Bizman62

The 12th bar ribbon looks nice! But is there really space for the text? It looks busy even on the headstock. What's the difference between #2 and #4 other than that the headstock burst seems to be narrower on the latter? The TWANG MASTER text looks a bit cheap compared to the rest. How about giving it a Fendery twist like below?

That looks interesting and the ergonomics are a fact. FWIW on some Crimson video Ben answered a question about a warped neck, telling that if the twist is that way it would improve playability. His biggest concern seemed to be that if the twist was caused by instability in the wood there'd be no telling how it might behave in the future. Doesn't that mean that a stable neck should stay stable even if carved to a twist? Speaking about uneven pressure and the power of string pull etc. just think about wooden propellers in aeroplanes. I suppose the Merlin engine of 1300 hp would stress the wooden propeller of the early Hurricanes much more than bass strings!

Contrasting and accentuating stripes are just so classy!

Whoa! Turquoise with a royal blue burst? That looks classy! Re a black Tele bridge, I saw something I guess is boutique made. It said "chrome" but compared to other chrome hardware shown on the site it looked much darker and less shiny. Not painted, though. It didn't say "black chrome" either.

Yay! That's great news! You'll learn to safely use tools you could never afford at home. I'd say that's a good first step towards working in a guitar factory.

Ummm... what's wrong with Wilkinson? It can't be worse than this no-name: https://www.guitarfetish.com/Vintage-Style-bridge-3-Brass-Saddles-Black--Fits-Telereg_p_849.html

Getting all three is a mission impossible. Really fast means a rotary mitre saw equipped with a dedicated ultra thin blade, used in combination with a template ruler (which you have). Too expensive for hobbyists. Accurately means using the template and a dedicated mitre box with a pin matching the notches. That's cost effective and straightforward which saves time but it's not super fast. The cheapest way is both time consuming and relatively difficult. The tools needed are an accurate ruler showing the smallest increments, a protractor, a pencil and a saw. Draw the center line, measure the locations on the centerline, draw the perpendicular lines with the protractor... Double check that your measurements match with the table you're reading the measurements from. Triple check that you're reading the table correctly. Wipe off the markings as you notice you've been reading the wrong scale. Redo the measuring and drawing and double and triple checking. Finally take the saw and cut the edges. Recheck that the scale is right. Redo the measuring and drawing process if needed. Cut. There's no shortcut.

If you can add a pin to match the notches then any mitre box will do - more or less. Many people have built the mitre box by themselves. The main thing is to keep the saw blade upright and perpendicular. That's why bearings are often used: tight fit with low friction. But as @ADFinlayson has proved, freehand works as well. One trick is to draw the lines with a knife instead of a pencil, that might lead the saw to the right groove. No matter which method you have the tools for, practicing is the key. That's the only way to make your hands steadier. And steady hands are handy in many other tasks in guitar building.

As I've already said above plus some more: Mark and align the centerline of the fretboard with the template. Pull the template firmly against the pinned edge Clamp the fingerboard and the template so they don't move when you're sawing Keep the saw upright Don't force the saw through the wood. Fretboards are very hard so don't expect the saw sink like a hot knife into butter. Work on the corners. Start with the outer corners and continue with the corners inside the slot you're sawing. That way you don't have to push through the entire width, making the job a little easier. Take your time. Rest when your arm fatigues. Exhausted muscles can't do accurate jobs. Do it when you're in the right mood.

That mole won't get whacked, I suppose...

Double check each of them to be perpendicular to the center line. Also double check that your slots match with the notches. It seems there's quite a few slots that have saw marks more than a blade's width off the slot. If all the above is OK, you can continue. If not, try filling the gaps and resaw. If you can't hide the filled slots under the frets and they look bad, get a new board and use this one as a practicing piece. Sometimes it's better to abandon a failed piece than trying to fix it. Such a piece won't be useless, though, as you can reattach it on the notched template some 1/4" off the current location and practice. After you've cut it 3 or 4 times you can even turn it around and do the same on the other side!

You should aim to perfection in things like that. Learning away from sloppiness is much harder than learning to do it right from the very beginning.

That too. I guess a quarter of a millimetre is accurate enough.

