Share some build Tips, please (21 questions, lol)

[Aussiephoenix]

In preparation for an upcoming build (Frankensteining Plus) project, I, the Noobius Supreme, need your tips on a few issues. First I'll Describe what the project holds in store for me:

Basically I have a Custom Body meant for a 5 String. it's shaping is unfinished, and there's been a start on the neck pocket, though that too was left unfinished.

The neck will be purchased, a Jazz 5 Replacement neck, which will probably be shaped too, and the headstock will be altered.

I have a few ideas for the hardware, but in the most part, nothing new there... Now that you have a general Idea, the specific issues so you can give me some tips/pointers. Feel free to post links in response to the specific issues so as not to repeat existing info:

[u][b]NECK POCKET[/b][/u]

[b]1) [/b]In shaping the neck pocket for the specific neck Im going to use, how do I make sure that the neck is completely inline with the centerline of the bass?

[b]2) [/b] How deep of a pocket should it be? Just the Fretboard sticking out or a little more?

[b]3) [/b] How do I make sure that the neck pocket isnt slanted down or up, so that the neck sits straight in relation to the boby top?

[u][b]HARDWARE PLACEMENT[/b][/u]

[b]4) [/b] How do I find the right place for the bridge? I know it has to do with the distance from the 12th to the bridge being the same as 12th to the nut, but even following that, sometimes i find that I'd placed the bridge slightly more towards the neck than I needed.

[b]5) [/b]How do I decide the positions of the pickups? there are so many examples to choose from. in my case I'll be using 2 soapbar type pups, probably Nordies Fat Stacks or something along those lines.

[u][b]ROUTING THE CAVITIES[/b][/u]

[b]6) [/b]How do I Safely use a router to open those holes? how do I keep the router on a straight line so as to cut the holes in a perfectly straight line? Templates? How do I make them? from what?

[b]7) [/b]How should I plan out the back routing for the preamp (Aguilar OBP3 at 18V) ?


[u][b]BRIDGE IMPLEMENTATION[/b][/u]
For the Bridge, I havent decided which system to implement, but Im leaning away from the conventional bridges, leaving me with 2 options:

[b]8) [/b] If i Go for a "Single Saddle" Bridge, how do I calculate the distance between each saddle mount and why are some inline and others progressively delayed in relation to each other (body position)

[b]9) [/b]if those saddles allow for string-thru-body, should the holes at the back be drilled at exactly 90º to the body or slanted?

[b]10) [/b] if I go for a Warwick type 2 piece bridge, how do I calculate the distance between the saddle (1st) part and the ball end holder (2nd) part? Should the 2nd part be burried in the wood so as to increment the angle of the strings to the saddles?


[u][b]HEADSTOCK ALTERATION[/b][/u]
Its a Fender replacement, but I want to make some changes.
The Idea would be to Add wood around the headstock so as to have a bigger area to work with for shaping, and in the end, adding veneer to hold it all together as well as making it a matching headstock.

[b]11) [/b]Is it possible to "ADD" small pieces of wood around a headstock? how? (See Q. 12 for relevant info)

[b]12) [/b] the idea, after having the necessary area would be to shave down a bit of the top of the headstock, so that I can replace the shaved part with a fat "veneer" (2.5mm or so)... Maybe top and bottom. Dont know yet. This would also help hide the extra glued wood. Any ideas or Opinions on something like this?

[b]13) [/b] On a Fender 5 Headstock, Would it be a bad idea to transform it from a 4+1 to a 3+2 i terms of balance or preassure/weakening on the Headstock?

[u][b]JACK CASING AND LOCATION[/b][/u]

[b]14) [/b] I saw a bass that used what looked to be a Stratocaster Jack casing on the BACK of the bass ( Close to the Strap Button and the bottom of the bass. Can anyone oppinionate on any PROS & CONS of this approach?

Thats enough questions for now lol.

Thanks for your patience and I hope you like sharing your valuable experience with more inexperienced but motivated people like me that are finding it increasingly hard to stop finding excuses to build another project.

[neepheid]

I'll try and answer what I can (this may be opinion, not fact)

2) Judging by most basses I've seen it's "a little bit more". Take out too much and you'll be struggling to get the action low enough, so then you'll have to start messing about with shimming.

4) Find out the scale length of your neck by measuring from nut to 12th fret and doubling it. Then use a fret distance calculator to calculate the distance from the nut to the last fret and subtract that from the scale length. You now have the distance from the last fret to the bridge saddle. When placing the bridge, set the highest saddle (G) to about 90% of its maximum forward travel, and place the bridge in relation to that saddle and the distance calculated above.

5) Difficult to say - just don't place them too close together or there won't be enough tonal difference to justify having 2 pickups.

6) How to safely use a router? With the greatest respect. Routers are dangerous beasts, I presume you want to play the bass afterwards? Seriously though, I find templates are the way to go. I make mine out of MDF. You mess up the template, you only mess up a piece of MDF. I probably have a terrible Heath Robinson approach to making templates so I'll see if someone else can give advice on that.

