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Allparts offers pre slotted nuts made of Graphite and their Tusq material that work quite nicely. Best of luck in your build!
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06-27-2018 12:18 PM
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Perfectly fair question John - it's the bottom of the nut that had to be cut to a radius curve, as the slot on the Allparts neck has a curve the same as the fingerboard radius. I think it's just how they make them - probably they cut the slot using the same tool that cuts the overall fingerboard radius. A lot of necks, most even, are these days made with a flat bottom to the slot, which would make life easier when making and fitting nuts, but I did like the specifications and quality of the Allparts, so worth going to the extra trouble for me. Still have to shape the top of the nut and cut the slots, but I wanted to get this tricky bit of getting the curve right on the bottom done first.
Originally Posted by John A.
Edit - just to add, I believe a curved-base nut slot is a feature on certain years of original Fender strats, but I'm not at all expert on such things.
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Cheers jads57 - I'm sure those pre slotted nuts are great as well, but I had the bone blanks in stock already, so I thought I might as well use what I already have. And now I know I can make a curved-base nut if I need to, so good to have added this extra skill to my (small) amount of guitar-tech type repertoire. Originally Posted by jads57
Allparts offers pre slotted nuts made of Graphite and their Tusq material that work quite nicely. Best of luck in your build!
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Meggy, a comment, looks great. A question, how do you do you fret work? I recall you mentioned levelling and after that I believe a taper from the 22nd fret. How do you do that? Have you any nice reference you would like to share?
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Cheers Ozoro! These are maybe boring stages in the build, but I am going to document everything anyhow, FWIW, and hope it's of interest to some. Originally Posted by 0zoro
Actually I didn't mention any taper from the 22nd fret - what I was talking about is the little extension to the fingerboard that allows a 22nd fret on a strat type neck (the original design only has 21). This sticks out from the end of the neck pocket, and goes over the pickguard - I just need to shave a bit of wood from the underside of the extension to allow it to do this. Basically a good example of parts from different sources needing a bit of alteration to work together, and not anything to do with the frets.
As to my fret levelling proceedure - well, I'm not claiming it's the best in the world, but it seems to work well for me. When I first started researching the subject, I quickly realised that it would be easy to spend quite a lot of money on various special files and tools, and I really didn't want to do that. I found a video on the web, which I used as a starting point for my approach (glad to see it's still up):
I've added a few things to this though, like using permanent marker on the fret tops when levelling (makes it easy to see which frets have been hit with the level and which haven't been reached yet), and also for the re-profiling aka "crowning" (that way I can leave a narrow line of marker and know I haven't altered the fret height) and it takes me more than the couple of hours claimed - I go very carefully. I don't use a metal ruler to assess the initial neck straightness, but rather the spirit level itself, since this has a really accurate, milled flat surface - you can hold the level against the frets, and hold both up against a window, see where there are gaps and how straight the neck is adjusted - I feels it's very important to get the neck adjusted as straight as possible before doing the levelling, so you need to remove only as much fret material as is absolutely necessary. It is possible to put a bit of an extra "slope off" on the upper frets - say from about fret 14, but I generally find if I get them all good and level, I can usually get the action very low anyhow. And you don't need to remove the nut as he suggests - a bit of gaffer taper to protect it is a good idea though.
So no special files, notched rules, fret rockers - my main bits of kit is the milled flat surface box level (spirit level) which cost me about £10 a few years ago from a local diy superstore, and wet and dry sandpaper in various grits, plus fine 0000 steel wool (Liberon) and metal polish. Plus gaffer tape to protect the fingerboard. If you want a very pronounced round cross section to the frets, this doesn't do that - it gets more of a "double decker bus roof" kind of fret profile, but I like that anyhow. But all this only for what it's worth - it's in the "works for me but YMMV" category.
Here's one I did earlier...
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This all sounds interesting Meggy, and the pic of your work looks impressive. I was wondering if you have a pic or other reference to what you described as a "milled flat surface box level". I have not idea as to what to ask/look for in a hardware store here in Sweden. Is it something that you fasten sandpaper onto with a Velcro type of application? Will look at the vid you recommended a bit later. Thanks!
