Third build - Custom Single Cut

Another build, that I really desired to do is a single cut, one humbucker, les paul kind of style guitar. Inspired by the ESP Ltd Black Metal line, but wanted to color the guitar black with visible wood structure....
And well, the kit arrived today...Overall they made what I asked them to do, but...

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Holes (poti) are drilled, where should be none and placed how and like what again?...
the neck pocket is also too deep for the neck...have to put some veneer inbetween there I think...

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The veneer on top of the body is not glued properly...dont know what to make here...syringe injection of glue?...
or just sand the veneer down...

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And I do not know, why the humbucker routing has always to be THAT big (seen only one size humbuckers in many guitars), and I also wanted direct to wood mounting, the shape of a humbucker, not the hole you cover by mounting rings...

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I understand the price quality issue, but there could be at least some kind of perception...But the factories just do what they want...

Maybe it should cost more, but give a better result...

Overall I like the shape and the feeling of the wood...going to rescue the stuff, I suppose...but it is not very satisfying to be honest...

Hi Alexej,
It is hard to know what to do here - Send it back or try to make it work? If you are really not happy then complain to Pitbull and see what happens. The veneer and the neck pocket are big issues, and you should be compensated for that.

You have probably waited a long time to get the kit and want to start a build.

Thank you Travis, I think there is no right thing to do here :) just looking forward and find a solution...

Sanding down the veneer on the bodytop could be an option, or even replace it with another one...it will be black at the end anyway...

About the neck/body...some veneer in the gap could help I suppose...

Considering the whole custom shop issues I will keep the kit...and first I have to finish the IB4 Bass kit...so I will start to solve the problems later this year :)

I came upon this finish...

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Does someone know the technique, how to achieve this, or is it just a matter of wood? I tried to find some information...
What I came upon is that you "sand" out with a metal brush the softer woodparts and the hard parts stay, so you get a kind of relief...But it must be a whole piece of wood with interesting grain that gives the opportunity I suppose...

Hi Alexej,
FrankenWashie or Ig0r was doing this - Check out his build diary at https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...l=1#post220184.

Ash wood could be used to create that finish.

Hi Trevor!
Thank you, that is exactly what I would like to try out some day! :)

Went on with this project. I had to remove the veneer from the body, for it was not properly glued. And now I am going to put a new one, that will be on top and back of the body. For the back it worked out quiet well so far. With the curved top it will be a bit more challenging, I think. But I am following a nice tutorial for gluing the veneer to the body, I really can recommend that one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKatM7sEQA

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I had no softener for the veneer, so I used some oil to get it a bit softer. After it was in the press for a day I went on with gluing. So far so good. Now I have to sand the glue, which came through the thin veneer and cracs and holes within the wooden structure. Then I will move to the curved front...

Looks great! What type of veneer is it?

Thx Trevor!
It is an "oak burl veneer burr wood", about 1mm strong. It was not easy to find a veneer, which is big enough to cover a body in one piece.

Well, the veneering of the curved top did not work as expected. I think that too much glue wanderded into the "valley" parts and made the veneer bulge in kind of waves. Actually I somehow do not hate this effect :) but of course i would prefer having it smooth and plane...Now I think about removing it or keeping it...but I kind of like it and am also not sure how I could prevent it, if I do it a second time. So atm I am more about to go on with the result...mixed feelings about that...

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If I move on, I want to keep the wooden color on front and back, making them matt transparent varnish. Coloring the sides and the neck black, giving the headstock same wood veneer. Black hardware and strings through body are planned. But first have to remove all the glue...

Hi Alexj, Are the raised bits of veneer movable or spongy? If they are could be trapped air as hard to clamp on a curve, and if you put a very small hole in one does it push down?

Hi Tony. Unfortunately the raised parts are very hard now. I think they are filled with glue. Maybe I should have "opened" them directly after removing the press...

