2.5itim

Thank you sir! I am extremely happy with it!! its also quite funny because we were talking about fret leveling on my other build and talking about how they will almost always need to be leveled, I put a straight edge on these last night and there isn't one that is higher than the other. I find it strange because i fretted both of these the exact same, radiused the fretboard the same, hammered them in the same, glued them the same, nothing was different and these were perfect from the start. I don't know maybe the different types of wood or something. Just found it interesting.

It's kinda funny it feels and look just like a super fat ibanez js that needs to go on a diet.

This bad boy is finished!!! Minus soldering the wiring that is. Yesterday i wet sanded 800,1200,1500 buffed with a polishing compound, got all the hardware on and glued the nut in. Holy crap I really hate wet sanding by the way, that took me forever and it's still not perfect but I'm happy with it. I would like to buy some all black hardware for it but I'm gonna have to get some money first.

You might try just doing it all with a rasp, that's what I did on my first neck. I carved it to the thickness and shape that I wanted at the 2nd and 12th fret and then "connected the dots" so to speak, once I got all of that roughed in I drew out where I wanted my heel and the thicker part (not sure what these are called) at the scarf joint and then connected those to the 2nd and 12th frets I had already carved.

I don't have a whole lot of finishing experience but I've done two guitars so far with acrylic enamel paint and nitro lacquer to finish with, it has done well for me except when I tried to wipe on the nitro it pulled the color so I had to spray it. You can get acrylic enamel at any auto parts store, the duplicolor perfect match spray paint is acrylic enamel, or you can go to a local auto paint wholesaler and they can mix you any color you want.

It's done that to me a couple times, accidentally quote someone and then won't let you delete it

No problemo man! I haven't installed it yet, I'm waiting on my spacer to come back from powdercoating before mounting it, so we are all good lol! I will go ahead and put it at 26.25" thank you.

I'm also wanting to do some inlay work on the headstock, could y'all give me some pointers? The end of the headstock is kind of an important part on this because if I do end up putting a name to this and end up making more guitars the swoosh would be an important part of my "guitar name" so I was just wanting to inlay a swoosh to follow the end of the headstock I just have no idea how to do inlays so if y'all could give me some advice or tutorials I'd be greatly appreciative!!

Thanks man much appreciated!! I didn't know they sold these, at least now I know for sure it'll work lol I was able to get all my wiring holes drilled, input jack drilled and tuner holes drilled tonight, angling the drill bit into the toggle cavity worked perfectly just like y'all said it would. I need to go buy a 3/4" forstner bit tomorrow (it seems to be the only one that I don't have) to inset the input jack, these tuners are just extras I have laying around for mockup, my black ones are in the mail along with my black input jack and my pots. Now I just need to get my bridge spacer back from powdercoating, get the bridge mounted, buy pickups, finish sand, lacquer finish, make my electrical covers out of aluminum/powdercoating them and figure out this bridge and we should be all done!!

I was originally planning on making a new bridge and using my Hipshot saddles on it but then I remembered the lady got me this bridge for Valentine's Day and she would be pretty sad if I didn't use it on this so this is what I came up with, it's just a 1/8" spacer to raise my bridge up a little bit. I was super busy at work today and I couldn't stay late so I had to do this while my cnc was running, needless to say I didn't have a lot of time and it's not my best work but it'll do the job! now it's off to powder coating.

Haha pro, come on over,It's just a short trip across a pond!!

That's what I was looking for!! So if I put the center of the 3 screw holes at 26.75" I should have no problem intonating it? yeah pro, it really does come in handy! We have 5 manual Bridgeport mills here and 8 manual lathes I am almost always over there making something for myself. Although for something like that I would probably just bust it out on the cnc ecspecially since you already have it in solid works.

Yeah Scott, the trades that I've learned over the years have definitely come in handy, ecspecially for someone like me that always has to be tinkering with something. With that being said I really think I am just gonna start making my own bridges/tremolos. It's such a simple thing and it's hard to justify spending $75-$150 on them when I could make one myself in about an hour.

