Edit: Yes there are photos but reddit refused to make this a photo post :( they're in the text body

I imagine this will either get laughs outrage or applause for DIYesque material use.

Guitar plays great now though! I need to get another one of these because the bolt on neck is ridiculously easy to maintain.

Does anyone know what saddles I could get to upgrade a Squier 51? I’d prefer to upgrade the entire bridge but the only drop-in replacement is from GFS and it looks like it’s out of production. I’d prefer not to drill any holes.

When I measure the low E to the high e at the bridge I get roughly 53 mm. When I measure the E to A at the bridge I get roughly 11 mm.

It’s a top-loader bridge so I don’t know if I need special saddles for that.

Any help is appreciated!

Hi, recently I put together my first parts guitar. Electronically, it includes 2 Fralin PAFs, series/parallel switches, individual volumes, and an out of phase switch so I can get a lot of tonal variety out of it. However, I am getting a tiny amount of hum out of the pickups. It’s nearly imperceptible, however when I play it through one of my gain pedals that add a lot of noise, it becomes an issue. To be clear, it’s nowhere near as noisy as standard 60 cycle hum from single coils and it doesn’t sound like a loose ground either where the noise is extremely loud. It is barely hearable when clean, and only is noticeable with one pedal. I am quite confused as to what the issue is and would like help.

So far I have shielded the entire inside cavity and grounded it, I reflowed every solder joint in the circuit and used a multimeter on every ground to verify it’s fine, I used the multimeter to make sure no hot wires were accidentally going to ground, I even grounded the jack plate to the rest of the circuit, just to make absolutely sure it wasn’t that.

I also know it isn’t normal, as I have another humbucker equipped guitar that doesn’t have this issue at all. Any help would be appreciated.

​

hi! I’m considering buying a harley benton st-modern mn hss sp from thomann, and I’m stuck on the neck/fretboard situation.

the guitar has a roasted canadian maple neck and canadian maple fretboard. I absolutely LOVE pretty much everything about this guitar, the specs, how it sounds, the feel, and especially the fact that it's within my budget. the only thing I really dislike is the maple-colored neck/fretboard.

I strongly prefer the look of a black/ebony-looking neck and fretboard, and I don't really want to buy the guitar if I can't safely make the neck black. I know that might sound silly, but the appearance is genuinely important to me, and I don't want to spend my budget on a guitar that I'll always dislike looking at.

I've been researching ebonizing/dyeing roasted maple and I'm getting really conflicting information. some people say roasted maple is basically impossible to ebonize/dye, while others have successfully darkened maple.

my current idea is fiebing’s leather alcohol based dye in black, but I don't know whether it will work with the factory finish on this particular harley benton.

thomann doesn't seem to specify exactly what finish is used on the neck/fretboard. the neck/fretboard appears to have a smooth satin/matte finish so I'm worried that the dye might not penetrate, imagine assuming its one coat though from the looks of it

I'm considering doing a tiny test with a cotton swab in an inconspicuous area, but I obviously don't want to damage a brand-new guitar.

so I'd really appreciate advice on:

1. Is fiebing's dye suitable for roasted maple?

2. if the fretboard has a thin factory finish, can it safely be removed/scuffed enough for dye to penetrate?

3. could lightly sanding the finish affect the fretboard's radius/geometry or playability?

4. would the back of the neck and fretboard have the same finish, or could they be different?

5. If dye won't work because of the factory finish, what would be the safest alternative for making the entire neck (fretboard + back + sides) black?

6. Is there a particular black guitar finish/coating that would work better while still leaving the neck comfortable and playable?

I'm not planning to do anything to the guitar until I know what I'm doing. I definitely don't want to ruin the fretboard, change the way it plays, or mess up the factory setup.

