First Build (ST-1M)

Hi All,
First time builder with one of the mahogany bodied ST-1m.

https://i.imgur.com/PpEB1Kp.jpg

I finished sanding, and applied 5 light coats of tru-oil, wet sanding between the 3rd and 4th with 400 grit, and then buffing finally with steel wool.

https://i.imgur.com/3IIonY8.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/i1BnyD0.jpg

I'm pretty happy with the results, I wanted a fairly matte result. I'm hoping that once it's all set up some UV exposure will darken the mahogany body up nicely!

I also started roughly carving out the headstock - going for a basic F style. Which I've smoothed out but haven't taken a photo of yet...

https://i.imgur.com/tNV17IF.jpg

Looking good and the obligatory toe shot! Just like a regular... Love the colour of the body.

Lookin' good!

i like it! There's some kooky grain oddness going on there that works quite well. Nice Job!

that body looks good, the mismatched grain is interesting to look at. nice finish on the body too.

So I finished the neck, three light tru-oil coats rubbed with steel wool... I don't think there is much on there but it feels pretty nice. I strung it up and here it is.

https://i.imgur.com/8GAjhiP.jpg?1

One quick question. The bridge height adjustment screws are all maxed out and there is still a fair amount of string buzz etc... I'm guessing I might need to shim the neck, as well as a fret level and crown? I've heard of people using a slice of milk carton as the shim has anybody had any luck with doing that? Or any other guidance. As you can see from this photo the height is pretty wild.

https://i.imgur.com/WeQ7Aoj.jpg

Hiya Geoffro,
have you put a straight edge along your neck to check the truss rod adjustment?
A fret level and re-crown will help but you need to get the neck adjusted flat first.
You can pick up a notched straight edge from StewMac or the PBG shop, or you can get some aluminium bar from a hardware store and make your own, Robin describes making one here
https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...647#post180647

Once you’ve done that, then you can check the frets themselves, some necks need just a tickle, others some hefty redressing.

Sometimes you may also need to adjust the nut, but again this should be looked at after you’ve trued up the neck and done the fret job.

hope that helps :)

Thanks FrankenWashie. You were spot on there is some backbow. So I need to loosen the truss rod (counter clockwise) in quarter turn increments?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by geoffro

Thanks FrankenWashie. You were spot on there is some backbow. So I need to loosen the truss rod (counter clockwise) in quarter turn increments?

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Yep and check after giving each turn a chance to settle

Give it some time with the strings at tension as well, the first couple of weeks the neck may move a lot until it all settles in.
My ST took a couple of months to settle, and I have a heel end adjuster in it, so the neck has to come off, at least you’ve a head end adjuster!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FrankenWashie

Give it some time with the strings at tension as well, the first couple of weeks the neck may move a lot until it all settles in.
My ST took a couple of months to settle, and I have a heel end adjuster in it, so the neck has to come off, at least you’ve a head end adjuster!

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Ha! Yes my Frankenstein strat has no height adjust at all, the floyd is flat against the body so the only height adjustment is via neck shims, a similarly irritating position! Interestingly van halen hacked away at the body on his guitar to expose that heel truss rod adjuster.

Well I've been playing around trying to set up the guitar... almost successfully, it's still gets a little fret buzz in places but I will continue to tweak it and let the neck settle. But I decided that it was time to solder it up and plug it in, which works! hooray! But one weird problem and maybe it's just a single coil thing (my only other guitar is a LP with humbuckers) is the hum. I've shielded it all up, and on volume 10 there is a really quiet hum, but as I roll back to 0 the hum gets worse... is this normal? Or do I need to do something, I bought the treble bleed but haven't installed it yet?

Also again as an unexperienced single coiler, when I put my practice amp to overdriven the hum gets really bad, I'm assuming that's also normal? Sorry if my questions are incredibly stupid. Thanks in advance.

Sounds wrong. A treble bleed won't stop hum.

The one reason for hum is that the jack socket connections have been reversed, so that the signal is connected to the screen connection on the jack socket and the guitar ground to the signal connection.

Otherwise it's normally because a ground connection has been missed or is high-resistance. On the volume pots, is the unused outer tag soldered to the pot casing? Are there ground connections going to all the backs of the pots?

If nothing obvious, post some pictures of the wiring, with as much overall and close-up detail as you can get.

Thanks Simon, turns out the issue was slightly more embarrassing than any of those. It was the cable, changed to my usual one - not the one that came with the kit and no hum what so ever! Now to give it some time for the neck to settle before tweaking the setup :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by geoffro

Thanks Simon, turns out the issue was slightly more embarrassing than any of those. It was the cable, changed to my usual one - not the one that came with the kit and no hum what so ever! Now to give it some time for the neck to settle before tweaking the setup :-)

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Ah yes, that cord is only good for knot tying practice. And it’s not much use for that either