The Frankencaster

[Eponymous]

Pickups working and it is now together.

Going to string it and let them stretch a bit then intonate and cut nut slots during the week.

This is what it it looks like now.

[Simon Barden]

It's really not worth intonating until you've cut the nut slots as you'll just have to do it again. It won't do any harm, it's just extra work. But lowering the slots reduces the tension you need to fret the strings and so reduces the intonation length slightly.

[Eponymous]

I think I have the action too low. A bit of fretbuzz but, too tired to do more on it tonight. Nut slots seem ok, and I haven’t taken much out of them (in fact, 2 passes of the file on the low e string), so I think the saddles need raising.

I set the bottom of the strings at 4/64” (at the 12th fret) as per instructions but I think I have either measured a bit incorrectly or I’m getting some kind of parallax error from tiredness. In any event, a couple of days and a rethink will let the strings stretch before I mess around with it again.

Still...it looks pretty good.

[Eponymous]

But, action set and seems pretty good. May be a bit high still but I can tweak it. That said, it plays smoothly and well. Neck feels good, smooth and fast.

Intonation was actually quite straight forward. When I thought about the physics of the string (if it’s high at the 12th fret, lengthen the string...ie adjust the saddle backwards.) intonation took me about 20 minutes. I then waited and checked again (just to make sure everything bedded down.

So here are the final photos.


This is it in its full glory.



And a couple of shots showing the colour change nature of the paint.

[Groovyman32]

Looks really great - good work - love the paint!


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[Eponymous]

Looks really great - good work - love the paint!


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Thanks, G-Man!

[Simon Barden]

That paint certainly does change colour! Very nice work there.

[JohnH]

Looks great!