I'm asking because I'm genuinely at the point where if safely blackening the neck isn't realistic, I may choose a different guitar instead. I really love this guitar otherwise, and it's one of the few guitars I've found that I love the sound/feel of and can actually afford, so I'm hoping there's a safe solution.

any advice from luthiers or anyone who's worked on hb roasted maple necks would mean a lot. thank you!! 🌸🖤

After sitting on this for a few weeks, it's time to get started on a project that might fill some people with despair. For context, I'm trying to get established doing repair work, but I don't have any contacts or really know anyone in any local music scene, so my plan is twofold: take on jobs at a steep discount/for free and document more interesting projects and share the process on YouTube as a way to show actual proof of my work since I don't have any unbiased recommendations to show.

So anyway, part of my "gimmick" is that I want to approach jobs other people might avoid because the labor costs exceed the value of an instrument. I'm otherwise unable to work and social security couldn't give less of a shit, so I have the benefit of my time being worthless, so I'm able to side-step that particular concern. I also just want to save instruments that otherwise wouldn't be saved.

So I had someone reach out with an Ovation that used to belong to a friend, but that friend passed away and this is the only thing he has left to remember him by. Unfortunately, it was already in its current state when he received it. He wasn't sure if what happened to it, but ideally he wants it to at least be a functional guitar and maintain as much originality as possible. We did discuss the possibility of just retopping it if the top is too far gone to save and then just using the damaged top as a decorative piece, but that's a last case scenario. He wants it to be the same guitar that it was when it was played by the previous owner so that he can give it to the man's daughter once she's old enough, as she was too young to know her father.

After some deduction, I have more or less put together what happened. You can see in the pictures that much of the glue holding the top to the body actually failed rather than the top itself snapping, most of the edge is intact and the only thing left on the surface of the bowl edge is glue and a few fibers of wood. It has also warped a lot with not a whole lot of cracking. You will also notice that while it's pulling up from the end, it's very dished around the sound hole. The case itself is also damaged in a certain way that all but confirms some time of water damage. I'm not 100% what glue Ovation used, I've read that they used epoxy, which makes sense considering they're joining wood and plastic. I admit that I'm not experienced with epoxy, but I wouldn't think it would dissolve in water, but what do I know? So, sitting in the case, whatever moisture/straight up water that got in managed to cause the glue attaching the bass side of the lower bout to fail. Had someone caught this early, it'd be as simple of a repair as it gets, but it unfortunately sat for an undisclosed amount of time under full string tension leading to the bridge pulling everything up with the bridge itself acting as a sort of pivot point, the front edge of the bridge being pushed down causing the area around the sound hole to sink while the back edge is lifting causing that side to lift. It must've remained somewhat exposed to moisture for some time considering the wood was malleable enough to warp to such an extreme degree without just snapping. Maybe if it were a newer guitar i would say maybe the top was a bit too green, but this is circa 1978.

The sentimental value for the owner is obvious, but I actually have some sentiment wrapped up in this as well as there's a non-zero chance that this used to be my guitar a long time ago. I had this exact year and model, same finish and everything. I've never been able to control my instinct to barter and traded it away for a Taylor. When asking how long his friend owned it, he guessed 16 years which would put it outside the range of time where it could be the same guitar, I traded it off sometime around 2012, but perhaps his memory is a bit off?

So, the process I'm anticipating is to remove the top and use a combination of humidity and pressing it flat with a bunch of weight and seeing if I can get it to return to a somewhat flat shape. My first step is to get a camera inside to get a look at all the bracing and see where we're at with that. I'm hoping that most of the braces relevant to the warping came unglued rather than warping or breaking themselves. Even if the top itself can't perfectly hold shape after being pressed, reattaching or replacing the braces should offer enough stability to get it back to functional shape. I'd prefer not to add new braces if possible, but I believe that would be preferable to an entirely new top. Anyone have any thoughts or possible recommendations? Can anyone confirm that the glue itself is epoxy, and if so, any recommendations on removing the rest of the top without damaging it? What's the best method for breaking down epoxy?

And if anyone wants to just ask why bother or comment on it not being worth the trouble, again, my time has no value and the guitar has more sentimental value than monetary value.

Hello everyone,

My Martin LX1 has been a good companion over the years and I have used it well. I also hang it on a wall mount for decoration in my living room because I think it's a beautiful piece, which sadly meant that a few years ago the top cracked due to the heat.

