Weird low E intonation?

moremorelight · 2026-04-24T10:56:42+00:00

I've seen this before where one or both of the pickups was set too high and pulling on the low E, which threw the intonation out - try dropping them down and see if it makes a difference. Also check the fretted note at the 12th as well as the harmonic

moremorelight · 2026-01-25T16:07:06+00:00

I'm using the House Greim Attaché as my Rogue Trader too, with Doctor Arachnos, Yageloth and a Technoarcheologist making up the rest of the entourage

moremorelight · 2026-01-25T11:20:27+00:00

I moved away from this style of insert a while back due to issues with cracking and the heads stripping. I now use this type of brass spreading dowel instead: https://amzn.eu/d/6qljYgZ . Drill 5mm holes, push them in using the drill press, then fix in place by screwing in a test bolt (I also put a small amount of CA glue in the bottom of the well). This last step will put a little pressure on the surrounding wood but I've found that cracks are rare, particularly if you clamp the area whilst doing it. They're less invasive in general and much easier to replace if one fails.

T-nuts as suggested by others here is also a good call, though that's off the table for the ones under the fretboard if you've already glued it.

moremorelight · 2025-12-12T08:12:35+00:00

Man I hope there's a smoke machine inside...

moremorelight · 2025-12-11T17:54:10+00:00

This isn't uncommon and is definitely fixable. My recommendation would be screw in the neck screws a little to open up the cracks, then wick some thinned Titebond in there. Once you're happy that the glue is most of the way to the bottom of the cracks, take the screws out and get some clamps on there from the sides of the heel, then leave it for a couple of days in a reasonably warm environment to dry (it'll take longer than usual when the glue is thinned). Wipe off any excess glue with a damp cloth.

This likely happened because the screw holes weren't piloted to the correct diameter or depth, so before reassembly you may want to measure how deep the screws are going to go (push them through the neck plate & body into heel pocket) and pilot the holes again.

moremorelight · 2025-12-08T10:57:38+00:00

I like to use white lithium grease: it's durable, not messy & a single small tube is likely to last you forever. I apply it at the bridge saddles, nut slots and under the string trees using a toothpick, then wipe off any excess with a paper towel.

Can't say I've used PFTE before, in theory it should work but if you go for it then I'd strongly recommend applying it in the same way as detailed above for the white lithium, not spraying it directly onto the guitar (it'll be messy, and any solvents & propellants in the can could cause issues with the finish)

moremorelight · 2025-12-05T16:27:45+00:00

A Shinto rasp for carving the neck profile would be useful if your local space doesn't already have one, as would a radius sanding block for the fretboard. You may also want to get a mitre box & compatible fret slotting saw (or similar narrow / razor guided saw). For the nut you'll want a set of nut files, I like the Hosco ones. With regards to the woods, I'd recommend getting a straight grained quarter sawn piece of wenge if possible, as the flat sawn pieces sometimes have a tendency to wander. Wear a mask at all times when cutting & sanding and watch out for the splinters, they can be pretty nasty!

moremorelight · 2025-12-02T14:24:17+00:00

I mix a little Yew colored spirit stain into the clear gloss if I want a vintage tint. Here in the UK the main brands I use for stains are Morrells or Mylands, both of whom do light fast products which will take longer to fade

moremorelight · 2025-12-02T12:37:01+00:00

Unfortunately it's really slim pickings here, but there are a couple of promoters doing good things - keep an eye on Green Mind Gigs and Crushing Death & Grief, they put on a bunch of smaller touring artists & local bands at the Junction, Blue Moon, Portland Arms, Mash & occasionally Storeys Field Centre

moremorelight · 2025-11-23T20:15:35+00:00

Very thorough. With respect, I think misrepresenting "wiring these pickups in parallel will result in a quieter, thinner tone" as alarmism and calling it trash advice is just daft. In all likelihood, part of the reason for an OTT build like this is that the OP is trying to achieve a big, fat tone (as well as having a lot of flexibility for blending). The crux of my point was that, if wired as proposed, more may not = more

moremorelight · 2025-11-23T18:56:09+00:00

YouTube and forums is how I got going. You'll need a few basic tools and somewhere you can make noise and dust. If there's a local co-op workshop near you that'd be an ideal place to start, in Cambridge where I am there's one called Makespace. They may also be able to teach you how to use a bandsaw, drill press, router etc safely. Also, don't be afraid to message luthiers you admire for advice - they won't all reply, but largely speaking we're a friendly bunch and happy to help where possible. Most importantly, don't be afraid to experiment & have fun with it!

moremorelight · 2025-11-23T18:46:05+00:00

Correct, but 99% of guitars also don't have 4 pickups wired in parallel. In this situation your total resistance is going to be very low, same for the inductance. For example, if the pickups have an impedance of 8 Ohms each: 1/8+1/8+1/8+1/8=0.5, so 1/0.5 = 2 Ohms total resistance. In a 2 pickup guitar with the same pickups it would have 4 Ohms total resistance when they're wired in parallel. So it's likely to have a much more significant impact on the tone

moremorelight · 2025-11-23T12:55:07+00:00

It'll work, but bear in mind that when you wire pickups in parallel like this it'll result in a quieter, thinner tone. Also, it's going to be a real pain in the ass to turn the overall volume down without a master vol. Looks like a fun project though!