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Hi again Ozoro - in the UK, B&Q are still selling the level I use: Originally Posted by 0zoro
B&Q Euro Box Level (L)600mm | Departments | DIY at B&Q
although the picture there doesn't tell you very much. But it has one long side that does indeed have the metal milled to a very accurately flat surface - I've found a picture that shows this better:
I just attach strips of 250 grit wet and dry sandpaper to the surface with double-sided sticky tape (not velcro):
The level I bought was the cheapest suitable I could find - I could have spent more, although it's still doing good service. But if you can get to a decent diy store, there should be a few to choose from - you want something about 2 feet/60 cm long, and with that milled-flat surface along one edge.
Hope this helps!
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Thanks Meggy. I should have looked at the vid before my reply. The level bit I understood, it was attaching the sanding tape to the level that got me, I thought it was (and looked for without results) self adhesive sanding material. I will now start looking for just the sanding material in tape form. How often do yu have to replace the double adhesive tape to hold the sanding tape? I thought it would not last long. Good work though, this is an area that I haven´t treaded before, now that the mystification is lessened I will re-examine my instrument and take the plunge.
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I think that pickgaurd looks great in this image. Originally Posted by Meggy
All the other bits I need have been ordered - I'm basically copying this look, so it's going to be my version of a boutique Suhr on the cheap!
Attachment 53843
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Hi again - to be clear, I just buy ordinary sheets of wet and dry sandpaper, and cut them into strips myself with a craft knife, it's easy to do this - no need to look for sandpaper in strip form. The double adhesive tape holds fine as long as I need it to, but you don't want to get super strong adhesive tape, as you need to be able to peel it off the level - if the frets are very up and down/un-level to start with, then sometimes I have to replace the sandpaper on the level, as it wears out. But it depends how well and consistently the frets are installed - examing the Allparts neck I'm using for this build by eye, it looks like the frets are already pretty consistent, although they clearly need finishing, so I'm hoping I will get the job done without having to change the sandpaper. Originally Posted by 0zoro
I'll take a few photos when I do the fret job anyhow, just to illustrate the essential points, and put them up on here, so hope that will help if you're thinking of having a go yourself.
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Time to hotdog those fret ends
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They'll be much nicer when I've finished with them I promise. Originally Posted by DRS
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A bit of an unexpectedly busy time for me of late, so haven't had too much time for the gold strat build. But it's a good stress reliever when I am able to do some work on it. Anyhow just a few pictures to bring things up to date:
Marking position for the trem pivot screws - trickier than I thought to get this right.
Drilled pilot holes, and a quick check with the bridge to see alignment is good.
Enlarged the holes to correct diameter (actually done in two stages, but just the end result shown.
Used a bit of soap on the threads initially to help get the screws in.
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The trem unit I bought for this build is a Wilkinson WVPC - I got this knowing I had a spare cold-rolled steel replacement block (from Vanson Guitars in the UK). Actually the zinc block (painted black) still has a fair bit of weight to it, and probably not bad at all. But I have fitted the chrome plated steel block now, and just picking the blocks up I can notice that the steel unit is heavier. And it looks better! I once read a bit of advice on trems from Eric Johnson, which was to sand the top of the block, and base of the bridge, absolutely flat, so they make the best possible contact. It makes sense to me anyhow, so I do this - before, I can see gaps if I look at the join in front of a window. After the sanding flat, no gaps visible and you couldn't get a cigarette paper in there.
This is my setup for getting the neck alignment spot on - a couple of plain strings fitted as a guide. Once it's set just so, I mark through onto the neck heel with a Phillips screwdriver so I will drill mounting holes in the right places.
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A small amount of progress - was able to get the neck heel drilled and test the neck to body fit. Kind of nice, as it does feel like I now have an actual guitar, even if it needs work to finish, rather than a pile of parts and a dream...
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I have some catching up to do, as I have managed to get a fair bit done in the last few days.
Holes drilled for the tremolo claw, and tremolo unit properly fitted. For the moment I have it decked to the body, but I'll probably have it set floating when the guitar is built, for a change, as I'm not a habitual trem user. But nice to use for a bit of shimmer with some delay I think. Also I'll probably want 4 or 5 springs to work with the 11s string gauge I use.
Holes drilled for the pickguard and backplate. Pickguard placement was actually something needing a bit of careful consideration - it needs to be good for both aesthetic and practical (pickup pole alignment) reasons. I think I found the solution, although some very subtle filing will be needed to get the edge in front of the bridge perfectly parallel - I've had to do similar things in the past though, so it's familiar territory.
