Biggest building pain in the butt?

[tfarny]

Just discovered my new least favorite: Installing kluson-style tuners! What a pain.

 

[bpmorton777]

If I had known how much of a pain it was going to be to fill mahogany I would have gone with alder for my build....Mahogany is a beautiful wood but I will never again want to work with it. I also do like wireing up pickguards...

Brian

 

[SkuttleFunk]

wow - you all are such a bunch of whiners!

  :icon_jokercolor:

for me it's definitely Sperzel's - not even leveling an epoxied 6-string fretless bass fingerboard comes close to getting those Sperzel alignment pins all perfectly aligned. I've stopped using them for just this reason

all the best,

R

 

[nathan a]

Man you guys are nuts, my sperzels look great! All i did was draw a line with a straightedge...

 

[Orpheo]

Man you guys are nuts, my sperzels look great! All i did was draw a line with a straightedge...

what I do, is measure up exactly how far the pin should be from the big hole, and indeed, with a straightedge, draw a line.

 

[jackthehack]

Man you guys are nuts, my sperzels look great! All i did was draw a line with a straightedge...

what I do, is measure up exactly how far the pin should be from the big hole, and indeed, with a straightedge, draw a line.

Unfortumately, the Sperzels they sell from StewMac.com, at least, wind up cockeyed even if you draw that line with a straightedge centered on the tuner holes, gave up on them after the 3rd set and use Planet Waves now....

 

[SkuttleFunk]

Man you guys are nuts, my sperzels look great! All i did was draw a line with a straightedge...

what I do, is measure up exactly how far the pin should be from the big hole, and indeed, with a straightedge, draw a line.

but then one man's perfection is another mans glaring mis-alignment. let me confess right here and now that I use a dial caliper to perfect the spacing and alignment of tuner keys. you may not notice a gap variance of 1/64" ... but I do!

all the best,

R

 

[BobR55]

Regarding the pots. They often come with a polymer coating to resist corrosion. Remove a spot with sandpaper and your solder will stick.

 

[Orpheo]

Man you guys are nuts, my sperzels look great! All i did was draw a line with a straightedge...

what I do, is measure up exactly how far the pin should be from the big hole, and indeed, with a straightedge, draw a line.

but then one man's perfection is another mans glaring mis-alignment. let me confess right here and now that I use a dial caliper to perfect the spacing and alignment of tuner keys. you may not notice a gap variance of 1/64" ... but I do!

all the best,

R

just as straight as can be. its not rocketscience you know.

 

[jackthehack]

Man you guys are nuts, my sperzels look great! All i did was draw a line with a straightedge...

what I do, is measure up exactly how far the pin should be from the big hole, and indeed, with a straightedge, draw a line.

but then one man's perfection is another mans glaring mis-alignment. let me confess right here and now that I use a dial caliper to perfect the spacing and alignment of tuner keys. you may not notice a gap variance of 1/64" ... but I do!

all the best,

R

just as straight as can be. its not rocketscience you know.

That's NOT the point!!! I used a T-square on a drafting table to draw my straight line. Of the three sets of Sperzels I installed ALL had at least 2 and as many as 4 tuners that had the guide pins off center enough to visibly cant the tuner off center and I had to remove them and widen the hole in one direction or another to get them all 6 to mount straight

 

[dbw]

This doesn't really qualify as a pain in the butt, but as long as we're all whining... I hate how GUITARS DON'T HAVE STRINGS when you're building them!  Duh, you say, of course they don't... but I hate working without getting any feedback that what I'm doing is actually going to work.  Maybe I should take up xylophone-making??

 

[nathan a]

This doesn't really qualify as a pain in the butt, but as long as we're all whining... I hate how GUITARS DON'T HAVE STRINGS when you're building them!   Duh, you say, of course they don't... but I hate working without getting any feedback that what I'm doing is actually going to work.  Maybe I should take up xylophone-making??

I am so glad you put this into words. So true! I end up plugging in my mangled mass of electronics mid-solder and poking at the pickup poles with screwdrivers to check the sound, all the whole hoping i don't somehow electrocute myself.

