Esquire-esque

[Trevor Davies]

+1 for looking good.

I agree with fender3x about tiny flaws. I also use the three foot rule - i.e. if you cannot see the issue when greater than 3 feet from the guitar, it is not an issue! Working with wood and hand tools it is expected that there is a tolerance of 1mm or more.

Neck, nut and fretwork are really important parts of guitar kit building. It is worth getting some of the tools to do this well (especially if you are planning more builds). Notched straight edge, Levelling beam or radius block (or both), fret rocker, crowning file, string action gauge.

String tension - what gauge strings are you using? Maybe lighter strings would feel better!

[dave.king1]

A Stanley knife blade makes a cheap fret rocker, an aluminium spirit level of suitable length serves as a levelling beam and notching a 600mm steel engineers rule can be a notched straight edge.

Copper slug and snail barrier tape is also a replacement for cavity shielding foil, it has the same electrical properties as the bespoke stuff and does take solder

All available at your local hardware, these items are that I use.

[EsquireEsque]

It looks pretty good! Not sure what you mean by the bridge being crooked. The E strings look symmetrical on the neck, the D & G strings look equidistant from the dots. It looks like you have plenty of travel available for the saddles. If the bridge is slightly twisted it is not enough to attract attention, and would only be an issue if it put there was not enough travel for the saddles or if the strings didn't line up... So, if it were me I'd remind myself that tiny flaws are generally only seen be the builder and I'd declare victory ;-)

Yes - I know (and thanks), but to improve - you must learn from mistakes.... so you need to be able to identify them.
Overall - I'm very happy with my first effort. Right now, my only real or problematic issues are with the part I did not make - the neck (Of course I may have it on too high or it might need to be on an angle?).
The control plate turned out rather good (I think) but the costs of electroplating it chrome are pretty much the cost of the rest of the build!

The bridge "crookedness" is very slight - the top is skewed by just under 1 mm (a lesson to make sure the centreline is more visible when placing the bridge - the 'join line" was not perhaps quite clear enough).

The important thing is that it gets louder once you have it wired up and plugged in ;-)

True - but I also do practice (pretend to "play") acoustically most of the time ... although that might change now that a headphone amp can be used more easily).[/QUOTE]

You may want to check to see that the frets are level. If you haven't got a fret rocker, a leveling beam, a notched straight edge, they are cheap and/or easy to make. You will also need some 350 grit sand paper and a crowning file (I have a baroque crowning file that cost me $25, one of my most expensive luthier tools and worth every penny). If you don't want to spring for a crowning file, you can crown with more ordinary precision or even flat files. It's just more work ;-)

Once the wayward frets are identified you can try to them tap down. Every neck I have worked on has also needed leveling--with one exception. (I had a Warmoth neck that was perfect--but given what those necks cost it should also have mounted itself.)

Thanks for the hints - I do admit that the action, truss rod and saddle heights have me flummoxed....... and another lesson - I should have sorted out the neck first!

All things being equal the tension could be less...but a lot of things can affect it--string height and gauge in particular. Will be interesting to see if this is still the case once you have it completely set up.

Yes. Once I've had a go a sorting out the frets - I'm wondering if it's worthwhile finding a repairer or store where someone could take me through the setup process. I've reduced the fretbuzz - but I think I may have adjusted the truss rod more than I needed to......

It's only worth learning if it means you actually have to learn something!

[EsquireEsque]

+1 for looking good.

I agree with fender3x about tiny flaws. I also use the three foot rule - i.e. if you cannot see the issue when greater than 3 feet from the guitar, it is not an issue! Working with wood and hand tools it is expected that there is a tolerance of 1mm or more.

Neck, nut and fretwork are really important parts of guitar kit building. It is worth getting some of the tools to do this well (especially if you are planning more builds). Notched straight edge, Levelling beam or radius block (or both), fret rocker, crowning file, string action gauge.

String tension - what gauge strings are you using? Maybe lighter strings would feel better!

Thanks - I'm happy with the shape.
There's aways a new view or image every time you complete anything - I think that's simply learning from experience. Nest tme there will be a few minor changes (I think I'm hearing the same little voices!)

Once I've re-identified the frets that need to be tapped down - I'll have to check to see it they are level using a rocker of some sort
I've seen a luthier do this by simply putting a marker along each fret and then using the radius block to give a quick sand - when all the marker is gone - everything is level....

