I have a problem. I inherited a heavily modified 1986 Squier ST-331 Strat a few years ago. I know it was made in the Fujigen factory, and it has a scale length of 24.75". The body was heavily modified and rerouted, to the point that it's pretty much unusable without plugging in big chunks of wood and completely rerouting it, and the original pickguard is also toast. My late older brother had installed a Washburn tremolo bridge on it that they don't make parts for anymore, and stuck in an EMG pickup set that got completely corroded because he had routed the battery compartment under the bridge and didn't tell anybody that it had active pickups. It hasn't worked in decades.

A couple years ago I tried to restore it somewhat, but I didn't know anything about what I was doing. I had stripped the finish from the body and stuck a bunch of wood filler in the chasms, but that ended up looking horrible. But the worse part is that I had ordered a loaded pickguard from Guitarfetish and that's when I found out the guitar wasn't standard Strat-sized. Right now it's in pieces and stored away, but I really want to do something to be able to use it.

I don't have a workshop or the tools to make a new body for it. I don't know if it would be possible to stick the neck onto a premade guitar body due to the 24.75" scale. The whole body and neck and pickguard and everything was scaled down instrad of it just being a conversion neck.

Is there an aftermarket replacement body on the market that will work with a short scale Squier neck from 1986? I'd like to at least be able to resurrect that neck, for sentimental value. Hopefully not from Warmoth, because they're beyond my budget. I'll keep looking but I had to ask somewhere.

Hi, I'm building a Spruce/Sycamore 000 12 fret from a kit and I have a question about how to lay out the braces.

I have built 3 kits already from the same supplier, and he always outlined the braces for me, but for this kit my supplier did not lay out the outline for the braces on the top. I want to use this opportunity to problem solve and learn more about the "why" behind bracing, and maybe be more "creative" with my bracing, within reason.

So I'm starting out by placing the saddle, which is the reference point for everything. I have a 24.9" scale length, so I added about 1/8 inch compensation to locate saddle.

The braces and bridge plate were pre-cut, so the X braces and bridge plate fit together. The angle is quite large, so the X braces go over the top corners of my bridge. When I locate everything according to the saddle location and the pre-cut X brace and bridge plate shape, the X crossing is about 3/4 inch from the soundhole. The upper arms of the X braces go quite high, just below the top of the circle.

Is it okay from a durability standpoint to have the X that high? This is more than a Martin "forward shift", which is 1 inch from the sound hole. If it's okay from a durability standpoint, I'm guessing this will shift the sound more towards the bass?

Also, are there any dos and don't for the tone bars and the finger braces? Like, what could you do w/ the tone bars and finger braces that would compromise the durability of the guitar?

Also, what does the angle of the tone bars do? Say, more vertical compared to more horizontal. Is there anything about the distance between the tone bars that has an effect on sound or durability? Same exact questions for the finger braces.

Thanks!

P.S. I want to build a more fingerstyle oriented guitar as I rarely play with a pick. I want to build w/ a 28 ft radius on the top too, if that information is needed. I also think I want to go w/ tapered braces rather than scalloped.

How many of you have experimented with 10-52. Gauge strings in D standard tuning?

i thought about making a cigarbox with nylon strings and a fretless neck. im thinking whats the best things i could do to make a very long sustain since its a small box and the nylon strings doesnt help a lot. it came to my mind a glass bridge like this or a metal bridge with a metal nut. any thoughts or ideas for this? the sustain is very important in this project

https://preview.redd.it/fxp6p5wpvytd1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d7a9633f2f7df6e1c536c5d3926c9827c300f5e

I've got this custom build which has a fade on a poplar burl veneer top. I kind of regret having done this as so much of the nice burl pattern is covered. I wish I had gone with either a black burst, where only the edges and back are black, or just left it natural.

Since I need the pickups routed slightly wider to accommodate some new ones, I was thinking of finding a luthier who could do both.

Any idea on the feasibility and cost of the refinish?

I have a beautiful sounding Strat with custom shop 69s. I believed they’re wired the old way so 2 and 4 do not hum cancel. This wasn’t something I planned on changing as I felt it adds to the sound and also I’d like to get rid of all noise not just 2 pickups. I attempted to shield my pick guard and so far I haven’t really seen any improvement. I didn’t try a faraday cage because I saw a YouTuber that said that since the pick up sticks out of the body, literally the concept of a faraday cage is not possible. This got me to wondering if possibly the circuit used in my other pot is an inefficient one and could be potentially adding to the noise. I have read that there needs to be the least amount of connections as possible if any of you can tell could you let me know if you see something here that could be causing noise? Any suggestions on what I should do?

After a lot of setbacks it's done. It's has it's flaws for sure and I learned a bunch of things that I would have done differently next time but I couldn't have done it without this subreddit.

