Advice requested

Hi all,

I've been watching the forum for a long time and have picked up a lot of hints and techniques.
I'm after a bit of advice if that's OK.

I recently bought a completed kit guitar, supposedly Pitbull although I can't find an exact example. It's similar to the ES-1F kit. It plays well and just needs some more finishing to look good.

There's just one problem area. The neck to body joint has been covered with filler - maybe whoever assembled it had a problem and made a mess of it. Hopefully it's clear enough in the photo.

Attachment 43013

Can anyone suggest a way to improve the appearance of the joint? I wondered about using some binding to disguise it, or should I just get used to it.

Thanks!

David
Hobart

Hi David,
at least the filler has a similar colour to the binding. From the picture it does not look too bad.

I wonder if the set neck was not glued in far enough? As long as the guitar intonates well it should not matter.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to put in binding - but I have never used binding. That would look neater - as long you can match the colour! Maybe a filler that matches the colour of the body wood would make it less obvious.

Tuff choice!

Honestly, I think it looks just fine. Imperfections like these tell a great story.

Being underneath and behind what others will see I would not do anything.

It's not the worst thing I've seen done to a guitar, but if you're not pleased with it and want to try and make it better, I get that.
I also am presuming the other side of the joint is the same? Are you planning to continue with a natural finish, or painting a solid colour?

If it were mine, and I wanted to go the natural look, I would scrape out the filler and just see what it is you're dealing with there. Worst case scenario is you end up putting some kind of bog back in there but maybe a bit neater. The gap may not be that bad and the previous owner may have gone overboard with the filler. Who knows.

It may be a case where a bit of timber veneer and CA is all it needs. Again, you won't know until you dig that filler out.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.

To answer McCreed's questions:

The neck seems to be set well. The guitar plays and intonates well.

The other side of the neck isn't so bad. It looks as if there may have been a problem taking the neck out at one stage and the side was damaged. The binding on top has a slight nick in it too.

I'm planning to keep it as a natural finish as i like the contrast between the flame top and the darker sides. Using a solid colour for the sides would be a way to hide the filler.

I'll consider my options. ;-) I might get used to it as it is! In the meantime I can work on refinishing the front and back.

Obligatory photo.

Attachment 43020