TL-1HA first build

[Groovyman32]

Knobs...



Man, the scratch plate is getting dusty already!

I've got some nut blanks now so I'll be working on that over the next few days.

In the meantime I've been messing with the set up with the graphtec nut. I think I've got the relief right (0.25mm at the 7th) and the string height is about 1.6mm at the 17th. The intonation is now in the right ballpark. But I'm still having problems with rattles above the 12th fret on pretty much all the strings.. It seems on most frets, the string is not making it over the next fret without interference.

I've checked for high frets and that doesn't appear to be the problem - I'm wondering if the neck did not have the correct relief when I levelled the frets. I thought it was supposed to be dead straight? But now I'm wondering if it should have the same bow as strings would give it?

Or maybe I should try to get the nut right first and then worry about this later.

All this talk of knobs and nuts - carry on film anyone?

[Simon Barden]

Yes, you set the fretboard flat when fret levelling. That's why you need a notched straight edge a sit;'s teh board, not the freats that need to be level to start with.

Rattles above the 12th fret means the saddles need to come up and the truss rod can be straightened a bit more.

I never bother to measure the relief on my guitars because I like the action as low as I can get. I normally set the saddles up so I can play OK and bend strings on the upper frets, but the neck relief means that the strings are a bit high off the frets in the 3rd -8th fret area. So I'll do a 1/4 clockwise turn of the truss rod, which will straighten the neck out, lower the action in that low neck area but also lower the upper fret action as well, so that saddles need to come up slightly. Then assess where you are, and repeat the truss rod turning and then saddle raising until you get to the point where the lower strings are starting to buzz as well because the neck is too flat. Back off the truss rod slightly until that stops, and that should then be pretty much it. At this point. check the fret slot heights again, If you can lower them, then the action will come down all over the neck without risking any rattles.

Sometimes I find I still struggle to get an action I'm happy, so I'll put more relief in the neck, set the saddles higher and start all over again. Occasionally I end up rechecking the neck for high frets and may re-level if there are more than a couple which seem high.

[Groovyman32]

Thanks Simon - I'll experiment a bit more.

This evening I started on making a nut. The cheapo blanks I got from Amazon are massive so I had to take ~2mm from the thickness and a similar amount from the top. That took the best part of 2hrs. But I did do a little work on the slots before I had to stop. Here's the progress so far:



I used the nut from the kit as a template which is quite tall so there's slots will be quite deep initially and the strings will be buried. My plan is then to take down the top until I get the string close enough to the top surface. I'm going to use my Strat as guide for how deep the slots need to be. But I'm pleased with the depth of the but so far - it fits in the slot quite nicely.

I did manage to ruin my fingers yet again. I sanded through the skin on my fingers without noticing until there was blood on the sandpaper! dagnamit...

[Simon Barden]

Sandpaper certainlt isn't kind to your fingers. I can't use the fingerprint access on the iPhone for a few days after sanding. I keep thinking that I'm only pressing the back, forgetting that I often tend to fold it over, which is what does the damage.

Oversized blanks are useful. Not too bad to cut the length and width out, but taking off the depth isn't something you really want to do with a saw. I'd presume the blanks you got were intended more for the wider-Gibson style nut. I've got a few in my spares box. Fender-style nuts are normally in the 3.3-3.5mm width area, and 3.5mm wide acoustic saddle blanks are a better match if you can't get a more suitable nut blank. Saying that, I thought I got the saddle blank from Amazon, but they only seem to have 3mm wide saddle blanks.

[Groovyman32]

The nut blanks are 5mm thick and the nut slot is between 3.1 and 3.6mm wide. All I could find in the Fender sized bracket were 3mm.

Anyway, I just ruined my first one by cutting one of the slots way too deep. I'm not sure how it happened - I think (embarrassingly) I got my 0.008" and 0.008mm feeler gauges mixed up.. dagnamt.. it's been a long day at the office. Deffo good advice to practice this.

The things I learnt for the next go:

- Get the height much closer to the real height before starting to cut the slots. I had to cut through way too much material before I was in the right ball park.
- File in the direction of the head stock and not towards the body - I only scratched the board twice before I worked that one out. This also has the bonus of trending toward a downhill slope towards the headstock - which I think is desirable.
- Don't do this when you're tired

I've hacksawed up another blank so I can reduce the thickness tomorrow - Then by the weekend I might have something approaching a usable nut.

[Simon Barden]

Also, always mask off the fretboard by the nut and the first 5cm or so of headstock. Also the side of the neck round the nut. It doesn't take long to do, but it can save you a lot of grief and repair time.

[McCreed]

Also, always mask off the fretboard by the nut and the first 5cm or so of headstock. Also the side of the neck round the nut. It doesn't take long to do, but it can save you a lot of grief and repair time.

+1 on taping, always.

The nut blanks are 5mm thick and the nut slot is between 3.1 and 3.6mm wide. All I could find in the Fender sized bracket were 3mm.

Personally I would have gone with Fender-size blanks and shimmed the tuner side of the slot with veneer. A whole lot less work and more than acceptable cosmetically IMO.

I have two types of veneer I keep on hand for shimming nuts. Jarrah and Pine. The Jarrah with a touch of walnut stain will match rosewood near perfectly, and Pine can be tinted to match maple really closely.
It's visible from 6" away, but more than passable from a distance.

- Get the height much closer to the real height before starting to cut the slots. I had to cut through way too much material before I was in the right ball park.

One way to rough in the nut blank is by measuring the first fret height (with good calipers or stacked feeler gauges) then add .010 to that number.
Stack the feeler gauges to that thickness and put up against the nut (with nut in slot). The gauges will flex to whatever the radius is. Then with a fine lead mechanical pencil draw a line across the face of the nut at the top of the gauges.

This will give you two things. How much you can safely take off the top of the nut, and a preliminary target for roughing in the string slots.

[Simon Barden]

Sticking the blank to a small block of wood with strong double-sided tape makes it a lot easier to hold when sanding it thinner.

McCreed, can you confirm what units your additional .010 is? I assume you are measuring in inches rather than mm or cm. Also, if that 0.010” (height of a top E string) is a rough string slot depth line, then the rough top of the nut would be the height of your preferred bottom E string (say 0.042” or 0.046”) above that line.

[McCreed]

Yes, sorry, inches. (.010")

Also, if that 0.010” (height of a top E string) is a rough string slot depth line, then the rough top of the nut would be the height of your preferred bottom E string (say 0.042” or 0.046”) above that line.

Also correct. I guess I should have been more explicit that the pencil line represents the rough string slot depth (.010" above the first fret height) and the top of the nut would have to be left appropriately high enough above the line to accommodate each string. Setting all the string slot depths .010" above the first fret gives adequate room to adjust downward as needed.

Dan Erlewine uses a similar technique, but he uses the gauges as a depth stop as well using them to measure the fret height.
LINK FOUND HERE

I was in a hurry this morning.

Edit to add:
It's worth noting that how the top of the nut is profiled will vary depending on who's cutting the nut. Some prefer the strings deeper in the slots, others shallower. I previously described my method in post #153 of this thread.

[Eponymous]

That is some nice work, g-man. Look forward to the finished product.