Friday and Saturday - Intonation and setup

Well, I thought this would be another piece o' cake. Nope. But another great learning experience. George stayed pretty busy helping us through shaping the nut (where the string passes through near the tuners) and the saddle (on the bridge). I, being the lefty, created confusion at this stage, as everything was backwards. We used electronic tuning machines and check for perfect tune at bothe the open string and the 12th fret - (the string one octave higher). To be perfect required adjustments and filing. The height of the string also was a factor.

Setting initial intonation with the two "E" strings. This determined the placement of the saddle on the bridge.

All of this took a great deal of time, but the knowledge gained was awesome. On Saturday, we also dressed the frets and polished them. That meant more filing and checking for perfect flatness.

Flattening the frets. This also required smoothing, filing, and a final polish.

We then worked on final finishing, some of us also cut an extra soundhole in the side of our guitar. Kind of neat, and you can hear yourself play. I ended up learning how to deal with frets buzzing, as I was one of the unlucky ones to experience this. It meant another two hours of work.

Final setup and intonation. My upper frets were buzzing on the low "E" string. This meant more work! But worth it!!!!!!

All in all, this has been great! Long days, short nights. Probably the best learning experience I ever had. I hope all have enjoyed keeping up with this - I did it for two reasons - 1. to share with family and friends, and 2. to remember how to do this the next time.

My goal was to have something looking like a guitar. This looks and sounds awesome!!!!

The best to all! Home tomorrow. Monday it is back to thinking guitars as I bought a drum sander over the weekend! Got to drive to Portage to pick it up!