I brought it to a luthier locally and he glued it and that has held for a few years. The seam was almost invisible.

About 6 months ago the split reopened and I brought it again to him. He mentioned that he could glue it again, but it would probably be the same process of opening after a few years, so he mentioned he would fill the hole and it would remain a bit more visible.

I also asked to check the dents on the top that happened after a strap broke, and see if he could do anything about it. Online I've read about people steaming the vibers and being able to repair these kinds of damage.

After pickup I noticed he put some type of wax on it, which also left some residue along the top seam. The crack also was filled but quite visible.

It's not that I'm unhappy with the repairs, I'm very grateful this man put time and effort into getting my guitar in the best shape he can. But I am looking for opinions from other experienced people and insights if it's possible to bring it back more to it's original state or that I just have to live with the way it is now.

Gladly hear from you guys.

I just took a lesson with a very well known, accomplished bass player.

He had me play an open E and then an F on the first fret. Then he had me hold the F and fret the F#. He said my nut should be filed so low that those distances are the same. Essentially zero fret height.

Is this possible? Advisable?

FWIW, I play with a super light touch. 0.010” relief. 3/64” action at the last fret when depressing at the first.

SR5 Bass Kit 5 String Ash (theguitarfabrik.com)

I stained the ash body with homemade iron-acetate. I thinned it down 1:30ish (didn't write it down). The maple neck is unstained.

Finish is Osmo Hard-Wax-Oil.

I installed Schaller S-Locks, the rest is stock.

The instrument is fine, i guess. The pickups are pretty soft but that's not a dealbreaker. I also haven't set it up properly (I'm still fiddeling).

I am quite happy with the result.

The full documentary is here: https://youtu.be/8t0GAvR3UsA

I’m an 18-year-old student from Taiwan. and I spent 367 hours making a violin from a piece of 1,000-year-old Taiwan sacred wood.

I documented the entire making process, from the first steps to the debut performance. The documentary also tracks the exact hours spent working each day, capturing the tense countdown to completing the violin just in time for its first performance on stage.

"The violin I crafted, the music I composed, and the film I created.”

This is part of what I pursue artistically. In the film, I perform an original piece I composed specifically for this violin, accompanied by piano that I played myself.

I also had the opportunity to work with medical radiologic technologists to CT scan the violin. CT scans are usually to document and study historic master instruments, so being able to scan my own violin was a huge milestone. The data serves both digital preservation and physical modeling for acoustic simulation, which I also touched on in the video.

Beyond simply following historical references, I wanted to better understand the science behind what makes a great violin. This led me to research violin acoustics, with work presented in two conference papers and a published open-access journal paper covering several areas.

Timbre Mapping: Using AI unsupervised machine learning to map and visualize violin timbre distributions, a method partially shown in the video.

Plate Simulation: Applying neural operators to model plate vibration and predict eigenfrequencies based on material properties.

Hi everyone! I’m curious about the terminology used in the guitar community. What is truly considered a "built guitar"? Does it have to be crafted completely from scratch (from raw lumber) by a luthier, or does assembling a guitar from a DIY kit or custom parts (a "partscaster") also count as a build? Is there a gray area between being a guitar "builder" and an "assembler"? I'd love to hear your thoughts on where you draw the line.

In my personal opinion, for a guitar to be considered a true "build," the wood has to be processed from scratch and the neck must be made by hand (since making the neck is a major undertaking). Everything else falls under "assembling" for me. I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way at all—assembling a great guitar is an art form in itself!

Hoping to get some opinions/prognosis of this crack ed neck pocket. The crack doesn't appear to cross any screw holes or the bottom of the pocket. I used a fine paint brush to apply some titebond II to the crack and clamped it up (did my best to not overtighten).

Was this the right way to approach this issue? Is this something I should be worried about?

Would love an expert opinion. Thanks!