I had the same question as VH. If you like the bumps then it's all good. if not, you should be able to sand down and try again with the veneer. Since the surface is not flat, however, it may not work well without some sort of a mold.

At the moment I tend to keep the bumps. I made small cuts in some of them, but without any effect... and they feel very hard. On the back I also have some, but they are much smaller and look more natural. They have glue inside, so I think it is the same on the front.

I think you are right, that some kind of mold is needed for the curves, however more experiments are needed to try different ways out. And it is also a matter of the veneer style and preparation I think. Some veneer softener is needed, to get a better result. I tried to soften it by water and steam of an iron, but it did not work well. So I just put some oil on it, for it was very very dry. Maybe the preparation was a mistake, but sometimes I am just not patient enough 😑

I move on with sanding of glue traces and make preparations for hardware, like bridge and string through. The bumps have kind of wooden structure or some old skin, that gives maybe some dimension in this imperfection or gives me the excuse 😁 let's see how it proceeds and looks together with hardware 🙂

Moved on with shaping and veneering the headstock. Also made the pickup cavity and electronics cover.

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still a lot of sanding :)

Moved on, trying out some black stain and black colored oil. The oil is fine, but becomes glossy and sticky with every coat (maybe it has to dry out longer) But I could not get the right result for the black sides and the neck. Between veneer and wood I still had some parts of glue and woodfiller which could not be covered properly by stain or oil, of course.

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So I came back to black mat finish aerosol which I already used on my Explorer. This seems to work fine for me. Did not use any grainfiller, so the wood structure is still visible, which does somehow correspond with the wooden parts.

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The wooden parts get some coats of clear semi-gloss/mat finish and that will be the final solution for this two colored guitar.

For the mounting of the neck I was not sure which direction to choose, but I think I prefer the marked one. The metal plate (as supposed by the kit) looks just to massive and takes too much attention on this wooden structure. It looks better with the screws put inside the "pods", don't know how to call it. So I think the classic screws directly into the neck should work. And I dont think I will ever remove the neck again, but did not want to glue it this time.

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The next steps will be adjusting the bridge (maybe should have done it at the beginning), the string through body drilling and the neck mounting. Not sure about how to get a small hole to the bridge for the ground wire. From which direction to drill. Through the jack entrance with a small handdrill maybe?

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Veneer on a curved surface is generally kept in place by putting the body in a plastic bag and sucking the air out. There are clothes storage bags that have that capacity and work with a strong domestic vacuum cleaner. I've seen YouTube videos of people using this method, but have never done it myself. as long as the veneer doesn't move whilst the air is being sucked out, it seems relatively straight forward.

For the ground wire, drill outwards from the bridge post hole nearest the control cavity to the cavity. To get a low angle, you'll need a long drill bit so the drill doesn't hit the body and increase the angle. I normally try and set up a couple of staggered height wood blocks to rest the drill bit on and create the right angle. Also, rest some wood or metal by the edge of the post hole so the drill doesn't chew up the edge.

I bought a cheap set of long drills from Amazon for this purpose, something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/300mm-Extra...ps%2C94&sr=8-6 and I use the 4mm one. Being long, the thin drills bend easily, so don't press hard and let the drill do the work.

You'd have to be very luck indeed to hit the post hole if drilling through from the output jack hole. And once you've drilled one wrong hole, it's hard to get the drill to not follow the same hole again.

You do want the hole to be near the top of the post hole, so the ground wire hangs down the side of the hole. This gives a fairly long contact area with the insert and the insert pulls the wire with it when you push/hammer the insert in. If the hole is at the bottom of the post hole and you bend the ground wire strands so they face upwards, the post will just push them down when it goes in and you may either not get a good contact at all, or the wire may stop the post from going in properly and the lip sits proud of the body. So having a hole near the top is good.

