Building a guitar

I started building a guitar two years ago. I only worked on it for a few months, then I went to high school and got busy. Now I have the tools and shop at my disposal to waork on it again.

I have a huge plank of mahogany that is 1 5/8 inches thick. I drew the whole design on paper full scale and transferred it onto the wood. I successfully installed a Strat-style tremolo after routing and drilling the appropriate areas. I also have four knobs and pots set in the wood. I have a Seymore Duncan "George Lynch Screamin' Demon" humbucker for the bridge, and I might get a DiMarzio for the bridge. It's going to be a Flying V style guitar. I haven't done any wiring, but I think I screwed up on the neck. I had a B.C. Rich neck that I was going to use so I routed out a place for it. (Bolt on) I found out the 25.5" scale was off, so I routed another half inch toward the bridge at the same height.

Now what I am wondering is how do I make sure the strings will be straight on the neck and pass directly over their spots on the pickups to the bridge ? Also, how do I ensure that the neck will have good action ?

There are going to be gaps where the neck is bolted on because the area is too wide, I'm planning on filling it with mostly shims made of the same piece of mahogany and sing the least amount of wood glue necessary.

Can anyone offer any tips ?

Umm..besides wishing you luck on such an involving and difficult task, the best I can do is recommend 2.5 ton epoxy for things like helping fill those gaps in. I don't know if it's the best, but it's cheap and that stuff will not ever give out on you if you apply it right.

Darin,

first off, welcome to the board!

Secondly, that's a pretty deep question ya got there..... what I would go here
http://www.mimf.com/link.htm

this link has tons of info on guitar lutherie... I'm thinking that question is a little more involved than can be answerd on a message board... but good luck with the axe dude and keep us updated on your progress...

I cant give you much help but i know my friend has made his own guitar and it works fine and sounds great :p

Good luck