RAI6

The rule of thumb is: Figure out your measurements once you have all your hardware in your hands.

Where I'm from, we call that a "butcher block"....... Scary sh*t! http://youtube.com/watch?v=lf9W8Cv4T2g&amp...ted&search=

The pickup is under the top.

Not just that.... What happens to the headstock and tuners, if you start putting frets there.........?

And your question has been answered: Mask off Apply paint Remove tape Done

Very simple solution.... You bought new pickups. They should be in new condition. They're not. Return them.

My guess... Inferior/faulty glue joints.

A nut doesn't get the same wear as frets do. 99% of the time, the nut is only sitting under pressure. The frets get abused every time you bend or use some vibrato.

Ask them to omit those holes when you order the body......

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c358/Iba.../SwirlRG023.jpg That looks like raw wood in the neck pocket.....

Plug the holes in the neck with wooden dowels. Place neck in position, and use a center punch throught the existing holes in the body to mark their position on the neck. Drill new holes in neck, making sure not to drill too far (don't want to go through the fingerboard, ya know...).

Well, reading back over the original posts, I see that your parts were obtained from all over the place. It's quite possible that you just happened to get a body that was intended for a custom scale, instead of the typical "Strat" 25.5. So, while there is nothing wrong with your parts, they simply don't belong together... This is a perfect example of how hard it is to "Frankenstein" a guitar. Even if parts are "supposed" to fit together, if they come from different manufacturerers, they probably won't. Heck, sometimes parts from the same manufacturer don't fit..... C'est la vie!

There is a rather important question to ask, since you're talking about using 2x4's...... You're not planning on just going to your nearest Home & Garden center (Home Depot, etc...) to pick up some framing lumber, are you? That wood is just way to green (wet, that is), and has to be dried out properly first. The moisture content needs to come way down.......

Based on that last photo of the neck, it shows that your neck is a 25.5" scale neck. That means that the bridge is 0.5" too far forward, being that it sits at 25". I think you mentioned somewhere that the measurement to the 12th fret was 12.375. That is to the center of the "fretting" area (Where the dots are). What you needed to measure, was to the actual fret itself, and that is at 12.75. To support my theory that bridge is the problem, just look at the pics where you can see the bridge, is it just me or does the bridge seem to be way too far in? I mean, it looks to be a standard Strat pickguard, and if that's standard, then that bridge is definitely too far forward. When looking at a Strat with a vintage trem, the saddles barely reach the edge of the pickguard, and these saddles are deep in there... It may have been a professional job, but me thinks they screwed up........

First and foremost, learn the basics.........

You take my comment out of context... Maybe people make the same guitars over, and over again. But when was the last time someone posted a pic of their Strat project, claiming it's like nothing you've seen before? I haven't seen him specifically say that, but the over-all attitude and approach has that angle to it. Good for him. I'm not losing any sleep over it, and I'm pretty darn sure he isn't either.

I see nothing massively "wrong" with the guitars that this guy makes. There are some finishing issues, but if his clients don't care...... And any potential buyers can browse all his projects and see for themselves. Now, his general "I'm so clever, I'm patting myself on the back" attitude over items that aren't exactly great revelations to anyone familiar with guitars, is pretty scary. That goes beyond hype, or selling yourself. If he discovered something that has never been done before, then it's a different story. However, I haven't seen anything new on his site. Except for that guitar without cavity covers on the back. That was pretty "groundbreaking"..... Now, I do consider it the lowest of low to title your pages (headers) with names like "Parker Guitars" (particularly when there isn't a single Parker guitar on the page!), simply so that people that type in "Parker Guitars" in Google will end up on his site. But, whatever.........

Generally speaking, if you surface mount the Floyd (dive only, no pull-up), you might need a neck angle. If you recess the trem, then you don't. Of course, if you built body and neck yourself, you can compensate for any angle needed by elevating the necks position over the body, by making the heel thicker or the pocket more shallow.... Personally I wouldn't want the strings sitting a mile above the body.

Quite the project! That son of yours will be rocking hard, that's for sure. Oh, and if you're digging Pinot Grigio's, try Lungarotti or Santa Margherita. Now that's yummy!

In my book, the most important question is: Is that Pinot Grigio any good?

I would say that both heat and chemicals are a bad combination with binding... Binding is made of plastic (more or less), and you can imagine what all the solvents in the chemical stripper would do. And once again, plastic and heat usually don't mix very well either. Didn't someone say that they've had binding catch fire......?

New strings isn't going to change the scale of the neck. Measure the distance between the nut and 12th fret. Now measure the distance between the 12th fret and your G saddle. I bet you those measurements are quite different. To remedy this, you need to move the bridge to a position where the saddle will fall in the right position, with room for intonation adjustments.

7VWH has an alder body, but with a laminate on the front and the back, to reduce the appearance of the woods pores/grain in the paint over time...

Maybe a little more like this? Looks a little more balanced, I think.....