The FrankenWashie is dead....

[DrNomis_44]

So tell me if you think this is a bad idea.

A Floyd, in an already skinny guitar body (36mm front to back give or take), with a recessed timber cover.

In my mental arithmetic, the floyd can be sat a little proud of the body, with a minimal recess rout for its action on the body front. I sourced a Trem with the shortest block i could get (32mm, still a heavy F$*^er compared to the fixed bridge that was on originally). Through mud maps and sketching things out i had figured that i could JUST squeeze it in.

Then paranoia kicked in, attempts at setting up the unit in a dummy configuration to estimate where springs would sit, where things would reach when in action, and whether the claw would impact on the inside of what would be a VERY thin trem cover (Because all trem covers should be recessed and what is recessed should be flush to surface (thanks for that OCD, love ya really)). No problem on a standard width 42mm/1.625" or 44.4mm/1.750" guitar body, but did I mention the FrankenWashie is only 36mm thick at its core?

So I ended up making a couple of trem covers, the "Yep mate, no worries she'll be right" version and the "OH shi*t, oh Sh!t, it's not going to fit" jumbo version, See below.
Attachment 12022 Attachment 12023 Attachment 12024

Aesthetically the thin cover wins hands down, it remains to be seen if it will actually work. Functionally i have no doubt that the Jumbo one will work, but it is not the best look. I did what i could to try and contour it into the rest of the body but it still looks off. I can't really go any flatter with it due to this:
Attachment 12026 the whole reason it is a fat as it is, like i said Paranoia kicked in.

What do we reckon Peeps? if it were your guitar, would you be happy with the jumbo? would you prefer the flush mount? Would you not be silly enough to try and put a floyd rose in such a thin body? Opinions, options and critique all welcomed.

What you could also consider doing is make a thin shim to put in the neck pocket near the neck pickup so that the neck tilts back at an angle, this will allow you to raise the Floyd bridge up off the body so that you have more clearance between the sustain block and the spring cavity cover, also, raising the bridge up off the body will allow you to pull-up on the trem bar too.

[SIMpleONe89]

Why not source some local brad point bits? With the US exchange rate so much higher and shipping costs in mind.

[FrankenWashie]

Why not source some local brad point bits? With the US exchange rate so much higher and shipping costs in mind.

Yeah I looked at that, but I'd have had to get the 11mm from StewMac anyway. I did look in carbatec but their sets were comparable price at the time.

[SIMpleONe89]

Oh yes because of the floyd rose posts. I bought an 11mm bit from bunnings a long time ago but it wasn't a Brad point bit. The results weren't good...

[FrankenWashie]

Oh yes because of the floyd rose posts. I bought an 11mm bit from bunnings a long time ago but it wasn't a Brad point bit. The results weren't good...

Yeah, in speaking to a couple of other repairers/Luthiers they recommended getting it from StewMac for the best results. Will be a while before i get around to finishing stuff off though as i have to move house.

[FrankenWashie]

What you could also consider doing is make a thin shim to put in the neck pocket near the neck pickup so that the neck tilts back at an angle, this will allow you to raise the Floyd bridge up off the body so that you have more clearance between the sustain block and the spring cavity cover, also, raising the bridge up off the body will allow you to pull-up on the trem bar too.

Thats one of the options as well Doc, i have some thin shim stock ready to go for that. Once i get everything set up and get the posts in and can actually mock build everything then it will show me which way I need to go. By rough reckoning at the moment I don't think I should need to do too much, but we shall see.

[DrNomis_44]

Thats one of the options as well Doc, i have some thin shim stock ready to go for that. Once i get everything set up and get the posts in and can actually mock build everything then it will show me which way I need to go. By rough reckoning at the moment I don't think I should need to do too much, but we shall see.

Be very careful where you position the holes for the posts, cause it is very easy to get them in the wrong position, I was going to try and install a Floyd on my Gold Standard Strat and ended up putting the post holes about 5mm further back from the 12th fret than I should have put them, I ended up not being able to accurately intonate the guitar as a consequence, the string saddles were as far forward as I could move them and the intonation for each string still read flat, meaning that the strings were too long, because of that, I have to find some 10mm dowel that I can use to fill in the existing holes so I can drill new ones in the correct position, interestingly enough, they don't make it very clear in the installation instructions, also, try and keep the drill at a 90 degree angle to the front of the body too since if the posts aren't 90 degrees to the body that can cause problems with tuning stability.

[FrankenWashie]

Thanks Doc, I've set up a drilling jig with one of those sliding drill holders and a mounting frame to try and get it just right @90 degrees. I'm going to set up the neck, and do some re-measure so that it will be worked from the final neck position.
I'm pretty confident that its good, but I am going to do some test drills in spare ash just to verify squareness etc. and see how we go.

Last thing I want to do is cock up the scale length as that was one of the few things I got right first time around!

[FrankenWashie]

Hmmm, I've done nothing with this and I'm all out of ideas. Just kidding, we are finally moving in to the resin application testing this week. Watch this space.

[FrankenWashie]

I was all but giving this build away. I left it aside as i did other bits and pieces. Per the last post, i'd started to sand it just because it was there.
I levelled the control cover because the routing of it's recess was not the best and subsequently took the rock out of it. It now sits solidly on its magnetic attachments.

I have prepped a test for my Acrylic resin fill of the control cavity and will test this on the weekend. While I was doing this, I sanded the body for no other reason than it was there and I'm sanding other things at the same time.

I looked at it this evening covered in sanding dust and thought, do I want to bother trying to finish this?, then I wiped it down with Gum turpentine to remove all the dust....



Yes. Yes, I believe I shall bother.