Build #2 - PSH

Hi everyone,

Starting a build diary for my second build which will be a PBG PSH-1 semi-hollowbody.

I ordered this kit, with some customisations in June 2021. I wanted a Mahogany body, binding on both sides, f-holes in the syle of a GPR-1 and a quilted maple veneer top.

As you know, global supply chains are a bit of a mess so that deplayed what would have already been a long lead time for a custom order and I finally received the kit on Christmas eve!

It was a bit of a disspointment. The quilted top is there - but quite a few marks on it and glue spots everywhere including on the sides of the body. I *think* the body is Mahogany but it is is awfully light and I suspect it is the standard basswood. The double-binding was not provided and the f-holes were not customised. To top it off, the standard "maple" neck does not look anything like maple to me.

PBG gave me a refund for the customisations not provided, which was nice, but I would have to say that this kit is nowhere near the quality of the TL-1 kit I used in my first build (and that had its issues with glue spots, misaligned holes, and other fiddly things).

Regardless, I am soldiering on as I think I will learn quite a bit about building as I come across each issue. I ordered both a chrome and gold set of hardware as I am going to mix and match things for a unique look. This may have been a waste of time as the standard hardware is pretty much junk but I figured I would at least see what it looks like first before aquiring better quality parts as replacements. I will definitely be swapping out the pickups, pots, toggle switch.

For example, I am using the chrome wraparound bridge with the gold bridge pins (if anyone can tell me how to remove the bridge screws so I can swap out the chrome saddles for the gold saddles that would be most appreciated!); chrome machine heads with gold tuning buttons; etc.

Lastly, I am avoiding the Dingo Tone stains this time around. While I got good results using the natural neck stain kit on my TL-1 and ok results using the natural stain on the body, the Bondi Blue kit I used on my flamed maple top was a disaster. When it finally cured (and to be honest its probably still not fully cured) it was months later and I think by then I had done so much work on it with sanding, polishing and waxing that I had probably ruined it. It looks ok now but it is no longer blue - more a ocean green colour :-).

So this time around I am using a stain set from TLC Guitar Goods. Will see how this goes.

I have read through the PSH Guitar Build diarys from @vivek_rc and @mrpearson. These have been most helpful and I am eagerly awaiting the next posts on both these threads.

At this point in time, I think my focus needs to be on how best to deal with the glue spots and to ensure that the neck angle is correct for a good action. These seemed to be biggest issues for both vivek_rc and mrpearson to manage.

So I am going to take my time on this one and will start to post some pictures. If anyone would like to throw some advice my way I am all ears!

Cheers... db

Welcome back db.
Disappointing to hear about the quality and missing custom specifications. There seems to a lot issues with the PSH kits recently.

The two recent threads you mentioned are good (bad? :confused:) examples and good place for you to start!

Also, good call deciding not to use Dingo Tone. That stuff is just inviting trouble IMO.

Hey DB,

Welcome,

I think checking the neck angle and action would be a good place to start in my opinion. You most likely need to make or buy a shim so that you can get the action very low. You might even want to get a new bridge, which both myself and mrpearce did. I would get that sorted first and then work on the glue removal, sanding staining etc.

As for the glue spots, hopefully you get lucky and have minimal. Try using some warm water to remove them, the glue is water based, and warm water seems to remove them better that Goof off, which is acetone based.

Also can you show a photo of the screws you’re trying to remove from the bridge?

Thanks @vivek_rc,

Will defintiely start with the glue spots first and try the warm water method. Then I think I'll take my time with sanding and getting the neck sorted out.

Re the bridge, I am trying to work out out to remove the saddles and saddle screws. Below is a picture of the chrome one with the gold pins. How do I get the screws out so I can remove the saddles?

Attachment 42326

The gold version of the bridge has a different type of screw and an openingfor it to slot into:

Attachment 42327

Thanks... db

Hey there.

