Final Steps Before Finishing

General Information about Building Kit Guitars
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stevemac00
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 3:58 pm
Location: Sister Bay, WI

Final Steps Before Finishing

Post by stevemac00 »

For the past week I've not done much on my 000 kit (viewtopic.php?f=48&t=5561) and I empathize with a deer caught in headlights.

I have the nut and bridge/saddle remaining. Cory locates these with dry-fitting and drilling before finishing but in Joh's bridge video he does it after finishing and gluing on the neck. It seems gluing the neck would be more accurate than dry-fitting but I'm not comfortable with John's method of mortising the bridge with the rabbeted edge and I'm interested in other's thoughts and experiences.
johnnparchem
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Re: Final Steps Before Finishing

Post by johnnparchem »

I am a little confused about the relationship between gluing on the neck and mortising the bridge.

Here is what I do. Keep in mind that John has way more experience than I do.

Personally at this point I would dry fit the neck and "close" set the bridge location. Before setting the bridge I would be sure all of the proper geometries are in place. A straight edge on your frets should end up 13-14mm above the top. The neck should be centered ...

I then tape off most the area that I will glue the bridge to leaving myself an 1/8 inch of room. I also tape off the area under the fret board again leaving myself some room. (tape inside the line.) I spray the body without the neck or the bridge glued on. I leave the tape on all of the way through my buffing and polishing.

I remove the tape from the fretboard area using an exacto blade to cut the finish and use a chisel to make sure there is not a high lip of finish where the tape edge was. I do not clean the finish all the way to the fret board edge. I then glue the neck on to the body. I only place glue in the center of the fretboard. I am really just holding down the fretboard to the body.

With the neck in place I do a final placement of the bridge. Once in place I tape down the wings and then drill out the E holes. This allows me to use two screws to hold the bridge in place. With the bridge in place I also drill two 1/16 holes in the saddle slot for tighter indexing. I use an upside down drill bits for the pins. Using a very sharp new exacto knife (actually I switched to scalpel blades) I very carefully trace out the bridge into the finish. On the straight edges I always start from an end and work toward the middle. I never want to overshoot. With the bridge very cleanly cut into the finish. I remove the tape. I usually have to cut it out as well as it is inside (hopefully) the line. I use a very sharp chisel to remove the remaining finish.

If all went well the bridge should fit cleanly into the area with no finish. (Make sure the bridge is not on a lip of finish.) You can use your indexing pins in the saddle slot and the screws in the E holes to make sure the bridge is in the correct location when you glue it on.

If things did not go perfectly, drop fill the mistakes with a little CA.
stevemac00
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 3:58 pm
Location: Sister Bay, WI

Re: Final Steps Before Finishing

Post by stevemac00 »

Thanks for the very helpful reply. I think I'll follow those steps but I have a followup question. Everybody says to mark the bridge location from the nut but the nut has not yet been installed. Are we talking about measurements from the end of the fingerboard or (end of the fingerboard + half the nut thickness)?

Or, do you just install the nut and rough shape it before measuring for the bridge.

I will have to cut back my head veneer to make the nut fit.

John would probably say I'm over thinking this. I don't have any experience and I don't want to waste away all the work and expense by some wrong move now.
johnnparchem
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Re: Final Steps Before Finishing

Post by johnnparchem »

Mark the bridge location from the nut end of the fret board. You do not need a nut in place. I would cut back the head stock veneer before finishing the neck to avoid messing up the finish.
stevemac00
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 3:58 pm
Location: Sister Bay, WI

Re: Final Steps Before Finishing

Post by stevemac00 »

So it's clear to me, when you say "nut end of the fret board", are you saying measure from arrow to find the bridge location?
ref__DSC5485.jpg
Thanks and I'll heed the good suggestion about cutting back the veneer first.
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Kevin Sjostrand
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Re: Final Steps Before Finishing

Post by Kevin Sjostrand »

Hey Steve,
Yup, that is what John is referring to. The front edge of the nut.

Kevin
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