Hello everyone my name is Corey and I have no experience with instruments. I love creating things by hand. Seeing what you all create not to mention hearing is amazing to me. I have been working on a kit build from gitty and loving it. I’m wondering about a few issues that I’m sure are common knowledge to anyone familiar with instruments. String height over frets? Should neck be kept from touching the inside of the box as much as possible? What differences are there between acoustic builds and electric builds besides the obvious? Distance between strings and pickup? Ideal spacing between strings? A big thanks to all who reply
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Hi, just another tip on pickup height. Getting too close to the strings with the pickup can allow the strings vibration to be effected by the pull of some magnets, creating a loss of sustain.
Scale length: scale length for regular guitar is 24" to 26".
The longer the scale length - the better the harmonics and higher treble pitch. 25.5" for the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster gives rich harmonic levels. Those guitars have always been treble rich guitars tone-wise.
The Lower the scale length - the easier it is to bend strings and a lower tone. Gibson, PRS and Dobro live in the 24" to 25" scale for a more mellow tone and good string bending technique.
I personally like the 25" scale length because it's right in the middle, good harmonics, not too bright and still able to do good string bends without punishing your fingertips.
Pickup string height: there isn't a set height for every guitar, every pickup and every person.
Best thing to do is what every professional setup tech does. Lower the pickup as low as you can get it before the adjustment screw comes out of the pickup base. Plug in the guitar and turn on your amp. Slowly adjust the pickup up towards the strings while you play til you get the right amount of volume output and the right tone.
Setting the pickup at the highest possible setting gets you more volume output, but not always the best tone.
You can set the high string side of the pickup higher than the bass string side for more treble or vise-versa for more bass. Even height for balanced tone.
Another good nugget: If your volume and tone are always set to 10, then the only way to get more is walk over to the amp and adjust. So set the guitar's volume and tone to 8 and then adjust the amp volume and tone settings to the best level. Then if you need more volume or extra bright tone, you have room to adjust for it on the guitar.
Corey > Darryl TuttleSeptember 17, 2018 at 12:53am
I’m not there yet, to be honest it looks like just a bunch of wires, I really have no experience with instruments. That said im fascinated with the creativity and sound people are getting from these things. I so wish I knew how to play something on it.
Darryl Tuttle > Darryl TuttleSeptember 16, 2018 at 10:34am
This is the prewired pickup I was talking about....this isn't that exact same one that I used before but I am sure it will sound pretty good
Thanks for all your help I greatly appreciate it. Would you happen to know the exact measurement from center of nut to fret? I love the nickel trick, should make it simple if I can get the nut placement correct.
What scale length did you use? I use the below website for laying out all my necks as it allows me to use whatever scale length I want and it produces a printable template.
Neck looks great. Love the contrasting woods; walnut and maple? Nice headstock as well.
I might be 100% wrong, but to my eye it appears the nut might not be in the correct position. The spacing btw the nut and 1st fret needs to be measured where the string leaves contact with the nut. When using a threaded rod, or any other cylindrical object, this is roughly the middle of the rod. With a traditional nut it would be the front edge of the nut. To my eye it looks as if the threaded rod is placed so that its front edge is the desired distance to the 1st fret. This would mean the nut has been placed too far away because that's not where the string actually breaks contact with the rod.
Red line indicates where string breaks contact with the threaded rod:
Replies
Hi, just another tip on pickup height. Getting too close to the strings with the pickup can allow the strings vibration to be effected by the pull of some magnets, creating a loss of sustain.
Taff
Scale length: scale length for regular guitar is 24" to 26".
The longer the scale length - the better the harmonics and higher treble pitch. 25.5" for the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster gives rich harmonic levels. Those guitars have always been treble rich guitars tone-wise.
The Lower the scale length - the easier it is to bend strings and a lower tone. Gibson, PRS and Dobro live in the 24" to 25" scale for a more mellow tone and good string bending technique.
I personally like the 25" scale length because it's right in the middle, good harmonics, not too bright and still able to do good string bends without punishing your fingertips.
Pickup string height: there isn't a set height for every guitar, every pickup and every person.
Best thing to do is what every professional setup tech does. Lower the pickup as low as you can get it before the adjustment screw comes out of the pickup base. Plug in the guitar and turn on your amp. Slowly adjust the pickup up towards the strings while you play til you get the right amount of volume output and the right tone.
Setting the pickup at the highest possible setting gets you more volume output, but not always the best tone.
You can set the high string side of the pickup higher than the bass string side for more treble or vise-versa for more bass. Even height for balanced tone.
Another good nugget: If your volume and tone are always set to 10, then the only way to get more is walk over to the amp and adjust. So set the guitar's volume and tone to 8 and then adjust the amp volume and tone settings to the best level. Then if you need more volume or extra bright tone, you have room to adjust for it on the guitar.
This is the prewired pickup I was talking about....this isn't that exact same one that I used before but I am sure it will sound pretty good
Pic so far
30ACF3A5-5436-49C3-B160-E2D0F6294459.jpeg
0D529459-64C8-41F7-8B7C-FB2DBFD66176.jpeg
What scale length did you use? I use the below website for laying out all my necks as it allows me to use whatever scale length I want and it produces a printable template.
http://www.ekips.org/tools/guitar/fretfind2d/
Neck looks great. Love the contrasting woods; walnut and maple? Nice headstock as well.
I might be 100% wrong, but to my eye it appears the nut might not be in the correct position. The spacing btw the nut and 1st fret needs to be measured where the string leaves contact with the nut. When using a threaded rod, or any other cylindrical object, this is roughly the middle of the rod. With a traditional nut it would be the front edge of the nut. To my eye it looks as if the threaded rod is placed so that its front edge is the desired distance to the 1st fret. This would mean the nut has been placed too far away because that's not where the string actually breaks contact with the rod.
Red line indicates where string breaks contact with the threaded rod:
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