Building a guitar body, part 7

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·@amberyooper·
0.000 HBD
Building a guitar body, part 7
<center><h2>Hello, and welcome to my steem blog!</h2></center>

It's been quite a while since my last post about building this guitar body.  I didn't have anything to write about on this for a while because I had set the project aside for a while.  My last post specifically about this project was about 2 months ago.  You can read that post here.
https://steemit.com/guitar/@amberyooper/building-a-guitar-body-part-6


  In my mid January update post, I did talk about finishing the wood with clear Danish Oil, but that was all I had gotten done at that point in time.  This is what the body looked like with the clear oil finish.
![DSCN2638.JPG](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/amberyooper/si1T6w8j-DSCN2638.JPG)

The birdseye grain does stand out nicely with the clear oil finish.
![DSCN2641.JPG](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/amberyooper/QZdOSL5E-DSCN2641.JPG)

I had mounted the pickup in the slot and ran the wires through the holes to where the controls will be, to see how that would work out.  I also mounted the bridge pieces.  The original height adjustment screws were too short to lift the bridge pieces high enough to clear the fret board, so I replaced them with longer screws.
![DSCN2740.JPG](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/amberyooper/nYGWQFTs-DSCN2740.JPG)

A few days ago, I decided to try putting strings on the guitar to see if I could string it without having a tailpiece.  There's a hole in the back of each bridge frame for a string, but I wasn't sure if it would work with how high I had to raise the bridge pieces so the strings would clear the fret board.  It turned out that I was able to put the strings on without too much trouble.  
![DSCN2755.JPG](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/amberyooper/doVwupjb-DSCN2755.JPG)

It turned out that I have plenty of clearance between the strings and the frets.
![DSCN2756.JPG](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/amberyooper/qUAye4QI-DSCN2756.JPG)

Since I only have 4 strings on this guitar, I had to decide which tuners would work best for the alignment of the strings to the nut.
![DSCN2759.JPG](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/amberyooper/F7IPeMFt-DSCN2759.JPG)

I was able to tune the strings and play the guitar, but it needs intonation and string height adjustments.  I'll be messing with that a bit at a time until I get it where I want it.  I'm going to see if I can get screws for the bridge pieces that are shorter then the ones that I have now, but long enough to work.  I may end up having to modify the screws so they don't stick up so far out of the bridge pieces.

The next thing I need to work on for this guitar is cutting a cover plate for the controls so that I can mount a volume and tone control, and then wire up the controls and the cord jack to the pickup.  Once I do that, I'll be able to test it with an amplifier.  That should be interesting.

One other thing about this guitar is that the strings are spaced pretty far apart, even for a baritone ukulele, which is what this is, sort of.  I may have to look in to changing the string spacing a bit in the not too distant future.  It plays fine with open chords, but barre chords are less than optimum.  I guess I'll deal with that if I decide I need to do it.

That's all I have for this post, thanks for stopping by to check out this post!

(edit) I decided to try moving the strings a bit closer together because I just wasn't getting good performance from my barre chords.  I had originally put 2 grooves in the nut to evenly space the two middle strings evenly with the outer strings using the original grooves.  That put the strings at about 14/32s inch apart.  I made another couple of grooves that moved the strings a bit closer together, they're now 12/32s inch apart.  That little adjustment works much better for barre chords.  In the process of doing this, I moved the E string in a bit, so it's not right on the edge of the fret board.  That helps me with not accidentally muting it while playing certain open chords.  All in all, I like this a lot better.

![amber_yooper.png](https://files.steempeak.com/file/steempeak/amberyooper/hi6a7QaH-amber_yooper.png)
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