Tips

[antares]

John gave us a great tip for old pickguards today, so rather than swerve his thread I thought a thread with some other less than obvious ideas or top tips might be useful. Dane does something similar in his YouTube Shorts and occasional videos and they always make me stop and think.

I have a Warmoth cellulose pickguard and vibrato cover plate on one S-type so I'll keep that one of John's in mind.

Far be it from me to advise those to whom I instinctively look up, but I always view the tightened down screws at an oblique angle nearly parallel to the pickguard and look for any "pin cushioning" and back off the screw if necessary. Even more- when replacing, I always turn screws backwards very gently for a couple of turns and feel for the faint click before screwing in. I do this on both plastic and wood substrate.

[dnic]

Sounds like a fun idea Steve. Spinning the screws backward when installing a neck is an especially good idea. Because going through the body first can force the screw to start a new grove. Which will eventually cause it to strip out. Also the body holes should be clearance holes so the neck screws can slide through and pull the neck up tight.

I'm with you on the pick guard screws as well. Just tight enough to hold the guard down. I hate seeing puckered plastic.

[dnic]

Fret kisser and drop fill kisser.

Many are probably familiar with the Stew Mac fret kisser. I developed my own. The Mac fret kisser is a fret rocker with diamond grit in the center of edges. I took a piece of wood and cut, and planed it flat and to the right size. Put sand paper in the center, then masking tape on the ends to level up to the thickness of the sand paper. I made a couple different sizes to to accommodate fret spacing. I used the concept on the drop fill kisser before I made the fret kissers. Drop fills leave a lump on the surface of the guitar finish. In the past I've used razor blades with tape on the ends to keep from scratching the finish. That gets you to about .05 close to the surface. If you start level sanding at this point you will likely sand through to the color or even the wood. I did that once on a PRS. Had to match the original stain color and touch up the finish. Not a money maker! There are ways to finesse this last .05 into submission but that would be way long in text. Take my word the drop fill kisser is the way to go.

[antares]

When sanding, sand slightly at an angle to one side a few times and then a few times off at an angle to the other side. Rinse and repeat to taste. This reduces the effort expended, sometimes significantly. Sanding along the same direction all the time just ends up following the grooves created by the sanding process. This is why oscillating and orbital sanders work so well and it applies to metal as well as timber.

[GuitarAttack Forum]

When sanding a guitar, I normally never go below 220 grit sandpaper. I am currently doing a refin on a guitar that the previous owner tried to strip it with some really coarse sandpaper and it is a bear. There are lots of deep,sanding marks and they keep,popping up as I get ready to finish it.

I will use mineral spirits to find the sanding marks, and on some woods I will use naphtha. Just rub a little on to the guitar with a paper towel and those invisible sanding marks will appear. It is better to do this step before finding them with your first coat of finish.

Note - on some woods mineral spirits will soak in and stain the wood slightly. Always test on scrap or an inconspicuous place first.

John

[antares]

Use a ring terminal soldered to the vibrato "ground" wire on an "S" type. Trap it under one of the vibrato "claw" attachment screws. Of course you can't withdraw the "ground" wire back through the hole in the cavity like that, but you'd have to unsolder the wire from the claw anyway and it's much easier to remove from and solder back onto a ring terminal than the claw.

[dnic]

Oct 27, 2024 10:36:51 GMT -6 antares said:

Use a ring terminal soldered to the vibrato "ground" wire on an "S" type. Trap it under one of the vibrato "claw" attachment screws. Of course you can't withdraw the "ground" wire back through the hole in the cavity like that, but you'd have to unsolder the wire from the claw anyway and it's much easier to remove from and solder back onto a ring terminal than the claw.

Having recently suffered through soldering that very wire one of my strat builds I like this a lot. I thought about soldering it to the back of the claw so it wasn't seen at all. I don't like the to use the cover plate on strats.

[antares]

Rolled edges on necks.

