simon1138

hello, i bought a floyd rose knockoff and found that the nut is right handed (i want a left handed one). i filed down the tops of the string guides and am going to make a new string guide from 1mm sheet ali. do i need the back string guide as well or can i just use one of those string bars (the bar behind the locking nut that changes the angle of the strings) EDIT, I HAVE SORTED THIS NO BOTHER, THANKS

hello, i bought a floyd rose knockoff and found that the nut is right handed (i want a left handed one). i filed down the tops of the string guides and am going to make a new string guide from 1mm sheet ali. do i need the back string guide as well or can i just use one of those string bars (the bar behind the locking nut that changes the angle of the strings)

hello, i have a cheap second hand neck, 22 fret maple. that i want to fit a locking nut too. i have removed the regular nut and removed some excess wood to try and get a level surface to shim and mount my locking nut. i am having a problem getting a level surface. i watched a video on youtube where a guy uses a router with template cutter to level the surface. i am a little worried as i dont want to remove too much. the shim (bit of wood) is 5mm thick so enough to take down with a router after i glue it in place. any suggestions as to how i can get the router in place with out screwing it up? or advice in general about this thanks simon

Hello, i have a floyd rose that i want to fit. the template has the position and shape marked on it already. but i and not sure about how to fit it. i am not bothered at this point if the trem goes both ways, down is fine. so can i mount the bridge "on" the guitar or does it have to be recessed. i have not yet got a template for the floyd rose that goes both ways and i want to "keep it simple". my thinking is that there is more required when using a bridge that goes both up and down and recessing into the body would be required. i have the pdf for the floyd template but not the wood. i have 12mm mdf not 9mm. thanks simon

thanks for the help, i am not really concerned with the 24 frets, i have never played that high anyway or intend to. i think that i will make the neck pocket template seperate to the body template that i have.

Hello, i am building a body template at the moment i have a neck from a bc rich, it is a 24 fret with regular nut and truss rod cover. the template i have shows a floyd rose which i have bought with a locking nut. i want to use the 24 fret neck instead of a 22 fret. is there much difference when cutting the neck pocket? i want to fit the locking nut but i think the truss rod is in the way, i am also concerned about the height of the locking nut. most people in videos on youtube, just seem to chisel out the nut, flatten the area and fit the locking nut. i have seen that they use a ruler to check the height against the first few frets. what is the best method here? thanks simon

i think that the esp super strat style is very close, like the kirk hammett guitar. the body is very similar. i would just need to get the neck from another bc rich. i was going to buy a neck from ebay, the headstock is like a blank, the fretboard is already there. only £30 including postage. so i would only need to make a body.

Hello, I would like to try and build a left handed BC Rich Gunslinger but can not find the plans or templates. I have seen some plans but not for the gunslinger. I would like that body and neck specifically. Any help would be great. Thanks Simon

hello, i bought an encore strat from a second hand shop for £25. i am not sure where to start with the neck setup. the strings look a little low. i checked the height of the frets using my fret rocker and the 2nd and 3rd frets require work. the frets need rounding anyway. this is a project guitar. i am not sure how to check the nut for height and rake (if that is the correct term). i heard that the rake or lack of makes the string buzz. this is a project guitar to strip and rebuild. i thought that i would start with the neck. i am going to remove it and check that its straight, level and round the frets. then attempt to set it up. any advice would be great, thanks if there are any videos on how to do this that would be great.

thanks for your replies. i have some wood available and want to use it now that i have seen the results in the above photos, very good work and inspiring! is there a particular process for this or is it just a case of pour it on, all over the cracks?

hello, i just wanted a confirmation of measuring scale of guitar with zero fret. i have read that measuring from the centre of the zero nut to the centre of the twelfth fret and doubling? is this correct? i have dropped librecad in place of inkscape which i find is a lot quicker to work with. it is free and i have made a few videos of my using it. this is what i have so far. i am going to add how i get measurements from it. i find that it could probably be quite a fast tool to work with compared with cad software. there is a measuring tool on here that allows to measure the length of the neck and adjust to what you want. i set it to 24.75 inches, then i can measure the length of the body quickly without to much hassle. also, distance between components on the guitar.

