DangerousR6
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I'll make you a special locking nut for your bass Gary... :laughing7:Super Turbo Deluxe Custom said:
Tom P.'s eBay Project
- Thread starter TomPerverteau
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TomPerverteau
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I've been using locking systems since there's BEEN locking systems, and for some reason it never made me stop playing wrong notes.
W
whyachi
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DangerousR6 said:
Come to think of it, my strap locks. I guess I don't have an excuse for poor playing now.
TomPerverteau
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I bet you never hit a wrong note if you have a locking strap!
Hey, the nut got here today. The mounting holes are in a slightly different place, and the height may be a bit different. The width looks about right. I'll have a new post with photos soon.
Hey, the nut got here today. The mounting holes are in a slightly different place, and the height may be a bit different. The width looks about right. I'll have a new post with photos soon.
TomPerverteau
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New Nut Day!
The new nut is visibly wider than the OFR one. It feels plenty heavy, and looks to be every bit as well-made as the OFR nut.
The OFR nut says "R7S" & stuff. The new one from Warmoth is blank.
The new nut looks like a much better fit to the width of this neck. The mounting holes do not line up.
It's real close to the "one size narrower than recommended" fit that I like to use. A little extra room at the edge of the fretboard for the high E.
Oh, look here. This new nut is obviously taller than the OFR one. I will have to put the neck back on the milling machine!
This SculpWood 2-part epoxy wood filler is $35 at Rockler's. That means it's a little cheaper anywhere else. It can be drilled, tapped, sawed, filed, sanded, painted, stained, or whatever. Way out of my budget right now! I need so little of it that my dad just let me use some of his.
The SculpWood has to be used within 15 minutes, so I kept mixing small batches as I worked. I used it on the old tuner screw holes, some filling around the edges of the headstock, the tiny gaps in the "shelf" glue joint, and the mounting holes for the OFR nut. I rolled it into little mouse turds & stuffed it into the holes. I tamped it down with this little tool I made from safety wire to ensure I had completely filled the holes. I cut a straight edge into this plastic knife to spread or scrape it like peanut butter to toast. The SculpWood can be sanded in 4 hours.
Well now! I need to get this to my dad's shop where there are precision machines. I have to mill the "shelf" and bore the mounting holes all over again to fit the new nut. I have decided to take some advice I got on the other site and bore all the way through the neck to bolt the nut on solidly from the back. I'll have the use of Forstner bits & endmills, so I will be able to make some nice bolt holes. This will allow me a bit of side-to-side adjustability, and I won't have to worry about the nut coming loose & moving around under hard bar use. I certainly would not need that at a show: "Why does this thing keep falling out of tune?" After some thought, I figure that's a worthwhile tradeoff for having visible holes in the back of the neck.
The new nut is visibly wider than the OFR one. It feels plenty heavy, and looks to be every bit as well-made as the OFR nut.
The OFR nut says "R7S" & stuff. The new one from Warmoth is blank.
The new nut looks like a much better fit to the width of this neck. The mounting holes do not line up.
It's real close to the "one size narrower than recommended" fit that I like to use. A little extra room at the edge of the fretboard for the high E.
Oh, look here. This new nut is obviously taller than the OFR one. I will have to put the neck back on the milling machine!
This SculpWood 2-part epoxy wood filler is $35 at Rockler's. That means it's a little cheaper anywhere else. It can be drilled, tapped, sawed, filed, sanded, painted, stained, or whatever. Way out of my budget right now! I need so little of it that my dad just let me use some of his.
The SculpWood has to be used within 15 minutes, so I kept mixing small batches as I worked. I used it on the old tuner screw holes, some filling around the edges of the headstock, the tiny gaps in the "shelf" glue joint, and the mounting holes for the OFR nut. I rolled it into little mouse turds & stuffed it into the holes. I tamped it down with this little tool I made from safety wire to ensure I had completely filled the holes. I cut a straight edge into this plastic knife to spread or scrape it like peanut butter to toast. The SculpWood can be sanded in 4 hours.
Well now! I need to get this to my dad's shop where there are precision machines. I have to mill the "shelf" and bore the mounting holes all over again to fit the new nut. I have decided to take some advice I got on the other site and bore all the way through the neck to bolt the nut on solidly from the back. I'll have the use of Forstner bits & endmills, so I will be able to make some nice bolt holes. This will allow me a bit of side-to-side adjustability, and I won't have to worry about the nut coming loose & moving around under hard bar use. I certainly would not need that at a show: "Why does this thing keep falling out of tune?" After some thought, I figure that's a worthwhile tradeoff for having visible holes in the back of the neck.
