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[SOLVED] First license plate guitar, sounds horrible. Tips?

I started throwing together a LP build yesterday, and have got this far:

So... I've made a pretty sturdy box (3/4" thick pine) with a plywood base, and have the plate attached with 8 screws on the original mounting points and one at each corner. I haven't added the frets or indeed set up a nut (currently just a bone nut blank). I'm not expecting it to be loud but I'm planning to fit dual piezos in there eventually.

This is my first try at a bolt bridge, which looks cool for this style of guitar but seems to buzz pretty horribly all the way up the neck (but curiously not when played open...) - is there any special preparation that needs to be done to use of of these?

Break angle behind the bridge seems fine, certainly no less than I've successfully used in the past.

Also, I've tried with a wooden/bone bridge as I normally use too, and it seems to have the same problem. It sounds slightly less hideous with a slide. Think it'll sound better once the frets are in?

Any thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by The Capo Kid on May 19, 2014 at 9:38am

I had no problems with my 2 LP builds , the first build has a low action 1mm at 1 fret and 2mm at the 12 fret , second builds got no strings so I can't measure that , perhaps with the proper nut it might sound better

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 19, 2014 at 9:54am

Thanks for your reply CK. I remember yours looking really good. I've fitted the frets now and hopefully fitting a new nut will help, although I would have thought the nut would only affect the strings when played open. Let's see what happens eh?

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on May 19, 2014 at 10:16am

Get some screws in the middle of the long edges of the plate. I had to add some to my '31 plate yesterday.

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 19, 2014 at 10:24am

Good suggestion Eric. I actually just put a couple more in the middle of the long edges. While you're participating; how do you go about cutting the plate for the pickups etc? Cold chisel? Dremel? Tip snips? Probably will just fit a piezo in this one but for the future...

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Permalink Reply by robert jones on May 19, 2014 at 11:30am

If you get it sounding right let us(me) know what does the trick.

I haven't had any success yet getting LP guitars to sound good.

There have been a few discussions that suggest mounting the mag pickup below the plate as an alternative to cutting if the plate is steel.

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Permalink Reply by jawbone on May 19, 2014 at 12:29pm

I mount my plates so that they kind of float - washers under the 4 mounting holes and I recess the top. I had no luck mounting a mag pup inside. I ended up putting it in the neck above the box or went with piezo (2) inside - one on the neck and one on the plate.

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 19, 2014 at 8:47pm

I thought about doing the recess on the top but could figure out how to do it. Router? Rebate plane? (I have neither)

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Permalink Reply by jawbone on May 20, 2014 at 1:21am

OK - I'll admit - I plan on doing a lot of LP gits so I built a jig that clamps the box and provides a guide to route the step down.

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 19, 2014 at 8:46pm

I'll let you know Robert. I did see that suggested somewhere. I'm going to go with dual piezos at first but if it still sounds really pants I'll wind a pup for it. I've been dreaming up a type of flatpup design, or alternatively I guess I could cut out the '2' closest to the neck and pop a traditional pup in there.