Just keep checking how far you've drilled, and mark with tape the approximate length you need to drill for. You don't want to keep drilling and come out the back of the guitar! If the drill goes into the control cavity right where the side meets the bottom of the cavity, you don't always feel the lack of back-pressure on the drill as you hit air, as some part of the drill may always be hitting wood and you may only need to drill a few more mm before you come out the back. So try for as shallow an angle as you can. It's worth trying to drill a shallow indent with a very small drill bit first (or even use a small nail to make a small hole) so there's something for the end of the long drill to rest in, so it doesn't skate off somewhere else.

The black sides look great with the oak burl.

+1 for drilling from the bridge post hole to the control cavity, with a protector for the top of the body.

Thank you Trevor. And special thanks for Simon's detailed instructions. I will take all of that into account.

Now I went for the bridgeadjustment. At least I tried. And (like almost everything with this kit) it did not get totally right. I messed up the holes a bit. They are now a bit more than 74 mm away from each other. Most bridges have something about 74, now it is a bit tight. At least one bridge that I have fits, and the other does not. But somehow it should work.

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What I am more worried about is the neck/body angle. I think about reducing the angle, so the bridge does not have to come out so far catching the strings and preventing them from touching the fretboard. In my eyes it goes quiet far, also for the humbucker. So why not flatten the angle and making the neck and body run more parallel. For example like on an explorer. Actually it should work, or could this negatively affect the whole thing?

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I also think, that for the strings through body version in this case a more flat angle would be better for the strings going in a better flat angel into the body after the bridge. Or am I wrong?

You certainly can reduce the angle, but you need to be very careful and only do it by a minimal amount. I’d first use a very thin shim (say 0.5mm) at the front edge of the pocket and see where that gets you. This should give you a good idea about the angle change required. It should take the bridge down by around 2mm. What you don’t want is to decrease the angle so much that you can’t lower the bridge enough and end up with a high action. A high bridge is preferable! You might consider living with a shim (if it’s not too obvious) as the safe option.

I tried out to put some shim into the neckpocket. Have to find some thinner ones, for those are a bit too thick (1.5mm) But it gives a nice result by little effort. In my case something about 1mm could be fine I think. But of course have to test it.

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Now I am also deciding which bridge to take. I like the one with the golden string riders, it corresponds the woodcolor. But the whole black one is finer and more elegant.

For it will be a string through, maybe the one with gold is better for the string angle, or does this not matter? I also question myself what is the right distance for the stringthrough holes after the bridge? Actually main thing is that it is not too short (cause of angle), but it could easyly be 3 to 5cm I suppose, is there something else to take into account?

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I’d just sand the shim down until it’s the right height.

What you have to consider with the bridge and string-through ferrules is that you don’t want the holes so close to the bridge that the strings don’t touch the back of the bridge. So put the bridge in roughly the right position and height, then run a ruler from the saddle backwards to the top so it just misses the back of the bridge. That’s the furthest forwards the holes want to be. I’d move them back about 1cm to allow for height adjustment if you decide to change the shim angle in the future. And not call bridges are the same width, so use the widest bridge and set the saddles as far forward as they’ll go. You can’t really have the holes too far back, many trapeze tailpieces are quite short and there’s a lot of string length between the tailpiece and the bridge.

Some measurements to be done :) Thank you for the input. Did not know the name of those trapeze tailpieces. While googling I came upon the "hipshot baby grand", which is quiet expensive, but looks great, especially with one pickup guitars, I think. It definitely gives an interesting option, at least in a visual theme.

Well, had a very productive week and just kept doing and making, throwing away all fears :) Partly it went out not as expected and some things still bother me. Main problem with the first ever time veneering (...the crooked curved top :D). Next time I would try some vacuum for veneering a body, I think.

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And the guitar was meant to be total black, but I just could not cover the oak burl. Thought about giving the veneer black, so the wood would still be darkly visible through the paint, but was afraid loosing too many details of wood. So it went out in two colors.Mat black that I already used on my Explorer and walrusoil for veneer, covered by satin clear coat.