Agree with Vivek, get your neck angle sorted first as the guitar has to be playable. [mention]Simon Barden [/mention] shim instructions on my build diary are super easy to follow. I made a 1.5mm high shim (out of a solid block of pine as I couldn’t get maple and my basswood attempt failed as the wood was too soft) which is the equivalent to a stewmac 1 degree shim that they recommend for a tunomatic bridge.

I also recessed the bridge post bushings as well which gave me a few more mm. Also recessing the edges of the bushing looks better and is the same as what prs does.

With my bridged decked and a new lower nut I can achieve a lower setup action than my real prs setup by a professional luthier and plays great imho. You can probably make a 2mm shim and get a bit more adjustability to be on the safe side.

Now onto glue stains. This has been painful!!!! There are 2 types to deal with. 1) The obvious white stains around bindings and the veneer join. These show up with a wipe of turps and are easily removed with goof off and a bit of brushing. 2) the veneer glue stains which are much harder to see and didn’t show up with the turps wipe (I checked 2-3 times) after seeing vivek’s issues around the bottom edge of his veneer. I had these down the right hand side and couldn’t budge these with goof off. The warm water suggestion from Vivek is what you need to consider here but be careful as water can easily lift your veneer.

In the end I have a hidden these with my minor burst creating using Japan brown fw proof tint over the dingo tone. Personally I am pretty happy with the result (better than my original plan) as originally I wasn’t confident in producing a burst but was forced into it.

In regards to dingo tone I had no issues with it drying but didn’t use the top coat. The trick with the intensifier coat is you need to follow the instructions and use steel wool to rub it back exposing the intended finish ( I guess it is reverse approach to a dark stain sanded back and then a lighter top coat). As it was my first guitar I found it pretty forgiving to work with and didn’t require any sanding of the veneer. Vivek took a different approach and has also got a pretty cool finish.

Other tips

- order a new bridge. The kit one is too high under any circumstances unless you build the mother of all shims.

- order locking bridge posts. This seems to be an issue for any wrap around bridge guitar

- the scale length is pretty much spot on. I ended up inserting a 2mm spacer just to give my pickup Mount a bit more space but not needed.

- where the sides bend around the horns you may find your stain doesn’t take so plan on some lighter patches. Maybe other builders have tips here but even with rougher sand paper I couldn’t get stain to take.

- I had few issues on the neck where the maple appears to be cracked and stain would not take. I am accepting that the kit cost $250 and I cannot expect a custom shop finish.

- sand your binding smooth, polish it and tape it up to keep it clean. I had to refinish the edges a number of times to get a clean line (even then it’s not perfect).

My build updates will be pretty benign for the next 2 weeks as just layering on truoil which is really bringing the figure on the maple to life. (See latest pic) I need to bury a lot of grain which was accentuated in the veneer when trying to rub out glue spots. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3e2dc344f7.jpg


Whilst the kit is not prefect I am pretty impressed for what it is for $250 and I am super impressed with the customer service from pitbull. The guys there are awesome!


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Also can you show a photo of the screws you’re trying to remove from the bridge?

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Yes, I'm unfamiliar with how the kit wrap-arounds are assembled, and there are different ways that intonation screws are terminated within the bridge. Some have wee tiny nuts, some C clips, or other types of retainer. A pic of the end of the intonation screws should tell us.

Just a note on swapping the tuner buttons. I have found a great variation in size and shape the shafts that buttons fit on to between manufacturers. Especially among MIC tuners. They all mostly employ a D shaft, but the diameter, length and internal thread for the retainer screw is not universal. This applies to the tuner buttons as well. There is no one size fits all.

Even if you bought two sets (one chrome, one gold) from PBG, they may well have come from two different factories and may be different specs. I can't say with certainty that this will be the case with the tuners you ordered, but I thought it worth mentioning.

Guess I'm behind the pack on this one...

Just to reiterate my pervious post, a photo of the "back side" of the chrome bridge should show more on what is required to remove the saddles. The gold one, the intonation screws will just prise out once the saddle moved to about the middle of travel. There's no retainer wire like on some traditional TOM's.

