Leaderboard

Bit of catch up to do. There's more detail in the Basschat thread but these are the highlights. The finish on the body, while not perfect, is probably at the point where further work will make it worse rather than better - so this is where I will stop and, once it's dry, I'll hopefully be able to polish out some of the aberrations And that means I could get on and do the bridge. In pictures. I use the Stewmac fret calculator to work out exactly where the bass and treble mid points of the saddle slot need to be. I use masking tape to mark the position:  Next is to score round the bridge with a scalpel into the finish: Then to scrape away the carefully applied finish from within the score line!: Then I double checked the position and drilled through the peg holes for the top and bottom E. The two pegs will be used in the initial clamping to prevent the bridge 'floating' out of position on the wet glue: Then I put more masking tape around the back (should have done this first and just scalpeled though it round the bridge!) and got out my bridge clamp and home-made bridge sides clamp: Then added the glue, and at first just used the metal clamp, positioning the bridge with a couple of string pegs through the bridge and into the two peg holes drilled in the top. Once I was sure the bridge was secure, I removed the two pegs and popped the home-made clamp to press the bridge sides firmly down: Then carefully wiped off the squeeze-out before removing the masking tape. This will be left clamped overnight to fully dry: And the only way of telling if it's in the right place is to string it up! So this morning, that's what I did And I'm very pleased with how it looks. And more to the point - even though not even the frets have been levelled and the saddle or nut aren't yet height adjusted - it sounds fantastic! I'm thrilled and surprised in equal measure! Oh, and yes - against all odds - the bridge does seem to be in the right place So still to do is: - Levelling/crowning frets - Cleaning up fretboard - Installing electrics - Setting up saddle and nut - Strap button on heel - Fine tuning neck profile and final slurry and buff - Final polish once varnish is fully cured - Play it!

Started the neck carve. It will probably take the rest of the day off and on but the bulk is removed: Other than checking the neck thickness with some calipers, I'm carving this one pretty much entirely by feel - sitting in a chair, holding it like a back-to-front cello and using a variety of tools including spokeshave, cabinet scrapers and microplanes. I often tweak the shape in the same way once the guitar is fully finished and strung up, just using a cabinet scraper and finishing off with sandpaper, followed by a quick reapplication of tru-oil slurry and buff.