(Hopefully) Quick and Easy Parts-V

[B'Lark]

You're probably right. My reasoning behind putting them on the neck was that it would be easier to sand back if it made the pocket a little TOO tight, and that it was painted and I didn't want to glue over that. And on reflection the second half isn't a great reason

But yea I do plan to trim them down and tidy them up this evening. Going down to the body height would definitely make it the cleanest look.

I'm also not sure I understand what you're wanting to know with the question about the scale length haha. The scale length is 24 3/4" but I'm sure you're looking for another answer

[wokkaboy]

Hey B'lark no worries, this is a bolt on neck right ? If it was a set neck in future mask the neck pocket and neck heel which makes contact with the pocket as the glue needs to adhere to bare timber.
Sure a G type axe is 24.75" scale length, so distance fretboard side of nut to 12 fret (wire) crown should be roughly the same distance 12 fret wire crown to the bridge saddles, just making sure there will be enough support for the bridge having the space in the V. Might want to double check. 12th fret to low E saddle should be around 317/318mm and 12 fret to high E around 314/315mm.
EDIT I just had a look at pics on page 2 and its a tune o matic bridge should be in the correct position. My worry is 2 of the anchor holes of the Bigsby have thin air below them and not much room to push it closer to the bridge saddle

[B'Lark]

As the bridge is by default yea the two screws at the end would be above air, what I will be doing though is drilling two holes further in for the screws to go in to. I mocked it up before I took the plunge so that I could be confident that it would work. Before I do drill any holes though I will more thoroughly piece things together, tape things up and mark off the planned holes to make sure before drilling anything though. If worst comes to worst, I'll just use a stop-tail I have lying around, and plan to use an actual Bigsby with Vibramate down the track.



Here's the mockup I did. I added those extra two holes further up which should have enough space to fit in there safely.

Also just trimmed off the bits of maple so they'l be nice and hidden in the neck joint





I did the "can you pick it up without bolts" test too, and initially it held fine, but I sanded it back to a finer grit, so it only stayed in there if I held it vertically



And the front shot



Neck is now sitting away with its first coat of oil on it

[wokkaboy]

nice work B'Lark good progress and glad you thought about mounting screw positions for the Bigsby. Not sure if the bass side tailpiece bush hole will be visible, you might just see a tiny bit of it.

Good to see the build has taken priority over cleaning up the room haha

[B'Lark]

I think both of the tailpiece holes are slightly visible with the actual bridge and body, but that's fine

And yea, pretty much anything is an excuse to not clean up here to be honest

[B'Lark]

I decided to finish the pickguard off and pop an extra hole for a pot in. I didn't like that all of the knobs were all the way back where they were, and there was room in the routing to pop an extra hole closer to the neck. When I do the replacement pickguard later, I'll only be using 1 volume and 1 tone, but for now I'll just be filling in two of the pot holes with unwired pots for the sake of neatness.

Here's how it comes together with the pots added in, and everything fitting together a little nicer than before. Seriously loving the look of the Gold Foils in here



Also, since it's come up, and I didn't have any good pictures, here's approximately how much of the stop-tail stud holes will be showing when the X-Trem gets locked in. (Treble and Bass side respectively)

[B'Lark]

Mini update: Coated the cavity with conductive paint. Makes it look much cleaner IMO, but not that it matters when it's going under a pickguard anyway. Lighting sucked on the picture but it should give you an idea.



Push-Push pots didn't arrive, so I won't be getting it finished this weekend. Hopefully will have everything bar wiring done before monday, and that will be the last thing to do.

[B'Lark]

X-Trem is attached!!!







Also covered the back of the pickguard with copper shielding for MAXIMUM SHIELDING!! And got the holes all drilled. So all together now...



I believe that all I need to do is finish the neck and wait on the pots to do the wiring!! Whoo!!

[Dedman]

paint the inside of those post holes and they will almost disappear

[B'Lark]

That's a really good idea. I'll do that at some stage today, thanks for the suggestion!!