Official Luthiers Forum!

Do any of you have hands on experience with the top deflection gauge from Stew-Mac? I just saw it in their catalogue. For $69, it's tempting me. According to the instructions, you can also use it as a gauge for measuring neck relief. Feeler gauges are fine, but it would be nice to just dial it in.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_su ... ml#details

The new SM neck relief guage is easier to use to measure neck relief with the strings on and under tension. Why not buy both? I did.....

Dave F.

_________________
Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Let's see,

dial indicator - $10 @ MSC
scrap aluminum - $5 at metal supplier.

Hmmm.......after my experience in making the cnc, I know that all this is cheap, and easy to machine. So for 10 minutes worth of work, and maybe $15 in materials, you can have the same thing.

It IS however a nice jig, and if you don't feel like making it, the price isn't too bad.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don my friend you are beginning to sound like David Collins......

If the craft paper in your next order from Stew-Mac smells funny remember that you did it to yourself...... Just kidding of course.........

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

Don, I started thinking about that as soon as I saw it. How would you mount the dial indicator to the cross beam?

One idea I had was to drill out some baltic birch ply and hold the dial indicator in place with a set screw.

They do make plastic thumb screws that would work pretty well. Should be able to buy them from McMaster Carr or MSC. If you use a regular set screw you're better off if you can stick a small copper or brass plug between the set screw and the indicator housing.