My current project is an electric with several unique design elements. It's a chambered solidbody made from Spanish cedar and I'm having a good time working with the customer to craft something that addresses his style of playing. I'll post an update when it's complete.

Cutting neck pockets by hand is really the only way to ensure the best possible fit. It's slow but satisfying work.

Making some Supro-inspired guitar bridges.

A local musician for whom I've done a lot of work had an interesting little project for me this week.  He picked up a Music Man Armada. We both agree it's nicely made, but he plays slide and found the string spacing a little challenging.

The high e is about 3/32" from the edge of the fretboard, and his slide bumps against it.

The spacing at the saddle needs to be adjusted. I can push it over by about 1.5mm and still keep the string over the polepiece of bridge pickup. We decided to file down the saddles and re-slot this bridge, but he asked if I'd be interested in making some non-adjustable rosewood replacements in the style of old 50's Supro and Airline guitars, one with a bone saddle, the other plain.

I took measurements from the stock bridge. Notice that the saddles aren't widely dispersed - this guitar has a compensated nut and so this bridge, though it might look "wrong", intonates very well.

 I planed up a stick of rosewood.

 And made up a quick cardboard template to mark spacing for the post holes and other measurements.

Drilling the post holes.

The Armada has a 12" fretboard radius.  I used my sanding block to mark the curve on one of the blanks.

A little self-adhesive sandpaper and a minute of scrubbing roughed in the shape.

I marked the staggered saddle arrangement in pencil

The post holes provide a convenient way to affix the blank for carving.

I tried to leave a crisp knife-cut surface. The zig-zag effect isn't as dramatic as on some original bridges, but the intonation requirements play a part in the design.

For the second bridge, I needed to angled slots for the bone saddle inserts.  Here's a useful trick.  I applied masking tape to the side of the bridge, and to the edge of a piece of plywood. By applying superglue to the tape surfaces, I get a very strong bond, but when it's time to separate the two, they come apart easily and cleanly by sliding a pallet knife between them.

I mark a line that coincides with the distance between my 1/8" router bit and the edge of the router baseplate, parallel with the intended slot. I screw down a temporary fence, complete the routing, then repeat for the other slot.

Strips of masking tape give me clear boundaries.  It's much easier than squinting at a pencil line.

 A triumvirate of terror! They add a definite warmth to the guitar's voice. They look pretty cool, too.

Floyd Rose Retrofit.

Recently I was asked to do some work on an Ibanez RG series guitar.  The owner wanted to add some pizzazz with new gold hardware and replacement of the factory-installed Edge series tremolo with an upgraded authentic Floyd unit.  He'd ordered the parts and realized that some extra fitting would be necessary.

The string locking screws protrude a bit farther on this model.

To make a custom-sized routing template, I first took a block of 3/4" (19mm) pine and planed it so that it fit snugly within the cavity.

Using pocket-hole screws I quickly added a couple of side wings to the block, producing a platform with an opening exactly equal to the width of the cavity. As an aside, you can see damage to the finish along the back edge of the cavity caused by efforts to prop the bridge up during string-changes. I usually suggest changing each string individually, or using a block padded with cork to prevent this.

My high-tech method for keeping the template in place involves lots of low-tack masking tape against the body, to which I can press down my incredibly strong double-sided tape. This keeps things very secure but I don't have to worry about leaving residue or pulling up the finish on older, more fragile instruments.

1/2" (13mm) flush-trim bit, lots of shallow passes. Don't try to hog off too much material. Cover the pickups because this is a messy process.  I added a couple of clamps to hold the jig in place, but only for peace of mind. They've only been tightened lightly, and the body is resting on a heavily padded surface. It's possible to dent the lacquer on some instruments with too much clamping pressure.

There. Clean as a whistle. The original rout for the pocket is actually tapered and quite irregular. As it happened, the mounting holes for the bridge studs were a little off-center too. Ibanez leaves a little bit of room to fudge the bridge position, and that's easy to do with the Edge series, as it has a flat blade rather than a radiused bearing surface as found in the original Floyd Rose.  It's a good idea to feather the razor-sharp edges of the fresh-routed pocket with fine sandpaper to prevent future chipping. I darkened the wood up with a coat of stain and it looked nice.

The aftermarket nut he'd purchased was high, and playing was stiff. I reckoned the nut would need to come down about .020" (.5mm) The landing surface was tilted a little, and I had visions of the binding delaminating and other horrors.  I decided to take material off the bottom of the nut instead.

I measured distances from the bottom of the string grooves to keep track of progress.

The nut casting is really quite rough. A couple of passes with the file revealed that the perimeter of the screw holes was a high spot. I took it to my rotary sharpening platter and used a course disc to gradually work my way down until I reached the correct depth.  It's not a job to rush, and you have to measure constantly.

Much better. It's flat, to the correct dimensions, and ready to install!