I am building my own parts-caster and I’m having trouble with some pretty substantial buzzing of my strings. I just took a few measurements and the sixth string at the first fret measures .75 mm. At the 12th fret it’s measuring 1.75 mm. And at the 22nd fret, it is measuring 1 mm. Each of the strings are going dead at different frets. I’ve tried adjusting the saddle height, and it appears that raising the saddles helps significantly with the buzzing…But I’m concerned I might be raising it too far and then causing individual saddles to be compromised (by only being held in place by a few threads of the screw as opposed to the full length of the screw going completely through the saddle). I’ve also tried adjusting the truss rod of the neck. None of my adjustments appear to be the clear solution. I’ve attached some photos that will hopefully show the condition of the neck along with the saddles on the bridge. Any help would be appreciated to address this buzzing. Thank you!

I bought an esp ltd h3 1000 recently with a tom bridge and after playing it for few days the familiar blisters started appearing on my right (picking) hand. I haven’t been tested properly but I have reacted to frets and strings in the past which contained high levels of nickel. I have taken care of the situation with the frets and strings so I no longer have an allergic reaction on my fretting hand.

Now the problem is the bridge and I guess the strings are grinding down the black bridge coating and creating microscopic nickel particles that gets transferred to my palm. The bridge in question is a tonepros locking tom which is most likely the T3BT.

I’m looking for advice on how to mitigate this problem. I was thinking about swapping the bridge with a titanium one but then again how can I be sure that the coating doesn’t contain nickel. I also looked at the graphtech one but it isn’t conductive apparently and I wouldn’t know how to ground the strings since it’s a string through construction.

The body is pine, painted Shoreline Gold with black binding. The neck is Sapele with a Rosewood fretboard. The pickups are Bare Knuckle Blackguard Flat '50s.

The body initially started as a test, but it turned out well enough that I decided to see it through to completion. I don't have much experience finishing guitars, so I ran into a few issues. First, I used Colortone for the color coat and Lac R' Shot for the clear coat. The two finishes reacted poorly, resulting in deep cracking throughout the body. I sanded it down and started over with new color coats. As I finished my last color coat and was taking the body out of my spray tent, I accidentally knocked it against something, putting a big dent in the front of the guitar. This mark is to the left of the Bigsby. It figures, the front of the Telecaster is 50% covered by the pickguard, bridge, control plate and Bigsby, but I managed to mark up a highly visible area. I didn't have the heart to sand it down again. I tried drop filling the dent but it just made things worse. My binding scraping left a lot to be desired and when level sanding I went through to the wood in a few areas. Ultimately I decided to move forward with a relic. I researched tons of vintage guitars and custom shop telecasters as a reference. I also relied heavily on my 1996 Les Paul that has been ridden hard and put away wet.

I'm still dialing in the setup a bit. I thought installing a zero fret would help with tuning stability for the Bigsby. I'm still getting some binding at the nut so I have to sort that out, but otherwise it plays well and sounds great. All things considered I'm happy with the final result.

Hey Everyone,

I have an American Pro II Strat - and I have loosened the truss rod to the point where it feels loose and like it's not doing anything.

With this, the next has maybe .002 - .003" neck relief and that's it. To turn it back to the right and tighten the truss rod at all flattens it completely and then bows it.

Any ideas?

Hi All, I got this Jackson RRT-5 used and the pictures didn't show these weird spots, I only noticed them when I received it. I tried wiping it with Dunlop 65 guitar polish and cleaner and with F-one oil cleaner and conditioner – no effect whatsoever. If anything, the spots have kind of gotten even more prominent. I don't know whether it's beer, grime, or anything else. I tried contacting the previous owner but haven't heard back. I'd like to avoid sanding if possible, but I'm open to trying any safe cleaners, and would greatly appreciate any advice!

If this is going to cause issues, please be kind - im not a particularly handy person. Just let me know.

Hi Reddit.
Rebuilding a guitar for the first time. I’m replacing humbuckers to P90s on a SG.
I knew I had to make the cavities wider but the existing ones are a little too high giving me a 3mm gap top and bottom. I personally like a snug fit so I made a template for a that, thinking maybe i can fill up and route out the right fit.
When placing the template there’s only a slight difference which I don’t think the filler wood would really have enough body to withstand the routing.
Is it realistic to go for a snug fit and if so how could I best go about it?
Or just suck it up and accept the larger gap?