This is more of a theoretical question, I'm aware that woods like maple and mahogany are commonly used for guitar necks, however I wanted to do some calculations to determine what species might qualify for a neck. Assuming a half ellipse shape with minimum dimensions of a = 0.02205 m and b = 0.0215 m, as well as a load of 720 N with an action of 2.5 mm, the maximum stress in the neck is ~ 1.2 MPa in tension and ~0.9 MPa in compression. Applying a factor of safety of 4.61 we get that the required tensile strength is 5.6 MPa and compressive strength is 4.1 MPa. Using this calculation, it seems like there would be a lot more wood species that are softer that would be suitable to use for a neck than those commonly recommended.

Now, I am not a wood expert by any means, I mainly just did a simple engineering analysis and looked at the material properties of a couple of species. I was mainly curious what thoughts you guys had on the matter.

This is a brand new Schecter guitar. I’ve had it about 2 weeks and I’ve noticed fret buzz on the first fret when hitting the low E string open. So I figured I would tighten the neck a little bit. Well my truss rod seems to be extremely loose. It won’t tighten and it won’t loosen. Any turn I make it goes right back to where it was and I’ve also noticed up and down movement. I am being reasonably gentle. I’m relatively new to playing guitar and my other Schecter doesn’t feel like this at all. Is this fixable or should I return it?

https://preview.redd.it/8w1hki3vcytd1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bedc96c3844f48fbaf293fb4516f931c9fba1f3b

New Pups (spare pair of Gibson 490R/T) that work really well with a lower output. Replacing all the electronics was really hard, first time with the F holes but stoked on how it turned out. Nothing from the original was kept.

This is how it came to me:

https://preview.redd.it/t5dqmnr4dytd1.png?width=748&format=png&auto=webp&s=481b596528305a70963532a5a8f8fde59c47a281

Hey, I'm building a Jaguar pj bass- but I'm struggling to find a body. I don't trust myself to waste a hunk of wood, does anyone have any recommendations for how to acquire a body? I've found a body, but it looks substandard and is made of inferior wood, shipped from China. I don't want to risk getting something that is unusable. Sites I've found that cut a body for you don't have the shape. I don't mind if it isn't fully routed fully, I can attempt that at least.

I live in South London if that helps.

If you know where I can buy one, commission a body, etc. please let me know.

Thanks.

My nut suddenly fell off when I was replacing my strings. what glue should I use to put it back and how to prevent them from happening again?

I mean, all I read and watch regarding nitro finishes is how incredibly delicate they are. Even the little felt--protector thing beneath the pick guard on a Les Paul will leave a forever mark. If you leave your strap over the body while in its case it can leave a forever mark. If you use a headstock tuner for too long it might leave a mark, did your kid leave a sticker on it for a while? Congrats, it'll probably leave a mark and so on, and so on.

Now, it looks absolutely amazing if you're into relicing guitars, but it seems a lot of owners of nitro finished guitars isn't all that much into that either.

So all and all it gives me the impression that nitro finishes come from some bygone car manufacturing era and really isn't up to par for the task that a guitar finish actually could do in our modern age (like, look good and protect the guitar at the same time). But I might be completely in the wrong here. Happy to learn!

have been diy repainting my Yamaha and am planning to hydro dip it. i sanded it to wood, applied two coats of primer, and two light coats of green spraypaint. problem is i can still pretty clearly see the wood grain. i got some wood filler which i diluted with water, scraped over the body to fill the holes, then sanded it lightly. at that point i thought it was going great - could see the filler in each little gap but had a smooth surface. however when i wiped it down with a cloth in preparation for another coat, it all just came off. i really don't want to sand it back again -what should i do?

I am getting into guitar building and I am wanting to start my first project with a Dean ML body, headstock, the works basically. I have tried doing my research on bridge specs but as I am only a beginner I cant seem to wrap my head around it. Any help or guidance will be extremely appreciated. Thank you.

Hello, I have an old Squier body that I’m trying to fit with a newer Squier neck, but I found that the holes of the neck (which I can swap freely with other Squier bodies) don’t match the holes of the old Squier body in question. The difference in fit is around a screws width.

My first thought is that since the neck holes seem to align properly with other bodies, that it would be most practical to try to fill and re-drill holes on the body. I wanted to widen the holes to where there’s no threading from the screw going from the body to the neck anyway, since that seemed to be a recommended improvement to make.

But after trying to look up how I might go about this (my woodworking skills aren’t great, but I’d like to try), I could only find information on filling in and re-drilling holes on the neck itself. I’ve read people mention that it’s more difficult to re-drill the holes on the body’s side.

Other relevant information might be that I don’t have a drill press, but I do have some hand drills and a guide for the bits I plan to use.

So, is my thinking process sound here? Could anyone help point me in the right direction?

I am currently working on a multiscale guitar and it has a 0 fret. Should I just place a nut in the normal location or do I have to cut out a slot right behind the 0 fret?

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a cheap strat neck? I’d prefer a dark wood fretboard but it’s not the biggest deal breaker for me. Thanks!

Considering this used Taylor. Sounds great, plays great, and it's a good price if I don't need to have it re-fretted. Much life left in these or pass?