat hardtail" and "P90" Isn't enough info. My suggestion is to draw out a side profile with the exact height of your specific bridge, the neck pocket depth, the neck, the preferred string height at the 20'th fret etc. Then you can mark the desired string to pickup distance and finally easily calculate/measure the needed depth for the specific pickups you have. It doesn't have to be a nice drawing, just a line with all positions marked, representing the top of the body, and all other measurements marked above or below that line.

Looking forward to see more. Tele + Bigsby is among the best looking guitar IMO. However I prefer the B5 version with the adaptor plate. It brings a little bit less "metal" to the look. BTW were did you get the thermotreated maple from? I have seen neck blanks (actually I have one here waiting for the right build) but never fretboard blanks and tops.

I made a search but couldn't find anything on that subject. Do you mind elaborate a bit? Very interested...

Looking great! Having seen Etna slowly pouring out molten lava in the middle of the night I must say that this is a great representation of that visual experience. Can't wait to see how it looks with the LED active.

The links doesn't work... I would go for this: http://www.madinter.com/accessories/truss-rods/gotoh-two-way-truss-rod-electric-guitar.html You need to check that it works with your specific design. Draw everything out in ful scale and check. I would hovered rather go with the rod from rocking as it is shallower and made of steel. But the Gotoh rod will work just fine. And possible make the neck a bit lighter too, and that is a good thing in my book.

OK, the pictures you linked to shows the Fender bi-flex trussrod. Thats the one I linked to in my first post. To do that type of trussrod the original way you rout a curved channel from the back of the neck. That doesn't seem to be what you want to do. I try to understand what it really is that you want to achieve. Do you want to use a straight channel, double action trussrod, placed directly under the fretboard, but have it look like the Fender bi-flex trussrod? If so this is the way I would do it: - Use a lathe to turn walnut plugs with a hole in the center to match the Fender style plugs (or buy them ready made, they cost from 5$ plus shipping and import taxes but if you don't have access to a lathe you have no choice...) - Rout the trussrod channel from the top of the neck blank. Stop before you reach the nut area (draw this out full scale for the actually measurements). Like this 105392d1323672833-installing-martin-1-way-truss-rod-flat-headstock-2011-12-12-17-02-07-jpg - Cut the headstock to desired thickness but leave the fretboard end squared off, not like the smooth curve it will have when finished. This makes it easier to do the next step. Like this: 02-tr.jpg - Drill a hole to match the plug you just made and make sure you have the center of the drill at exactly the same position that the adjustment nut of the trussrod have. quite similar to whats done here, altho at the head stock and without a already cut channel and with standard drill bits. - Insert the plug and check alinement, fit etc, glue it in when you know the fit and placement is perfect and proceed with shaping the neck. It can also be done without the plug, just drill a smaller hole, like this: trussrod_565.jpg Now to the original question: How to make a double action trussrod. Are you seriously saying that getting the trussrod from here in Europe is to expensive? 10.90 from Rockinger, I see that Madinter in Spain have the Gotoh style straight trussrod (not my preferred version but I have used it over the years) for 9,31 and I know that there are more suppliers here in Europe (I get it locally for 15 Euro and I'm considering that a good price as I don't need to pay for shipping as I can pick it up by myself...). Shipping should be minimal if the one at Madinter is acceptable and a very small cost compared to ordering special metal working tools like the counter clockwise tap and die. I checked and here in Sweden the cost för a M5 counterclockwise die is around 60 Euro! And a matching tap is 30 Euro. So if you don't already have those (a cost of 90 Euro), or have access to tools like that, and on top of that cannot figure out how to make the trussrod from looking at the pictures; do yourself a favour and buy a ready made trussrod. It will save you a lot of time and money