The Horror - HM Resoration

[heem6]

I photoshopped that pic and will get it printed on the decal paper tomorrow, if the Document Center isn't too busy.



And you're right, Rick - no more wiring from scratch unless I have to!

[heem6]

Hey, does anybody have any tips on installing the fretwire on this neck for me? As usual, I have practically no tools. I suppose I could go get a plastic-head hammer down at Ace Hardware, or a guy at work offered to loan me his drill press and an attachment to press in the frets with.

[nickwellings]

Drill press is way easier, with the right attachment of course.

Um...but bashing them in works too. Really though the frets would be the only part of the build I would give to a luthier. If you haven't done it before, Jim it might not be best to start on your best rebuild, especially if it has the ebony board and all...!

[heem6]

Hi Nick, I'm really motivated to do this one on my own. Partly out of pride, but partyly because I'm sick of giving so much money to guitar techs!

Can you tell me a little about the pitfalls? I might be wrong - I'm imagining that even if I screw something up I can buy some more frets for $10 and start over?

[nickwellings]

You could buy more fretwire, yes, but you might damage the board taking them out or putting them in...?

Also you need to know how to level dress and crown them uniformly, and how to bevel the sides/ends. I do not think it is a case of just putting them in!

[heem6]

Thanks, Nick! I can handle the fret level, crown and dress. Also the side bevelling. I think I'll give it a try and later you can tell me, "I told you so!"

[nickwellings]

I would never do that... Rather you can say "I told YOU so" to me!! I took a Mexi strat to a local music shop today for a nut replacement. Low E slot had snapped open. The guy came off holiday on Monday and basically only had a day or two to fix mine before I said I'd call in. Got it back today....and...it's not the best job, shall we say. I took it to him because I didn't have the right tools.

Maybe I should buy some files, read some Erlwine on repairing and give it a go??

I only paid £5 so that's not TOO bad but even so, I sure wish I had the old nut back. In retrospect I could probably just had blobbed some plastic onto it with superglue.

[heem6]

Man, that's too bad, bro!

HOW GUITAR TECHS ARE LIKE AUTO MECHANICS: They lie to you to get you to spend more money, they always act like they know better than you do, and they pretend to know waaaay more than they really do! ;D

[heem6]

Gary was nice enough to plane down this neck for me before he sent it out, Thanks, Gary! Am going to get a birdseye maple fingerboard for it. For about $29, Luthier's Mercantile will sell the fingerboard and do the slotting on it for you. Here's the original, which I'm now ready to do inlays on, and the one Gary just sent.

[rickblacker]

SWEET man, can't wait unil you get them done. I like that dark fretboard. Is that ebony?

[heem6]

Thanks! It sure is Ebony. I also need to sand it down with some progressive sandpaper grits now to get it nice and smooth. I did some extra work on the edges of the fingerboard to get the "hand-rolled fretboard edges" which are really comfortable.

[nickwellings]

Just saw that stewmac sell a compound radius board for about $30. Good price. ight be an idea, as compound radius fretboards are really nice. What radius is the ebony board, Jim? Did you try and match it to the Kahler? I always notice the D, mainly the G and b strings are a little high on all HMS, due to mismatched radiusing of board vs Kahler, just like the Wiki article says.

[heem6]

Since I have so few tools, the only reason I figured I could try and tackle this project is because the fretboard is so flat on the HM. I got a perfectly flat fretboard made for a Dobro or something like that.

I was wondering about the possibility of filing the grooves in the lock nut to all be the same height, and also the saddles on the Kahler. I wouldn't try that myself though, probably hire it out.

Does that sound like a good or bad idea?

[heem6]

Did some work on the neck today while I was watching my favorite group from Cardiff protect us against threats from Aliens and the Time Rift. (BBC TV Series Torchwood.)

Fine-sanded the fretboard with 60 grit, then 150, then 180, 220 and finally 0000 steel wool. I've never owned a guitar with an ebony fretboard before, but let me tell you, this wood is sexy! Once you get it fine-sanded smooth, it is very, very soft and silky! I can't wait to play this one!

Then I used a digital caliper to measure out all the placement marks for the dot inlays. Was going to do offset, but remembered they were sort of annoying - your hand covers them while you play and it's hard to see where you're at when you can't see the markers! (You can see the marks on the left that were going to mark the left edge of the offset dots.)

Just bid on 7mm Mother of Pearl markers on eBay.

[heem6]

Scored a pair of Lace Sensor Hot Gold noiseless pickups for this guitar. Short on cash this week, but the seller agreed to hold them until Friday when I'll send the payment. Only $77 for the band-new pair, shipped.

So I've changed around a little bit and since I'm trying to make this a sort of an HM Ultra with the ebony board - I've got a Lace Sensor Red Dually pickup for the bridge and the Hot Golds below for vintage Stratocaster sounds clean, and screaming sounds under gain.

Lace Sensor Red Dually Pickup (middle)


Lace Sensor Hot Gold pickups