FS-1 Electric Guitar Kit - Maple 1st Pitbull build!

Hello from Reno Nevada! I am John, and this will be my 28th build, but my first Pitbull! And my first semi hollow with a set neck. I am TERRIFIED lol. The kit has arrived at my post office, so I am starting my journal today, but I wanted to follow the rukes and introduce myself.
I am 54, and I have been playing guitar and bass since I was 8. Im almost getting good. My first build was an attempt in high school wood shop to build a flying vee with strat horns- it was a disaster. Ugly, heavy and never got the thing to work. Bad allignment measurements. Anyway I am a huge Fender guitar fan and especially the Nashville Deluxe tele. At one time I owned 4 of them! Hope tp make a few new friends and get and give advice as we travel along.

Welcome aboard

Welcome to the forum John.
I want one of those flying vees with strat horns ... HAAA haaa ;)

No. No, you do not. It was 2" mahogany and weighed 13 pounds( just the body!) annnnd, it was absolutely HIDEOUS :rolleyes:

Okay. Package arrived today. Very well packed, even the Australia post and US postal service couldn't damage the contents, though they tried with 3 holes in the box LOL! Not a dent or scratch to be found after 20 minutes.

However, when I dry fit the glue in neck, it sets in the pocket at an odd angle, and leaves a wedge shaped gap from 0 to almost 3/32 of an inch at the bass side of the neck! O.o How do I determine if it is workable, or if it needs to be returned


Attachment 33273

Can you see if it's the heel of the neck or the pocket that's askew?

Before you do anything it is worth giving the kit some time to acclimatise to your conditions after transit, wood moves around a lot with temperature and moisture. It might settle in.

Otherwise

If you look at the heel of the neck at this angle does it look wonky?

https://i.imgur.com/H3tOcvQ.jpg

I had the same issue with the neck pictured - you can see the low E side is higher in that pic.

It is possible to carefully mark around the heel, measuring from the fretboard edge and then sand it true with a nice flat block. But I can understand if you aren't comfortable doing that.

If you shoot Pitbull an email Adam will help you out. Just might be a wait on a replacement as you are in the states.

It's not wonky, but there is a bit of glue. It is cut nearly 100% square, as far as my eye can see.

Attachment 33275

Attachment 33276

Rather than panic, I figured someone out here would know more than me. I'm okay with sanding the glue, but I don't want to touch it until it acclimates as you stated, and until I am certain it doesn't need to return.

In the top photo the sides and base do appear to be square and perhaps a square across the edges might help but I do believe that the roll of the fret board is slightly inconsistent, if you look at the top of the fret board to the bottom of the heel. So whether this will affect intonation is another thing. It may seem a bit pedantic but it may help just to put a micrometer along the edge of the fret board to the base of the heel to find variations because we are also talking about how it may affect intonation. Just something to consider.

Welcome Monkeesfan1965!

I opened your photo of the heel in Illustrator and drew 2 lines at a right angle and lined it up with the heel. The difference on the heel is exactly (or bloody near) the same as the gap in the pocket in your first photo. (btw you held the neck very square!)

The bottom of the pocket looks very even to me, so I don't believe you'll have a problem there.
If you don't have a small machinist's square you use a credit card to check the relationship of the sides to the bottom of the pocket and see it they're square to each other.

Hint: if the card is too wide to fit in the pocket, use an expired card and trim one of the long edges.

You can square up the heel with a hard flat sanding block as Sonic described. I find it best to put the block on the bench and move the heel over the block than the other way around, but that's just my preference. Oh, and I use sticky-backed sandpaper to secure it to the block.

I see the fretboard roll that Tony M mentioned, but personally don't see it as big issue.

Thank you Tony M and McCreed for your valued input. I noticed the fretboard radius as well, but my fretboard radius gagues show the neck to be nearly perfect at12" radius.... until you get behind the 22nd fret- that's where the light comes shing through. So, it shouldn't affect intonation/ playability, once I gently reshape that heel end. Going to procede and follow LOTS of advice and take. my. time. As I said, this is my first glue in neck and I'm a bit over cautious ATM ;)