Doing Things Wrong

All Together Now

All assembled and strung up with D'Addario round-wounds. The action fell into place with just a little adjusting. I set the intonation with a yardstick, which works better than you'd think. Add 3/16" for the E string, 0 for the G, and split the difference in between.

Apart from testing the wiring, I have not yet plugged it in. I'm going to let it settle under tension for a week or two.


image
Fretboard Radius Blocks

I make all my fretboards 12 inches, guitar or bass, fretted or fretless. I just like that, and also, it doesn't matter that much as long as you stay away from the extremes. 12-inches is a nice comfortable curve for chording on, and also doesn't require as much work and mess to carve as a smaller radius. I find it is a good compromise overall. I can make a 12-inch radius from flat pretty successfully with just a sanding block. StewMac's pre-radiused boards are 16-inches and are quick and easy to re-radius to 12. Although I made tooling for everything from 7 to 16, I don't use any of it. Luckily, I made extra tooling for 12 inches before I broke down the manufacturing plant.