First Build - TL-1A

[Trevor Davies]

Hi Mr Eddy,
would the scale length be better if the neck moved all the way to the end? I think I would file the neck corners out a bit - and I had to do that on my FBM-1 build.
Also, and it may be the picture, but the high E sting looks a bit closer to the neck edge than the low E string.

[MrEddy]

Hi Trevor,

That's my plan at the moment. That should get me an extra 1 or 2mm. So I'll do that, re-measure and see where things stand.

From the photo I think you're right with the strings, but that part was a bit rushed anyway. I'll have to repeat that and check a bit more carefully.

[McCreed]

Bridge position is fine. You want 648mm from inside of the nut to the break point of the treble E saddle. (where the string "leaves" the saddle)
You have heaps of adjustment there in either direction, and if you round off the heel corners as mentioned previously, you'll lose 1-2 mm and still be within range.

[MrEddy]

Awesome. Thanks very much.

[ozzbike]

With just a tiny bit of rounding up of the metric equivalents, the conversion for the standard "1 pound cut" of shellac works out to 12 grams of shellac flake per 100 mils of methylated spirits.

A 2 pound cut would be 24 grams to 100 mils, and so on.

50g/200ml is roughly a 2 pound cut. I use the 1 pound cut for most general applications. Shellac is good stuff...

I will try your suggestion. Today I tipped 200mil more methylated spirits into the bottle....so now I have 50grams shellac to 400 mils Metho.

[MrEddy]

Well it's been a few months since the last update. Silly season, beach holidays and home improvements impacted progress a little. But it's back on a bike now so it'll be time for a proper update this weekend.

Spent a bit of time getting the neck fitting properly by filing out the edges a little. Pretty much flush to the end now so I'm happy with that. Also made a bit of extra room so that the tonerider pickup will fit properly.

Next cab off the rank is the headstock. I keep thinking I'm going to slip and do something terrible with the jigsaw (that's what my woodwork teacher would expect) but after one test it's time, so next photo update will hopefully include that.

[McCreed]

Next cab off the rank is the headstock. I keep thinking I'm going to slip and do something terrible with the jigsaw

You probably know this already but, after you draw your line for the shape you want, keep you saw blade 1-2 mm outside of the line, then finish shaping with a rasp/file and sandpaper. It's a bit more physical work, but safer and will minimise the risk of "Oops!!!"

Good to hear you got the neck and bridge positions sorted. Look forward to seeing your progress now that you're back into it.

[MrEddy]

The other development is that the pickguard I ordered arrived. Quite happy with the way it looks, although I'll have to do a bit of filing to make it fit the neck properly. Opening is a bit too narrow.

[MrEddy]

A bit of progress. Getting close to done on the headstock. It's not perfect, but to be perfectly honest it's better than I was expecting. With a bit more finishing it should look ok.

Also started on sanding the body. Prepping and staining coming up shortly. Really looking forward to that.

[MrEddy]

So a bit more progress.

Before anyone comments, yes, I realise that given it's a screw in neck I didn't need to mask anything. Ah well. Not like it makes any difference.

That aside I applied timber primer followed by a few coats of FW Prooftint (Maple) and I'm pretty happy with how it's looking. Obviously it's just been applied so I'll see how it looks tomorrow afternoon but for the moment I'm quite pleased with the result.

It'll be clear coat time next, depending on how this looks tomorrow.