FlyHog85’s post about accidentally tuning his guitar too high and wondering why he was breaking strings made me think about one of my great bonehead plays when building.
On my first bass build many years ago everything had gone perfectly… until putting everything together. I excitedly went about installing the bridge, measured twice, then happily started drilling holes. Got the bridge on then strung it up, and wondered why the strings seemed short? Couldn’t work it out for the life of me. After working through every possible reason, I finally decided to remeasure the scale. It was 36 inches! For some reason I’d got 36 in my head as the standard long scale length. God knows why! Afer a few choice words to myself I redrilled and all was good – but there were four holes sitting behind the bridge. I eventually covered them with a “logo” (you can see it below), and now it serves as a constant reminder to keep a clear head and take your time when building!!
I think it’s good for people new to building to know that everyone makes mistakes – sometimes really stupid ones! – but all you do is move on and come up with a way to fix it.
Anyone else want to share some of their clangers?!