The intonation screw threads are hopefully the same. (commonly M2.5 from memory*)

*Edit: for import/metric bridges - M2.5 with a thread pitch of .45mm

Hi McCreed,

The back is totally sealed - no access to the screws.
I'll have a go at the gold one, as you suggested, to see if I can getthe saddles out of that

The consensus seems to be that I should lose the kit bridge and get a new, lower-profiled one. So I'll probably do that. Just wondering whether a pre-set/compensated version or a fully adjustable one would be the best way forward.

Thanks for all of the advice. Your build is looking awesome.

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Just wondering whether a pre-set/compensated version or a fully adjustable one would be teh best way forward.

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FWIW I had a PRS SE Single cut that had a compensated wrap-around tail piece and its intonation was spot-on. There is some adjustment to the fixed ones via grub screws against the mounting posts.
You can also get ones with adjustable G & B saddle only. Lots of options... decisions, decisions...

@mrpearson, I have a 0.5mm shim (for Tele/Strat) from Stewmac that I previously purchased. I'll try this if initial measurements look like it needs adjustment. But going by what you have experienced, it sounds like I'll need to go thicker than this. 2mm is a thick shim! Is it possible that the kit is this far out?

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Originally Posted by dbeltrami

@mrpearson, I have a 0.5mm shim (for Tele/Strat) from Stewmac that I previously purchased. I'll try this if initial measurements look like it needs adjustment. But going by what you have experienced, it sounds like I'll need to go thicker than this. 2mm is a thick shim! Is it possible that the kit is this far out?

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I am fine with a 1.5mm shim (didn’t want to go more than stewmac standard shim height) and it is probably a little lower in reality as measuring by eye and using the maths to get the height right. I did a full setup following setting the neck and can still go lower on the nut and will probably raise the action a little to match my prs.


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I actually ended up with a near 3mm shim to get the action very low, because I swapped the kit saddles onto the new lower profile bridge I bought. The kit saddles are taller and give a better break angle. Get your bridge and saddles sorted as well to help determine the shim you will need.

Ok so, I think the first thing to do is sort out the neck, make sure everything is aligned and the angle is ok. I have ordered a new wraparound bridge. Can anyone advise how to do a mock check without actually putting the bridge posts into the body? I'm not sure how I'd get these out?

Given I have to wait a little while for the new bridge, I'll start the slow and careful process of trying to remove unwanted glue and see how much trouble I think the veneer is going to give me :)

And here's a photo of the kit body and neck along with some visual cues around my thinking for a chrome/gold hardware setup. The pickups will be chrome/nickel with cream surrounds and mix of gold/chrome screws. I need to get a better looking truss rod cover than the standard one. Not sure what colour vol/tone knobs I will go with yet.

The plan for stain will be a black/charcoal top that highlights the quilted maple and charcoal back and neck. I may get adventurous and think about creating a veneer of some sort for the headstock face.

Attachment 42328

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Can anyone advise how to do a mock check without actually putting the bridge posts into the body? I'm not sure how I'd get these out?

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Looking at the photo, either you figured it out or you just stuck the studs in there. If that's not the case, the trick is just wrapping masking tape around the threads of the post until it's thick enough to provide enough resistance to friction fit them in temporarily.
Another alternative is use 8mm vinyl tubing to achieve the same kind of fit (that's what I use).

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Originally Posted by dbeltrami

And here's a photo of the kit body and neck along with some visual cues around my thinking for a chrome/gold hardware setup. The pickups will be chrome/nickel with cream surrounds and mix of gold/chrome screws. I need to get a better looking truss rod cover than the standard one. Not sure what colour vol/tone knobs I will go with yet.

The plan for stain will be a black/charcoal top that highlights the quilted maple and charcoal back and neck. I may get adventurous and think about creating a veneer of some sort for the headstock face.

