EX -4 ZZ TOP homage

[Hardcoretroubadour]

Hi there, been lurking and learning all the collected wisdom here on the forum and decided to bite the bullet and start a build. Being a complete electric novice I will have some questions I am sure as this build progresses. As a huge fan of ZZ TOP I figured a dusty hill inspired bass would be a good start. I will be modifying the head stock but everything else as standard. When doing a dry fit it seems as if there is a gap between the fretboard and the body, is this something that I fix by sanding out the recess in the body? Secondly, I went with the ash body and was thinking of using Ebony timbermate to help bring out the grain, is this what most of you use? Cheers
Brendan

[FrankenWashie]

Hiya Brendan,

post up photos of the dilemma and the troops will come running. Is the gap on one of the sides of the rout?

[Andyxlh]

I do hope you are making one of his furry instruments...

[Hardcoretroubadour]

Just trying to work out Imgur 😁 hopefully by tomorrow it will be sussed, and I can show the issues. Probably not the white sheepskin and spinning belt buckle 😎 flying V headstock shape as a start though.

[Simon Barden]

It's got a bolt on neck, with an 22nd fret which always gives an overhang like that. I'd leave it as it is. If you really don't want to leave it like that, I'd try sticking layers of maple veneer under the overhang to fill in the gap.

You don't want to sand the heel or the pocket or you'll be in danger of changing the neck angle and so the string height at the bridge, so the bridge may not go low or high enough to make it playable.

[wazkelly]

I have an EX-5 where the action is very high, partly due to crap stock kit bridge which I plan to swap out for a lower, sleeker design sometime this week.

This is how high the fret board looks at present....does this look familiar?


If the lower saddled bridge and a bit of truss rod tweaking don't drop the string height I may need to fit a shim. Dropping height down in the neck pocket may only make the high action worse just for the sake of trying make it look more normal?

[Hardcoretroubadour]

Cheers Wazkelly, it looks just like that, I didn't realise that was normal. I might shim out under fret board then.

[Simon Barden]

Any 22-fret board on a Strat or a Tele looks like that.

[wazkelly]

Best to wait until final assembly to see if it requires a shim as I would reckon not all builds are shaped and cut to the ssne tolerances due to lack of any CNC machines in the Chinese factory where these kits come from.
Cheers, Waz

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[Hardcoretroubadour]

hopefully this works. As you can see from the pic the rear of the body has some 'lumpyness' to it, it seems to be just on the edges and I assume this is normal and it will sand out?