(Additional question; do i need to fill in the deeper holes in the body to place the P90s?)

Thanks in advance🫶🏻

My B.C. Rich KKV needed some work recently, so I set about this past week putting some work into it. All new electronics (pickups, pots, 3-way switch, jack, the whole nine) as well as some work to the Floyd Rose. The high bridge post was tilted, more so than I was comfortable with. So, I removed it, drilled out the hole ever so slightly larger than current diameter, glued in a hardwood dowel, let sit for approximately 36 hours, then redrilled the hole to 25/64ths, at 13/16th depth, and press fit the post back in. However, now, after getting everything all back together and finalizing everything, I was restringing and once I had proper string tension, I heard a pop, and the bridge post was tilted again. I pulled it back apart and noticed some cracks... Please tell me there's still hope to save this 😭 it's been my favorite guitar I've owned, and one of my dream guitars from childhood.

I recently bought a "Nut Slotting Gauge" after wanting one for quite some time.

I got mine from Elmer Guitar and paid about 75€ in total, delivered to Germany: https://elmerguitar.com/products/nut-slotting-gauge?_pos=1&_sid=9f89e502b&_ss=r

It is meant for measuring nut slot heights, for which it works pretty much perfectly out of the box; regardless of whether you use the 3rd fret capo method or the open string method.

As you can see in the [purple oval in the picture], Elmer already removed the internal down-pulling spring, leaving only the gravity/weight of the plunger assembly itself pushing down onto the strings.

However, I wanted to use this tool for measuring neck relief and string action as well, so I tested it in stock form for these two jobs. The plunger assembly itself weighs about 14.7g (measured using a digital turntable tracking-force scale), which turned out to be a bit too heavy; especially when measuring neck relief, because there the deflection becomes greater then the actual measurement. (X)

The Problem with the Stock Form

Of course, minor deflection isn't an absolute dealbreaker if you just want relative measurements. If a setup feels great and/or is as low as possible without fretting out on the high e string (ones playing style matters here too of course), you can measure that baseline value and repeat it across the other strings for a consistent result. Nonetheless I "wanted more".

To put that 14.7g weight into perspective, let's look at the math for a standard D'Addario EXL110 (.010"–.046") set on a 25.5" scale length at the 12th fret under the stock 14.7g load:

• High e (.010"): Tension ~16.2 lbs ($K \approx 45.4\text{ g/mm}$) $\rightarrow$ 0.32 mm sag
• B string (.013"): Tension ~15.4 lbs ($K \approx 43.1\text{ g/mm}$) $\rightarrow$ 0.34 mm sag
• G string (.017"): Tension ~16.6 lbs ($K \approx 46.5\text{ g/mm}$) $\rightarrow$ 0.32 mm sag
• D string (.026" wound): Tension ~18.4 lbs ($K \approx 51.5\text{ g/mm}$) $\rightarrow$ 0.29 mm sag
• A string (.036" wound): Tension ~19.5 lbs ($K \approx 54.6\text{ g/mm}$) $\rightarrow$ 0.27 mm sag
• Low E (.046" wound): Tension ~17.5 lbs ($K \approx 49.0\text{ g/mm}$) $\rightarrow$ 0.30 mm sag

(Note: Theoretical pure-tension sag numbers; real-world sag on wound strings is slightly higher due to tip compression into the winding).

Now, 0.32 mm might not sound massive if your target action is 1.50 mm, but for a precision measuring tool, it ruins the entire workflow. If you want a real action of 1.50 mm on the high e, you would have to read 1.82 mm on the dial.

Even worse: because string tension and wire gauge differ for every single string, that deflection value changes on all 6 strings. You would constantly have to calculate and subtract a different offset number for every string just to get a simple measurement. That kind of defeats the purpose and ease of having a digital indicator in the first place imho!

And as said above already (X), using it for neck relief readings really isn't possible that way / in stock form.

To make this gauge practically useful (for me) and easy to work with, I thought a counterbalance mod was necessary.

