Guitrying

Thanks for the tip on starting bigger. I wouldn't have thought of that. And trying to use a straightedge on the metal too. Good stuff.

Thanks a ton, folks. Really appreciate it. I'll chew on these vids and maybe make some initial experiments in wood before trying metal for real. But also, how do you make the initial plates? Find some flat piece of metal and then hacksaw it, then grind the edges to the right size? Or can you get right-sized plates from somewhere?

Nice-looking head on that axe! I do have access to a drill press (a relative's entire well-equipped shop). But as I said above, I'm a neophyte at this--I've done a bit of woodworking in the past, but that's it. Where can I find out more about "ways of making repeatable, equally-spaced holes in straight lines" on the drill press? Can you point me to a good youtube video or an informative site? I'm assuming that you use the special metal-cutting bits and then manually tap the screw holes shown in your photos. I don't need you to point to info on tapping the threads, that's no problem, but the initial creation of the nut remains outside my wheelhouse at the moment. I'm also assuming that all the same procedures would hold for the bridge. If not, I'd much appreciate the correction. And thanks a ton for responding so far.

Intriguing. OK, for the moment setting aside the technical issues of how to do that, there's a possible bridge solution. But the same problem is still there for the nut. Would it be possible to just attach the single nuts (e.g. https://abm-guitarpartsshop.com/ABM-GUITAR-PARTS/Headless-Systems/Guitar/Headpieces/ABM-7010b-Black::436.html) to a similar plate up at the head?

I'm interested in an option briefly mentioned in an old thread here, post by DandHCustoms, although he no longer appears to be active here so I'm assuming that his promised design will never be forthcoming. Does anyone else have such a design, and if so, how easy would it be for a non-engineer to tweak? I ask because I want to make a headless guitar, but I'm classically trained fingerstyle player, don't use a pick even on my electrics, and therefore want an extra-wide neck. I'll be buying a Warmoth neck for the project, either 1 3/4" or their superwide (for electrics) 1 7/8", but currently my only options for headless hardware at these neck widths are individually placed single nuts and saddle-tuners from ABM, Mera, or Technology4Musicians but I'm just a neophyte builder and individually placing both the single nut for each string and each individual saddle is way more than I want to bite off at this stage. Unfortunately neither Hipshot nor Jcustom offer nuts that will accomodate 1 3/4", let alone 1 7/8". So I was beginning to think I was hosed--then ran across the above comment on this forum. That kind of thing could well be the answer to my problems. So, question #1: does anyone else have such a design? But there's a wrinkle. even if DandHcustoms popped back up with his bridge design, it likely wouldn't support the neck width I need. (The entire reason for this project is to get that extra-wide string spacing, at least extra-wide to most of you, so that's non-negotiable.) So, question #2: if such a design exists, how easy would it be to tweak it to my idiosyncratic needs?