Hi, this is my first kit build, i don't have any experience building guitars but i was hoping this would be a good start.
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Hi, this is my first kit build, i don't have any experience building guitars but i was hoping this would be a good start.
Drifter - depending on how much care you take, any kit (barring the hollow bodied ES styles) are good starts. The IB-5 has a bit more soldering than say a PB-4 or TL-1, but the overall building of the guitar is pretty much the same. Couple of peeps here have built the 5's and 6's so feel free to ask lots of questions and we love photos :). BTW - welcome along - bass players are the best kind to have on board ;).
Wot Brendan sed :)
Wot two previous gents said... Really original here but welcome. Low end rules!
Welcome Drifters33
Welcome to the forum Drifters. I've built an IB-5 and love it. I've fairly recently converted it to a fretless and love it. Still need to file the bone nut down a bit.
Start a build diary when it arrives. Ask any questions you have. Do a mock build. You may want to do a few modifications. The control plate isn't recessed so I recommend you recess it. Also the output jack you may have to modify the cavity a bit so you can get the nut to reach the thread.
For some reason my pictures aren't able to be attached, but i have done a mock up build and checked that everything is there and i am very happy with it.
I've also finished sanding on the body and i have recessed the control jack and the control plate and ill try and get a picture up soon
Hey drifters,
As Brendan said pretty much any solid body kit can be a good starting point, all comes down to budget, how much work you want to put into it etc etc, like I even started with the LP-1, and I was only 15 years old, so if I can build a kit, surely anyone else here can!
Also good to have another bass player on board, there is no such thing as too much bass!
welcome drifters!
Hi Drifters,
try resizing your pics to upload to below 1mb or 1500x1500 resolution.
Look forward to seeing mock build pics. I've built an IB-5 kit and love it.
What stain plans have you got ?
For my stain i'm going to use walnut from Birchwood Casey as well as using Tru-oil to give a gloss finish
Hi Drifters
I bet the walnut is gonna look great on the IB-5. TO is an amazing product - with aim to get a high gloss finish it needs a whole lot of coats so keep calm doing that. There is no way to cut corners when building up but very useful to make the slurry coats couple of times in the beginning. Saves you a lot of time building up the following coats. When there is enough build up and fully dried, it can be wet sanded remarkably like laquer - although with in mind that the coat is thinner. Either use 0000 steel wool to buff between 3-4 coats or build up about 10 coats and you can wet sand the surface with TO - worked wonders on my build. I was so generous in applying the oil myself that I had no worries going through the surface when doing the final sanding and buffing - used approx 180ml on my RC-4. It was a good thing I bought the 240ml bottle...
nice looking kit Drifters. Walnut and TO will come up very nicely on the ash grain. Good luck !
Sorry i haven't posted in a long time, my dad and I have sought of just gone at it. But here are some pictures of what I've done so far:
I have sanded the neck and the body, as well as recessing the jack hole as well as squaring it off on the other side so the nut can sit flush. I have stained the head stock and the body and have put around 7 coats of tru-oil on the body and about 5 on the head stock
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That's looking really good Drifters, but I think I need to lay down a while...I'm seeing treble....
Looks awesome Drifters! Love the walnut stain.
Looking great Drifters
Great colour.