Hi folks,
I thought I'd share a few of my tricks and techniques which I employ on my builds to make them sound and play better. Obviously to some of the more experienced builders out there these may seem obvious, but that aside these are all things I wish I knew when I began making these.
1. The nut
The nut is an extremely important part of any guitar's construction, and has a huge impact on the intonation and the clarity of the tone. All of my guitars are fretted so I set up my builds to play with fingers rather than slides. Some of these steps are unnecessary if you intend to only play with a slide.
My tips for nuts would be:
2. The bridge
Much like the nut, the bridge is very important for both intonation and allowing the strings to ring out as they should.
I use a floating bridge for all of my builds, as they are super easy to set up and I like the way they look. There is good information on setting bridge intonation all over the internet so I won't go into that here. My tips for bridges:
3. Back angle
I started using a back angle on the neck on roughly my 12th build. The difference in playability compared to a straight neck is huge. It is actually quite easy to achieve and well worth a try.
As you can see, using a back angle on the neck allows for a much higher bridge, and the action stays nice and low all the way up the neck.
4. String gauge
Although it is standard CBG building practice to use strings 3,4 & 5 from a 6 string set, I have found better result using strings at equal tension, which is probably more important on instruments without truss rods to prevent the neck warping over time. I also find equal string tension easier to play.
Well, I hope this is of some help to those of us just starting out with this rewarding hobby. I suppose my best tip would be not to think too much about it, otherwise you'll end up like me :(
Cheers!
Richey
Comment
Richey,
ive done 2 back angle guts and am rebuilding a few others. I like to screw my necks in so level adjustments can be achieved. Thanks for helping me be better builder. Wish you could help me with playing it, at least there are more challenges to conquer, thus continued interest
You are sharing what takes a great amount of time, experimenting and experience to acquire.
thank you for your gracious gift Brother
Thanks bro.!! I just did a build and made the neck angled but I'm having a hard time with getting my bridge set up right. I have a pick up in it but it's aways off from the strings. And I have a bit of a twang on the 1st string. This is the first back angle neck set up I've done. Hope I can get it right.
Ace tips bonnie lad!
Great stuff Richey, Thanks man! I'm all about nuts and saddles right now but the neck angle is something I will try too, same with the strings.
I Will use the back angle neck on my next build!
After reading your post "4 Tips..." I knew what I had to do and...
It turned out AWESOME. Did a 2 degree angle and the volume and projection are ridiculous! I made my bridge a little different from yours but calculated the compensation and the intonation is dead-on. You can see the bridge at the link below. Life will not be the same; thanks! Owe you more than a few beers :-)
Tom roughcutguitars fb & yt
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