If the frets are in the ballpark it should play just fine. After all the location of frets is a compromise. There's 'tempered' frets that are curved even a couple of millimetres off the 'normal' for accuracy.

Do you clamp the fretboard to the miter or just holding it by hand? If there's any play between the mitre box and the notched template your slots can get slanted. Also, if the notches of the scale length ruler are wider than the pin, pushing the notch against the pin always in the same direction can help, assuming the slots are equal and correctly positioned. Dead center should be the most accurate way, though.

For several years back I stumbled upon a hint for changing an old armchair to a rocker. There was a nice idea for saving wood when making the rockers: Plane the plank on both sides, cut the arch that will touch the floor. Then joint the flat sides, potentially even splitting them for extra length.

To me the middle one appeals the most. The figuration on the lower bout fills the entire area nicely. Then again, there's an idea on the top one as well as the longitudinal stripe matches with the neck and string lines. The royal blue with gold hardware has echoes from uniforms from the past, forceful, controlled and arrogant like the Royal Naval Officers from the sailship era! The turquoise doesn't seem to match with the gold hardware but it may be my monitor as well.

You can do it all the ways you described and a couple more no matter what the radius is. What's the best way depends also on the tools. A common way is to cut the slots on a square flat board as the straight edge can easily be aligned with the jig, making the slots perfectly traverse to the center line. A square radiused blank would be equally easy to align. Cutting the slots on a radiused board might be a bit easier but radiusing a wider board more laborious. And you'd still have to recheck the depth after tapering A tapered board would be a bit more difficult to align with the jig but should be doable by matching the centerline with that of the jig plate If you measure, draw and cut the slots freehand without a jig you can even glue the fretboard on the neck and do all the cutting and radiusing after the glue has dried I've had my fretboards slotted before gluing and radiused them after they've been glued on the neck. That has been the easiest way for me as I don't have access to the hand tools needed and our Master has a circular saw with all the jigs and templates in his home workshop. Not to mention that's a polite way to financially support a poor luthier!

Matte black??? Isn't that one of the most difficult surfaces to master? Looks good though with the shiny gold! And the inlaid jack, such a delicious detail... Don't they make matte pickups to match?

Yay! The guitar actually looks more stylish now! Should you ever want to reinstall the original switch, plugging and redrilling the ½" hole should be doable and pretty much invisible especially if you add a washer. Seeing the location I understand why you kept hitting it.

The Master Luthier Veijo Rautia tutoring our course is a pickup maker as well. I once asked how important it is to get the pole pieces match with the strings. He supposed that the magnetic field is so large that a single mm or two either way shouldn't be audible. When slanted one end of the pickup would be closer to the bridge than the other. The closer to the bridge the pickup is the thinner and snappier the sound which is why the Strat and Tele bridge pickup is slanted towards the neck on the bass side to give some beef, but as you know the humbuckers in the same position are straight. The closer to the neck you are the subtler any slight differences in positioning are. That said I don't believe putting the neck pickup at the same angle as the fanned frets would be a tonal issue.

Easier said than done. Building a shed in the garden wouldn't require any licenses as long as it's below 6 m². Sheds like that aren't too expensive, about €1500. BUT: A shed with proper insulation and heating to be usable at this time a year would require much more. It's -22° at the moment and the forecast says -35° for the night. Getting it electrified for both heating and power tools couldnt be safely done with a 30 m long extension cord running across the yard! I also have a "garage" between the sauna and the firewood storage (in the same building) but there's no electricity in that space. There's electric light at both ends of the building but I doubt the fuse and underground cable would be sufficient for both heating and power tools. And the garage is uninsulated as well, the large doors serving only for hiding purposes. So in any case building a warm workshop would cost about €5000 which is something I can't afford for just building experimental guitars. I'd like to have that workshop, though.

Oh yes, that David!

I wish the threads you started only a few years ago at the Crimson forum were still available. Your progress has been exponential!

I just watched a Jerry Rosa video about a buzzing octave mandolin. It buzzed when certain notes were played but it also rattled when the headstock was tapped. After having checked most everything mentioned here he finally noticed that the tuner buttons were more or less loose. Simple as that. Most likely not what causes your issue but worth knowing.