first build flying v

[wazkelly]

That looks much better.

How high are the strings off the end of the fret board? From that shot it looks somewhere between 3mm to5mm?

If so maybe you have some frets sitting a bit high from somewhere near 12th to 22nd and easiest way to check is with a stanley knife blade, starting at end of fret board you place the blade across the last three frets to see if it is rocking anywhere. If it is, mark that fret with a black marking pen (sharpie or similar) and keep moving on doing this all the way up to the nut.

Where there are frets sitting a bit high sometimes a light tap will help seat them a bit better and sometimes they may need to be sanded level. I think there may be a tutorial on the forum on how to deal with this.

If you are happy with the action at that height and no fret buzzing you could simply leave as is but if you want a lower and faster action the extra time taken is well worth it.

[brokin009]

thanks again Waz, yeah ill have a look at what you said. you mentioned i give it a little tap if a fret ia too high, what would i tap it with?

[wazkelly]

thanks again Waz, yeah ill have a look at what you said. you mentioned i give it a little tap if a fret ia too high, what would i tap it with?

There are special fret hammers which are not cheap and neither are the nylon faced ones bought at local large hardware stores.

One trick I did on 1st build was to use a bit of timber off cut, mine was maple from a headstock shaping job, and mask off around a fret, place some sandpaper face up on top of the fret, and then gently sand that shape into the off cut bit of timber, but not too deep. This then becomes your reverse fret mould to help with tapping a high fret into place. As I don't have a fret hammer just used my rubber mallet very gently and that seemed to do the trick. Need to have something under neck to support it when doing the tapping and a small sand bag or one of those heat bags filled with wheat or beads did the trick for me.

Hope this helps.

[DrNomis_44]

ok i was able to level out the neck a bit more to the body. which is awesome and now i was able to lower the action and how much the pickups stood out (they were pretty much maxed out to there highest level). im really happy with the result and it looks alot better now.
Attachment 20511
you can see how much lower the bridge pickup is from the previous pick to this one.

Just noticed that the black plastic mounting-ring for the neck pickup is installed back to front, it should really be same like the one for the bridge pickup.

[wazkelly]

Well spotted Doc.

[brokin009]

hey guys. yeah i put it that way as i thought as the neck pickup would sit flatter. is that not the case? i did have it the other way around before but i thought this way was better? i guess i was wrong. is there a reason to put it that way?
thanks again Waz for your help i did the changes to the frets and it made alot of difference now. im down to about 2.5mm with the action.
Attachment 20526

[wazkelly]

Good to hear the action is pretty low now.

The PUP mounting rings mimic neck break string angle where they are higher at the back and lower at the front. Whilst they are angled from side profile they should sit flat in a horizontal plane.

[brokin009]

Thanks again Waz. i swapped the neck pickup surround around the right way now. so all sweet.
you mentioned earlier about the frets to give them a tap which has worked well but you also mentioned sanding down the frets? may i ask how you do that? what grade is recommended?

[wazkelly]

There are tutorials on this forum and other places too about using a sanding beam which is usually a flat section of metal, aluminium extruded square tube, about 300mm to 450mm long, with some 400 grit wet & dry paper stuck on one face, and gently run it north/south up and down on top of the frets. Where you have marked the high points with a black sharpie or similar marking pen, as you see those marks disappear and reveal shiny metal, job's done and you move on to other areas that need attention. Very important not to focus too much on one section as you risk dropping the level across many frets.

Downside after sanding frets is that you need a crowning tool to re-profile the sanded frets and they are not cheap - $55 plus postage at Real Parts and come in 3 different sizes. Some folk reckon it can be done with small triangular files but that looks way harder than using a proper tool. Also need to remember to mask off the whole fret board to prevent any damage from any accidental slips.