As the RR2V project is nearing completion I want to get working on some of the others. This Mockinbird was my 'first project of the modern era' and has never been quite right despite a lot of time spent on it.
I wasn't happy with the pickups I originally fitted, so I replaced them with some Kent Armstrong 'Rockers' I bought ages ago. These work nicely and I'm happy with them.
I wasn't happy with the nasty monkey metal tremolo so I bought an adequate quality Korean made licensed low-profile one. This is much better, but now the tremolo route just isn't deep enough for any upwards use.
The neck relief was non-existent, perhaps even slightly negative. I added a little and now it plays much more nicely.
The nut height was excessive. I sanded it carefully and improved on this, but it wasn't enough and the nut shelf isn't 100% flat afterwards.
So I've a few things to attend to.
- Cut the nut shelf some more and make sure it's flat
- Fit a new gold nut to match the rest of the hardware
- Route the tremolo inset in the top of the body out deeper
I think I'm going to make a 'jig' which clamps to the neck and will allow me to use a Dremel with router attachment on the nut shelf. It'll need to stay parallel with the fretboard and have some guides so I stay within the bounds of the existing shelf. Using it freehand could result in disaster.
Routing the tremolo inset out should be OK, I already have a template for this and as accuracy is less important I can just use a full size router on that. I will need to acquire a 'guided' router bit though, I don't have one.
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