I believe I may or may not have bitten off a little more than I can chew with this kit being my first one haha.
It will be a challenge that's for sure!
I have a question before I get carried away, and please excuse my lack of knowledge on this stuff. On the images below where the neck sits in the neck pocket, is it normal for the fretboard to have that much clearance off the body? Or do I have some serious material removal to do?
If you've built this kit or similar, or have any tips to make my life easier I'd love to hear from you!
Yes, that clearance is normal. It's visually exaggerated because it's got a 22-fret neck, and they always have an overhang. The bodies are routed with a standard template for a 21-fret neck (the Fender norm), and a full-depth 22-fret neck would be a few mm longer overall, requiring a neck pocket with a longer length.
So to save having a mix of 21-fret and 22-fret bodies, and also to make the bodies fully compatible if you wanted to later fit a 'standard' 21-fret neck, you get one body rout template and overhangs for 22-fret necks.
Bolt-on necks also generally sit higher off the body than on set-neck guitars. On set-necks, the neck is usually angled back slightly, which gives greater string height above the body at the bridge to allow space for tune-o-matic style bridges. Whereas bolt-on necks (thanks to Leo Fender and his no-frills approach to guitar making) started out with (easy to rout) flat neck pockets and flat neck heels, and used more height above the body for the fretboard to give the requires string height at the bridge (and Fender style bridges are physically lower than Tune-O-Matics), so require less string height. Most bolt-on neck guitars made since follow the same basic un-angled body rout and flat neck heel construction method.
Obviously on your kit, you've got a Bigsby-style trem and a Tune-o-Matic bridge, and it looks from the photos that the neck may have a slight angle to it to get the extra height required at the bridge, but if so, that is an exception rather than the norm.
I know it's only a test fit, but the neck pickup will sit better if rotated, so the thin end of the pickup ring is towards the neck. the altered angle will help the pickup sit parallel to the strings. It's also 'traditional' (because that's how Gibson have always done it with humbuckers) for the adjustable screws on the neck pickup to be towards the neck (and on the bridge pickup to be facing towards the bridge). No real technical reason, purely an aesthetic choice.
Mate, thank you so much for such a detailed response! I really appreciate you taking the time to respond!
I also reached out to a few "guitar nerd" mates who said the same thing about there clearance off the body! But the extra info about the angle and the 22 vs 21 frets thing was very helpful!
I'm going to whack it together and see what comes of it!
Do you have any advice when it comes to the bigsby trem and tunomatic bridge? My comfort zone begins and ends with the woodwork/finishing side of the journey haha.
I'm nota Bigsby expert, but basic principles mean that the roller bar on the front of the Bigsby should go at roughly the same position a stop tailpiece would go to pair with a Tune-O-Matic. I'd say that Fretworn's TL-1TB has it in the right place, see here: https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ll=1#post42024
Its more a question of making sure it lines up so it's not angled and there's a straight string pull. Fit The tow E tuners and run some thin ordinary string from them down the neck and to the Bigsby to help with alignment.
Personally I'd be happier with a roller saddle bridge with a Bigsby than a fixed-saddle TOM, but people have used TOMs with Bigsbys without any extra tuning issues. But a roller saddle (as long as it's kept lightly lubricated) will reduce the friction and so help keep the strings in tune when the trem's used. You aren't going to get a huge amount of detune with a Bigsby, which always helps with tuning stability.
Today I reshaped the headstock, ripped out the plastic nut, sanded the s**t out of the neck and headstock, allied the decal, then stained it with a black alcohol based stain.
The plan is to give it another sand once the dye cures to bring out some of the grain again.
So last night after a lot of sanding I started on finishing the body.
I used a product I have been holding on to for a little while now. I watched a guy use boor polish to bring out the grains in one of his builds so I went the next step and for some Feast Watson Hard Wax.
I am pretty happy with how this turned out, and it feels amazing!
Now just to decide what to do with the rest of the body, whether I stain to match the neck, or use the wax for the entire body.
I would love to know your thoughts and If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
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