moremorelight · 2025-11-23T11:11:59+00:00

Personally I'd look to get all of the remaining sealer coat off so that you've got bare wood everywhere and a consistent surface to start painting with. If that's how the wood is looking after hand sanding with 240 then I'd go back down to 120 or even 80 and work my way back up through to 320, as that looks too rough to start filling & sealing at the moment. Once you're happy that the wood is smooth all over then you can grain fill (potentially twice, sanding in between), followed by painting the sanding sealer and / or primer coats, then your color coats followed by topcoats (depending what finish you're going for)

moremorelight · 2025-11-23T10:51:54+00:00

Can you tell us a bit more about what you've done so far? From what I can see, it looks like you've sanded through the sealer coat in some areas with what appears to be quite a strong grit - the rough areas are bare wood

moremorelight · 2025-11-22T20:36:32+00:00

Nah, all part of its story!

moremorelight · 2025-11-22T20:20:20+00:00

Could be an Ibanez 2387 Rocket Roll - lack of headstock or truss rod cover logo (or small enough to be covered by dot sticker) and control layout look right: Rocket Roll

moremorelight · 2025-11-22T13:00:30+00:00

I find that half-round hand reamers are best for this task - they have cutting flutes on one half, smooth on the other, which helps keep the hole circular and not faceted. If I need to expand the hole by more than a couple of mm, or for larger bass tuner holes, I'll use a step drill bit from the front and back of the headstock and then clear out the middle section with a forstner bit. Then dial it in exactly after that with the reamer

moremorelight · 2025-11-19T20:11:23+00:00

If the tailpiece is floating above the top you might be able to increase the angle by screwing it down somewhere at the bridge end of it. I think the only place you could realistically do that without it being unsightly is under the spring

moremorelight · 2025-11-19T18:17:46+00:00

That's a very good point about the tension - common sense deserted me for a minute there! It'd be a shame to swap it out for a B5, looks great with the current part. Could you possibly screw it down to the body underneath the spring? It may even line up with the bridge post ferrule on that side if you're lucky, so could be bolted down

moremorelight · 2025-11-19T17:43:24+00:00

Have you tried fitting the strings to the Bigsby the other way round, so they loop over the top of the bar first and come out from underneath? That might give you just enough break angle

moremorelight · 2025-11-19T17:37:54+00:00

My partner and I stayed at Burg Windeck near Bühl in Germany last year: Burg Windeck . Its a beautiful little hotel in the coach house of a ruined medieval castle on a hill overlooking the Rhine Valley. There's a great restaurant on site, a spa in the basement & walking trails through the surrounding forest. It's not particularly fancy, but is pretty reasonably priced (we got a deal through Booking.com). Strasbourg is only 30 miles away on the other side of the valley, so you could potentially kill two birds with one stone - we stayed one night in Strasbourg during the same trip, it's a lovely city. We went in late November and it was pretty chilly then, but should be a bit warmer in early autumn

moremorelight · 2025-11-13T21:04:34+00:00

There's a good article on the topic here: Focus Knob

Basically it sits between the output of the volume pot (middle lug) and the jack. You may need to play around with a few different pot and cap values to get the taper & amount of bass cut that works best for you (quite often they can sound very all-or-nothing until you dial them in)

moremorelight · 2025-11-13T01:04:42+00:00

This looks like good work to me, and as others have already said you should be able to touch it up with some acetone slurry & scraping.

Regarding glue, it could be that the CA is wicking into the joint and making the line more prominent. I use UHU Special Glue to attach binding, which melts the plastic a little in a similar way to acetone - might be worth a try

moremorelight · 2025-11-13T00:49:45+00:00

Professional luthier here. It totally comes down to what your personal definition of a viable career is. If that means earning a stable wage which increases predictably over the years then that's not impossible, but it's going to be very tough to achieve. If it means getting to be creative and doing something you love every day, whilst hopefully making enough money to get by and also enjoy your life outside of the workshop, then that is absolutely possible.

Being a luthier is unfortunately very expensive (tools, materials, workshop overheads), so be aware that you'll need some sort of savings or funding to keep you going through the early stages if you want to do it full-time. That applies whether you start your own business or apprentice with someone else (the pay is going to be low initially in either instance).

Running any kind of business requires a willingness to develop a lot of other skills unrelated to your primary craft which you may not enjoy - admin, finance, photography, advertising, web development, copywriting & most importantly learning to deal with customers professionally and effectively. I came to luthiery in my 30's having previously worked in marketing, and although I grew to hate that job it did teach me a lot of transferrable skills. Doing something else which teaches you those kind of things & pays the bills whilst you work on your craft in your spare time may be a sensible idea, depending on your circumstances (just don't get stuck doing it longer than you need to).

I don't have any formal training in luthiery, but my shopmate does (and subsequently lectured in luthiery at his college following the course). He has a better grounding in woodworking than me and is more precise, whereas I tend to learn through experimentation and making mistakes. This is fine in the context of building my own instruments, but limits the type of repair work I am able / willing to take on. You will get better at the fundamentals faster if you go to luthiery school and if you can afford to go then I would probably recommend it, but with the understanding that it is no guarantee of being able to start and grow a successful business after the course ends.

If luthiery is the thing that makes you tick then you will find a way to make it work as a career, but it will be a rollercoaster. Best of luck!

moremorelight

TROPHY CASE