Thinking DIY

After putting the strings on the guitar I could see that the action was quite high at both the 1st and the 12th fret. Quite high meaning 4+ mm on both sides at the 12th fret, and ~1.2mm on both sides at the 1st fret. The "normal"/medium action based on several sources is somewhere a bit below 3.2mm (0.125 inch) on the bass side and 2.5 mm (0.095 inch) on the treble side E (see https://www.liutaiomottola.com/formulae/action.htm) So I took my saw and cut about 3-4 mm from the bottom of the saddle (given that the material removed from the saddle should be twice as much you want to lower your action at the 12th fret), which was too much, given that I have quite a deep groove (5mm) for the saddle, and the saddle sides at the treble and bass E went below the bridge level. Not good. Another mistake. But learning is good. Measure twice, cut once proved to be a good motto again. Nevermind, I took another saddle, which was a bit smaller than the previous one (at least in height, it w...

So after the last failure , I have ordered and received a set of new clamps, and after sort-of fixing the finish (and some additional work to polish the whole surface with some automotive polishing paste to make the shellac shine) I glued the bridge again (First I have masked around the bridge to avoid glue squeeze-out ruining the finish, and let the masking tape ruin the finish), with the three extremely heavy and serious clamps clamping it down, tightened until there's some glue squeeze out. Given that the clamps were quite heavy, I kept the guitar standing to avoid the clamps' weight pushing the top down. I waited 24 hours, and removed the two clamps from the sides, and waited another 24 hours for safety. Then strung it up (with some used colored strings for the sake of the test). And the bridge didn't break off. And the guitar sounded great, intonation was mostly ok. But there were some more adjustments left, as the action was quite high.

As the bridge was clamped, I couldn't stand to wait, and realized that I could already start leveling and polishing the frets. So after getting some inspiration from other builders, I have started. The most useful videos  I've watched on how to do a fret job were: Fret job - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra1-HQ6GOxw - Highline Guitars Fret leveling - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDy7cF255dY Fret leveling - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbr0VR2CdQ Fret polishing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpeCq_1AvwU - Guns and Guitars So, my steps were: Skipped checking the neck being straight, as I checked it already with the frets of, and it was dead-straight, and I have sanded it  straight Created a leveling beam from a longer (~50cm) block of wood which was planed to be perfectly flat on two sides. I have glued 240 and 320 grit sandpaper to the two flat sides Masked the fretboard with masking tape Marked the tops of the frets with a black sharpie Sanded with 24...

After letting the glued bridge 24 hours clamped I took the clamps off, and stringed it up. One note lower than it should've been. And when fine-tuning the 5th string the bridge was ripped off. Fortunately not with a strange trajectory, not hititng anything (not even the top), and only causing two minor tear-outs on the top. So the clamp didn't work. Next step: order a set of serious clamps. In 5 minutes order was placed. Next step: I want to hear how the guitar sounds, so mount all the 6 strings with the "temporary floating bridge" used for testing the bridge location. And with all 6 strings mounted I found that the initial bridge location was off on the bass side. And probably my scale length wasn't measured correctly, as the bass side was off by 6-7mm, which is a lot. Nevertheless, after setting the bridge at the correct location, it looked ugly with the clamp and the cardboard on the guitar, but it did work. And boooooy, it sounded really good... rich, bassy,...