Bluesmartyboy - first ever build TLA-1 with Maple fingerboard....

So ..... update.....courtesy of a dislocated knee and snapped ACL and Medial Ligaments the build gets my undivided attention for the foreseeable future.....

Today i sanded back the grain filler sanded through to Pminiscule grade and decided upon my choice of stain......wait for it.........none....

after all the talk about paint layers deadening tone i thought what the hell.......just try oil it......and seeing that it appears to be going onto the neck pretty well i feel confident enough to use it.....so so far 2 coats of tru oil on the body and 5 coats on the neck....loving the shine and now looking to mount the groovy grovers......

Roll on Thursday when the bone nut Attachment 8717Attachment 8717Attachment 8718Attachment 8719Attachment 8720and wilkinson bridge arrive.....

looking great BSB, keep at the clear coats. Love the natural look of ash.
The Grover tuners look the business. When your Wilkinson bridge arrives do a mock build to see if you need to route the bridge pup cavity forward to achieve intonation

Schmancy way to hang your guitar :cool:

Thanks WB......will check I out when it lands tomorrow.....

Ouch! Thats some serious injury there mate... Hope you pull through ok.

I am almost ready to forgive you for using naughty oil... :p
That is a really nice chunk of Ash you got there, should look and sound awesome.

Thanks DB,

The road to recovery is long and laced with Bourbon.....

So i must ask why is Naughty Oil so bad ???

and to WB.....really quite apprehensive about having to route the bridge cavity to accomodate the wilkinson bridge....especially considering i do not have a router !!!!!:cool:

Gotta say that i am loving the forum and the level of knowledge is inspiring....i am already thinking about my next kit !!!!

Hi BSB, from memory some other forumite upgraded to a Wilkinson bridge and the bridge plate is a bit shorter so expect a bigger gap between bridge plate and pickguard.
Pretty sure he swapped the saddle screws for longer ones to achieve intonation.

The tele kit bridge pup cavity have been in the wrong position since day 1, they are about 5mm too south

DB hates TO mainly the dangerous chemicals in it and down the track it can crack and turn to a yellow colour. I'm still waiting for this to happen on many of my builds, no signs yet (touch wood)

Righty Ho.....A few points i have noticed......

Drill holes on the Head Stock.....mmm......even after a few bourbons they don't get any straighter......see photo with the groovy groovers mounted......would it not be more prevalent for the necks to come from the factory undrilled......would get the creative juices flowing more with headstock design i think......what say yea.....DB?

Copper Tape installation.......soo therapeutic and easy....was a bit worried i was gonna stuff it up.

Bridge Pick up routing.......WB, you say it has always been out by 5 mm......is this likely to change in the near future?

mmmmm standard bridge is 95 mm and Wilkinson is 85.2 (diagram found on internet)....so it looks likely i will have to go get a router or is there another method, Anyone know ???

Regarding scale length is 322.5mm about right from inside edge of top nut to centre of twelfth fret?

Will i need to buy some fret files to get the guitar playing semi decent or is that i can look at down the track......

Any way a few more pictures....

Attachment 8743Attachment 8744Attachment 8745

Looking good :)

I hear you re tuner holes, the reason they come pre drilled is to make life a bit easier for folk that may be apprehensive about drilling them...
Having said that, the work around would be to plug them and re drill... If you were to do this I would recommend the Veritas brand of plug cutters.
These guys cut a slightly tapered plug. This means you can get a really nice fit and if you can match the grain, almost invisible.
Only thing you need to be careful of is not to drive the plug in too hard as they can split the headstock......

This is coming along very nicely. I'm liking the tru oil finish with the ash grain. I think there has been other discussions on the machine head pre-drilled holes. If they could be drilled straight I'd prefer 8mm holes then you can use vintage style tuners or enlarge if going for modern style.

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