Guitar kit finished
Yay... I got a project finished! Only ____ million to go.
So, at last check, I had glued the neck to the body and was waiting on a drill press. Well, it arrived on schedule, so I got it assembled and started seeing what I could do about making some holes.
I opted for a WEN, mostly because of the price and features. 10" press with 5 speeds and laser cross-hairs. Seemed like a winner for about $100. That led to the next thing, though... I needed to get the body held sturdy enough to drill. Hey, I got a clamp for gluing the neck that could work for that!
You can see, I got the spots marked ahead of time. You can even see the laser X in the picture if you look closely. I wasn't sure exactly what size hole I would need, but it turned out I didn't have the right size bit on hand. It was between the 3/8" and the 1/2" that I had in my set of bits already, so a trip out to the only place open at that time of night was in order. Wal-Mart got the business.
This drill index had 7 bits between 3/8" and 1/2", so I figured it would work well. Any time you see 29 bits for under $20, I'm a little leery of quality, but since I'm not hand drilling it should work out. Less sideways pressure always helps, and that's why hand drills usually break bits.
So, it turns out the correct size for the hardware that was included in this kit was 29/64". Seems like a strange measure, but I'm sure it makes sense in metric or something. Sure... that's 11.5094 mm. Anyway, I'm glad I got the set with a whole bunch of bits, because I wouldn't have guessed that size.
With holes made, I could install the bridge and hardware. It sure looked more complete that way.
Adding strings allowed me to work on the truss rod, bridge height, pickup height and intonation. It all went really smoothly, other than the 16th fret being slightly high from halfway between the second and third string to just past the 3rd string. Not a big deal for strumming chords, but playing some Metallica leads (just something simple to warm up the fingers) it seemed like I was hitting that dead spot at the 15th quite often.
Anyway, I got the electronics in it and she sounds fantastic. She needs a name, but I'm going to let her personality show through before I decide on one permanently. For now, she's just pretty.
So, at last check, I had glued the neck to the body and was waiting on a drill press. Well, it arrived on schedule, so I got it assembled and started seeing what I could do about making some holes.
I opted for a WEN, mostly because of the price and features. 10" press with 5 speeds and laser cross-hairs. Seemed like a winner for about $100. That led to the next thing, though... I needed to get the body held sturdy enough to drill. Hey, I got a clamp for gluing the neck that could work for that!
You can see, I got the spots marked ahead of time. You can even see the laser X in the picture if you look closely. I wasn't sure exactly what size hole I would need, but it turned out I didn't have the right size bit on hand. It was between the 3/8" and the 1/2" that I had in my set of bits already, so a trip out to the only place open at that time of night was in order. Wal-Mart got the business.
This drill index had 7 bits between 3/8" and 1/2", so I figured it would work well. Any time you see 29 bits for under $20, I'm a little leery of quality, but since I'm not hand drilling it should work out. Less sideways pressure always helps, and that's why hand drills usually break bits.
So, it turns out the correct size for the hardware that was included in this kit was 29/64". Seems like a strange measure, but I'm sure it makes sense in metric or something. Sure... that's 11.5094 mm. Anyway, I'm glad I got the set with a whole bunch of bits, because I wouldn't have guessed that size.
With holes made, I could install the bridge and hardware. It sure looked more complete that way.
Adding strings allowed me to work on the truss rod, bridge height, pickup height and intonation. It all went really smoothly, other than the 16th fret being slightly high from halfway between the second and third string to just past the 3rd string. Not a big deal for strumming chords, but playing some Metallica leads (just something simple to warm up the fingers) it seemed like I was hitting that dead spot at the 15th quite often.
Anyway, I got the electronics in it and she sounds fantastic. She needs a name, but I'm going to let her personality show through before I decide on one permanently. For now, she's just pretty.
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