Oh, Great stuff Guys!
I neglected to say well done :)
The first build is always the most daunting. Tomorrow I will post some pics of how I make my templates, it will make it even easier for you.
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Oh, Great stuff Guys!
I neglected to say well done :)
The first build is always the most daunting. Tomorrow I will post some pics of how I make my templates, it will make it even easier for you.
Well I have pretty much finished this build. I probably didn't leave the finish long enough to cure, but I couldn't wait any longer. I wanted to get on with it.
I ordered some rotary switches from overseas so there will be a wait on them. Instead of using the rotary switch I just went with a simple spdt switch to split the pup. I'm also trying a 1meg pot for the vol.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...zyvh-image.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...vzq0-image.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...h3t9-image.jpg
wow Dan well done, how does it play and sound ?
colours come up sweet with the black neck, what sort of mahogany stain was the body ? looks like a feast and Watson mahogany tint colour I've used
Cheers Wokka, yes you got it in one. It is a Feast Watson mahogany stain.
I had a few setup issues with it. Firstly, the donor neck I used had the truss rod tightened right up. So I had to back it way off.
Once I had some strings on I found the neck angle was not quite right. I had to shim the heel of the neck. I used a small piece of thin veneer to shim it out only slightly. Now the action and relief are much better. Though the neck is still settling itself due to the big change in truss rod tension.
After fixing those few issues it plays nicely now. And should be even better once it has settled into itself and I do the final setup.
As for sound, it sounds like I thought a pine guitar would sound like. It has a bright tone with a hard attack. I wouldn't say it has a thin sound because it is quite full sounding, but it has a kind of airy feel to it. Kind of acoustic guitar sort of sound.
This could be partly because of the 1 meg pot I used, it might be slightly warmer sounding if I used a 500k pot. But it douse sound fine the way it is.
I'll get a vidieo of how it plays once the neck settles in and it stays in tune for more than 2 minutes.
cool excellent, sure my scratch body builds had to tweak the neck pocket a bit, shows how important the neck pocket shape/angle is. Good description of the pine body sound, I can relate to that with mine.
Look forward to a sound demo once you've played it a bit and it keeps tune. Next scratch body build you will have to put a neck and bridge pickup.
So is the neck a Pit Bull neck or one off another guitar ?
The neck is off an old parts guitar I picked up for dirt cheap from Cashies. It's in good nick, just the truss rod was a little too tight.
As for the neck angle. Initially when I set it up without a shim, the string hight at the 22nd was around 4mm. At first I tried two pieces of .6mm veneer. But this 1.2mm shim changed the angle too much and the strings were now touching the fretboard.
Off with the neck again, removed one of the shims. Now it has been shimmed .6mm. This was perfect once the neck was back on. So from just a thin .6mm shim I was able to correct the neck angle and lower the string hight by around 2mm.
That first Tele I did had two pickups. This one I wanted to be a simple one pup setup.
I told my mate, one day I'm going to make a guitar with just a neck pup and a big kill switch. No volume or tone pots.. Well this was one step closer to that.
yer ok well done Dan, sure you have learnt a heap with the 2 scratch builds you have done. Nice work updating your avatar !
Looks a million bucks Dan!
( I have come to a standstill atm due to other commitments and weather, but should be back to hacking at the body in the next day or 2))
just a quick Q matey , normally the fender style guitars have zero neck angle as the neck is proud above the body at the joint,( the height above the top of the body is supposed to be some mysterious angle from the bridge at it's lowest height plus the thickness of the keyboard plus the fret height?????). So, when you shimmed, was it across all the heel of the neck joint or was it either front or back? I was going to use the old cort neck I have but not too sure as I might end up putting that back together. So the idea may be to get a new neck..
Hey AJ. Yeah I've been lucky to have some spare time at the moment, this is why I've been busy.
You are correct about the zero neck angle on most fender type guitars. But because I used a different style of bridge, a wilkinson aluminium wraparound bridge. I had to make some slight adjustments. I only placed the shim at the bottom end of the neck, a 12 mm wide strip across the bottom.