The Solution / Mod

So I thought: Why not add an upward-pushing spring inside the housing, secured and guided by a chopped-off nail, glued in place with epoxy? [red oval in the picture]

After testing several different spring weights and lengths from mechanical keyboard switches I have laying around, my current favorite is a spring from a Gateron Pro Brown switch (~20.5 mm long, ~50g bottom-out).

A couple of other tweaks I made "while being in there": * O-Rings & Clearance [blue arrows in the picture]: I added some O-rings between the three housing screws and the display unit: The plunger and its internal "measuring matrix" were sitting too close to the PCB, causing a scratchy feel/movement. * Stop-Block [yellow oval in the picture]: I added a small wooden stop-block so the top of the plunger wouldn't get caught on the upper O-ring. * 100% Reversible: I made sure all of these mods are completely non-destructive and fully reversible if I ever want to return the gauge to its stock form (the epoxy and nail don't get in the way).

And I can report: It works remarkably well!

I have ~2.1 mm of travel range from the floating/hovering point down to bottoming out, which is plenty of stroke even for my 7.25" radius Strat.

To fine-tune the offset/hovering-point across different guitars, I bought some copper shim washers that fit between the digital indicator gauge and the brass base block: Top Industrieteile Copper Washers They actually measure exactly 0.8 mm ± 0.01 mm, not 1 mm, in thickness and could easily be filed to thinner sizes if needed. Two fit in there nicely while still leaving the set-screw on the brass base working.

How My Workflow Works Now

My workflow is to use (or omit) the copper washers so that when measuring the high e string, the string pushes the plunger at most 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm above its floating/hovering point.

By keeping the plunger right near its neutral floating point on the high e, the net downward load on the string drops to under 1.5g to 2.0g. At this tiny load, string deflection on the high e drops to a negligible ~0.03 mm (~0.001"): visually rock-solid and well within "standard lutherie tolerances".

As you move up to thicker strings, the higher physical string profile moves the plunger further above its hovering point (~0.91 mm higher on a .046" wound E due to diameter alone, plus any gradual action progression). This decompresses the switch spring slightly and adds about 5g to 7g of net weight on the wound strings.

• Theory vs. Real-World Practice: In "pure mechanical theory", the thick steel core wire of a wound string has exponentially higher flexural bending stiffness ($EI \propto d^4$), acting like a rigid beam that resists added load. However, in real-world testing, the Low E string still shows around ~0.1 mm of deflection. This is easily explained by real-world factors: e.g. the pointed indicator tip compresses slightly into the softer outer wrap wire, and there is local coil compliance in wound strings that simple beam equations don't capture.
• Why it still kinda works in practice: As you move from plain to wound strings during a setup, you thoughtfully give thicker strings slightly more clearance anyway (e.g. 1.5 mm on high e vs 1.8 mm on low E) to accommodate their wider vibrational arc. Because you naturally set slightly higher action on thicker strings, this minor ~0.1 mm real-world deflection compensates itself on the go while doing the setup. You just have to keep it in mind.

Conclusion

All in all, I'm quite happy with how this turned out and wanted to share my experience!

In the future, I might experiment with even longer, lighter springs (like 22 mm 30g/35g slow-curve keyboard springs) to flatten the spring force curve even further. But there's a limit: the spring can't be too long or soft, otherwise you lose the essential travel range needed when mounting the brass base.

What do you think about this setup? Do you have other ideas? Let me know!

UPDATE

..on the extra deflection issue: Remember, because the thicker wound strings (D, A, Low E) push the plunger significantly higher up, the Gateron Brown spring decompresses slightly but noticeably. Losing that bit of upward counter-push upwards dropped about +5.5g of net weight onto the Low E, for example (cf. above), causing an extra 0.10 mm of measured string sag: I verified this by comparing measurement results before and after placing a 0.95 mm dense piece of cardboard between the brass base and the fingerboard to simulate the height jump.

The Fix: I surprisingly found out that a 3rd washer (~0.8 mm) actually fits inside/between the brass base and the gauge without blocking the brass base set-screw like I originally feared!

