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To keep this build on track I’m going to promise myself that, once it’s finished, I can build a second headless guitar without using a kit.
Plan B.
After a series of tortuous emails we have agreed that the manufacturer will provide a new bridge, and the retailer will make a sizeable refund to cover the cost of remedial work on neck and body. The refund should come through over night.
The supplier hasn’t tried to be difficult, but their understanding of English is limited. So lots of pictures and explanations on my part. It also became clear that they are out of their depth, and don’t understand anything about guitars, or big ticket items. The guitar kit is by far the most expensive thing on their web site.
This situation arose because, knowing I would throw away pickups most of the hardware, I chose a cheap kit. If I’d gone for a more expensive one from a named supplier then I expect that things would have been different. If what you want is a cheap headless then it makes more sense to go for something ready made. Kits aren’t the cheapest option. There are several headless guitars with good reviews.
If you really want to make one then I’d be tempted to buy a Telecaster kit, cut the head off, and fit a headpiece and tuner/bridge. Why a Telecaster? It has a nice big flat area behind the bridge where you can fit headless tuners. Previous forum experience is that the Thomann kits are reliable quality, and @FriskyDingo has made a good job of his Gear4music Knoxville kit. Both are half the price of the headless kit.
So there is no Plan B at this point. We’re still on plan A.
Instagram
At the end of the afternoon I spent an hour looking at whether I can convert the Overlord tuners to fixed bridge by replacing the massive casting with a backing plate.
Top left is the casting that’s being replaced. Top right mild steel plate which is replacing it. The casting is 4mm thick at this point. A 1.5mm plate would be strong enough, but 3mm means that I won’t have to shorten or replace the original machine screws.
You’ll notice it’s blue. I don’t have any engineers blue, so I use blue wood dye. That same dye may appear on the body later on.
This is where it’s going to fit on the guitar.
You can see In earlier pictures that the cavity isn’t square, or even regular. It looks as if it was routed freehand with a blunt bit. My current plan is to square up the hole, and fill it with a block of wood. Then screw the tuner plate to the wood. Actually I might bolt it down using the threaded inserts which I bought them for body mounting the pickups.
In the middle are the parts I’m adding:
- Stonetone single coils, made by @TheGuitarWeasel. I think I bought these from @richardhomer, but it’s so long ago that I’ve forgotten.
- M3 inserts.
- Straplocks, jack socket, pots, and a Solar Flare tappable humbucker from @Alegree’s recent sale.
- Roller bridge and curved neck plate from Blackdog Music.
- Not shown - Jescar fretwire.
At the bottom are the parts which will be scrapped. I might keep the jack socket and neck plate. Everything else is not good enough to be passed on, even for free.This is what it will look like. I can live with zebra pickups, but I’m thinking of staining the body face blue, and leaving the back and sides natural.
I checked my calculations with a test rig:
Another reason for the test rig was to check how the tuners worked under string tension. They’re stiff because they use a standard M3 thread. They really need a finer thread. They are not consistently stiff as they rotate. That’s because the tuners aren’t squarely aligned with the screw thread.
Then looked what happened. The plastic washer broke. I don’t know whether it’s a consequence of the uneven pressure, poor design, or cheap materials. Either way another challenge.
I like challenges. It beats crosswords and sudoku.
So it’s game on, and I can start working on the rest of the kit.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Thread angle is probably a simpler solution. The Overlord tuner uses an M3 thread, presumably because it’s an industry standard. M3 is 40 turns per inch. A shallower thread would turn more easily. The shallowest I could find is 60 tpi. However it’s 3/16” diameter, so the tuner slugs would need a 10mm by 10mm cross section. The slugs in the Overlord are 5mm by 10mm.
I can think of three solutions.
1. Put them in from the back, which I don’t fancy because they’ll be visible.
2. Ream out the first 1mm of the internal thread so that the screwdriver doesn’t cause a burr.
3. Make a tool with a spigot which holds the insert in place.
Or of course I could not use them.