Stuffed Nut
Things are busy again at work and I have started this Wood Finishing Course so I haven't had a lot of time to work on the guitar.
I have shaped the nut ,which came out OK,but I wiped some lead pencil marks off it with turps and it has stained it....
This neck set is still driving me mad.I had it set up so that the straight edge just skimmed over the bridge by about .5 mm as in Stewmacs instructions.
I put the last frets in the other day and put the neck back on ,and now the straight edge runs about 3 mm above the bridge....
I am not sure if it the top moving around, or its because the fretboard has moved a bit with the last frets in.
I really don't want to start taking more off the shoulders at the moment!!
posted by Greg @ 6:24 pm
4 Comments:
What has your humidity been doing? Is the top sinking because the guitar is drying out? How is the back, is it sinking too? It sounds like you definately have something moving around. If you just put the last frets in the fingerboard extension, it might be curving the extension ever so slightly knocking the rest of the neck out of line. When I set my necks up, I always tighten the bolts down pretty tightly while I am checking things because I have found tightening the bolt can make a big difference from what clamping or holding the neck in place by hand as far as the neck set goes. I also do my neck setting after all the frets are installed.
If you think about it, installing the frets in the extension can cause it to bow down towards the top. Pushing the neck in so the extension is flat against the top will cause the rest of the neck to push back a tiny bit. That will raise the straight edge quite a bit at the bridge location. From the 12th fret to the bridge is a 2:1 ratio so if it raised 3mm at the bridge, it moved 1.5mm at the 12th fret. That translates to .75mm at the nut. A very small amount of movement that can easily be caused by the fingerboard extension curving.
I wish you luck with the set. It can be frustrating but I am sure you will get it all figured out and you will be playing it in no time!
Whoops, slight error in my math and fret number. Since the 14th (sorry I have 12 on my mind since I am building a 12 fret right now) is the pivot point, the nut will move 3mm back to get 3mm at the saddle. I really shouldn't try and do numbers when I am tired!
Hi David,
This is driving me crazeeeee.The room has a Dehumidifier in it and is kept pretty constant at 45%...
I checked it again and its is now about .75mm above the bridge,which I don't know if this enough to worry about.
I think you are right about the last frets causing the problem.
Cheers
Greg
.75mm isn't all that much, but I would still try and get it a bit closer. When I did my first dreadnought, the straight edge went over about 1mm. The only issue it caused is that the saddle is kind of high. I ended up cracking a saddle because it was too high, but it also had high action. I lowered the action and now the saddle is better. On my last two builds, I spent a lot more time working on the neck angle so that the straight edge just skims over the bridge.
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