I'm using 9's... ( I think they're 9, 16, 24, 32, 36 42..?)
I was quite surprised when I found the strings to be 'tighter" and harder to fret but I realise that might eb duree to the guitar not being set-up properly yet.... the smaller scale also does take a bit to get used to (my chords now sound as bad as they did when I tried my first "E" chord a year ago!)

[EsquireEsque]

A Stanley knife blade makes a cheap fret rocker, an aluminium spirit level of suitable length serves as a levelling beam and notching a 600mm steel engineers rule can be a notched straight edge.

Copper slug and snail barrier tape is also a replacement for cavity shielding foil, it has the same electrical properties as the bespoke stuff and does take solder

All available at your local hardware, these items are that I use.

Thanks - good tips......
I've actually got an sheet of thicker aluminium foil separating the "top or cap" from the body of the guitar.
After I've put a few more layers of Danish oil on - I' use some copper tape to connect this to the "normal" shielding in the cavities.

[EsquireEsque]

I've just noticed what might be a problem with "the frets"?.... the nut is rather high?

On my telecaster-type (Jet 350) the nut rises above the fretboard (or I should say that the top of each string) is about 2mm (the top of the string is hitting the bottom of the 2mm mark on the steel ruler).
On my "Esq.esque" this measurement is about 3.5 mm

Is this a concern that I also need to look at after I've tapped down the frets that need it and levelled them all?

[fender3x]

I don't think that setups are rocket science, nor is fret leveling.

If you can get someone to show you, great!

If you haven't leveled the frets yet, you can still do it with the strings off, but the neck on. HOWEVER, if you leave the neck on, you should put some painter's tape over the pickup so that none of the metal dust that that fret leveling produces gets in the pickup.

This approach is pretty good for leveling frets...



... and it is very simple. Notice that the guy in the video puts the notched-straight edge on the on the fret board and adjusts the truss rod to make the neck as absolutely flat as possible. He doesn't explain this, but when he looks at the straight edge from the side he is looking for daylight under between the straight edge and the fretboard which would indicate that it still has a bit of curve in it. The rest is as he says.

I use a spirit level with some 350 grit sandpaper stuck to the bottom to do the leveling (just as DK suggests). DK is also right that, in a pinch a trapezoidal utility knife blade can substitute for a fret rocker. That said, fret rockers are dirt cheap. I made my bass notched straight edge. I purchased one with Fender scale on one side and Gibson scale on the other side, because I found one that was under $20. The store bought one is prettier, but it doesn't work any better than my home made one. Finally, you can crown--if you are careful--with a small flat file or cheap jeweler's files.

[fender3x]

...this is the first of 4 short videos on how to do a set up, by John Carruthers. The important thing is to go through it in the right order.

Minimally for a setup you need a very fine gauge ruler, a capo, a set of feeler gauges and some very small hex keys.

That's everything you need for fret leveling and setup with the exception of cutting the nut...and maybe for crowning the frets. In both cases specialized tools make this MUCH easier. For crowning I use the Baroque Fret Crowning Tool which goes for about US $30 right now. It's the only cheap crowning file I have found that gets decent reviews.

Now if you need to cut the nut....

[fender3x]

There are NO cheap nut cutting files that get good reviews. There is pretty much consensus that cheap nut files are a waste of money. Hosco, Stew Mac, Grizzly, Music Nomad, Uo-Chikyu are all good files, but will be very expensive. Ultimately, I think, all of these except the Music Nomad files are made in the same Japanese factory.

HOWEVER, I have gotten decent results using this approach:



I used a rotary tool to cut the "teeth." This is definitely cheap. It works acceptably well. But it takes forever (which also keeps me from cutting too deep, admittedly), and so I have fairly recently broken down and gotten "real" nut files... But if you are only doing these once in a while, the feeler gauge nut saw will work...

[EsquireEsque]

Hi Fender 3x,

Thanks - I'll be watching these videos.
I've seen a number already but there's always something to learn (most videos will omit one thing they think is well known).

With the nut -

So it is too high?

I did order the neck with a bone nut - but so far have left the plastic on in place.

The though occurs if it is worthwhile taking the nut off and sanding the bottom of it down a millimeter or so?