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For the electronics I used a pushpull with the seymour duncan blackwinter. Never had coilsplit before, so tried it out. But in 99% I will go for Humbucker only. Still was intersting to have some soldering experience again. Great tutorials on youtube by "Six String Supplies".

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And It was very hard with the string through drilling and bridge adjustment, which also went out not perfect. I had some luck with grounding the bridge. Finally I drilled through the inputjack hole with a long 4mm drill and went just out at the bottom of the bridge hole :)

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The trussrodcover and the strap buttons are left to be done later. Everything is working and it sounds good, I think. So for the moment I am happy with the result.

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Im looking to get a similar effect with my JBA 4 Ive mixed up a couple of brews using 0000 grade steel wool and white vinegar but not getting the color I was after, apparently you have to use cleaning vinegar ?? and also depending on the timber, tannin enhancer, some timbers have more tannin than others. So not being happy with trying to color some sample timbers (ash) Im now going to try using Speedball Super Black India Ink, I can get some from the local arts supply.

That veneer lifting like that isnt good, I wouldnt sand it down it will leave a pocket hole, looks to be more lifting under the pickup hole, trying to get glue in there and holding the veneer to the surface till it dries, isnt going to be easy. Contact pitbull before you do anything they may send out a another body.

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Originally Posted by Jetblack

That veneer lifting like that isnt good, I wouldnt sand it down it will leave a pocket hole, looks to be more lifting under the pickup hole, trying to get glue in there and holding the veneer to the surface till it dries, isnt going to be easy. Contact pitbull before you do anything they may send out a another body.

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It was a custom order, so if Alexej asked for a new one, it could well have taken many months to arrive as it would basically be a new custom order. Slow at the best of times, it’s even longer now due to the ongoing post-Covid transport chain disruptions. Obviously it should never have left a) the factory and b) Pit Bull like it did.

But Alexiej showed a great ‘we can fix this’ spirit and tried his hand at veneering a top himself. It didn’t go quite right, but it’s now looking very good, if not perfect.

Single coil mode on a powerful humbucker can work quite well, but it’s quite a different sound to the humbucker sound and often works best on guitars with two pickups, as I much prefer the neck and mixed split coil sounds to the bridge slit coil sound. You could try modifying the wiring to give a parallel arrangement via the switch. It’s a thinner sound, but still fully humbucking.

Or you could try a PRS-style partial coil split, where the middle connection isn’t connected directly to ground, but through a resistor. This allows some of the second coil sound through, so you don’t get such a big contrast in sound. There is no one ‘correct’ value for the resistor, it’s down to taste. PRS typically use 1.1k in the neck and 2.2k for the bridge. Fralin recommend 7k. The bigger the resistance, the more the second coil adds to the sound. I’ve done it to one guitar on the bridge humbucker and it sounded good - less of a change from the humbucker sound.

You can always make that a fully variable coil split by wiring in a potentiometer instead of a fixed resistance. I’ve played a guitar with this feature and whilst it is versatile, I found all the useful adjustment was at one end of the pot’s travel (so mainly a humbucker sound until the resistance dropped right off). I think I’d ideally use a switched pot of much lower value, to bring in the pot for a definite split coil sound, but have a controllable amount of the second coil brought in, rather than have it fully variable.

But for simplicity and versatility, you could wire a 10k trim pot between the tap wires and ground through the switch, allowing you to pick the resistance setting you prefer for the split position.

Well, I really was disappointed when the kit arrived first. But step by step you can work your way out of the disaster :) I am still glad having had this opportunity and hope that the custom shop will come back soon.

Thank you for the input and appreciation Simon. I have first to analyze the whole information, for I have no clue about the sound/electronics issues 🙂 Still it is interesting to get more variation within an only one Humbucker system for the future and know in detail how things affect each other.

For the moment I move on learning to play and enjoy the finish 🙂