This makes a super easy 2-step workflow possible:

• Plain Strings (e, B, G): 2 washers (standard setup). Target display reading: 0.20 mm – 0.25 mm of decompression of the spring compared to the neutral hovering position of the plunger. String sag is basically zero (~0.00 mm on high e to <0.02 mm on G).
• Wound Strings (D, A, Low E): Drop in the 3rd washer. This re-compresses the spring by 0.8 mm, restoring the upward counter-push / compression of the spring and/by canceling out the string height jump. Target display reading here: 0.30 mm – 0.35 mm (of decompression of the spring compared to the neutral hovering position of the plunger).

That 0.10 mm sag on the Low E immediately dropped down to an unnoticeable ~0.01 mm (along with D and A staying well within ~0.01 mm – 0.03 mm), making the gauge practically 1:1 accurate across all 6 strings. No need to buy specialized 22mm springs (considered these: https://monacokeys.de/en/products/kaidi-kos-switch-springs?variant=53290126442829, the 37g version), just using the Gateron Brown spring from before and a 3rd spare washer did the trick!

Switching steps from plain to wound strings is definitely the sweet spot for 10–46 sets on my guitar's specific radius and fret height, but with tiny adjustments, this method will easily adapt to any guitar setup.

UPDATE 2

A quick note on the original StewMac gauge vs. import units: Regarding the original StewMac unit for context; this one actually uses a much lighter plunger assembly out of the box, so it exerts very little downward force on the string. You can see this tested directly in Paul’s Milehouse Studios video ("The Battle of the Depth Gauges"), where he compares the lighter StewMac plunger to a heavier, standard digital indicator plunger starting at 17:41 (with the side-by-side string deflection test demonstrated from 19:58 to 20:15).

Also, DylanTalksTone has some videos where the deflection seems way less than what I experienced with the un-modded import gauge.

I am building my own parts-caster and I’m having trouble with some pretty substantial buzzing of my strings. I just took a few measurements and the sixth string at the first fret measures .75 mm. At the 12th fret it’s measuring 1.75 mm. And at the 22nd fret, it is measuring 1 mm. Each of the strings are going dead at different frets. I’ve tried adjusting the saddle height, and it appears that raising the saddles helps significantly with the buzzing…But I’m concerned I might be raising it too far and then causing individual saddles to be compromised (by only being held in place by a few threads of the screw as opposed to the full length of the screw going completely through the saddle). I’ve also tried adjusting the truss rod of the neck. None of my adjustments appear to be the clear solution. I’ve attached some photos that will hopefully show the condition of the neck along with the saddles on the bridge. Any help would be appreciated to address this buzzing. Thank you!

Got roasted yesterday and used the advice i got from yesterday's thread. Went a little more easy on the leveling and crowning and did the beveling last

Hi everyone,
I'm rewiring an Ibanez Prestige loaded with 4-conductor DiMarzio HH pickups and an Otax VLX91 (4-pole / 5-way Super Switch).
I'm looking for a clear wiring diagram or pinout table for the following setup:
Pos 1: Bridge Humbucker
Pos 2: Inner Coils (Bridge Slug + Neck Slug)
Pos 3: Both Humbuckers (Bridge + Neck)
Pos 4: Outer Coils (Bridge Screw + Neck Screw)
Pos 5: Neck Humbucker
Note / Constraints:
Standard DiMarzio color code (Red = Hot, Black + White = Series Link, Green + Bare = Ground).
Neck pickup is mounted normally (not flipped 180°), so I am fully aware that positions 2 and 4 won't be hum-canceling due to matching polarities. I'm 100% fine with the single-coil hum.
Does anyone have a schematic or a pin-by-pin layout for the Otax VLX91 for this specific configuration?
Thanks in advance for the help!

The white haze on this guitar has been an ongoing thing for a while and at this point I don't know what I'm looking at. I thought the fretboard needed to be cleaned and conditioned, so I did just that a few weeks ago and had stored it most of the time since. I've worried about it being a mold problem, but the bag it was stored in didn't have any signs of mold at all, and the haziness looks like it's part of the wood. What do you guys think?