-
This is my 3rd PitBull kit. My take on a Tele deluxe.
I'm in the final setup stages with this one at the moment, so this build diary is a bit late. But oh well.
I made this one for my mate and musical wingman Joshua. He has a guitar with an old floyd rose system that's a pain in the ass. So he doesn't get it out much.
With this TL I wanted to try and make it the simplest I could to string and keep in tune.
With that in mind I used locking tuners and a Gotoh wrap around bridge. The Gotoh bridge is a thing of beauty. I'm going to build my first scratch build around one of these bad boys. This one should be much easier to maintain compared to a 30 year old floyd rose.
The finish for this one I went with white for the body, just an epoxy acrylic spray can job. I used some left over Amber Wudtone neck finish for the neck and dye and tru oil for the pick guard.
The spray packs did a better job than I expected. I gave it 3 coats of primer and 4 top coats. Then I let it cure for about two weeks and wet sanded it with micro mesh pads using Dr Ducks as the lubricant. It worked extreamly well. I don't think wet sanding with Dr ducks is common practice, but give it a try if you dare. I was impressed with the results.
I made another one of my timber pickgaurds for this tele. Birdseye maple in green.
Josh is going to get some other pickups and decide on the wiring mods he wants for it, but for now it has the pup's that came with the kit. At the moment he is considering some ToneRider alnico 2 humbuckers with a coil split.
And now for some pics. I didn't get too many pics along the way on this one.
I will get some shots tomorrow of the semi complete guitar. And some close ups of that Gotoh bridge.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...pvyj-image.jpg
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...67nn-image.jpg
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...23q0-image.jpg
-
-
And here we have Joshua checking out his new birthday present.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...0auw-image.jpg
-
-
That's a nice alternative. A coloured scratchplate on a 'white' guitar. It looks great Dan. And I do love a maple fretboard.
-
-
Man that's a killer!
Also drooling with envy at the array of keyboards in that photo...
-
nice job Dan, love the timber scratchplates and the colours look cool. Did the gotoh bridge just slot in the existing bridge post holes ? Love the tone/volume knobs are different !
-
That's impressive. Very, very nice job.
-
Thanks guys.
Woks, the kit came with a hard tail strat type bridge, so there wasn't any post holes drilled. I had to work out the bridge position and I also had to adjust the neck break angle to allow for the higher saddle height. So I could get a decent action.
And once again the knobs are just some $3 jobs from Jaycar.
-
cheers Dan, is the scratchplate birdseye maple one piece or several glued veneers ? Also is that wudtone on the scratchplate and what colour is it ? almost looks like the colour of my watermelon ash strat in azure lagoon
-
The pickgaurd is made from a .6mm maple veneer stuck to a 3mm marine ply backing. I used the same type of artist inks that I used on my LP I just finished. I think the colour is emerald green. Then several coats of tru oil.
I still have enough Birdseye maple for about 4 more scratch plates. So expect to see a few more.
-
sweet cheers for the info Dan, did you order the maple veneer online ? is marine ply available at a good hardware ?
I'd love to have a crack at one. Yes the colour looks similar to wudtone emerald green but a tiny bit bluer, but that could be the photo/monitor I'm looking at.
Expect a summons from DB to the naughty corner for admitting use of TO ! haha
-
I got a hold of the veneer from Sharp plywood here in Qld. It came as a 2600 x 330mm sheet. It cost around $50.
The marine ply I just got from that big green shed.
-
thanks Dan I'll shop around for the veneer. Be careful talking about the big green shed could get you double time in the naughty corner ! haha
-
Another awesome job Dan. The green on white looks killer.
You've given me the confidence to try my own veneer scratchplate!
Cheers,
Gavin.
-
The tonerider's arrived yesterday. So Joshua and I got them installed last nite . We had a slight problem with the wiring job.
When we did our first test, we found that the volume pots were not working correctly. Rolling the volume all the way down would not cut the signal and mute the guitar like it should.
We racked our brain's trying to find the problem, are they the wrong volume pots (Alfa 500kA push pull pots.)? No.
Have we missed a ground wire somewhere? No
Maybe it's a dud solder joint? No they all look good.
What could it be.....
Some time later. Oh crap we didn't solder the 3rd lug (ground) back to the pot casing on the volume pot. Doh.
One we rectified that problem, it all was sorted.
A quick test at 10pm lounge room levels and the pickups sound sweet. I'm loving the tone of the bridge pup. I'm not usually a fan of the bridge position pup on most guitars, but this one really sings.
The real test will be when we can crank it and see how they break up and handle a bit of drive.
Today I will cut the bone nut for it. And start on the final set-up. Hopefully it will be ready to rock for our usual Friday night jam tonight.
http://pitbullguitars.com/wp-content...t6y6-image.jpg
-
looks sweet Dan, love the custom look and the colours are really striking. The old forgot to solder the earth lug - trap for young players.
Look forward to a sound demo once its set up, those veneer scratchplates really set off the look
-
Amazing looking guitar Dan!
-
-
That is one exceptionally cool looking tele IMO.
The "aquamarine" birdseye plate is beautiful.
Amazing how well the whole colour scheme complements itself too.
Plus I always like to see interesting customisations as per this baby.
Congrats.
-
I think I'll have to tell Josh to keep this one under lock and key. Everyone seems to be really keen on this Tele. People from this forum and those that have seen it up close.
I must admit I'm very happy with how it turned out. I almost didn't want to let it go. It's ok I suppose, it's only a phone call away. :)
I did manage to have it ready for a jam last night, and I'll say she sounds as sweet as she looks.