hello i have librecad which i am trying to learn how to use. i want to build a clone of a murph which is a 60s style of guitar. i have a picture of one and i thought that i would import it onto the cad software and then try to get a scale of it. that way i could print it out to scale. that is what i thought i could do. i know that printing a guitar template would take a number of sheets of paper because of the size of the guitar but can this be done. can i use an image and scale it up? i have tried but find it tricky. as i understand it the dimensions are shown as pixels so 1 unit = 1 pixel. i imported the image and drew a rectangle from the bottom of the nut to the edge of the bridge. this is what i understand to be the scale length of the guitar. the scale i am after is 24 and 3/4 inches. i wanted to get the dimensions of the rectangle and then set that to 24 and 3/4 inches. it said the dimensions of the rectangle from end to end were 512 pixels approx. i then did a calculation of 512 / 24.75 to get 20.68. so if i am correct then 1 inch = 20.68 pixels? and this would help me scale in some way? is there an easier way? anyone used librecad or know of an easier cad software? thanks simon

hello all, thanks for the response. after a google search, yes it is finger-jointed counter top. i have attached a picture of what i have. it is 2 foot by 3 feet 9 inches and two inches thick. i live in portsmouth and have looked for a course in wood working, the closest college i can find is about 30 miles that do furniture and wood working courses. though i am on a budget. i managed to get some tools, router for £10 off ebay, circular saw £5 and thinking about a planer. i have had a go with the circular saw, which was kind of a scary experience. i want to build some kind of work bench from some mdf that i have. from the wood i have i want to build a copy of a murph guitar from the 60s, the one on the left. it will have a sunburst finish. or basically, i will spray the center red and the outside black. i think the body is a little smaller than the jazzmaster, so starting with a jazzmaster sketch and work from there.

hello, i found a nice lump of wood that is almost 45mm thick, about 2 and half foot across by about four foot. i dont know what type it is, it has a blocky look to it as though lengths have been glued together. i dont know what kind of wood it is, is there a good site that explains how to find this out? i want to make a murph copy, this is an old guitar from the 60's. i like that particular look. now that i have the wood, which i hope to make a body and neck from, where do i go. what preparation should i make. i was thinking about getting a planer to flatten any edges and try to flatten the length of it. i have a few straight edges and not yet checked the flatness of it. i think that i could get about three bodies, at least two and the necks from this wood. i have a circular saw and router but no bits. also, people talk about ripping, does this mean cutting or what? i dont really have a plan of what i want, i was thinking about getting a jag template and drawing that on with some alteration. but more importantly, what preparation does the wood require before any cutting takes place. the wood was outside for a while and i think maybe the rain got to it. it is in my room which is warm and dry. any advice would be great. thanks

hello, i have access to large bits of wood that make great guitar blanks though the wood is cracked along its length. i have thought about cutting along these cracks, cutting flat edges and then gluing the wood back together. has anyone ever used cracked or split wood? this wood has a lot of cracks but i was thinking can a beginner use it to make something that may give a good result? i dont have much money for this so i am keeping it to what ever i can find. i have found a lump of pine that i thought could make a body but may be a bit thin. i was thinking about trying to get a railway sleeper, cutting that up and gluing to get a body/ neck blank. any thoughts or advice on this thanks simon

Hello, I have a Chinese guitar that I bought and it has some fret buzz problems. On closer inspection I find that some frets are higher than others and this would require some sorting. I did notice that the frets are not seated completely, I can get a 0.15mm feeler gauge under the edges. Is this normal/acceptable? I don't want to have to try and press it down as the guitar is nice looking and seems to play well other than the fret buzz and some minor electrical problems. My question is, if the frets have this slight gap would it matter much? Can I just take the frets down with some wet and dry paper and remove the buzz, or would the slight gap still cause a problem?