7) Make sure you go deep enough for the pots to come through the top. I speak from experience, I guestimated the control cavity on Rich's (Ou7shined) holey head Jazz and had to go in again twice because of continual over cautiousness with the depth of cut. Repositioning a template over an existing hole isn't ideal, best get it done in one.

9) I do mine 90 degrees. Also don't mess about - use a drill press. You'll never do them well freehand.

10) I don't think you'll need to bury the tailpiece, there should be more than enough height difference between it and the bridge saddles, even at their lowest. Distancewise, it's difficult to say. It's mostly aesthetic and practical considerations. Obviously not too close. Too far will look stupid. The 2 piece bridge may be ruled out by your bridge position.

11) It's possible. Your best bet would be to cut right off the curvy/irregular stuff on the bottom/end edge of the headstock so you have a flat area to glue. Glue ought to be stronger than the wood. Use the same type of wood (maple I'm guessing), use good quality wood glue and apply good clamping pressure for several hours (or even overnight)

12) Shape the headstock first. I apply veneer in this (probably wrong) way - flatten the veneer if it isn't already, cut the veneer roughly to size, apply a thin layer of wood glue to the headstock with a roller, apply the veneer, position it, put an old t-shirt on top then place an iron on it (no steam) to speed up glue setting. Be very careful not to move/dislodge the veneer during this process. After you're done, trim round the veneer with a very sharp knife. Be very careful at corners, the veneer will love to split along its grain. It might be better to trim it close then sand it flush with some fine sand paper (200-400 grit so it doesn't snag the veneer and split it).

13) No, it won't be a problem. Plenty of other people do 3+2 headstocks.

14) I don't like it. It could get in your way depending on your style of play.

[neepheid]

Oh, forgot - fret distance calculator: [url="http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/fret_calculator.php"]http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/fret_calculator.php[/url]

[Al Heeley]

Blimey. Do you have Melvyn Hiscox book "Build your own Guitar?" essential reading before you start.
Second, have you drawn out the entire guitar, life-size, on a soutable roll of paper? This will help you make templates & take measurements to determine the exact location of pickups, neck, bridge, etc.
Bridge: if your neck is fretted as a 34" scale neck then the distance from the nut to the bridge saddles needs to be 34". Position the bridge accordingly, draw it all out on your plan.
Use the plan to draw a side-view section, including height of bridge saddles, right along to the nut, then you can see if the height is right for the design. You may need to recess the bridge, or shim the neck for a degree or two of angle in the neck pocket so the strings sit at the proper height above the frets, the body, the pickups and on to the bridge saddles. This will determine your neck pocket depth - can't tell unless you know the thickness of the neck. Most basses have a couple of mm neck between body and fingerboard. Study other basses and their dimensions for clues.
Right place for pickups - that's up to you but use the existing well known basses as your guide. They say Leo Fender was pretty good at this sort of thing - take a lead from his example.
Cavity routing: a lot of people use a Forstner bit to get the hole started, or a conventional 8 or 12mm drill bit, removing as much of the wood as possible first before starting to rout. Only trouble is you have to watch you don't drill too deep.
Templates are essential - I make mine from MDF, use a follower router bit with a bearing. You can buy templates for some guitars and pickups, you can make them yourself with care and a fretsaw or jigsaw.
String-thru holes for bridge - easier to get perpendicular holes right, not slanted ones. The Project Guitar forum help stickies have a lot of advice on these details.
12) You can add wood to a headstock but its hard getting a nice flush join. You can think about covering the headstock with a veneer.
13) Maybe not a great idea, bear in mind you want to keep string travel thru nut to tuner posts as straight a path as possible.
14) See the jack placement on a Dingwall bass - they are great. Don't bite off more than you can chew for your first project!

[Aussiephoenix]

Thanks a lot for helping out guys.

[quote name='neepheid' post='728619' date='Jan 29 2010, 12:52 PM']5) Difficult to say - just don't place them too close together or there won't be enough tonal difference to justify having 2 pickups.

[color="#0000FF"]So, its a Guesstimate... There are no real guidelines apart from the distance between pups keeping in mind their magnetic fields[/color]

7) Make sure you go deep enough for the pots to come through the top. I speak from experience, I guestimated the control cavity on Rich's (Ou7shined) holey head Jazz and had to go in again twice because of continual over cautiousness with the depth of cut. Repositioning a template over an existing hole isn't ideal, best get it done in one.

[color="#0000FF"]I was wondering how you'd go about finding that right depth... my guess would be:
( (height of pot "screw" - (height of washer + nut) ) - height of body )[/color]

9) I do mine 90 degrees. Also don't mess about - use a drill press. You'll never do them well freehand.

