Esquire-esque

[fender3x]

Well - it's got two coats of Danish oil - it needs more but I had to put it together to see what I have now...

It's not wired up and the string trees are still needed (I wanted to see where the strings are first).

Found out the bridge is just a tiny bit crooked) the Neck end is a little less than a millimetre skewed to the lower bout.....

Overall - very happy with a first try.

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 ;-)

There is a lot of fret buzz - but I've noticed aa number of the frets need to be tapped down - acoustically it's not as loud as my Tele - and the tone is a bit "off" with the fretbuzz...... something to try to figure out.

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

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.)

The strings seem to be tighter - more tension.... I had thought it would be the opposite.
The scale length (24.75) seems to be better for me though.

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.

[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!