For me the design phase of a project is as interesting as the build phase. So I wanted to start this thread early to blog the thinking process.
The brief is a slide instrument, with a spend of less than £100. My personal additions to that brief are:
1. It's got to be giggable.
2. I want to prototype some ideas I've got for a headless guitar.
3. I want to try my hand at making a neck.
Now I don't play much with a slide, so I'm going to build something fairly conventional that can be used in my normal playing. To keep costs down means that I'll need to use components that have been collecting in my spares box, like some scratchy pots from the 1960s. I've got my eye on a piece of 4x2 firewood from someone's conservatory that looks like Sapele. I'll also be making many of the parts myself. How else could I get headless tuners and stay under £100?
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Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
That's how most non-double ball end headless systems work. You can even get blocks which mount in steinbergers so you can use normal strings
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This place is good for taps and dies in all sorts of weird sizes and threadforms, including some very fine pitch (60tpi)...
http://www.tracytools.com/
Note that there's a lot of imperial stuff in there. A set of metric drills in 0.1mm increments will usually yield a tapping drill to suit.
Nomad
Nobody loves me but my mother... and she could be jivin' too...
This is mine that I built a couple of years ago. Similar principle to yours, made from brass (obviously I just built the tuning tailpiece and the headstock clamps, not the bridge). It works fine, the only thing I would say is that I would prefer the tuning to be a bit finer, it's a little bit coarse (ie, a small turn of the tuner affects the pitch a little bit too much). Not that I've ever had a problem tuning it.
http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m622/Serratus1/IMAG0331small_zps166f940a.jpg