Dudelets, this is sooper, sooper EeeZee. FoolProof. You get a hardwood sanding block, specifically 1.5" wide. Because of this specific width, it is nigh-on IMPOSSIBLE to re-angle the neck pocket unevenly, lumpy, high spots/low spots. There is a TINY bit of tidying up to do, more in a bit here. There are loverly 1.5" x 1.5" X 6" gorgeous hardwood CHUNKS all the frick all OVER the place (well, Ebay) - DUCK Call...turning blanks:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=duck+call+wood+turning+blanks&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.TRS0&_nkw=duck+call+wood+turning+blanks&_sacat=0
Somehow I don't think the ducks are all THAT terrified... mebbe
SPLURGE WILDLY, get an assortment for 15 smackers or something - LIVE a LITTLE, you'll be sawing on that stuff and cramming weird wood into weird places before you know it! Yay.
PERFECTING NECK POCKETS 101
It is VERY IMPORTANT to know EXACTLY WHAT you're trying to do. How much off, from where, what's the new angle RELATIVE to the old one. This is where you have a MONSTROUS advantage over the li'l techwads at Gender & Fibson, in that
THEY have to work to assembly-line spec,
YOU just have to fit
YOUR neck onto
YOUR body.
YOU can make a guitar that, in that regard, is BETTER than Feckenbaker and Iballacorkelly can EVER be, at least until someone executes the SAME kind of anal/compulsive obsession with perfection. A Win-Win scenario!
If it's needed , I will SHIM a neck if it's brand-new, because the neck is inevitably going to settle-in for a few seasonal changes, "Plek'ing" a new guitar is a bit silly in that regard. If they were SERIOUS they'd include a CERTIFICATE to get it Plek'd after a YEAR or two, shipping to-and-fro included. A MAJOR reason old guitars (CAN!) play extremely well is that they have gotten ALL the adolescent micro-warpy fidgiting OVER WITH, mebbe the TWO times needed, mebbe even the micro-precision doo-dah that comes with the THIRD round through all the details.... And THEN, and ONLY then, they began to play with the righteous authority of... PERFECTION! So a righteously leveled/crown n' polish'd - AND SETTLED - bugger will STAY rightous.
(Having PERFECT things in your life is a
necessary and BIG step towards self-autonomy. Or at least, when your betters (there is ALWAYS one somewhere) picks up YOUR guitar and begins to rip out ridiculously-gleamy hot shit, YOU, at least, now KNOW why your music sucks. And it AIN'T the git... :sad1:
A year in, the proper shim will give you an EXTREMELY accurate notion of what wood needs to be atomized where. AND: the turtle is a godsend, you just have to decide if you're decapitating heads or loppin' off his feets. But the depth of the turtle is stamped haphazardly. To get depth gauges efficiently, use a drill bit, 1/8", 3/32", whatever, and run a few shallow divots into the wood of the pocket, just for eyeball-measuring the relative re-angling you do. NO IT'S NOT "PRECIOUS" friggin' "tonewood." You've removed like TWO CUBIC MILLIMETERS of wood to help make your guitar be EVER-PERFECTER than poor Leo's.
And then, Bingo! Tora! Tora! Tora! "I regret that I have but one life to nar, nar nar...."
50 grit we/dry paper, "Gator Grip" right now. You KNOW what angle you need and how to take off enough wood to do it, just wail away! The 50-grit stuff is POWERFUL, stop - a LOT - check what you're doing with:
A) the neck AND the body, and your great, reliable:
B) straight, straight, straight edge; of COURSE you do...(?) I use drafting tools, cheap, perfect.
C) Whatever facsimile of "bridge height" and "nut height" (from the GROOVE not the TOP of nut!)
Put the bridge on, Tape? whatever. By this stage I have mebbe a dozen "Fender" nuts, different heights, different gauges*, you'll figure out something... I do OCCASIONALLY sacrifice a low and a high string, too, but:
The Heavily-PIMPED, Strictly-ORDERED, SHAMEFUL ATROCITY! 0f throwing AWAY a billion or so strings while you do setups, because you've been CONNED by... well, shit I used to LIKE "PREMIER GUITAR" before their transformation into just another Floating-Ass Palace Of Purveyor Pimpery....(F.A.P.O.P.P.) Dammit. Dagnabbit....
FAPOPP??? Put a CAPO on the strings at the 2nd fret, loosen the strings; if you've got pickguard controls there are limits, be careful - but opportunities abound! YOU CAN DO ALL THIS SHIT WITHOUT RUINING STRINGS. I have written PREMIE-GIT about it SO-OO SO-OO many times, squawked exclusively happy, sad, funny, evil - yet their instructions remain the same, thoughtless, lazy, EEEVVV-ILLLE. :dontknow: :sad1:
:evil4:
The corners of the Pockets - The ends! Trot down to the hardware store/Ebay and get two Stanley wood chisels, 1/4" and 3/8." You will use them forever or the rest of your life, whichever comes first. This'ms:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Stanley-Wood-Chisels-3-8-10MM-1-4-6mm-16-904-16-903-BRAND-NEW-/152018904534?hash=item23650865d6:g:YpwAAOSwu1VW6qgx
They come from the factory RAZOR sharp, and unless you're wierd as me you may never even need to re-sharpened with a touch-up. But I LIKE chiselin' &... JUST KEEP
CHECKING WHAT YOU DO!
A 36" "drafting tool" T-Square - $20? $22.97? Sumptin'....
CHECKING as you go... You CAN'T snork it up! you CAN'T!! (all the little grommets at Fengibackeribanechter are totally jealous...) Yes they CAN and DO grind out marvy instruments right
up to the 95% complete stage. AND IT'S THE LAST 5% that counts. I swear on my monkey's BALLS that the "Fender Custom Shop" consists of some dude that goes out on the line, waits till a purdy bod goes by, hands it to the finishing guy - the REGULAR one - and says do THIS one right! The Mr. + $3,000 "Custom" guy snatches it back up, MAKES A BONER NUT, sets it up and let'er rip. + $3,000....
PLASTIC NUT = HURRIED GIT.
BONER NUT = somebody CARES.
*(AND, by NOW, a good assortment of height-adjustment saddle screws. I did the shortening bit for a while, but the bottoms need to be re-rounded to put a CONE on the bottom end? Good luck. Durt cheep:
http://www.stratcat.biz/hardware-screws-saddle-height.shtml
