Tuesday, March 20, 2007

guitar 3

So after the clear had dried, I left the guitar hanging on a hook for about a week to let everything harden. I sanded some roughspots on the neck with 1000 and 2000 grit paper. The white finish looked good on the body and the neck didn't show signs of warping or bow. I installed the tuners on the headstock and they went in pretty well. The coats of clear made the bushings a little difficult to put into the tuning holes but it worked.

I put all the parts out on the table and started running the wires through the body. After connecting the wires together and grounding it under the bridge, I reversed the switch and the control plate. I put the new output jack on there. Everything seemed to fit into place. I drilled two small holes in the pickgaurd so I could adjust the neck pickup heigth like a Strat, so I wouldn't have to remove the pick guard everytime I needed to adjust it.

It all seemed to fit pretty well. The screws used to secure the neck to the body suck. They didn't go in very well and I'll probably have to replace them- but the neck looks ok and went on alright. When I put the strings on I noticed that the nut was really high. No amount of adjusting the saddles and bridge would fix the high action. Judging from another guitar, I lowered the slots for the strings and filed down the nut to something more managable. After a few attempts I tuned up the guitar and saw that the action was way better than before. There is some hum from the guitar- when I get around to it I'll shield the control cavity with copper tape and check the ground wire again. Maybe even shield the wires. But for right now I don't really care. I'm playing a BIG MUFF PI and it sounds awesome.

Besides a few issues with the nut, the guitar went together pretty flawlessly. There are a few dead spots though.. and while I don't see it as a problem, I'll probably have to make some more adjustments to the saddle and maybe a little fretwork someday. No big deal.

Plays great. Looks great. I want to build another one now.

2 comments:

Davy J said...

I'll post pictures tonight.

Unknown said...

haha.. i got on to say

Pictures.. we need pictures.

but.. yeah.. i guess you answered that question already.