What's on your work bench?

[ChAoZ]

Oh no, 'lucky' they still have nickel in stock

I dunno.... Think about it for a moment. You've got a neck that's partly fretted and partly fretless. I'm not saying Jay's expression is the ideal design but as a concept I think it's interesting.

I have plenty of Jescar jumbo Nickel here - and their stainless too, but I would really like it all to match

[jeremyb]

More like the work bed than bench but started to strip the Baretta and check out the new parts for size... so found a few issues so far:

1. Need to enlarge the pickup cavity in the corners to fit a covered pickup, will need to paint said corners once done...
2. Need to fill the pickup ring screw holes and drill for the new chrome ring.
3. VegaTrem requires the spring claw to be positioned such that the springs are parallel with the body, so I need to relocate that.
4. To relocate the spring claw I need to fill the existing holes and use a really long drill bit for the new holes... I had a cheap idea and will get a hex drive drill bit and use it with an extension I have for hex bits.

No doubt more things will crop up as I get further into this

[jeremyb]

3. VegaTrem requires the spring claw to be positioned such that the springs are parallel with the body, so I need to relocate that.

No I don't, the holes are drilled on an angle and the claw was butted hard up against the body so unscrewing it raises it up... might put something under the claw to keep it in place, but one less job is a good thing!

[jeremyb]

1. Need to enlarge the pickup cavity in the corners to fit a covered pickup, will need to paint said corners once done...
2. Need to fill the pickup ring screw holes and drill for the new chrome ring.

The benefits of a good nights sleep, sized up the pickup and it was just the lip on the bottom corners of the cover which was the cause of it not fitting, taped up the pickup and filed those back and it fitted perfectly, two of the holes for the ring lined up when the pickup was installed so drilled a couple of new ones for the other two, pickup mounted!

[jeremyb]

This is gonna fight me all the way I can see it, got the Vega trem installed today and strung, but I can't get the E strings the same distance from each side of the neck as one would normally expect, maybe need to route a bit out of the trem cavity on the high E side a dash... arses... didn't want to have to deal with paint... anyway, pickup wiring and action setup tomorrow hopefully, then I think I'll take it to Alan Farrow to install the new nut and advise what to do about the string alignment...

[Bg]

Loosen neck bolts , twist , then tighten?

[jeremyb]

Loosen neck bolts , twist , then tighten?

I did give that a crack might try again tomorrow, it was pretty snug in the pocket!!

[Bg]

Loosen neck bolts , twist , then tighten?

I did give that a crack might try again tomorrow, it was pretty snug in the pocket!!

Try with the side of the body on the ground and a knee.... it sounds crazy but it works.

Else give it a bit more movement by scraping either pocket or neck.

Hows the spacing at the nut?

[jeremyb]

Loosen neck bolts , twist , then tighten?

I did give that a crack might try again tomorrow, it was pretty snug in the pocket!!

Try with the side of the body on the ground and a knee.... it sounds crazy but it works.

Hows the spacing at the nut?

Nut spacing may be an issue, I have a new nut to go on it but will get Alan to do that

[jeremyb]

Update, nut spacing was fine, I drilled the neck holes in the body out to 5.5mm so the screws weren't threading into that so I could get a bit of movement, then was able to adjust the neck position in the pocket to get the string alignment all lovely, yay!

Nothing like being able to do guitar work during boring work meetings where you're just there to make up numbers

[AiRdAd]

Update, nut spacing was fine, I drilled the neck holes in the body out to 5.5mm so the screws weren't threading into that so I could get a bit of movement, then was able to adjust the neck position in the pocket to get the string alignment all lovely, yay!

Nothing like being able to do guitar work during boring work meetings where you're just there to make up numbers

At work, I tell people that my camera doesn't work - so that I can do other things while I'm listening

[jeremyb]

Update, nut spacing was fine, I drilled the neck holes in the body out to 5.5mm so the screws weren't threading into that so I could get a bit of movement, then was able to adjust the neck position in the pocket to get the string alignment all lovely, yay!

Nothing like being able to do guitar work during boring work meetings where you're just there to make up numbers

At work, I tell people that my camera doesn't work - so that I can do other things while I'm listening

Unless its a small number present I generally turn my camera off too, no one minds as they're all geeks too

[jeremyb]

Just noticed a bit of a gap on the top side of the neck with the body now... can fit a sheet of paper in there and the neck goes over the pocket on the bottom side... fiddlesticks, its gonna be a player not a show pony so amount of caring decreased..

*edit* loosened the screws a quarter turn while under string tension and its settled into a better place and the alignment is still pretty good, gappage far more reasonable now, phew.

[jeremyb]

Wired her up, everything works first time, crikey! Push-pull setup for series / parallel switching

[NippleWrestler]

Series/parallel is the way. I've been doing it ever since trying it about 10 years ago on a mates guitar. It's so much more usable than coil taps.