You can easily pay a small fortune for this bespoke service. On my two Warmoth maple necks, I "rolled" the edges between the frets using a #2 Philips screwdriver having a 1/4" diameter shaft, but any metal rod of a similar diameter would suffice. I just applied a fair amount of force while holding the 1/4" diameter screwdriver shaft at 90° to the edges and simultaneously sliding it back and forth between the frets, rather in the way you would use a spokeshave. You can change the angle you hold it at with respect to the edge of the neck and that will enhance the radiusing effect instead of just leaving it chamfered. Due to the finite diameter of the screwdriver shaft, you can't get right up to the frets, but since the object of the exercise is to get that nice played-in feel it's actually a bonus. This approach is actually only crushing the wood fibres and you would expect them to expand again, but I went on to lacquer with rattle cans and here we are a good ten years later and they're still just as I originally did them. It's worth noting that both of my Warmoth necks are maple, I haven't tried this on a rosewood fretboard and that timber may well spring back out. It really is trivially easy to do but I wouldn't do it to a previously lacquered maple fretboard.

[dnic]

Oct 29, 2024 12:44:01 GMT -6 antares said:

Rolled edges on necks.

You can easily pay a small fortune for this bespoke service. On my two Warmoth maple necks, I "rolled" the edges between the frets using a #2 Philips screwdriver having a 1/4" diameter shaft, but any metal rod of a similar diameter would suffice. I just applied a fair amount of force while holding the 1/4" diameter screwdriver shaft at 90° to the edges and simultaneously sliding it back and forth between the frets, rather in the way you would use a spokeshave. You can change the angle you hold it at with respect to the edge of the neck and that will enhance the radiusing effect instead of just leaving it chamfered. Due to the finite diameter of the screwdriver shaft, you can't get right up to the frets, but since the object of the exercise is to get that nice played-in feel it's actually a bonus. This approach is actually only crushing the wood fibres and you would expect them to expand again, but I went on to lacquer with rattle cans and here we are a good ten years later and they're still just as I originally did them. It's worth noting that both of my Warmoth necks are maple, I haven't tried this on a rosewood fretboard and that timber may well spring back out. It really is trivially easy to do but I wouldn't do it to a previously lacquered maple fretboard.

That is a good tip! I use a razor blade or even a file when doing this to a new guitar. I like that "played in feeling". But the screw driver maneuver is great for finished necks that you don't to mess up the finish. Rosewood would stay compressed as well. In either case a sweaty fret hand could swell the grain back out.

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Great tip on the rolled edges. Like you said, this is normally a pricey upgrade.

Gibson started this on their relic Custom Shop guitars a few years ago and you can feel the difference.

John

[GuitarAttack Forum]

When I started GuitarAttack I wanted to archive tips and tricks I thought were useful for working on guitars.

My original forum was the old “.alt” newsgroups. I used several different platforms and settled on ProBoards In 2006…yes, 18:years ago!

I collected some of my favorite tips, or FAQs, and posted them on the Forum page. It is a lot to go through but I think there is a lot of knowledge in there. Here is the link:

www.guitarattack.com/forum.htm

Thanks for being here.
John

[stratpurist]

I'm in process of changing pickups on my partscaster (seen in my profile pic). While I had it apart I thought I'd apply some shielding paint but when I opened the jar it was dried up.
Adding some acetone and a lot of stirring and it flowed nicely.

[antares]

That's a good tip SP. Back in the 1970s, I screened my 1973 Strat using a product called Electrodag 915. It was made by Crellon Industries and was intended for making repairs to burned out PCB traces. It was super thick and heavily silver loaded paint and was ruinously expensive. The jar said it had a flashpoint of something like 15°C! When I finished, I wrapped multiple layers of insulating tape over the tightly screwed-on cap and stored it in the family fridge. Sometime later I went to use it again and it had all gone. As I very dimly recall there wasn't any silver residue in the jar either- it had all just disappeared. Even so, I wouldn't then have thought of doing what you suggested (I was only twenty something.) Good tip.

[dnic]

Nov 25, 2024 9:39:55 GMT -6 stratpurist said:

I'm in process of changing pickups on my partscaster (seen in my profile pic). While I had it apart I thought I'd apply some shielding paint but when I opened the jar it was dried up.
Adding some acetone and a lot of stirring and it flowed nicely.

Mine's water based, I do the same thing only with water of course.

[stratpurist]

I polish my frets every time I change strings. I used to use car scratch remover and 0000 steel wool. On a lark I ordered fret erasers from amazon that have five grits from 120 to 2000. I love them. fast and easy.