curtisa

I assume you're referring to my thoughts on the bridge that ended up in this guitar? Overall, my opinion hasn't changed (as per write-up, above) - It's OK provided you work within its limitations. I will say that the bridge is tall and the design of it dictates that some efforts are made to ensure that string action remains reasonable. I recessed the bridge into the guitar top by 2mm or so to maximise the amount of adjustability of the action, but probably could have gone to 3mm. Any lower and the pop-out tuning wrench will jam on the edge of the recess. I may have added a tapered shim to the neck pocket, but I can't remember. If you're building something with this bridge, treat it as you would a tune-o-matic tailpiece - you'll either need to recess it, add neck angle, shim the neck upwards, or any combination of the three to get it to give reasonable string action.

Medium viscosity CA seems to be the common suggestion, supposely even advised directly by Martin (read here): A specific product, 3M Scotchweld PR600 is mentioned in that thread too.

Piewpiewpiew! Lasers!

Not necessarily. You can still radius after attaching to neck: Slot fretboard Cut fretboard taper to suit, allowing for additional width once binding attached afterwards. Glue to neck blank. Radius fretboard. Finalise/adjust fret slot depth to match radius. Attach binding (a little bit fiddly once the fretboard is glued to the neck blank, but not impossible). Scrape/sand binding flush. Trim neck blank to match resulting fretboard+binding edges. Or just attach fretboard to neck blank after attaching binding and radiusing using the sanding block(s) you radiused with as a caul. Acoustic builders rarely have a choice to do it any other way because the bulky heel block and overhanging fretboard prevents the neck being laid on a flat surface to sand a radius onto after the fact.

I'd radius after slotting, but before attaching binding. That way you can do any tweaking to the fret slot depth after the radius is applied, rather than be over-zealous cutting your fretslots extra deep at the outset. Getting the binding down to the radius of the fretboard after it's been attached shouldn't cause too many issues just by re-sanding with the radius block with some moderate grit paper. You only want to get the binding flush with the top of the radius that you've already applied, not completely re-shape the fretboard.

Nice work, looks much better and more consistent than my efforts. As long as you can find some kind of clearcoat that doesn't react with the MM paint you should be good from here on in.

You could always mount the short thread pots to an aluminium plate that attaches to the inside of the cavity somewhere, so that only the shafts prortrude through the wood.

I'm more impressed that you'd consider it a DIY-able method for installing frets

It's easy to see where your knack for carving organic guitars comes from, Scott. That's an incredible looking piece of sculpture.

Only if looks are important. The pickup will still work fine if the pole pieces don't line up under each string. Or use a pickup with blade pole pieces - Alumitones, Hotrails, X2N, most EMGs, SD blackouts etc. Or use regular pickups and don't slant them to match the fan. I believe Bareknuckle will do most of their humbuckers with a max 10 degree slant if you ask them. Yes, but you need two singles with the magnets in opposite polarity, which may be difficult to obtain as a pair.

Oooerrr, Mrs Slocombe!

I've experienced English sunshine in person, so I'm aware it's not necessarily some mythical freak of nature

Thankee sir Umm...wanna buy a Pacifica or an Eyb Buzz Bridge?

I was wondering where this had got to. Good to see you back on it again. And look - sunshine!

Original from the factory. The outer two holes have been counterbored to a depth of about 5mm, and those two little nylon bushings are just resting in there loosely. I had assumed they were some kind of locating holes for when the body is milled on the CNC at the factory. The bridge screws just go straight through them into the wood.

Absolutely. It's a great addition to these cheap and nasty shopvacs. The stock filters clog up as soon as you wave them near sanding dust, and you can never clean them completely afterwards, so they're always compromised as soon as they've been used once. I've used this for a couple of weeks now and it's still got really strong vacuum, and the first canister is collecting nearly everything. Essentially it's turned something that sucks by not sucking hard enough into something that sucks really well by not sucking.

Could very well be. I'm only going by how I remember seeing it advertised in magazines at the time (around '94 I think?), which was basswood body, maple neck and buinga fretboard. I could be remembering wrongly though, and a quick search on the web doesn't really back up my assumptions that it was basswood on this particular model. Either way, It is still very soft wood. The scratch over the upper cutaway is probably the most visible bit of damage, but the whole instrument is covered with minor dents and dings.

