Bama Jelley CBG#2 - "rough cuts". This CBG is made from a very nice oliva box ($1), a piece of hardwood flooring (Ipe or "Brazilian Walnut" for the neck (about $2 - I bought an odd lot box) and old tuning machines purchased from the scrap box at a local music store ($5 per). The bridge and nut were made from a salvaged heavy oak stair tread I found in a dumpster, but I will probably be changing these for something else or modifying them as the action is a bit to high for my taste. The fret wire was purchased from a local instrument repair shop ($6). I asked the guy for medium but I think it is more like large or jumbo. Will be adding a piezo soon.
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Thanks for the comment. As you can tell from the picture, I went a bit crazy with the router on the front of the neck and bit off more than I originally intended to. This was my first attempt using fret wire. I just cut them a little longer than the width of the neck and installed them in the slots. Then I clamped a piece of scrap wood to the top of the neck and used some pliers to bend the excess down a bit to match the radius on the edges of the neck. From there, I cut them to length and used a file to taper them down. Mark Bliss has some pics in one of his threads where he shows how he does it. I do it basically the same way, but added the bending them down with pliers. The frets were tough and took a while to do. No two of them are exactly the same. I am not completely happy with them, but must resist the urge to do any more filing on them. Notice there are no close up pics of the frets. LOL.
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