A quilted dream

The finishing touches to a great kit build.

This handsome chap came in already built but in need of a few tweaks. Both the nut and string height were high, along with a few additional set up issues.

The body, neck and hardware are all great quality items.

Floyd Rose EMG pickups

The Assessment

After a dust and polish, a top to toe assessment revealed a few underpinning issues to resolve. I've recently posted about neck angle and this guitar was a prime example. Whilst a Floyd Rose would be less of an issue than a high bridge like a Tune-O-Matic, this one was mounted in the traditional manner, on top of the body. A straight edge on the frets revealed the reason for the excessively high string height.

The locking nut was well installed but unfortunately its neck cavity was too shallow. This was raising the strings at the first fret and causing intonation problems. This picture also shows pretty huge frets with some need of a crown. They also turned out to be uneven.

Locking nut

At the other end, the owner wanted the bridge levelled. Heavier gauge strings were making it difficult to achieve.

The Work

It always makes sense to start with the foundations. Unbolting the neck and adding a low shim gave instant remedy. First issue resolved.

Next, that nut. Slowly does it with a flat surface and sand paper. Score one for patience and determination. String retaining bars can help with tuning but not everyone wants a bar across their headstock.

A bit of tinkering with the trem and a thorough setup (including a couple of high E strings...).

Round 2

That fret level we mentioned. With the string height much improved, level, polished frets became the priority. Did I mention earlier that they were huge?

First step, off with his head. Then the levelling beam. There was a fair bit of work to get the frets level across the board. Followed by a roll off at the end.

On to the crowning. I like to use a triangle file and shape manually before a thorough polish

The finished article

Another set up (including another high E string. I better start sourcing them individually) and he is done. A very nice build with buckets of sustain and great tone.

Now back to re-radiusing that old strat neck. A story for another time.

Sign up to join the story.

Happy Riffing

Chris