Backplate and pickguard fitted:
One fiddly job I had was to remove wood from under the 22nd fret overhang on the neck - you can see the rosewood showing now, but there was a mil or two of maple to remove, which made contact with the scratchplate and stopped the neck from sitting in the pocket properly. Forgot to take a before picture, and I won't say how I did this, as not the most elegant or "correct" bit of work I've done. I got there somehow though, and managed to make it look fairly tidy.
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Marking out screw holes, drilling and fitting the machine heads:
Work on the frets (I said I'd show this for Ozoro), first up is getting the neck set straight - I use my levelling beam to do this, looking at gaps to the frets against a window. Also remember that the neck relief may continue to change for a while after an adjustment to the truss rod, so be absolutely sure this is adjusted as well as possible before moving on.
Cutting strips of sandpaper (250 grit wet and dry) of the same width as the levelling beam:
Sandpaper attached with double-sided tape:
Mark the top of each fret with permanent marker pen (careful not to get it on the fingerboard):
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Don't know if this shows very well - basically progress to the point where all the frets have been hit with the levelling beam. I use small length-wise back and forth movements of the beam, while also moving it from side to side across the neck. I keep the beam in the same line as the strings will go. Frets 1 to 12 or so were very quickly reached, leaving a few of the upper frets not quite got to. So I then moved my hold on the beam so the pressure was over these upper frets, effectively giving a small "slope off" of the fret height profile for these. Very little sanding was needed with this Allparts neck though - the frets were installed remarkably consistently, and far better than on any other neck I've used.
Last edited by Meggy; 07-17-2018 at 12:32 AM.
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Work on reprofiling the frets - I've just shown this for the first one!
Gaffer tape applied to protect the fingerboard, and I re-apply permanent marker to the top of the fret. Then it's just small bits of folded sandpaper and working on each side of the fret, leaving a thin line of marker pen at the top so the fret height isn't tampered with - obviously I do have to remove the line of marker at the end, but do this with just a couple of passes of sandpaper which isn't significant. I progress through 250 grit, 400 grit, 600 grit and 1000 grit wet and dry sandpaper grades.
The fret after using the 1000 grit wet and dry sandpaper - it's pretty smooth, but not shiny:
Then it's on to Liberon 0000 grade wire wool - I would specifically recommend this brand, as it's finer than others 0000 grades I've seen:
I then use a bit of chrome polish to get a really decent mirror finish, and that's the fret done:
I have to confess I did also need to do some very careful filing on the fret ends (I have a suitable file) as they were just very bluntly cut at 45 degrees on the neck as supplied. I'd rather not go into this or hold myself up as any kind of expert - I got the job done OK for my satisfaction basically. It's easy to do too much, and an area where caution is definitely appropriate, you don't want to damage the fretboard wood, or take off fret material from under where a string will go. I just do enough to get the fret end smooth to the fingers and do as little work as possible to achieve this. There are probably some helpful videos on Youtube. On almost every other neck I've done fret work on, it's not been necessary though.Last edited by Meggy; 07-17-2018 at 12:25 PM.
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I've been doing some work applying a thin Tru Oil finish to the neck, and today I'll do some work shielding the body cavity with copper foil. Also, despite my good intentions keeping the price down, I went and bought a set of E-dis vintage spec pickups from a seller in Croatia - these will ship to me tomorrow. So I now have a spare set of strat pickups, which is always dangerous...
I just liked the sounds on the demos (hard to go by these I know, but for what it's worth) and the price is very good. I just have a hunch about these anyhow, and I believe in following one's instincts with this sort of thing.
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Fret job finished:
Neck finished simply with 2 coats of Tru Oil - the first fairly generous, then sanded back with 1200 grit, then a second very thin coat, and smoothed back to a satin with 0000 wire wool. Feels pretty slick, and I like the "enhanced natural" look. No need to do more for my tastes, so that is that one out of the way.
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Love a gold strat
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Is that one yours Fretsruss? It's a beauty! Originally Posted by Fretsruss
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It is. Thanks Meggy Originally Posted by Meggy
Is that one yours Fretsruss? It's a beauty!
Made by the fabulous Simon Law in the UK
http://www.svlguitars.com/gallery.html
Must admit, I've been toying with the idea of a black or tortoiseshell pickguard
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Some lovely guitars there! Looks great with the existing white pickguard I'd say, although sometimes a change can be nice. Originally Posted by Fretsruss
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