First build DJT-1 bk

Hi every one, my kit arrived yesterday and I already love it!

For the finish, im thinking a seafoam green stain with tru-oil on top, hopefully extra glossy. Hardware is black so I think there will be a nice color contrast over all.

Im going to use the stock hardware first but there's a Dimarzio Tone Zone T pickup waiting in line so, high gain it is! Maybe just the bridge pickup, volume and coil split (no tone) configuration. A lot to decide yet.

Body looks grate, really liking the grain draw, there's a dark odd line by the arm rest area, but im sure there's some technique to make it softer or disappear.
Neck fit looks good, im a bit concerned about 6th and 7th frets beeing a bit short but maybe not critical, don't know really, guess a string alignment test will tell better.

The nut is taller on the bass side but the grooves seems to be deeper and kind of even with the treble side, guess I have to sand the top to make it look good with the neck radius? Ordered the bone nut upgrade and it looks the same, is this normal?

And the journey begins,
Im going to instal the neck and bridge to check alignment, nut height, etc.

Any advice will be awesome, cheers!

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Welcome Christian, enjoy your journey and take your time. Don’t hesitate to ask questions.

Hi Christian, and welcome!

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For the finish, im thinking a seafoam green stain with tru-oil on top, hopefully extra glossy.

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Just be aware that Tru Oil has a slight amber tint to it so can alter the base colour slightly. There have been numerous accounts of blue guitars turning green over time. I don't know how sea foam would react with the amber, but I thought it worth mentioning.

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...im a bit concerned about 6th and 7th frets beeing a bit short but maybe not critical..

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I can't see the fret ends clear enough in that photo to determine if there will be a problem. If they're too short, send a close-up photo to PBG and I'm sure they can help you.

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The nut is taller on the bass side but the grooves seems to be deeper and kind of even with the treble side, guess I have to sand the top to make it look good with the neck radius? Ordered the bone nut upgrade and it looks the same, is this normal?

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With regard to the nut, that's not uncommon. Different manufacturers cut/shape their nuts differently.
Looking at your photo, I would bet that if you measured from the bottom of the two E string nut slots to the bottom of the nut, the distance would very close if not equal.

Also, pre-cut nut slots are mostly a guide for string-to-string spacing and 99% of the time require adjustment to the individual string slots to achieve correct nut action.

Edit to add:
Profiling or finishing the top of nuts is whole other conversation. Like most things there are varied opinions and approaches on what is "correct".

Other than checking for fit and bridge/neck alignment, you can leave nut adjustments until the end, during final set up and intonation.

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Hey! thanks everybody for your welcome and help.
I´ve done the neck / bridge alignment check and seems to be fine, a bit to the treble side but guess it is tolerable with this kits.
Nut grooves on both E strings are almost the same height measuring from the bottom, good guess. im going to deal with that later as suggested.

I think that the conflictive frets are not a big deal, actually there´s a small bow on the side of the Fretboard that makes it looks worst, think I can live with it.

Made a U turn on the finish thoughts, im not going to fool my self with the seafoam green (I know how this ends). Im going to use a black stain, and tru-oil (my place is not really spray friendly). Maybe I can put a green knob somewhere jajajaj.
Thanks for the tru-oil tint warning, I don't think amber can contribute in a good way to seafoam green. Maybe on a vintage look, but that's not what im looking for.

So now i´m going to cut the headstock and sand everything up to 240. Im a bit confuse about grain filler, should I use it before the stain? Can I use it before and after? Was thinking if I put a first coat of stain and sand it just to get a deep black in the grains, then a stainable filler, and then stain again, it could generate some kind of a 3D fx... maybe it doesn't work that way, will make some tests before.

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That string alignment looks acceptable to me, but personally I'd not be satisfied with that wonky fretboard edge.
I think it would be worth contacting Adam at PBG and getting his opinion.

re: grain filling - Traditional wisdom and procedure it would be done before staining. However there are more grain filler products available now can be applied after. So now before/after depends on what product you choose.

If you want to use a traditional filler (eg: Timbermate) definitely applied first, and it comes in a black colour (ebony) that will give you the contrast you are looking for.

This is my PBG TLA-1 with ebony Timbermate (Ash body) and water based dye and poly clear coat:
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Thanks a lot Mc Creed,
Wrote to PBG and they agreed that the neck wasn’t right, they are sending me a new one. This is my first kit so I didn’t really knew what to expect.
Ben replied my email and was really kind and helpful.

