Now that you have looked at patterns and narrowed your
choices of wood, you also need to consider buying all the non-wood pieces for
your guitar. More specifically you will need the following
1)
Truss Rod
2)
Fret wire
3)
Tuners
4)
Nut & Saddle
5)
Bridge Pins
6)
Neck Connection Hardware
7)
Strings
Good guitar plans will likely make recommendations on at
least several of those while leaving some up to personal choice. I will go
through a few of them that I have learned a few things about in my research.
Although the length of the truss rod is going to depend on the
style of guitar you are building, there are basically three categories to
choose from. The first category is a simple non-adjustable truss rod. One of
the main purposes of a truss rod is to strength the neck. A non-adjustable
truss rod would certainly strengthen the neck and help it to maintain its
position but I personally think it would be a mistake. Unless you were
absolutely perfect, you will probably want to be able to make neck adjustments
using the truss rod. And even if you were perfect, everything settles with time
and down the road it may be necessary to make neck adjustments. As far as
adjustable truss rods go, they have both single action and double action
adjustable truss rods. From my understanding the double action truss rods are a
relatively newer item. A traditional single action truss rod is in essence used
to counter the pull of the strings. That is it will adjust to provide a back
bow away from the strings to compensate for the strings pulling in the opposite
direction. A double action truss rod will allow you to adjust the neck either
direction regardless of the tension from the strings. I personally went with the
double action, although I think for the most part a single action truss rod
should be more than enough.
Fret wire will likely be recommended in your plans as far as
size. Fret wire then comes in several materials such as nickel, brass and
stainless steel. As with all things they all likely have their good points and
bad points. I believe nickel and brass are the more traditional fret wire
materials while the stainless steel is a relatively newer concept. I actually
have yet to buy my fret wire, so anyone reading this please feel free to make
your recommendations.
Tuners are one of those things that will probably be a very
personal choice. I grabbed my tuners on EBay for pretty cheap but they are
nothing special. You can spend a lot of money on tuners if that’s what you
want. One of the main things to keep in mind is that closed gear tuners will
usually maintain better since the moving parts are not exposed to the dust and
dirt.
The nut, saddle and bridge pins should match and be
purchased together. Beyond just color you have several choices of material from
the cheap end of plastic to bone to fossil ivory among other choices. All of
which can affect the tone of your guitar. So it would be good to do a little
research before buying these. Here is a decent article talking specifically
about material for the Nut of the guitar. Going
Nuts. Although not discussed in that
particular article, my nut, saddle and bridge pins that I purchased are made
out of horn. I believe they would probably follow the same characteristics as
bone.
Well that pretty much covers what I have as far as buying
parts. Below are some good places to purchase
all of the above parts.
Useful Links
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