My First Build - and a couple of questions

[PeteNelson]

Hi all - this is my first post here, and I'm working on my first build, so I'm a complete noob. As usual, I've probably bitten off a little more than I can chew, but I'll just keep making sawdust until I either have a guitar or a pile of sawdust!

Anyway, I wanted to build a guitar from my own design, but I know that I don't have either the skills or the tools to build a neck, so I bought a body blank and a neck (with a straight paddle head) from Warmoth, and had Warmoth do the neck pocket routing. Everything else, I'm attempting to do myself. I've gotten to the point where I have the body basically shaped, and the headstock shaped and drilled. I'm using Steinberger gearless tuners, and I installed those today to get them test fitted. Everything is going ok so far, but I think I've made a rookie mistake on spacing the tuners, and I am hoping that people with more experience than me can tell me if I'm completely hosed or not.

I've attached a couple of pics showing the whole guitar and a close-up of the headstock. It's a really basic design for the head, but for my woodworking skills (or lack thereof), I think it looks ok. The issue that I think that I will have is that I didn't allow for enough space between the tuners, so the tuners are going to interfere with the strings. I didn't account for the size of the tuner bodies when I laid out the head design - not thinking about the fact that the Steinberger tuners have a pretty big diameter compared to typical tuner pegs. Anyway, is this going to totally mess up the guitar when it is strung, or will it really not matter (other than looking bad)?

My other question - I was reading some of the other posts, and some of you all seem to be pretty expert when it comes to finishing. I want to finish this guitar in a high-gloss piano black (yeah, I know...). I have some ideas on how to do that (after doing quite a bit of research), but maybe some of you all have experience with this kind of finish that I can learn from. I don't have spray equipment, so the "traditional" sprayed-on lacquer finish won't work for me - brush-on (or spray cans) and wet sanding and polishing are what I'm pretty much limited to.

Any feedback is really appreciated!!

 

[PeteNelson]

Hmm - I may have found at least part of the answer to my question about doing a piano black finish in the earlier post about India ink. That looks great!  :hello2:

 

[PeteNelson]

Another quick update - I got a few pieces of wire (I don't have any strings laying around right now) and strung them between the locking nut and the tuners, and it looks like there will be just barely enough clearance, so I think the head will be ok. It might not look great, but at least it will work.

 

[stratamania]

You could also try running some of the wire or string to the outside of the tuner rather than the inside. Once the locknuts tightened down it won't matter as much then.

By the way the nut clamping blocks in the lock nut are 90 degrees from how they should be.

 

[PeteNelson]

Thanks, Strat - I think the head will be ok, after I checked it. The Steinberger tuners are kinda unusual, in that the strings don't wrap around the peg. They go *through* a hole in the peg, and then when the knob on the back of the head is turned, it pulls the string down into the tuner body, which tightens it, or loosens it, depending on which way the knob is turned (of course). So, there's really only one path that the strings can take from the nut to the tuner.

Anyway, as I said, I am a complete noob at this. I don't even own an electric guitar, just an acoustic, so any comments or advice people have, I appreciate. Thanks for catching that the nut locks are 90 degrees out of phase (so to speak). I wondered if I had them wrong, and I couldn't remember which way they were on when I got it.  :tard:

I got the neck plate today, so now I can attach the neck to the body and see how it feels. Right now it feels like there are about a million ways to screw this whole thing up. I haven't gotten the bridge yet, but I'm putting a Graphtech Ghost Floyd Rose bridge on it, and I'm pretty worried about getting it positioned and routed correctly. Right now that seems like the biggest hurdle, but there sure are a lot more!

 

[stratamania]

OK, I hadn't noticed it was that type of tuner.

If you are fitting a Floyd or any bridge or tremolo, the measurements and angles are important.  The best thing is to measure twice or more and cut once. And practice on scrap first.

As you noticed with the tuners, angles and alignment etc are key.

Good luck...

 

[Slackjaw]

By the way the nut clamping blocks in the lock nut are 90 degrees from how they should be.

I have an original Floyd that I purchased circa early 1984... from the first Kramer distribution. The clamping blocks were machined incorrectly, so the position shown would be correct!

 

[stratamania]

By the way the nut clamping blocks in the lock nut are 90 degrees from how they should be.

