mammoth guitars

Clamp it to a table with two blocks on either end with the clamp in the middle and the bow out facing up. Adjust the clamp until the wood is straight, then tighten it slightly every couple of hours until its bowed in the opposite direction. Keep it in the clamp for a couple of days, then remove. If its not straight place it back in the clamp setup and tighten more. Be very careful not to overtighten or it will crack. If the clamp becomes loose then tighten some more (it will become loose as the wood bends into shape). The adjustment must be done slowly. We have used this method to straighten necks from low-end kits to a Warmoth neck.

We like the low/mid/high tone controls but the lack of a gain control just makes it very limited.

I imagine they use the same PC board for several of those pedals and like Robert stated just change some key componets to alter the basic tone and gain characteristics. We have many of those pedals for testing. The best one we have come across is the Line6 Uber Metal.

Use some quick wood to fill the holes. No pre-drill required. When you drill the new holes most of the filler will be removed anyway.

Why tune with a hex key?

Get a Weller WLC100 its adjustable.

Yeah, unfortunately I am aware of that unit...I'm pretty set on a string-thru hardtail. Is there any way I could theoretically use those saddles with another bridge assembly? Many modern saddles are painted or anodized and typically not chrome plated. So its the bridge base that will have the shine.

The heavier strings need more tention to bring them into tune. The neck is pulling forward with this added tention. Adjusting the truss rod is the correct way to compensate for neck bow. Adjust without string tention from -.002 to 0 inches of releif and recheck with string tention. Adjusting the neck to be straight or slightly back bowed should compensate for the added tention. Once you have adjusted the neck you may still need to adjust the bridge height and it probably will need to go up due to the increased string size.

Allparts makes some satin chrome bullet knobs and we actually have a pair in stock. What string spacing are you trying to achieve at the bridge? You might be able to take a chrome bridge and rough it up with some hi-grit paper or steel wool and get the finish you are seeking. I would do it on an old piece of chrome first before starting on a new bridge.

Would this be possible to do with the dreaded Rattle cans or do you need a whole paint gun system? You could use flat black, then satin clear in spray cans. Since satin finish is not ussually buffed you need to apply several coats then flat sand and apply the last coat. It will probably take 1 can of black for the body and 3-4 cans of clear.

You may find times when both are needed. However if you need to verify if a neck is straight the SM version will do fine.

Guitar Port came out before Toneport. Guitar Port was designed for guitar and Toneport is for guitar, bass, vocals etc. Toneport appears to be the more advanced computer based device intended for recording. Has more connectors ie ins and outs.

The material wrapped around the body edge is called binding and its usually made of plastic or celluloid. Gibson paints over this and scrapes it clean before applying clear coats. Some people mask it off before color is applied and then only cleaning and scraping touch-up is needed before clear coats. If the binding is badly damaged it can be replaced by removing it. Depending on how yours was built some of them had a laminated binding made of multiple layers of different colors (black/white/cream/ etc). The transformer is just for the XLR balanced output. I would put it back with a traditional unbalanced 1/4 inch jack so it could be played with a standard guitar amp, unless it will not be played.

A famous guitar build once said....its not how much you put on but how much you leave on. True. Urethane typically goes on thicker but it takes half the coats of a typical lacquer finish. There is a trick to making it look like a lacquer finish as well. We finish in urethane and make it look like the rich finish of lacquer but it has extreme durability unlike lacquer.

Assuming the bridge holes are too large, why not use a modern TOM bridge which has larger posts. Those old style TOM bridges with the thin posts are prone to bending where as the modern versions are rock solid. If you choose to fill the holes you can use a product called quick-wood. It is an epoxy wood filler that drills, shapes and sands much like wood.

We have used the 2x4 "handy panel" from the orange depot. They sand very well and do not dent like MDF or masonite. Make a master from 1/2 inch Acrylite.

An original FR studs are placed at 25 inches on a 25.5 inch scale. To determine if there is a difference needed for a MM version, you will need to find the center intonation point of the saddles. Then measure from the point where the string contacts the saddles to the center point of the pivot stud. Subtract this measurement from the scale length and you have the "default" drill location for the studs. This same method can be used for most any tremelo.

If you put a speaker directly under the strings (much like an acoustic sound hole placement) there might be some funky side effects when it gets loud. The sound from the speaker would intern vibrate the strings. Perhaps this is why Fernandes offsets theirs.

Some pre-slotted fretboards have fairly deep slots and you need to check the length of the fret tang before sawing the fret further. Most of the time the fret tang is shorter than the slot even after the fretboard has been radiused. (and with binding you won't see the extra fret slot depth). For binding on the fretboard you could cut a channel after you installed the fretboard, however all you really need to do is cut the fretboard to width less the thickness of the binding x2 (for both sides). Then glue up the binding for either side and install it onthe neck. Binding the fretboard before neck installation 1) allows free access to the fretboard so you can move it around easier and 2) there is little chance you can nick or cut the neck. And its easier to fret before its installed on the neck and with binding you have special tang cuts unless you do it like Gibson.

Would you create it as a block and then cut the body out?

Put a tremol-no on that guitar so you can tune it as desired.

Always evaluate the size of the neck pocket for bolt locations. With a typical fender style neck pocket of 2 3/16 x 3 inches the standard locations are spread out with a neck plate. The last bolt on we did had a standard size pocket with ferrules and bolt locations were on center at 1 5/16 along the width and 1 11/16 along the length.

That's very helpful. I was wondering if you have any experience with composite necks like Moses Graphite... We would try one of their necks if they made a paddle head version.

Mask off as much as you can, then after color coats, scrape and sand like normal binding.

Another posibility can be the tuner holes are too big and the tuning key is moving in the hole causing the problem. Is the problem specific to a particular string or are the all having a tuning issue?