Ok that sounds a bit easier than I'm making it out to be in my head. And the break point on the saddle would be where the string actually leaves the saddle? So here where my pen is at?

Ok I can see this getting a little confusing lol. I did find the stewmac fret calculator that gave a bunch of positions for different bridges but I didn't see one on there for the Hipshot, the closets I saw on there was the strat non tremolo model and it says that those measurements are for the forward most mounting screws and I wasn't sure if the Hipshot and strat have the same mounting platform. I did also find another issue I'm gonna have to work thru last night, because of the way I designed my neck where the fretboard is longer than the neck I could only set my neck so far into the body and to get my action right my saddle height adjusters have to be all the way up, that kind of defeats the purpose of why I wanted this bridge to begin with for its low profile smooth feeling ness. So I'm going to make a 1/8" base plate out of some steel today and get it powder coated black for the bridge to sit on and raise it up an 1/8".

Ok, I don't have a bridge on the guitar right now so I can't do that just yet. Because of that I'm gonna take a step back from the nut for a moment and focus on the bridge and tuners. im actually trying to figure out where to mount my bridge on this thing and maybe y'all could help me with that if you don't mind! It's a 25.5" scale with a Hipshot non tremolo bridge, I've searched all over Google and can't find anything, I did find stewmacs fret position calculator which gives measurements for all sorts of bridges but not one for the Hipshot. Would I simply just measure out 25.5" from the edge of the fretboard where the nut would sit to the edge of the saddle on the bridge where the string will sit?

Also I think this is possibly one of the thinnest and maybe lightest guitars ever made!!! The body measures 1.2" thick and without hardware on it it weighs a whomping 3 pounds. It really feels awesome and well balanced in the hands.

I made it all one piece tonight and this might actually be one of the best moments of my life lol. I haven't even finished it yet and just having it in once piece that you can hold is really an amazing feeling!! i ordered black screws because all they had in stock was stainless . So these will have to do for the moment i also got the frets leveled and I will wait to crown and polish them till after I get the neck finish lacquer on it that way I can take the lacquer off the frets at that time.

Thanks man I really appreciate that!! Ok I will just screw into the wood then. one question I do have regarding the bridge is, scale length if its a 25.5" scale do I install my bridge where the part of the saddle that the string sits on is at 25.5" from the face of my nut?

I got them leveled this evening, there were 2 or 3 that I had to take down a pretty good ways. I need to order a crowning file but I don't thing I'm gonna crown and polish them until after I apply the laquer finish that way I can get all the lacquer off the frets at that time. one last thing, is there any sort of standard measurement that the bottom of the slot on the nut needs to be above the 1st fret?

Yeah 2-3mm might be a little exadurated. It just seems like way more than I would think there should be. im gonna stop by lowes on my way home and pick up a piece of marble to use as a leveling block. Do you usually start with about 220 grit and then work your way up?

@curtisa Are your frets pretty un level before you go thru the leveling process? Its pretty dang bad, the straight edge will touch about every 4th or 5th fret and there's probably a 2 or 3 mm gap on the frets inbetween. I checked my fretboard before installing the frets and it was perfectly level before installing.

Thanks man I really appreciate your help! I just put a straight edge down my frets and they are all out of whack so I think I need to buy a fret leveling block and spend some time on that before going any farther with the nut. But I will keep all of this in mind when I get that sorted.

Ok I have a bunch of walnut veneer I can use to do that. I'm guessing I just need to glue the veneer to the neck and then the nut to the veneer?

@curtisa Correct I bought it from graphtec pre slotted, these measurements are what I'm measuring here with the frets installed and nut just sitting on the neck not glued in position with my calipers not the manufacturers specs. the fretboard is cut straight and the bridge will be sitting on the neck, I left myself 1/4" before the headstock starts tapering. How would I go about shimming the nut up higher?