I have an original Floyd that I purchased circa early 1984... from the first Kramer distribution. The clamping blocks were machined incorrectly, so the position shown would be correct!

Oh Kramer got it wrong too ?

I've also had a Floyd on a Hamer since then.

Here's a reference http://www.floydrose.com/catalog/parts/original-series/locking-nut

 

[Slackjaw]

Oh Kramer got it wrong too ?

I've also had a Floyd on a Hamer since then.

Here's a reference http://www.floydrose.com/catalog/parts/original-series/locking-nut

What do you mean... you had a Hamer that also had wrongly machined clamping blocks? My Floyd was never on a Kramer... it was only licensed/manufactured through them, and quite a few of the early ones immediately after the licensing deal had this flaw. If the Hamer had a bad one, then that was also Kramer's fault.

The flaw was that if you properly aligned the clamping block to the arc of the nut, the "hump" on the top was (incorrectly) aligned parallel to the frets (like Pete's picture shows)...

 

[stratamania]

No mine were correctly aligned, the hump runs inline with the length of the neck as do the clamps for the strings,

If the OP turns it 90% as in his photo the string clamps won't be inline as it looks like he has a new Floyd not one from the 80s that has a machining error.

They should look like the nut and clamps in the link I posted.

 

[PeteNelson]

Well, yesterday and today, I did some routing for the Ghost Floyd Rose bridge on the guitar (still have more to do), and I put the bridge on, and strung up the guitar. I wanted to see if it would tune correctly, since if it wouldn't tune, then I might as well turn it into (expensive) kindling. Fortunately, it looks like it's tunable! Although, I have to say, getting a good tune with the locking nuts is kind of a pain. The Steinberger gearless tuners work great, though. It's just that after getting the guitar tuned with the tuners, it immediately goes out of tune when the locking nut is screwed down, and the micro-tuners don't have much range to get it back. Of course, you all know that far better than I do.

Doing the routing for the bridge was far, far harder than I expected, but I eventually got it done. I don't have a good router, so I thought I could do it with my Dremel and a router attachment. It was a big mistake. Before I go any further, I'm going to buy a decent router with a good cutting bit and a bearing so I can follow a template better. Anyway, I think it's gonna work out, but after seeing the unbelievable work that other folks are doing, I'm too embarrassed to post any photos. I'm strictly an amateur.  :sad:

 

[SustainerPlayer]

It's just that after getting the guitar tuned with the tuners, it immediately goes out of tune when the locking nut is screwed down, and the micro-tuners don't have much range to get it back. Of course, you all know that far better than I do.

If it goes out of tune when locking down it means that the string retainer bar is not making the correct angle behind the nut. If the string retainer bar is in the correct height the strings will hardly go out of tune when the string locks are tightened.

 

[PeteNelson]

Thanks for the advice, Sust. I don't have a string bar on my guitar, and I don't know if I've seen one on other guitars with trems before. Is a string bar something that people usually use with a locking nut and trem system?

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Thanks for the advice, Sust. I don't have a string bar on my guitar, and I don't know if I've seen one on other guitars with trems before. Is a string bar something that people usually use with a locking nut and trem system?

If the guitar doesn't have an angled headstock (and at a prober angle mind you) - it will always have a string retainer bar when having a Floyd Rose-style locking nut.

 

[PeteNelson]

Aha, ok. That makes sense. I'll have to buy one and put on my headstock. It should help alleviate my tuning pains!

 

[Cagey]

If the guitar doesn't have an angled headstock (and at a prober angle mind you) - it will always have a string retainer bar when having a Floyd Rose-style locking nut.

Why? Everything north of a locking nut is moot. Once the thing is tuned and clamped, you could actually cut the strings off north of the nut and you wouldn't miss them. If you run out of adjustment at the bridge, it's probably well past time to change the strings and reset the bridge tuners anyway.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Why? Everything north of a locking nut is moot. Once the thing is tuned and clamped, you could actually cut the strings off north of the nut and you wouldn't miss them. If you run out of adjustment at the bridge, it's probably well past time to change the strings and reset the bridge tuners anyway.

Please reread the other posts. It is about what happen before and when you lock the nut - not after.