Attachment 42328

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Interesting you have a different neck to the standard kit, head stock looks like the neck on the pbg website where as the new kits shipped are coming with the headstock pre-shaped like a major manufacturer. You might have a different action and not require a shim.


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Maybe. Let's see how I go!
I ordered this in June last year, with customisations. Maybe the newer kits have a different neck.
Its supposed to be Maple. I don't know my woods but it is nothing like the Maple neck on my TLA-1F. Feels much softer.

Headstock looks a little different, fingers crossed you have a better glue situation [emoji3]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...bdb3836fc9.jpg


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So I got the body and neck out today to start cheking how things fit together and take a look at how much glue removal I might need to do.

There's a decent amount of excess glue - sigh!. There's also a couple of nasty marks/holes/scratches that don't look too flash. But the biggest issue is the alignment of bridge post holes.

Now, I had a hole alignment issue on my TLA-1F but that amounted to 1mm or thereabouts. This just looks ridiculous and I doubt I can work with this. What do you think?

Attachment 42354

Try a dry fit, put on the bridge, put on two tuners, clamp down the neck and string the high and low e string and check the alignment of the strings on the neck. You can also check the action at the same time

Personally, I think that's borked and wouldn't even bother trying to fit the neck.
I'm not saying it couldn't be made to work (filling, drilling, some clever finishing) but that's not the point. You just shouldn't have to do all that extra work, regardless of the price point.

I'd say send it back for a replacement, but the way things have been going, I wouldn't hold much confidence in what you'd get as a replacement. I would just get a refund if it were me.

I agree, it's off by a long way. I just don't understand how the manufacturer can stuff it up this badly. Surely they have templates?

I have contacted PBG. I'm hoping they can manage a replacement for me. I really do want to build another guitar. Also I have a bunch of parts that I have bought that need to find a body to be installed into...

I’d try a test fit first. Earlier pics with the bridge in place looked a lot better than the one where you’ve drawn lines on the photo.

I’m not saying it’s not out and you may even have to enlarge one side of a pickup cavity to be able to move the pickup enough to line up nicely under the strings, but you really have to base it all on the line of the neck when fitted. It’s very easy to incorrectly extend lines from the side of the neck pockets as they are so short. The neck itself gives a much longer baseline to extend accurately from. If you’ve already done this, and just drawn on a picture of the body on its own to illustrate that, then that’s fine and I’d say that in any email to Pit Bull for clarity. If not, give it a go and you may find things are better than you thought.

I fitted the neck and while I didn't attach the two E strings I ran a straight rule down either side of the neck marking the top with a pencil. That was when it became very obvious that the holes were misaligned. The right hand side post hole lines up with the outer edge of the bridge pickup cavity. The left hand side post hole is basically centered with the outer edge of the bridge pickup cavity.

I'll do a mock build with the pickups and strings in place to double check where the centre line should be. But either way it would need the post holes redrilled or the pickup cavity rerouted from what I can see. Neither option is my idea of what a kit build should entail.

No, that's fine. Return the kit.

PBG has been amazing. Their customer service and support is outstanding.

So the summary of the situation is that I am returning the kit and a replacement is being sent. They were really honest with me about either waiting a bit until things settle down with manufacturing or going with one of their in-stock standard PSH-1 kits.

So I have gone the latter, as I really want to get into building my second guitar.

I think I will close this thread and open a new Build thread to start again when my replacement kit arrives.

See you all again soon!

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Originally Posted by dbeltrami

PBG has been amazing. Their customer service and support is outstanding.

So the summary of the situation is that I am returning the kit and a replacement is being sent. They were really honest with me about either waiting a bit until things settle down with manufacturing or going with one of their in-stock standard PSH-1 kits.

So I have gone the latter, as I really want to get into building my second guitar.

I think I will close this thread and open a new Build thread to start again when my replacement kit arrives.

See you all again soon!

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Great that you got a good outcome, look forward to your new diary!