Quote:
Originally Posted by Nemoman
Looks beautiful, Mark--what a sweet set-up!
|
Thanks Nemoman!
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianM99
That's a mighty neat and clean workshop. Not a bad looking Woodsman either.
|
I got that Woodsman strung up today. The bridge was glued on yesterday so it was ready to go this morning. That starts with drilling the bridge pin holes on through the top of the guitar. The holes were already started so they guide the drill bit the rest of the way through:
You also may notice the I am not drilling the holes straight down through the top but am coming at it from a bit of an angle. I ramp the back of my bridges and the bridge pins heads will sit flat to that surface.
I also tilt the saddle back at an angle for several reasons. One is this relieves some of the forward pressure from strings wanting to pushing the saddle from behind. That forward pressure can cause a bridge to crack out after time.
The second reason is the saddle is set at an angle is to help keep the guitar from loosing intonation when the saddle is raised or lowered. The higher the saddle the further back the string break point goes which helps offset the addition stretch on the strings when fretted from the greater height.
Now neither of thee things are really vintage ideas but they are subtle changes and,well, better is better.
I use my egg beater hand drill for this purpose now. It is remarkable how much easier it is to hold the angle correctly with this than a heavy powered drill. The egg beater is perfectly balanced and the handle is in line with drill bit. A power drill is faster while the egg beater is slower and more accurate. I'll take accurate over faster.
Here are a couple initial pics of the guitar:
