With the pickguard finished connected all the electrical parts together which was a simple enough job. I added an additional grounding wire to the base of the bridge, I had to drill a hole through to the bridge pickup cavity and pass the wire through the same hole the pickup wires passed through.
I took the neck off one more time and cleaned and lubricated the truss rod adjustment nut. I also sanded the neck cavity just to remove some of the unevenness caused by over-spray. The machine heads are already on the neck so it's time to string the guitar up for the first time.
Straight away I noticed that the neck needs tilting slightly so I shimmed the front of the neck pocket raising the nut end slightly. I wish I had something like an old pound note to use just to add to the antique feel! (None UK Friends - We don't have Pound notes any more in the UK!) I also had to add 2 string trees to the head. Not the round style the oldest fender heads have, I'm not trying to make an accurate copy, just an approximation of something 50+ years old!
Once the neck was shimmed I filed the nut and set the height of the strings as per fender's specifications. I also set the bridge string height adjusters and adjusted the intonation and pickup height. Time then to tune up and plug in... There is a crisp clear twang from the bridge and a more rounded punchy sound from the P90. Perfect!
The guitar looks great and sounds even better. Even though I never planned a finish like this it's turned out to be the finest instrument I have made to date.
No comments:
Post a Comment