AGD612 new build

Received my sixth PB kit mid-June. First glance a challenging set of wiring!! Three switches and metres of wiring (just kidding). Did a fair bit of sanding to remove the rough edges and gave it a coat of white undercoat. Applied sand sealer and then sanded the two necks. Chose some Black Japan prooftint and then varnish with about three coats followed by some Truoil. Happy with the necks, Three coats of Wildfire red on the body. Then came fitting both necks and the truss rod covers. Laid out some wiring to get a hang of the possible sizing through the many holes pre-drilled in the body. Then today used the supplied coloured wiring to lay out the routing of them.Attachment 43289Attachment 43290Attachment 43291Attachment 43292Attachment 43293

Thought I'd give my poor soldering skills a workout today! After spending about an hour to attach the six-string switch, I figured out that if I applied some flux to the wire and point of attachment the solder began to flow a little better. (It's only taken me 13 kits to figure that out!!!). Managed to attach the twelve-string switch and the connecting switch in record time (for me anyway), and gave it a rest as I had surpassed my expectations! I'll leave it for a day or two (pending lunches to be had) then give the pots a look-in.

Aren't you using solder with a flux core? That's pretty standard these days.

Yes it has a 2% flux content. Had tried lead-free solder on the Gretsch (previous kit) but found it harder to melt, so returned to the lead content for this one. Regarding irons, I first started kit no. 1 in 2010 with a 25 watt, then moved up to a 40 watt and more recently reached an 80 watt iron which actually tripped my house RCD! So I've gone back to the 40 watt iron and this (with my flux 'trick') seems to work as is supposed. Never been my forte. But I'm more than thrilled with current progress. Yes I've watched all the videos on soldering and they make it look so easy - one touch of the iron and hey presto - but that has never been the case with mine. Have read about oxidisation etc but to no avail. Onwards and upwards!

80W shouldn't trip the house RCD unless the iron is faulty or the plug's wired incorrectly.

It really is worth investing in a variable temperature iron. Much easier to use as you can turn it down for delicate things and up for pot backs etc.

Something like this should be fine..

https://www.jaycar.com.au/60w-esd-sa...e38ff71587f407

Don't be afraid to change the tip type. The bigger tips have more heat capacity and don;t drop the temperature so quickly when doing big items like pot backs.

Keeping the iron clean helps a lot, so always wipe on a damp sponge after use to get the old solder off.

And tinning the surfaces to be joined first helps a lot.

Thanks Simon. I've been tinning the ends of the wires and yes it works very well. Today managed to get three of the pots connected before heading out for another lunch (Xmas present believe it or not!). Rainy weekend coming up so I'll attempt to get the 4th pot wired and the o/jack. Using orange drop caps on this one so hoping for a better tone. Was a bit sceptical about the 80 watt iron (Chinese - but isn't everything these days?) so have hung it up to give it a rest! With the recently-acquired third hand working to my advantage I'm actually quite looking forward to more soldering (never thought I'd say that).

I'm not sure that an orange drop cap will give you a 'better' tone. I do use them myself, but mainly because their tolerance is better than the cheap kit caps, and with the thick lead wires, they are easy to position running between volume and tone pots. With the tone control right up, the cap is doing almost nothing anyway. You certainly wouldn't hear any difference between the kit and orange drop caps until you started to turn the tone control down quite a lot.

Different cap types do have slightly different frequency responses, but it's all quite subtle at audio frequencies (especially with the frequency limiting effect of a guitar or bass amp speaker).

Your pickup choice is always going to make the biggest difference to your tone.

Looking good GreyFloyd. My back hurts just thinking about picking it up though!

Re soldering, it is a skill that gets easier. The cold weather in Freo is possibly not helping though. My iron struggles a bit in the cold!

Completed wiring Friday. Sunday saw 23 screws in the front of body for the pickups and covers. Starting to look like a Gibson but I wonder what the difference is between the two? Gibson doesn't have the third switch (between the necks) which according to the wiring diagram is for the 12 string pickups. Just wondering whether Gibson offers the same flexibility/versatility as this kit? Feel sure it would but who knows?Attachment 43308

The Gibson switching (at least the 1965 variant I've seen - I think it changed in some reissues) does give quite similar flexibility, but you can't select the neck pickup on one neck and mix that with the bridge position on another. It uses a 4-pole switch for one of the toggles (both bridges/all pickups/both neck pickups), and a standard 2-pole toggle for 6-string neck /both necks/12-string neck selection (and the pickups selected on those necks by the other toggle). But as you can only play one neck at a time, it's not a big difference.

It's that particular 4-pole toggle switch which is only made by Switchcraft (AFAIK), and quite expensive, which is why the kit has 3 standard box-style toggle switches.

The other difference is that you have a neck pickup volume+tone and a bridge pickup volume+tone arrangement with the Gibson and the kit has a 6-string neck common volume+tone and a 12-string neck common volume+tone arrangement.

Just be aware that with the kit, if you turn one neck's volume to zero and select both necks, you'll get no output from either neck. Very much like a standard Gibson neck and bridge pickup volume situation, but this time with necks, not bridge or neck pickups.

If you haven't done one already, I'd do a tap test on the pickups with the guitar plugged into an amp and check the wiring is all as should be before you start stringing it up and making access a bit more difficult.