TomPerverteau
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Milling the "shelf" for the taller nut took the same setup I already posted photos of.
The bass side still has some meat on it...
The treble side, however, got milled down to paper-thin to fit the new nut.
I left the neck set up where it was on the milling machine and just switched to a drill bit to bore all the way through. This photo shows the crude setup I used at the drill press to counterbore for the screws using an endmill to make a nice, flat seat. Pure eyeball job!
I only counterbored deep enough for the screw heads not to stick out. The screws that came with the nut could have been a bit longer. Rather than remove more material from the neck to fit some cheap screws, I just stopped by the Ace Hardware for some longer ones.
The counterbores didn't come out perfect, but not bad for doing it by eye. I'm calling it good enough!
I opened the holes up a bit side-to-side with this small rat-tail file to allow myself some adjustment for aligning the strings.
This is as close as I'll get to the way I like to set them up with a nut this wide.
After cleaning up the edges of the counterbores a bit with sandpaper. At this point I can get back to work on the body because the neck is ready to use for locating the bridge. I can also start steel wooling & tung oiling the neck, and even painting the headstock face!
The bass side still has some meat on it...
The treble side, however, got milled down to paper-thin to fit the new nut.
I left the neck set up where it was on the milling machine and just switched to a drill bit to bore all the way through. This photo shows the crude setup I used at the drill press to counterbore for the screws using an endmill to make a nice, flat seat. Pure eyeball job!
I only counterbored deep enough for the screw heads not to stick out. The screws that came with the nut could have been a bit longer. Rather than remove more material from the neck to fit some cheap screws, I just stopped by the Ace Hardware for some longer ones.
The counterbores didn't come out perfect, but not bad for doing it by eye. I'm calling it good enough!
I opened the holes up a bit side-to-side with this small rat-tail file to allow myself some adjustment for aligning the strings.
This is as close as I'll get to the way I like to set them up with a nut this wide.
After cleaning up the edges of the counterbores a bit with sandpaper. At this point I can get back to work on the body because the neck is ready to use for locating the bridge. I can also start steel wooling & tung oiling the neck, and even painting the headstock face!
TonyFlyingSquirrel
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Considering what this project has been through, it's actually looking pretty decent. Your patience & precision should pay off.
whitebison66
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I second Tony's sentiment you're doing a great job rehabbing this guitar.
While the Warmoth/Schaller nut isn't cheap, I don't think its expensive. It's a unique item, made by a company renowned for their quality, and locking nuts are definitely worth what you pay for them. Having wrestled with cheaper locking nuts, I am sure you'll be glad you spent the $!
While the Warmoth/Schaller nut isn't cheap, I don't think its expensive. It's a unique item, made by a company renowned for their quality, and locking nuts are definitely worth what you pay for them. Having wrestled with cheaper locking nuts, I am sure you'll be glad you spent the $!
TomPerverteau
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Thanks, guys!
It was Tony's advice on the other site that made me decide to bolt the nut on from the back. Yes, I have seen & felt those crappy FRL nuts, and they aren't worth the thirteen bucks they cost! I'm trying not to make any compromises on this thing. It should be absolutely killer without costing a whole lot of money.
This should really start taking shape once the holes for the bridge studs are bored. That will be next.
It was Tony's advice on the other site that made me decide to bolt the nut on from the back. Yes, I have seen & felt those crappy FRL nuts, and they aren't worth the thirteen bucks they cost! I'm trying not to make any compromises on this thing. It should be absolutely killer without costing a whole lot of money.
This should really start taking shape once the holes for the bridge studs are bored. That will be next.
TomPerverteau
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Things are getting interesting/frustrating!
I got this PRS-shape truss rod cover on eBay. It wasn't beveled or countersunk (like PRS) so I sent it back. The guy has one on its way to me now that is beveled & countersunk.
25" bridge-to-nut, right?
With the saddles on the middle hole & at the middle of their adjustment slots, here is where the bridge lands at 25".
With the saddles at the closest hole & all the way close in their adjustment slots, here is where the bridge lands at 25".
My son thinks he is helping me measure.
StewMac's handy fret & bridge placement calculator says the studs for OFR should be here, 24.51".
That looks like about the same 1/4" too far away from the nut. To bore the holes for the studs centered at 24.51" would cut right into the factory bridge route.