 

[stubhead]

If you plug your "mess" in, then hold it up in front of a guitar on a stand with strings that are vibrating because you just whanged them, the "mess" will either pick up the string vibrations - or not. It probably looks pretty comical, from an outsider's perspective. :toothy12:

 

[Orpheo]

Man you guys are nuts, my sperzels look great! All i did was draw a line with a straightedge...

what I do, is measure up exactly how far the pin should be from the big hole, and indeed, with a straightedge, draw a line.

but then one man's perfection is another mans glaring mis-alignment. let me confess right here and now that I use a dial caliper to perfect the spacing and alignment of tuner keys. you may not notice a gap variance of 1/64" ... but I do!

all the best,

R

just as straight as can be. its not rocketscience you know.

That's NOT the point!!! I used a T-square on a drafting table to draw my straight line. Of the three sets of Sperzels I installed ALL had at least 2 and as many as 4 tuners that had the guide pins off center enough to visibly cant the tuner off center and I had to remove them and widen the hole in one direction or another to get them all 6 to mount straight

use a centrepunch to make the hole (or the old nail+hammer trick?) and then drill the pilot hole.

 

[blue313]

For basic functionality, hold a vibrating tuning fork in front of the pickup instead of tapping.  It should pick that up too, and its a bit less awkward than another guitar

 

[Mr Real Nice]

Regarding grain-filling mahogany, I don't see what the big deal is.  I used this stuff:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_supplies/Fillers_and_putties/Lawrence-McFadden_Grain_Filler.html

I put on 3 coats if I remember correctly, sanded it back, and it was smooth as could be.  I know most people here have more experience than I do (this is my first guitar build) but I'm just saying I had really good results with this stuff, I guess.

 

[SkuttleFunk]

Orpheo -

you miss what several here are pointing out in various ways of saying it

R

 

[Tim Rinkerman]

For you guys having trouble soldering to the back of pots...at least a 45-50 watt iron, and rub the tip of the iron no more than 1/8" back and forth on the pot while feeding a small amount of solder to the pot. The more solder you try to feed, the more you cool the tip. The amount of metal in the pot makes a gret heat sink, you need more than usual to get it to melt...rubbing the tip cleans surface contaminants off the pot while the melting rosin core gets the metal ready to accept the solder. I've been welding/soldering for 40 years, I got it in the first 2.

 

[stubhead]

I wonder if the Stew-Mac Sperzels are some kind of Asian imitation, either "licensed by" or just total frauds? Grovers are now made by Ping in China, and they're not even the good Pings, like Ibanez use - they're bottom-feeders, go crunchy within a few years. Restorers are going crazy trying to buy new-old-stock Grovers for their $30,000 Martins and D'Angelicos.

Stew-Mac sold the fake Bill Lawrence pickups for years, until they got reamed enough and concerned about their own reputation. I like some of their products, but they'll definitely go to the low side -

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,_necks,_wood/Electric_guitar:_Bodies/Flametop-S_Rear-routed_Guitar_Bodies.html

$197! That "spectacular quilted maple top" is 3/32" thick... then again, I love these:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Nuts,_saddles/Special_tools_for:_Nuts_and_saddles/String_Lifter.html
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_supplies/Polishing_and_abrasives/Fret_Dressing_Stick.html

Seemingly, the less you spend at Stew-Mac, the more you get... :hello2:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Measuring_tools/6_Steel_Rule.html - Hey - aren't these 97 cents at Ace Hardware? :toothy12:

 

[Cymbaline]

Well, for me, it's the body ferrules. Hour upon hour upon hour with tiny little bits of sandpaper, up and down, around and around, blow of the dust, test fit, yell at the dog because yet more needs to come out, repeat, and then repeat six more times. There has to be a better way.

At any rate, what's the one part of assembling a Warmoth that you dread most?

Rich

Enlarging tuner holes after finishing the headstock and the holes are now all full of lacquer.  Sand - test fit - sand some more - test fit again - sand some more - test fit - Ah! it fits!  Now for the A string... sand - test fit - sand......