Thanks for the info on the Gibson Simon. Don't worry - I'm giving the pickups a tap each, plugged into my mini Marshall (used in the shed for testing) just to make sure they're still operational at each stage of assembly! Hammered in the bridge supports today before the grandees arrived (school holidays you see so plenty interruptions). Next step tuners (all 18) and whilst a set of Slinkys for the six string were included, only the usual crappy strings for the 12, so a visit to my local music store will be required.Attachment 43314

I sometimes use the kit strings for initial set-ups but always replace them with proper strings before final set-up and intonation.

That is sooo purtty.

I would love one of those in a 6/4 instead of 6/12...

I think they once had one on offer, but I could be mistaken and dreamt it.

All it would take us a suitable neck, though it would probably be a short scale one to avoid balance issues.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tommycarlos

That is sooo purtty.

I would love one of those in a 6/4 instead of 6/12...

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This is the 6/4 on the Pitbull site
https://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/...uitarbass-kit/

That looks rather heavy, especially as the body looks extended on the lower rear bout more than aesthetics demands, presumably to help balance it.

Thought I'd share today's work BEFORE I go near the decals!! Headstocks never to be seen again (ha ha)!Attachment 43316

They look good. Though if you are going for ’decals’, can I suggest fitting some 3-screw bell-shaped truss rod covers for a more authentic look? You won’t fit 2-hole ones on, but it will look more like a real one from a distance.

Strung it up yesterday with the crappies and tried out all the different switch positions and lo and behold they all work! So I'm happy with my wiring. The pots themselves are not that great; volume on each pickup achieves not very much until about the last 10% of turn; equally the tone on each doesn't really alter until almost turned right down. So the electronics are really just OK and nothing special. Strangely, each neck plays well until you get up to the first fret (under the nut) when it doesn't play well at all. Have to take a closer look at the set up for an SG and make sure the clearances are as they should be. Again, with grandee birthday parties etc I need them back at school to devote more time to my project!!

Did a proper setup raising bridge saddles and pickups and improved the playability. Decal application this time around was a disaster. Emailing Canada!

I always apply some clear coat to the decals whilst still on the backing sheet. Makes them far more rigid and less likely to crease up and stick to themselves when applying them.

I also use the model-making decal fixers, Micro Sol and Micro Set to help get them to adhere as well and as flat as possible.

That sounds like the pots are linear. Log pots drop off much more quickly and therefore we hear the change sooner.
I guess it depends on the kit, I have had a mix out of the 4 kits I've done. But it's not too expensive to buy log pots, just make sure you match the size. I'm accidentally upgrading to large on one build which means drilling through metal and buying new pot covers.

I always apply clear too but whether or not I left them long enough soaking maybe my problem (seller disputed any batch problems). Got one on anyhow. Sort of happy with the sound. But I can't seem to get the first fret to sound properly even though all my measurements for string height at 17th fret and pickup clearances are spot on. Frustrating.

Open sting OK? Just the 1st fret buzzing slightly? All strings?

Could be a high fret, could be you haven't got enough neck relief. The more you play with necks and setups, the more you get to understand necks and that they aren't all the same and a setting that works on one neck may not work on another.

If you go through the process of levelling and reprofiling the frets, you can normally get a very good action and overall set-up.

Open strings all OK. All strings (I'm talking only the 6-string neck by the way - 12-string fine??!!) give only a 'thuk' when played both at the first and second frets; third fret and we're back to a normal sound. Never had to do any work with frets in the past so levelling and profiling would be a new experience (13 kits and counting). May have been lucky all these years?Attachment 43367

It could be high frets but is sounds more like there's a bit of a back-bow in the neck. Hold a string at the 1st and last frets (use a capo if easier) and see if you've got a gap between the string and fret around the 7th fret. If it's touching or almost touching, you might find that turning the truss rod anti-clockwise will give you enough neck relief to get those frets playing properly (you may then need to lower the bridge a bit).

The truss rods are double-action so can bend the neck both ways. You may find that there's a lack of resistance to start with (or you come across it when turning the rod), but this just means that the rod's in the central position between adding more bow (anti-clockwise when looking from the headstock down the neck) and flattening the neck/adding back-bow (turning clockwise), and should start to bite within a few turns.

Unless you know you have a lot of bow to take, out or add, the general advice given is to never turn more than 1/4 turn before checking the result.

So I'd try the truss rod adjustment first before deciding to have a go at fret levelling. With a few tools, fret levelling is actually pretty easy, but time consuming, but you may find it's not necessary.

Checked at 7th and string touching. Will look at loosening strings to get at truss rod cover and try the anticlockwise turn to bow neck and see if it makes a difference. Thanks.

Success! First time adjusting a truss rod. Eighth of a turn anti-clockwise relieved the neck and an imperceptible gap at 7th, retuned and hey presto, plays well at all frets. Now to see whether I can lift the guitar!! My poor back (you were right Trevor!).

I can see a version of ‘Stairway to Hernia’ coming up. ;)

[…]
When you cough then you’ll know, if the bulge doesn’t go
Heavy lifting is what you are paying for
Ooh, ooh, and he’s building a stairway to hernia
[…]

You could both become songwriters! I'll let you know how my back holds up. Jimmy Page eat your heart out!