I want 25" with all adjustment right in the middle. This body's original bridge route is too long for 25" scale! That is a whole new mystery that I really don't even care to explore at this point. I obviously have much more filling & milling to do than I thought. Still, I can't help but wonder how this body got out set up for about a 25.25" scale!
The only thing to do is to keep on fixing. I have only begun to imagine how I will center the brigde side-to-side. This project is getting to be a major pain.
I got this PRS-shape truss rod cover on eBay. It wasn't beveled or countersunk (like PRS) so I sent it back. The guy has one on its way to me now that is beveled & countersunk.
25" bridge-to-nut, right?
With the saddles on the middle hole & at the middle of their adjustment slots, here is where the bridge lands at 25".
With the saddles at the closest hole & all the way close in their adjustment slots, here is where the bridge lands at 25".
My son thinks he is helping me measure.
StewMac's handy fret & bridge placement calculator says the studs for OFR should be here, 24.51".
That looks like about the same 1/4" too far away from the nut. To bore the holes for the studs centered at 24.51" would cut right into the factory bridge route.
I want 25" with all adjustment right in the middle. This body's original bridge route is too long for 25" scale! That is a whole new mystery that I really don't even care to explore at this point. I obviously have much more filling & milling to do than I thought. Still, I can't help but wonder how this body got out set up for about a 25.25" scale!
The only thing to do is to keep on fixing. I have only begun to imagine how I will center the brigde side-to-side. This project is getting to be a major pain.
DangerousR6
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I think you got it all wrong, or your calculations are off. Because as far as I know all Warmoth bodies are 25.5" scale, and as per Floyd Rose from the nut to the center of the bridge posts is 25.1685"... :dontknow:
The only difference on yours would be the spacing between the posts...
The only difference on yours would be the spacing between the posts...
TomPerverteau
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No. I'm right.
First, check out what scale lengths Warmoth builds 7-string necks & bodies in. Then see the beginning of this thread, which shows how some hackster butchered this body in a lame attempt to convert it to 25.5" scale.
First, check out what scale lengths Warmoth builds 7-string necks & bodies in. Then see the beginning of this thread, which shows how some hackster butchered this body in a lame attempt to convert it to 25.5" scale.
DangerousR6
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My bad, I didn't realize the 7 strings are 25" scale... :dontknow:TomPerverteau said:
TomPerverteau
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Oh, it's cool. I appreciate your participation and support.
They also make 7-strings in baritone. Two extremes! Nobody wants either one, so they don't sell many. I like the idea of 25" for my small hands as long as the low string doesn't get too "flubby." We'll see how it is.
They also make 7-strings in baritone. Two extremes! Nobody wants either one, so they don't sell many. I like the idea of 25" for my small hands as long as the low string doesn't get too "flubby." We'll see how it is.
TomPerverteau
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http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/Super7_7String25.aspx
Are you serious? There are 4 photos above showing a ruler or tape measure on the neck. + you can tell just by looking at it that it's not the 28.625" baritone neck.
Are you serious? There are 4 photos above showing a ruler or tape measure on the neck. + you can tell just by looking at it that it's not the 28.625" baritone neck.
interesting problem...
The Stewmac thingy is pretty reliable. I'm using it currently to change a Floyeded rhoads to a Tune-o matic, So i'm fillin an drillin.
I might suggest that you call up stewmac and talk to them. They are more than just order takers, know what I mean?
They should be able to help you with this, maybe even refer them to this thread.
The ONLY thing I can think of is maybe you don't want the studs centered on 24.51, maybe that should be the front edge? does that even make sense? hahaha. this is strange bird...i dunno, my face hurts. HAHHAA
The Stewmac thingy is pretty reliable. I'm using it currently to change a Floyeded rhoads to a Tune-o matic, So i'm fillin an drillin.
I might suggest that you call up stewmac and talk to them. They are more than just order takers, know what I mean?
They should be able to help you with this, maybe even refer them to this thread.
The ONLY thing I can think of is maybe you don't want the studs centered on 24.51, maybe that should be the front edge? does that even make sense? hahaha. this is strange bird...i dunno, my face hurts. HAHHAA
TomPerverteau
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Well, here's what's gonna happen regardless of who I call or ask, or what anybody suggests or recommends: With the saddles on their middle holes and at the middle of their adjustment slots, they will be 25" from the nut.
No matter how I end up doing it!
No matter how I end up doing it!