[color="#0000FF"]I dont have a Drill Press... Actually its something I've been meaning to buy anyway...[/color]

10) I don't think you'll need to bury the tailpiece, there should be more than enough height difference between it and the bridge saddles, even at their lowest. Distancewise, it's difficult to say. It's mostly aesthetic and practical considerations. Obviously not too close. Too far will look stupid. The 2 piece bridge may be ruled out by your bridge position.

[color="#0000FF"] The body isnt terribly long on this bass, so, I may have to rethink the 2 piece bridge or do something a little bolder... have to see when I have all the pieces...[/color]

11) It's possible. Your best bet would be to cut right off the curvy/irregular stuff on the bottom/end edge of the headstock so you have a flat area to glue. Glue ought to be stronger than the wood. Use the same type of wood (maple I'm guessing), use good quality wood glue and apply good clamping pressure for several hours (or even overnight)

[color="#0000FF"] Stupidly, I didnt think of that... I meant to shape the pieces to glue, but that sounds a much better approach[/color]

12) Shape the headstock first. I apply veneer in this (probably wrong) way - flatten the veneer if it isn't already, cut the veneer roughly to size, apply a thin layer of wood glue to the headstock with a roller, apply the veneer, position it, put an old t-shirt on top then place an iron on it (no steam) to speed up glue setting. Be very careful not to move/dislodge the veneer during this process. After you're done, trim round the veneer with a very sharp knife. Be very careful at corners, the veneer will love to split along its grain. It might be better to trim it close then sand it flush with some fine sand paper (200-400 grit so it doesn't snag the veneer and split it).

[color="#0000FF"] I like the idea of shaping the headstock first, But since the "Veneer" isnt really really thin like most, I was thinking on trimming the headstock in depth to compensate for the extra height the veneer will have... Think that would be a bad idea? to illustrate what I mean, say that the lateral profile of the headstock is 2cm high... and I have 2 pieces of veneer 0.5cm high, so I'd shave the headstock down top and bottom by 0.5cm and after placing the 2 layers of veneer and pressing it all together, I'd be left with a 2cm profile again (ignore the measurements, just to facilitate the visualization)... I figure if I dont do that, the extra height might interfere with the Tuner shaft height[/color][/quote]



[quote name='Al Heeley' post='728628' date='Jan 29 2010, 12:59 PM']Second, have you drawn out the entire guitar, life-size, on a soutable roll of paper? This will help you make templates & take measurements to determine the exact location of pickups, neck, bridge, etc.
Use the plan to draw a side-view section, including height of bridge saddles, right along to the nut, then you can see if the height is right for the design.

[color="#0000FF"] I havent done that yet, but that's a great Idea. It'll help put all the loose thoughts into perspective[/color]

Right place for pickups - that's up to you but use the existing well known basses as your guide. They say Leo Fender was pretty good at this sort of thing - take a lead from his example.

[color="#0000FF"] Yeah, but I'll be using soapbar humbuckers... still, guiding myself from other existing models is a good idea, though there are so many different approaches... I'll have to do some research to find the pup positions that agree with me[/color]

Cavity routing: a lot of people use a Forstner bit to get the hole started, or a conventional 8 or 12mm drill bit, removing as much of the wood as possible first before starting to rout. Only trouble is you have to watch you don't drill too deep.
Templates are essential - I make mine from MDF, use a follower router bit with a bearing. You can buy templates for some guitars and pickups, you can make them yourself with care and a fretsaw or jigsaw.

[color="#0000FF"] Right, but in order to make the template, I should make the template hole bigger to accomodate the bearing, right? I also assume that I shouldnt try to dig the router bit straight in, but instead slowly deepen the hole (by layers)? [/color]

13) Maybe not a great idea, bear in mind you want to keep string travel thru nut to tuner posts as straight a path as possible.

[color="#0000FF"] I'll have to see what I'm left with once I've got the extra width on the headstock to work with, thanks for the tip though.[/color]

14) See the jack placement on a Dingwall bass - they are great. Don't bite off more than you can chew for your first project!

[color="#0000FF"] Actually I quite like that Idea, It doesnt fit my body perfectly as I dont have that "wave" at the end, but it's given me a new idea that just might work out better than what I'd thought originally. Cheers!
This is my first "Complex" Build, but I've gone through quite a few mods to my Frankensteins, and I've learned a lot from my previous mistakes. I'll try to keep my mouth closed while chewing
[/color][/quote]

Edited January 29, 2010 by Aussiephoenix

[Al Heeley]

get the right follower bit and the template must match the exact dimensions of the hole you want to rout. Deepen the hole in stages of 2-3mm, take your time to reduce risk of accidents and tear-out.
For routing some pickup holes I sometimes used 4 straight pieces of wood clamped together to give the correct size rectangle for the pickups, instead of making a template from scratch each time.
You can drill for the string-thru ferrules without a drill press but getting it spot-on is really hard. You have to drill small pilot holes thru first from each side to get holes that line up then make use of an accurately drawn paper template to get the spacing right.