Donut Man

I did do a search, and got exactly that information. Nobody seems to have definitive answers on exactly how much "a little further" and "a little closer" it should be. And also, I should probably mention It's a 7 string, and I use very thick 7th strings (at least a .65, sometimes up to a .70), that seem to require a lot of adjustment on my other 7 string.

Hey guys, I'm just about the drill out for the bridge on my V build, and I'm slightly unsure about the positioning of the bridge. I understand that the position of the saddles has to match the scale length of the instrument for good intonation. But the TOM bridge seems a little confusing, I've never installed one before, only standard fixed bridges. I've already partially routed a recess, but I think it might be a little far back. Currently it measures 25.5" from the zero fret to the front of the recess on the treble side, and it is a few mm further back on the bass side. But I realised that the saddles do not reach the front edge of the bridge. So should I extend the recess towards the nut slightly? How exactly does the measurement of 25.5" inches related to the position of the bridge? Is it 25.5" from the middle of the nut to middle of the bridge with 1/2 adjustment space on each side? Or 25.5" on the treble side to the middle of the saddle? Or something else? Cheers, Joe

I think if you are really **** about uneven string tension resulting in neck warping, you would use string gauges that resulted in more even tension across the different strings. I believe a lot of people do make up their own sets from singles to get more consistent tension.

I had a look through some of the threads over at the Jackson Charvel Forum, and everyone said the KV point to point was 16.5", which is about the same size as mine. Maybe there are a few versions of the King V?

I'm not sure about the accuracy of the tip to tip measurement, off the top of my head the tip to tip is around 400mm, and the diagonal length of the wings is about 500mm. IIRC it is very similar to the a Jackson KV2 I played a while back. Maybe it just looks small in the pictures because a) the fretboard is attached further out and b ) Jackson Vs have curved inner sides that make it pointer and look longer. Either that or my plan drawing failed.

Progress: It's looking very rough right now, but I learned my lesson from gluing the neck blanks and I wiped off the excess. There is still a blood stain on the back of it from when I cut my hand with a saw and bled all over the maple Plan of action: Route and drill the wings for the bridge recess and string-thru holes (Maybe add a headstock plate, since it is slightly too thin) Install tuners and bridge Test play to see if the frets are OK

Looking good What kind of guitar is that? It kinda looks like a non-rev thunderbird, but fender style.

How far off centre is it? If it is only a little, and it is still straight, you could always plane some wood off the sides of your neck blank.

Trust me, it is The picture was taken at a weird angle, it also looks like the neck isn't straight in relation to the body section, but it is.

12 down, 12 to go

The fret ends are a little more flexible without the tang, and it is not unusual to bend them slightly when nipping the tang off. Check it before seating the fret and bend it slightly down before seating it in. Are you pressing or hammering? (I prefer pressing) Did you bevel the edges of the slots before fretting? If not, the fret won't seat all the way down and it may look fine in the middle, but off on the ends. I'm hammering them, it's my first build, and buying a fret press isn't part of my budget. I bevelled the slot for the first one I did, but I didn't notice much of a difference, so I didn't do the others. The fret slots seem deeper than the fret tang, even at the ends anyway (it's a pre slotted board). But I'll bevel the other ones and see what happens. So basically I should bend the tang-less bits of the frets further once I've removed the tang?

I'm in the process of fretting my V build, and I'm having some difficulties getting the fret ends to stay down. I've done 4 frets, and it seems that though they are all level, the ends of the fret don't sit flush with the top of the binding. I've undercut the tang so it fits over the binding, but it seems that the bits that have been undercut don't stay down. Pre-bending the frets to a radius greater than that of the board doesn't seem to help either. Any ideas?

Awesome, how big are those sash clamps?

If it matters, it's an Ebony board with white plastic binding. I think there are a few slots that got a little to shallow after sanding.

Beginners like me can't build guitars without that book (I assume you are referring to the Melvyn Hiscock book)

Try getting an used Ibanez Edge, it's technically a licenced floyd, as in Ibanez have to pay Floyd Rose money for it, but its a very good trem, and used ones are very cheap.

I glued up the fretboard today http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/1765/fbglueoz8.jpg

Speculation: If the rod has tension in it, then it will press up against the fretboard or neck, and it won't fall out. But if the rod doesn't have tension in it, then at that particular point there isn't a bow for it to correct, therefore it won't matter if it falls out. I think it says on the Stewmac site that you should put silicon sealant on the end anchors, maybe those will keep it in as well? /speculation I don't trust my speculation enough to install my truss rod for my build yet, so I'm gonna wait until someone who knows more gives their advice.

I feel very stupid asking this, but here goes: Right I've got a spokeshave, a no. 4 jack plane and an old Stanley block plane. The Jack plane came with the beveled side of the blade facing down but the iron only fits into the Stanley block plane with the bevel facing up. And to make matters worse, I can't remember which way around the spokeshave was. Are they supposed to be oriented differently? Or is the block plane just messed up.

Yeah, try Craft Supplies - don't bother trying to order from with their website cos it's RUBBISH! The website has almost NOTHING on offer, and almost no photos. However, their printed catalogue is immensely useful, full of good tools, woods, etc etc. I would phone them, ask for a printed catalogue, they have lots of good stuff. You can get their phone number from the Contacts bit on the website, or I can PM you it if you like. I bought an ebony fingerboard from them recently, it was a 24-fret, 25.5" scale length, pre-slotted and pre-radiused. They have plenty other woods and sizes of 'boards to choose from. Very good! Definately worth asking them to send you out a printed catalogue, please don't be put off by their awful website! DJ I visited yesterday, I didn't realise that they were so close (about 10 miles away). Bought myself a slotted radiused ebony board. I picked up a catalogue, but it didn't have any woods in, maybe they have changed it since. Either way, the guys were very helpful and they had a lot more stuff than I originally thought they did.

Some quick (phone) pictures: Fretboard, post tapering. As you can see, it is thinner than my RG7's board, thats because it will have extra wide binding on the sides. Getting ready to glue up:

Another quick neck related question: I don't have a bandsaw, and I need to take a 45mm thick piece of Maple down to around 30m for roughing out the back of the neck before administering the spokeshave and rasp. I was thinking of sawing along that area in something like 5mm intervals and then knocking the bits in between out with a chisel. It would be rough, but it would be faster than scraping it to death with a spokeshave I guess. I could at do that until I've got about 10 cm down, when I can then use a saw to saw straight down the rest of the way. And then just I would be able to leave 10mm extra for shaping and room for error. Anyone got any idea? The neck is too wide to use a jigsaw.

Late night idea: http://store.guitarfetish.com/on25waguamdr.html Would that work as a preamp/poweramp setup?

I came up with a jig/guide for hand cutting the headstock (it's probably been done before, but I've never seen it in a guitar related tutorial or anything) Cut 1 it is still a bit oversized, I will probably use a belt sander and a plane to get it down to 15mm thickness all the way around, and I'll carve the volute and some of the back of the neck tomorrow too. You can probably tell the headstock is a little short for a 7 in line headstock, I'm just gonna glue a little piece on the end with a rough scarf joint

Or a guitar that is specifically designed for playing Korn.