Will definitely follow your advice on the finish, that Tele looks great!

Hi Christian,
Wise choice not proceeding with Sea Foam & Tru Oil. I have what once was a nice blue Tele that these days is now green due to how TO ages and adds more of it's amber hue.
Same thing over black where amber may cause things to look more dark brown than black which is what happened on my 2nd Tele.
Not unhappy with either but in hindsight would have thought more about a true clear top coat to lock in the original look.
Things to bear in mind when using TO.
Cheers Waz

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Wrote to PBG and they agreed that the neck wasn’t right, they are sending me a new one.

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Ben replied my email and was really kind and helpful.

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That's the Pitbull way!

I got two replacement necks from Adam for my PRS-1TS kit 3 years ago. No hassles at all. They're a good mob.

Thanks for the advise, going to look for another product and use the TO just on the neck. Any ideas what could I use? wipe on poly maybe?
I had TO in mind cause it looks like safe to work with (?) I´m in Chile so I have to look for alternatives, most of the time international shipping is more expensive than this kind of products.

A little update,
did the grain filling and the first coat of black dye, I like where this is going, pretend to go much darker.
Decided to shape the headstock of the faulty neck anyway, I could use some practice. New one should arrive soon.

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That grain is looking amazing. Nice work.

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That's great Adam let you keep the original neck. If you've not done fret work before, it will be a good opportunity to do a trial run on it before doing the replacement.

Looking good too.

thanks a lot!
so, a small problem, im going to sand down the body and do a couple more coats of grain filler cause some grain was not completely covered. I was using 180 grit to remove the filler excess, maybe im going to use a finer grit now 240 (?).
Any recommendations about sanding grain filler and dye will be grate.

What grit should I use in between dye coats?
should I go finer than 240 before clear coat?

About the clear coat, found some wipe on water base lacquer on a local store. Label says “fully dry to touch in 48hrs, none yellowing”
Another option is an acrylic varnish (Montana spray).
Not sure what works better, going to make some tests during the weekend

Yes, will practice on the faulty neck for sure, new neck arrived and looks better than the other one, yessssss!
Cheers everybody!

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I was using 180 grit to remove the filler excess, maybe im going to use a finer grit now 240 (?).

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180 is pretty coarse IMO. I wouldn't go coarser than 240. It may take a little more effort (and paper) but it won't scratch the timber between the grain as severely as 180 will. Scratch marks will be enhanced when stained/dyed.

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What grit should I use in between dye coats?
should I go finer than 240 before clear coat?

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Once you start applying the dye, only very light sanding with a very fine grade of sandpaper should be required. The dye will raise the tiny fibres in the timber and just need to knocked back. I DO NOT recommend using steel wool for this. I DO recommend synthetic sanding pads, or if not available, a fine wet/dry paper like 800-1000.

On a related note, read my post (post #31) about sandpaper grades and country/region. HERE

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About the clear coat, found some wipe on water base lacquer on a local store. Label says “fully dry to touch in 48hrs, none yellowing”
Another option is an acrylic varnish (Montana spray).
Not sure what works better, going to make some tests during the weekend

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I have not used either of those products and the decision is yours. Testing is a good idea if practical with costs.
A lot builders here and in the USA use spray cans or wipe-on polyurethane. So whatever the Chilean equivalent should be a safe tried & true route.

Thanks a lot McCreed, you've been really helpful!

Hi every one!
its been some time since my las post, but I've done some progress.
Grain filling was a pain in the A! had to do it three times and still didn't came out 100% perfect, want to blame the product I used, but guess my inexperience is punishing me jajaja

Body has four coats of acrylic finish on (three light coats and one wet) have some stuff to fix like some pinholes, runs out and some gentle orange peel, but its coming out better than expected. Any advise on leveling pinholes? maybe super glue or just try to put some finish on it? im using a rattle can finish btw.
Neck has 25 coats of tru-oil and I like where its going. Decal has only 8 coats over it. Was wondering how many coats people do before leveling the decal?

Cheers everyone!

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Loving that headstock

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Like Dozy said, love the headstock, but I also love the singature decal and the body looks stunning. Great job all round so far Christian.

I usually put about 20 coats of wipe on poly or Truoil on the headstock, but even then the decal is usually not buried.

