Recent content by beltjones

Hopefully someone will find this helpful: The darker you stain a guitar, the less movement you will see in the grain. If the dye process starts with dying the wood completely black and sanding it back, you will see a lot less movement than another color scheme that has lighter colors. In other...

Before you make any other mods, and especially before you pay for anything, you ought to try what I'm suggesting. You can deck it, you can add all the springs, etc. If the posts (esp on Hipshot trems) aren't at the right height you're going to get tuning instability. Do this: Put on the trem...

When you use the tremolo, what does it feel like? Does it feel like it's slipping a little bit before it engages and the pitch of the strings goes down? I have a hunch that your decked tremolo would benefit from raising the high-e side post a tiny amount, not the the point of un-decking the...

Thank you for the quick reply! Wow! The main advantage is that they are the inserts I've already ordered. Heh. Judging from the picture they might be 5/16-14, which is an easier tap to find, which I guess is another "advantage." EDIT: They are 5/16-16, just like the brass inserts.

Do the stainless inserts (E-Z Lok 8-32, the same as you use but steel instead of brass) use the same tap?

If your tech honestly said that's a quartersawn neck I would stop him from working on it immediately. That's not quartersawn, and furthermore, birdseyes run laterally through growth rings and they don't look like that on quartersawn wood. You didn't say what the other neck is made of and...

Well, except that he posted a picture and YOU CAN SEE IT. I'm glad Warmoth is making it right, but I'm not surprised. Their customer service is among the best I've ever dealt with.

Regarding stability, I would say that the way the wood is cut matters more than the species. The tricky thing is that you have no way of knowing what internal stresses exist within a board until you cut it, and even then it can be difficult to know what stresses remain in the remaining pieces...

I would buy one with mounting holes for two reasons. 1, it will have much better resale value. I know, I know, everyone says "I'll never sell it," but why not have the option? 2. You can always transfer the neck to another body if you want to. It's easy to transfer the location of the holes to...

I've always found the nut width and the radius to matter more than the back of the neck shape for thumb over playing. A smaller nut and smaller radius make a big difference. With a 1 5/8" nut and 7.25" radius, a Clapton profile might feel a bit small. I'm actually sitting next to a tele that...

Excellent and helpful. FWIW, I could hear a slight difference with the bridge clean sound, but after that I couldn't hear anything.

Hardness / density aren't proxies for brightness. Rosewood is "darker" than maple, but it's also much denser and harder. Different woods have distinctly different tap tones, that's it. I'm not sure it's dependent on density and hardness.

Yep, that's how I judge them, too. 1 5/8 nut, 7.25" fretboard radius, the thumb practically lives over the top.

Interesting. I think 1.650 feels more like 1 5/8 than 1 11/16, and I too prefer a narrower nut.

Gotcha. Thanks for the insight.