I first unclamped and checked the bridge to make sure it was securely and totally glued down. Everything looked good so I cleaned up the dried glue that had gotten on it. I as anxious to get it strung up, but decided to take my time and do things right. First up was to do the fretwork. I masked off the fingerboard and dressed the fret ends with my safety edge files. I then leveled the frets and was pleasantly surprised that I only had two frets that were just a touch high. Once the leveling was done, I re-crowned the frets and sanded them down with micromesh up to 12,000 grip so they are nicely polished. I then installed the tuners using my super expensive $9.00 reamer I picked up at Sears a month ago. It worked great and made the tuners fit nice and snug. I used a step drill bit on my dreadnought and it worked, but the holes are not perfectly sized to the tuner. This time the tuners are almost a press fit in the peghead.
Once that was done, I drilled out the bridge pin holes and reamed them also with the same reamer. Again, it worked beautifully. I had already rough shaped the nut earlier in the build so all I needed to do with it was fine sand it, polish it and cut the slots for the strings. I also had a high dollar method for this. When I was at my local Lowes, I noticed that they have these things made for cleaning welder tips. It is a collection of round 'sticks' that are kind of like round files. The thing is there are about 20 of them of all different sizes. The biggest one is just a touch larger than the diameter of the low E and the smallest is just a touch smaller than the high E strings. I cut the slots with my razor saw then cleaned up the slots with the correct size file. It worked fine, although a proper set of files would be better.
One problem I ran into was the saddle. The saddle blank that LMI gives you is in my opinion too short. With the depth of the saddle slot, when you put the saddle in, there is only about 3/32" of saddle material left above the bridge. Unfortunately that is not enough. I shaped the saddle, but the action is too low. I have 4/64" from the bottom of the strings to the 12th fret. Although this makes it nice and easy to fret the strings, I am getting a nasty buzz on the low E starting at about the 10th fret on up. The other strings do the same thing a little farther up the neck. I put a shim under the saddle and got the action up to 5/64" but still have the buzz. I have 7/64" on my Dreadnought and I have no buzzes anywhere up and down the neck so. My saddle on that one is approx. 1/8" above the bridge which makes sense. If I remember correctly, the stewmac saddle blank is a bit taller so I am going to order one and replace this one to try and raise the action a bit. I checked the action at the nut end per Frank Fords method on Frets.com and I am fine there. My neck angle is perfect too so I am sure that it is the saddle that is too short.
Anyways, once that was done, I strung it up and made some noise. And I mean, noise. If you remember, I don't play the guitar so I can't actually play a song, I can just strum and listen to it. I noticed one thing right away, the volume is not as loud as my Dreadnought. Honestly, at first I was a bit disappointed at the sound. Once I got my Dread side by side with it though, I can hear a definite difference in the sound. The Dread has a deep and loud, kind of hollow sound to it. This one sounds much more subdued and tight if that makes any sense. I am hoping that the sound will open up after a while now that the instrument is under string tension. I will get my daughter to play it a bit to help it loosen up. I have to say it does feel a lot more comfortable for me to hold than the Dread. I am not a big guy and the dread feels big and clunky. This one just seems to fit my body size better.
I did spend a little time on the OOO too. I cut the kerfing for the back braces and set the sides on the back. I was ecstatic to have the back sit perfectly all the way around the rim with no pressure needed to push any of it to fit. The sides just sit on the back like they were made to go together. Tomorrow I will glue it up.
The OM all taped up ready for fret work. This was my first attempt at fret dressing and it really wasn't that big of a deal. I made two 'safety' files for this job per Frets.com.
My high dollar peghead reamer. The tuners are Gotoh gold 16:1.
The peghead with all the tuners installed.
My peghole reamer hard at work again reaming the bridge pin holes.
And here it is all strung up (except the high E string).
And the back.
Here is the OOO sides and back. The sides are just sitting on the back and it fits like a glove.
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