DUUUUUUUUUDE!! That CRANKS! Great result mate, you'd have to be happy with that first up. Not only does it look nice and clean but it punches hard too. Great Job!
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DUUUUUUUUUDE!! That CRANKS! Great result mate, you'd have to be happy with that first up. Not only does it look nice and clean but it punches hard too. Great Job!
Looks great, sounds great, what more could you ask for. Well done.
thanks guy. i thought it sounded good but hearing you guys say the same makes it even better.
thanks everyone one again for all your help. a bunch of legends on here and i cant wait to try another.
As Waz said!Quote:
Originally Posted by wazkelly
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hey Guys, i just had a look at my Flying V, the neck actually sits high above the body about 5mm where the neck ends and is 4mm where the body meets the neck. is that normal for these kits? i looked at my prs and there is no gap at all it is flush to the body. has anyone had this before?
Attachment 20499
do i shave it down? or is this normal for a bolt on neck?
Hi Brokin, that looks perfectly normal, unless it's causing you issues with playing or action height i wouldn't touch it. Your PRS will be a slightly different set up, so probably not a good comparison.
im not sure if this is important but i do have to have the action pretty high not like my other guitars. also i checked it against a ruler that sat flat against the body and it definately isn't flat against the body as you can see with the photos. is it ok? i do get a buzzing of the strings around the 12th fret not through the amp, just if you play the guitar by itself.
Attachment 20506
Attachment 20507
Looks like you need to check the neck to see how flat it is when strings have been tuned up to pitch. I would suggest it has a bit of front bow where the gap under strings will be higher around middle of the neck. If so, loosen off the strings a little bit and when looking from headstock down to the body turn the trussrod 1/4 turn clockwise. Tension up, re-tune and check height. I have a 1m metal ruler that makes things easier as you can place it near the nut and also at end of the fretboard where that joins the body to help see where things are at. Keep repeating 1/4 turns at a time until it is pretty flat.
Next thing to check is action at 1st fret and suggest using a capo on 2nd or 3rd fret and see how much space there is between top of 1st fret and the underside of the string. Generally there should not be much more than the width of a business card or slightly less. If the space is more then it would appear that nut needs some work and generally easier to sand or file the bottom rather than hack in the string slots from above as that requires special nut files to do a proper job.
Once you have sorted these 2 parts time to re-tune and check action at 12th fret. If it looks higher than a couple of mm time to gradually lower the bridge and remember to re-tune up to pitch after each and every adjustment. Once you have got bridge height close to where you think it should be, time to play every note on every string to check for any buzzing which will highlight low or high frets. Hopefully there are none and also no buzzing strings anywhere. If so, time to move on to intonation which is adjusting the string length so that open, fretted at 12th, and 12th harmonic all read the same on an electronic tuner. Plenty of info on the internet about doing intonation but it is very simple once you identify whether to lengthen or shorten the string length to be in tune open/12th fret/12th harmonic.
That should keep you occupied for a couple of hours but well worth it once everything has been properly set up.
Cheers, Waz
thanks Waz, the neck was bowed as you said. i did the adjustments which worked out well, thank you heaps.for your help. unfortunately it still buzzes on the 12th fret. i honestly think its the neck its angleing downward at the head of the neck. i have played with the action and i still have to have it high to stop the buzzing. i might have to look at the neck fitment to see if i could flatten it out somehow.
i checked the height from where the neck ends in the body to where the bridge is. i used a strait edge and i found its 5mm higher at the bridge then where the neck ends.
i dont know if that's normal but i think that's a bit much as i thought the neck would have to be pretty flush to the body. but i could be wrong
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.
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by brokin009
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by brokin009
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.
Well spotted Doc.
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
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.
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?
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.