What bushings are you referring to?

It saw its fair share of work in its day. It was my backup when I was still gigging, so if I busted a string on my main instrument I'd have it handy waiting to be swapperd over. The guitar was always tuned to drop-D so any song that was in that tuning was just a case of exchanging guitars.

Non-guitar related, but workshop DIY all the same. Added a cyclone filter to the shopvac. It's one of those Chinese knockoffs of the Dust Deputy that appear on eBay all the time. Some 50mm PVC pipe and fittings and a 20L paint tin with a lever snap ring lid. Ready to rumble:

Bridge back in. It's a shame about some of the scratches and dings that the body has sustained over the years (upper cutaway, for example), but at this stage there's probably not much value in stripping the old finish back and repairing it any further. I believe the body is meant to be basswood with a clear satin finish:, so it'll only dent and scratch again as soon as I look at it: All back together again:

Pickguard reassembled and ready to go back in. Note the addition of a treble bypass cap across the volume pot terminals. It looks huge considering it's only 180pF, but it was the only one I had in my parts drawers. Hidden under the scratchplate it won't bother anyone: Twenty-something years of dust and crud on the bridge is worth cleaning while the guitar is still in pieces, so strip it all down and submerge the chrome plated parts in shellite for 24 hours. Shellite is roughly equivalent to naptha down here, marketed as a mild solvent, metal cleaner and camping stove fuel that evaporates without leaving behind any oily residue: After soaking for 24 hours and scrubbing with an old toothbrush, the bridge is reassembled. A few fingerprints and minor specs here and there still remain, but a damn sight better than it used to be: A bit of lemon oil on the fretboard to get rid of the worst of the grime. I was under the impression that these PAC112s were meant to have been sold with bubinga fretboards, but unless they used dye to blacken it, this is the darkest bubinga I've ever seen:

I've just tested it both ways just to see if there was any difference. Plugged in the humbucker into a high gain amp at an unbearable volume and there was nothing other than the usual hiss, hum and buzz. Removed the pickup from the scratchplate and heated the baseplate with a heat gun enough to make the wax liquefy, let it cool and then reinstalled it into the scratchplate. Plugged in to the amp again and still no squealies or untoward noises. Maybe I got lucky. Maybe you were unlucky. Who knows?

Linear taper means that the rotation of the shaft of the pot is directly proportional to the resistance of the pot. Logarithmic taper indicates that the relationship between shaft and resistance varies in a logarithmic fashion. http://www.resistorguide.com/potentiometer-taper/ If two pots of equal value, one with linear taper and one with logarithmic were wired up as volume controls, they'd behave differently. Logarithmic should give the perception of an even volume change as it winds from one extreme to the other. Linear taper will probably sound as if all the change is in the first quarter of a turn from zero. In addition, some log pots are "more log" than others, so the perceived smoothness of the same type of pot can vary between manufacturers. It's not clear what the taper is on those pots, but in the photo provided the rear of the case is stamped "250KA". The "A" usually indicates that the pot is logarithmic. Although it's just a photo and shouldn't be relied on for what you actually get... Again, the photo and product description doesn't make it clear, but if they felt "more right" to your ears, then probably log. Sounds as if the taper is too logarithmic. Quick fix which might work at a pinch is to strap a 1 meg or greater fixed value resistor from the middle lug of the pot to the outer lug (ie, the opposite side of the gound connection). Other than that you could try a different brand of pot. If you had success with the Bourns then you can always swap for those.

You haven't mentioned what it is about the taper that bothers you. Rolls back too fast? Does nothing from 10 to 3 and then drops rapidly from 3 to 0? What taper pots did you install in the Destroyer - logarithmic or linear? Are log or lin pots used in the Jem? There are certain tricks you can do to pots by strapping fixed-value resistors across 2 of the 3 terminals that chage the taper at the expense of changing the pot's base value, but we'll need a bit more background to offer a suggestion to try out.