Hello, I have bought two notched straight edges now. Both have gaps around the center on both sides. I have gotten my money back on one but the other is from China and they are not yet going to take it back so I may loose money on it. I have tried to smooth them down but I am using wet and dry paper and the Aluminium is clogging up the wet and dry paper. Which is best to smooth down metal? sand paper or wet and dry? I have bought a level that is as long as the straight edge and I used double sided tape to stick the paper on. I don't know if there is a better method available. Any one got any ideas? Thanks Simon

Hello, I want to start cutting a fret board by hand and want to know what the cheapest saw is that I could get. I live in the UK so prices would vary compared to America or elsewhere. The question that I have is, "what makes a good (and cheap) fret saw?". I understand that the kerf has to be thin like the tang on a fret. Most people talk about Gents saw or Japanese saws etc. Also TPI, how many is acceptable? I think the word acceptable is preferred to good, as good would imply expensive and I want to go cheap. I have looked at flush saws as that have high number of teeth, are small and probably easier to use and very thin. I think that the tang I am going to use is half a millimetre thick. These are the cheap frets on Ebay. So a saw that would be good for that size. Thanks Simon

Hello, I was watching a video of Mark Bailey guitars on youtube and he mentioned a "fret scale ruler". It was like a steel ruler but with fret distances marked on it. It did not have notches, so was not a template but it did have markings. I posted a comment asking about the "fret scale ruler", but I think may have been deleted. It looked fairly simple and I don't think that it was a StewMac or expensive brand. Does anyone know of "fret scale ruler" that just has the markings for different fret scales? Failing that, has anyone ever tried using a notched level as a way of template. I was thinking that if the notches were accurately spaced I could use that as a template with a table saw to cut the frets? I know the notches are a thick space but on some setups they use a pin that fits into the notch on the template. I was thinking along the same lines. Thanks Simon

Hello, I am trying to make a notched level for my guitar building. I started with a metal rule that I have had sitting around for years doing nothing. I measured out the notches and proceeded to hack at it with a grinder. The finish is a little rough but the notches are the correct distance apart to fit over the frets. Problem there is that the ruler is not completely level. I checked it after notching it, against a straight edge that I have. Another thing would be, "how do I know that that straight edge has a straight edge". Well it came off of a mechanical cutting machine and I assume that it is straight. I have tried other things against it and it seems to be straight. I then bought a notched straight edge off ebay and found that it is also not straight. In the center there is about 1mm of light to been seen on both sides. What is the best way to get this completely straight? I was thinking about laying it flat on something and rubbing it down with sand paper but then, is the flat surface straight? Any helps or hints would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hello, I recently bought a semi hollow body guitar, it is cheap as I can not afford a decent one. It is a Les Paul copy so two tone and volume. When I start to turn the volume on the guitar down there is a hum that remains at the same volume, it disappears when the volume is all the way up. I am not sure if this is a wiring problem or something wrong with the humbucker. I haven't yet taken the guitar apart to look at the wiring but wanted to get some idea of what it could be and how to deal with it. I don't want to take the guitar back as I bought it on line and return postage would be paid by me. If it is the pots, could contact cleaner help as I think that the scratching sound is coming from the contacts? Thanks Simon

Hello, I am new here and I have a left handed "G2" strat, cheap Chinese guitar. I want to improve on it (without having to buy a new guitar) as it has a lot of fret buzz. On closer inspection with a piece of paper I found that I was able to fit the piece of paper under the edges of the frets. I removed the highest fret (closest to pickups) and eye balled along the top of where the fret sat. I found that it looked a little like a mountain. The wood seemed to rise, very slightly where the fret went in. What is the best way to get the wood level without damaging it? What sort of sand paper (if that is the best method) would be best if that is the option? I would like to get the frets seated first before leveling and I believe that this problem exists on most of the frets on the neck. I am practicing on the highest fret as I don't play that high, so it shouldn't matter too much at this stage. I look at this guitar as a real practice guitar, something to play and work on. Also, what is the best way to seat the fret. I know some people use a soft mallet/hammer with plastic or rubber face. I was thinking about building a fret press. I have some experience with metal work and building things. Has anyone ever tried building the insert for the fret press? Thanks Have a happy new year Simon