Finally got around to upgrading the Tremonti SE Custom - PIC heavy

[Tedder]

I decided to put the Grover 406Cs on it, some D'addario 10's, a bone nut and a set up.

I may need to drop the string height just a bit at the nut but I'm going to play it for a bit before I decide if I want to do that or not.



This is with the stock set up.





Pulling the stock tuners. These are good quality tuners but I like the locking tuners for ease of stringing it up and the trem is getting used a bit also.




Time to get the nut out of there. Scoring the finish around the edges of the nut is very important to make sure you don't damage the finish when you pop it out of the nut slot.




And it came out nice and clean. It had one small piece of wood stuck to the bottom of the nut.



The SE nuts are semi hollow! Who knew?



The next step is cleaning up the nut slot. My files were ever so slightly wider than the nut slot so I went with a micro-chisel instead.





Getting the outer dimensions trued up.




This is a .010 inch pull saw. I like starting the string slots with this because I can be very precise.






Starting to come together!




Now that the slots are cut it's time to put tape on so I don't knick the finish. I like to string the guitar up so I can put a radius gauge to it as I work the slots down to final height. It allows me to play it as I tweak it.






I'll play it for a couple of days and then decide if I want to make a truss rod adjustment or bring the strings down a little more. So far I'm pretty happy with how it's playing.

 

[László]

Very impressive work!

 

[xjbebop]

Yes...nicely done... what tuners did you install?

 

[toothace]

Well done! Nice work!

 

[Matthew]

Yes...nicely done... what tuners did you install?

Check out the first sentence of his post

 

[Tedder]

Thanks guys. I haven't done a nut since I went to Luthier school about 8 years ago so I was a little nervous at first but it worked out pretty well. I need to lower the strings just a little more on the nut side to have it right where I want it. I did use the existing string spacing and even though that low E string looks a little far in from the edge it's just the way the picture turned out. The next project will be pickups and coil taps if I can figure out how to wire it up.

 

[Deleted member 7139]

Impressive and accurate work. I have to re-check my SE nut slot to make sure everything is clean as yours!
Inspiring.

 

[Duffy]

I put the Grover 406c's on my Singlecut Tremolo guitar. They are great tuners and hold tune very well, and are very smooth and accurate when tuning.

I will buy some more for my other PRS guitars. They are direct drop in's - no holes to drill, etc.

Supposedly my Tremonti Custom SE black/grey flame will show up tomorrow. Definitely looking forward to it.

I bet you really like these new tuners.

Good luck with it.

 

[Tedder]

Impressive and accurate work. I have to re-check my SE nut slot to make sure everything is clean as yours!
Inspiring.

Thanks! Do you still have the SE nut on the guitar? I could have just opened up the original nut to accept the heavier strings but I'm pretty partial to bone.

I put the Grover 406c's on my Singlecut Tremolo guitar. They are great tuners and hold tune very well, and are very smooth and accurate when tuning.

I will buy some more for my other PRS guitars. They are direct drop in's - no holes to drill, etc.

Supposedly my Tremonti Custom SE black/grey flame will show up tomorrow. Definitely looking forward to it.

I bet you really like these new tuners.

Good luck with it.

You will really enjoy that Tremonti when you get it. I do like the new tuners and they did drop directly in. I wasn't sure how much I was going to like them but they work great and look great too.

 

[Duffy]

Impressive and accurate work. I have to re-check my SE nut slot to make sure everything is clean as yours!
Inspiring.

Great band and singer. I checked that out and saw at least one PRS in the little bit I checked the FB site out. Very beautiful singer, I must say. What a beautiful voice. You are lucky to have someone like that in your band.

I'm sure the job you did is fine.

 

[Deleted member 7139]

Thanks! Do you still have the SE nut on the guitar? I could have just opened up the original nut to accept the heavier strings but I'm pretty partial to bone.

Yes, but I didn't put glue on, I need to check the position and height before doing something 'definitive'. You can check my mods on the thread I posted a while ago, it's a SE Navarro modded out. I got the PRS USA nut filed from the great John Mann

Great band and singer. I checked that out and saw at least one PRS in the little bit I checked the FB site out. Very beautiful singer, I must say. What a beautiful voice. You are lucky to have someone like that in your band.

I'm sure the job you did is fine.

Thanks mate! Our Queen cover had my old cu22 fire red going on (both recording and video shooting).
Now I have a cu24 amber black burst. Thanks for the compliment for the singer, she surely has a great voice. Can't wait to release our album!

 

[Tedder]

Very cool. I should have waited to glue mine back up. It would be easier to sand the bottom down at this point. But that's OK. It's all about learning from the process.

 

[Duffy]

You will really enjoy that Tremonti when you get it. I do like the new tuners and they did drop directly in. I wasn't sure how much I was going to like them but they work great and look great too.

Well, today I got my new Tremonti Custom SE in black/grey flame.

It looks really great. It doesn't look perfectly black/grey flame. Well I mean the black/grey flame is super perfect, uniform straight, close bands of black and grey; but it goes a little farther than that - there is an underlying green hue involved with it, barely noticeable, but it gives it a very three dimensional vibe.

I really like the guitar. The wide/thin maple neck is great; the heavy body is something I like, and the pickups sound really great in my opinion. The tremolo is also very cool with the extra room routed out under the back for pulling up on the bar. The guitar feels great in my hands. I have a nice Gibson Les Paul and comparing it to that (same amp and settings) it seems to be equally as nice and sounds very similar to the Burstbucker Pro's on the Gibson. I would say they are pretty hot pickups but are well paired to get lots of different sounds out of them, similar to the Burstbucker Pro's on the Gibson - hot but can be also mellow.

It seems like you can't brighten up a dull sounding pickup, but you can mellow out a lot of bright sounding pickups very easily. I would say that the pickups are bright and articulate and really have some power.

It came set up great. I will take some pictures and start another thread. I just wanted to let you know that I finally got mine and it is in great shape.

 

[Tedder]

Glad to hear it Duffy! Looking forward to seeing your post and some pics.