mj_gant

I have a bound neck thru american BC rich that I was starting to dress the neck on. After cleaning fingerboard with napthat I noticed a lot of the frets are lifting out, some by as much as .008. The frets are in good shape and I am reluctant to refret it. I would like to clamp and wick some stewmac adhesive #10 into the slots. My question is....will the glue hold for a good, long time, or is a refret the only way to go?

Any input is very much appreciated!!!!

I take a towel and lay the neck on the towel.

Using Naptha and a toothbrush, scrub that muthu down good.

Wipe dry. Do a second time if you think it needs it.

Let dry for about 1/2 hour for Naptha to gas off.

I use Stew-Mac's Fretboard Finishing oil, which is a film-finish, completely different than lemon oil. Apply with a soft towel and wipe excess back off.

Excellent. Will do.

What do you use for rusted screws, hardware to gently remove corrosion and then seal from more abuse?

What does you use to clean off fingerboard scum? naptha...what else?

Those are some clever looking hold-downs, with those steps.

Thank you. I used to work in a machine shop like place and we had a milling machine. I got the idea of the step blocks from that machine. The table top was kind of inspired by the "neck jig" thing. This doesn't tilt or have micrometers to monitor the neck, but is excellent for holding down a guitar securely without hurting the finish.

You got 2 notched straight edges ?

Yes. For different scale necks. I made both of them at my old job with some surface ground steel and, you guessed it, the milling machine.

Thank you for looking!!

Here's my piece. I was blessed to have recieved this bench base which is an old letter press bench from 1957. I restored it and built the nifty bench top out of layers of birch ply and poplar edges. The top allows clampling of instruments for dressing, etc...the other side serves as a soldering station, light work area.

These are high res pics, very long load

PGW

M

Some obvious things that could be an oversight:

Same guage strings?

Same tuning? No drop tuning I presume.

When you say you replaced the E, did you by any chance buy a lot of strings that could have a problem with the low E in every pack?

Is your tuner intonated?

Just some food for thought...

Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for!

M

I am looking for a website that will alow me to configure colors, hardware and see it in real time. Anyone know of a site? Carvin, ESP, doesn't matter, just want to see some finishes against pickguards, hardware, etc...

What do you mean by "outgrown"?

My style of playing has changed over the years and I hardly ever require floating trems. I had an endorsement with BC Rich and Ibanez when I played professionally. I now have about 8-10 custom shop guitars almost all with Kahler floyds or edge trems. I have disabled most of them so that I can do alternate tunings quickly, without the need to reset springs and such. I do some teaching, etc... that requires me to be able to tune a guitar to a song in seconds, not many minutes and fussing with a screw driver to set the float correctly.

The method of inserting a block in the cavity and loading up with springs works well, but I still have to cut ball ends and I still have these clunky pieces of metal that I simply no longer use.

I was just poking around to see if anyone was producing a simple bridge that would replace a Floyd without alterations.

Thanks for the brainstorms.

Uh.... this topic is taking the wrong turn here. I never said anything bad about Floyds, I have just outgrown using them. The novelty has worn off. I use a lot of alternate tunings and prefer not to have them on some of my guitars anymore.

Has anyone heard of a replacement fixed bridge that fits over Floyd studs?

I own many guitars that have Kahler licensed Floyd Rose systems on them. I now actually regret having these guitars built with a Floyd system installed. I have insterted a block inside of the cavity of most of them and loaded them up with springs to immobilize them.

Someone mentioned a bridge that you can put in place of a Floyd system that fits over the studs and turns the guitar into a fixed bridge system minus the locking nut of course. I have done many google searches and turn up empty, is anyone aware of such a system?

Thank you,

Merritt

I use a variable wattage pencil type 20-40 watts. On a side note I wish I could attend one of these luthier schools. Although, I don't think the mortgage company would understand my passion when they don't receive this months, or next months check though.

Thank you for sharing your techniques-tools. I do think I will try the stewmac 16" leveling tube. I found a supplier of 3m stikit that is very reasonable here:

http://www.brownstar.com

Hi all. Since this is my first post, let me introduce myself. My name is Merritt Gant and I live in south Jersey. I have been fascinated with the guitar since the age of 9 and started playing when I was 12. I have done some professional work, my timeline is here: http://www.bloodaudio.com/identify.php

Moving on, I am planning on doing work on my guitars and others that I usually hand out to a local shop. My first project will be leveling and dressing frets. Setting truss rod, etc....

I have a very nice bench with hold down clamps and a set of straight edges, along with notched straight edges and a set of neck radius gauges.

I was planning on buying one of those fret leveling tubes from stewmac, probably 16" that you stick sand paper to. What do you folks use for leveling? A big flat file? Or some fashion of a steel plate that you adhere paper to? Also, do you find radius sanding blocks to be a must have for doing good work?

Thank you in advance for any input!

Merritt