I'm assembling parts for my next build; I'm trying a number of things I haven't done before - a little worried I'm piling too many new things in fact - but I'm going to give it a shot.
- Using a hardtail bridge - never used one before. Got a pretty one from CBGitty. I'm a little worried about getting my string height correct on the neck/fretboard with this.
- Bought a piece of mahogany timber - going to have to cut this to size. I've done a fair amount of carving but never with a piece that wasn't the right size to start with
- Bought a nice piece of leopardwood for the fretboard, though I just realized it's only about 3/16" thick - again, a little worried about string height with the new bridge.
- Bought a prewired mini-humbucker. Only used piezo disks and rods before. Thinking this may be straight electric, no sound hole. Not sure yet.
- I've always done neck-through, but with the humbucker and the bridge I'm considering doing some kind of offset bracing - having the neck go partway through, then attaching another piece to the bottom of the neck, possibly enough to connect it to the bottom of the box.
- I thought about trying a bound fretboard but I think I may draw the line here. That might be a bridge too far...
Any pointers or warnings on any or all of the above would be most welcome!
Replies
Why not? When you pile together new techniques, it can just be more fun. This is not rocket science we're talking about here, it's building CBG's! If it fails a bit, you can always fix it.
Hi Sean, all sounds good to me. Draw it out first to see how things will line up, saves a lot of back tracking later. That's what I do on a new build. Taff
One step ahead of you - I'm actually building it out in a 3D modeling program that I've been wanting to learn anyway! Figure I can potentially catch some problems before I run into them for real.
I like your style.
Taff
Nice selection of bits and pieces.
1. Mahogany is a great wood to work with. It smells amazingly nice when sawed.
2. Don't worry too much about the string height with the hard tail. It can be adjusted up or down a fair amount. It that is not enough, you could build a thin platform to raise things.
3. The mag pickup will make nice sounds. And don't worry too much about using a traditional through neck with it. A normal stepped neck will give enough clearance for the pickup. I would save the non-through neck design for a later build.
Go for it...........