If your 'light coats' have been going on dry, then that could be a cause for pinholes and orange peel. You want each coat to go on wet enough so that it glistens, but not too deep so that it runs. With a dry coat, you get very small droplets of the finish that only make contact in a small patch of the droplet, so are barely sticking to the surface. With say a nitro finish, the solvent used is strong and the next wet coat will blend everything together. With a water-based acrylic, that doesn't happen. So you really want each coat to go on wet.

The only time you want a dry spray that I can think of is for doing a 'mist coat', a very light spray used so that you can sand the surface and see where any dips are, as the paint will remain there.

My experience of pin-holes is with nitro. They are probably caused by small drops of grease or something else that the paint won't stick to on the surface of the wood. I've had mixed results fixing them with my nitro, by using thinners on a brush, and brushing the thinners on until the finish melts and the holes disappear. However, spraying over the top of these can often see the holes reappearing. It's then a question of sanding the finish back, respraying and hoping they don't reappear.

Not at all sure about pinholes and acrylic. I'd give it one go at a wet spray over the area, but spray paints are normally far too viscous for the paint to fill small holes, which is why just using thinners can work. So you could try superglue. You'll want the thin or extra thin stuff in order it to run into the holes. Normal superglue is probably too viscous and may cover up the top leaving a bubble underneath it. You'll need one f the very thin application nozzles to fit on the normal one, because thin superglue is very runny indeed, so you want something that only allows a drop or so out at a time. Otherwise it will go everywhere. Leave for at least a full day to harden before sanding back. I'd avoid using a hardening accelerant spray because it can cause the CA to 'pucker up' and become rough, and it may pull itself out of the small holes.

I probably apply six wet coats of clear (dry coats will be thinner) before sanding back and polishing (unless you are doing a satin finish, when I'd sand back flat to remove orange peel and then spray a final satin coat). You need a decent depth of finish to give both enough depth to allow you to remove all the imperfections in the surface, and also to provide protection for the body.

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Originally Posted by robin

Like Dozy said, love the headstock, but I also love the singature decal and the body looks stunning. Great job all round so far Christian. .

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Originally Posted by dozymuppet

Loving that headstock .

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Im glad that you like it guys!

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

I probably apply six wet coats of clear (dry coats will be thinner) before sanding back and polishing (unless you are doing a satin finish, when I'd sand back flat to remove orange peel and then spray a final satin coat). You need a decent depth of finish to give both enough depth to allow you to remove all the imperfections in the surface, and also to provide protection for the body.

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Thaks a lot Simon! Don’t know where Ive got the idea of the dry coats first, will continue with your advise

I'm far from perfect and learning all the time. I don't know exactly how many basic mistakes I've made since I started doing this almost 5 years ago but it's a lot. Hopefully I learn as I go and can pass on my experience, but I still do a lot of really dumb things!

I like the pandemic logo and agree the headstock looks great. Curious about the main logo...why 22?

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Originally Posted by fender3x

Curious about the main logo...why 22?

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That´s funny, at some point, that number decided to apear really often, my son was born at 22:22, an anniversary, address number and stuff like that. So its like an adopted number for me.
Im not really serious about it, I just think im giving the guitar a bit of good vibes :cool:

Hi everyone!!
Im really happy to post this update!
After 3 months of watching clear coat dry, I decided to wetsand and polish... results, better than expected.
As the results where pretty decent for my skill level (this is my first build), I moved on to make a second assembly test, this time including electronics and it worked ok, there's some noise on the circuit so I need to check my work here, but there's signal coming out of the guitar and that's a big step for me. I used a Tone Zone T pick up that had removed from my telecaster.
Really don't know what to expect about the circuit components, maybe better components are needed. I use high gain sounds a lot so it must be pretty quiet.
Decided to keep it minimalistic so im going to use just a bridge pickup in this build.

My next steps are:
Custom cut a small pickguard, just to cover the neck pickup cavity.
Fretwork
Adjusting bridge saddles screws length, there's a lot of them coming out and it feels pretty rough on my hand.
Adjusting nut height

The nut feels pretty high, is it safe to sand it from the bottom? Ive read mixed opinions. I don't have nut files and im not sure if they worth the investment. I know its not a big investment but still...
I do have feeler gauges, I've seen people wrapping them with sand paper as "files" but don't know if its better this way.

Massive respect to every one in here, this thing is complex and requires a lot of patience and dedication to get things right.

