RtB#23

I am seriously starting to wonder why I ever used anything other than a through-neck. Hinge tailpieces are all very well, but not all (actually, very few) small hinges are strong enough to take three steel wires at high tension. It's not as though they were designed for it. Anyway, by way of a shameless plug, Gitty's short-shank ferrules come in packs of 100, which even makes it worth paying the freight charge to the UK (and you can buy a cool slide as well and still creep under the ludicrous £15 threshold for a) a customs charge, and b) a further £8 fee to be TOLD that there's a customs charge. And this is pre-Trump ffs; just wait for the 50% tariffs on wickedbuckers. And laser-cut pre-printed birch plywood). Look, all that aside this is STILL my go-to acoustic, so there.

I am really really starting to have a lot of fun doing this- and it's all for the good of live music. No-one loses, everyone wins. The band WILL play on.

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Albums: 2018

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Comment by Uncle John on July 6, 2018 at 3:44pm: Thanks, Wal.

Comment by Wal Callaby on July 6, 2018 at 10:56am: I'd give one of Gitty's tops a go- though beware the custom offers until you've tried one of the limited edition jobs, cos the custom ones don't come with f-holes, and it has to be a bold, simple design to cope with the process. And oil 'em good, cos the wood they use is tinder dry, and the ink is not quite fast.

i've made the occasional tailpiece too, but there's something a bit failsafe about through-neck-and-ferrule; never hurts to have one less thing to worry about!

And as a little heads-up- after a couple more poplar acoustics, I'm going to try a solid-body electric or three, and that means hardtail bridges and exotic humbuckers. Watch this space!

Comment by Uncle John on July 6, 2018 at 2:22am: I like hearing your opinions. I like the simplicity and strength of neck-throughs. A agree on the hinge thing being fairly easy, but not the strongest. I prefer to cut my own tail piece out of scrap metal or use part of a colander like Dave Lynas does.

I fairly often will unscrew the tail-piece on a new build to work on something - on my last build I used a jumbo fret for a zero fret and it was too high - so I just unscrewed the tail - carefully got the strings out of the way and replaced the zero fret.

I have to say, that is a good looking box, f holes and corners. Using a pre-made like that... To me it does not seem entirely right, but they look so good - I am now much tempted.

Glad you are having fun, Wal. You build some good stuff.