Pictures doesn't do justice, you can see more detail on the actual guitar finish
Cheers to everyone!

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Lovely finish Christian. Looks like glass!

re: the nut, yes, you can adjust it from the bottom. You need to be careful to not sand an angle in the "front to back" direction.
You may wish to put a slight angle on the E to E direction so that the bass E is higher than the treble E.

When you sand, don't do it freehand. Use a block that you know to be flat, placed on a bench/table and put the sandpaper on that working the nut across the sandpaper. A plate of glass makes a good flat surface for doing this, and you can sticky tape the sandpaper so it doesn't slide around too.

When you measure the nut action, you want to depress the string at the 3rd fret and measure the clearance from the bottom of the string and the 1st fret. Since you won't be adjusting each individual string height, just measure the two E strings presuming the nut slots are radiused from the factory. The best way to measure this is with feeler gauges.

As a rough guide, you want the bass E to be .010" - .008" and the treble E .006" - .004" (at 1st fret, string depressed at 3rd).

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Originally Posted by McCreed

A plate of glass makes a good flat surface for doing this

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I agree with this but with a caveat based on my own personal experience. Not all glass is created equal. I have a nice big sheet that I thought might be perfect for flattening my fret leveling beam, but to the naked eye the glass had an obvious bend in it. I ended up using a smaller piece of thicker "float glass" that I checked and double checked with straightedges as best I could.

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Originally Posted by ross.pearson

I agree with this but with a caveat based on my own personal experience. Not all glass is created equal. I have a nice big sheet that I thought might be perfect for flattening my fret leveling beam, but to the naked eye the glass had an obvious bend in it. I ended up using a smaller piece of thicker "float glass" that I checked and double checked with straightedges as best I could.

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That's a good point Ross. The size of the glass is probably a consideration, and maybe I should have been more specific.

The larger the sheet, I suppose the chance of having deviations in it are increased. Given the size of a nut and the small of amount area required to achieve full strokes to sand it, it doesn't need to be very large. I reckon a small piece of garden variety window glass is probably close enough to achieve a very flat bottom of a nut. Whilst I'm not discouraging the effort for accuracy, we're not building Swiss watches either :p.

That's a great finish!

Hi everyone,
thanks a lot for all the help.
I ended up using a piece of granite that it was pretty flat, it was the flattest material I could find around. I think the nut came out nice.
Noise on the circuit was a bad earth connection, fixed it and now it´s really quiet. im impressed jaja.
just did the tuners upgrade (d'addario auto trim), grate improvement here... So i´m considering this guitar done!!!

It was a long journey and im really happy with the results, perfectly usable guitar, nothing wrong with it (it weighs a lot tho) I think it´s going to see some stage and crowd in the near future.

Really want to thanks everyone who took the time to participate in this build up

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some more pics
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You've done a really nice job there. Very smart indeed.

I had those Autotrim tuners on one of my guitars (though they were branded as Planet Waves at the time). I thought they were very good.

Going to make another one?

Looking very nice!

That’s a really great job. The finish is beautiful. Well done

Excellent result!

I really like the minimalist approach with the pickguard to cover the neck pickup route. Nice work!

ups, looks like I forgot to hit reply a month ago (better late than never)
Thanks a lot for all the compliments, means a lot coming from people with this amount of experience.
After a month playing the guitar, I can say I really like how it turned out, i´m humbly proud about it.

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Originally Posted by McCreed

Excellent result!

I really like the minimalist approach with the pickguard to cover the neck pickup route. Nice work!

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thanks a lot, the original pick guard is massive and I didn't want to cover the central part where the grain and gradient looks best. I made a copy for a neck pickup if the craving starts at some point.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

You've done a really nice job there. Very smart indeed.

I had those Autotrim tuners on one of my guitars (though they were branded as Planet Waves at the time). I thought they were very good.

Going to make another one?

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Yes! those tunners works grate, tuning stability is pretty good so far. First time using locking and auto trim tunners, so guess I have to get used to not seing ANY string coming out, makes me a bit nervous jaja :D
I really don't have a lot of time between family, work, gigs and rehearsals. Will see what's the situation in the near future... but I can see a mockingbird flying around.

Cheers to everyone and thanks a lot for all the help!!!
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That strap is perfect for that guitar!
Glad to hear you're enjoying how it plays. I'd call that win/win!

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Originally Posted by McCreed

That strap is perfect for that guitar!

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I thought so too!! :cool: