Michael's First PBG Build - TL-1

Hey All, my kit is ordered and on it's way. Thought I'd start the thread now, get in the habit of regular updates.

This is my first kit guitar - but I built a partscaster about 7 years ago with various bits and bobs bought on the web. Pretty confident with electronics, with some beginner woodworking skills. This will be the first time doing my own finish (the body I bought with the partscaster was pre-finished).

Ordered a TL-1 kit, with some dingotone uluru red for the finish. I'll post again when the kit arrives. I can't remember exactly, but I think I went with a white pickguard? Although now I think about it a black one might look cooler. Ah anyway, that's a decision for future Michael to make.

Quick question regarding applying the dingotone - how long should you wait after applying the stain coat to one side of the body, before flipping it over and doing the other side?

Cheers,

Theres a realy good vid on youtube on applying dingotone

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Hi Michael,welcome to the forum. Where do you live ? The weather affects how the DT cures. I'm currently building an ash tele with uluru red you will love the colour and I think a black pickguard will look better than white.
I suggest you get a scrap piece of wood and screw it into the neck pocket and use it as a hanger and if you clamp the hanger to the bench you can work on the entire body when staining it. I drill a hole in the top of the hanger and use pot plant hooks to hang the body when it cures.
Generally Dingobass recommends 3 days curing between coats but depends where you live

Thanks Dave and Wokka. I saw the videos on YouTube for dingotone application, super helpful. The scrap wood is a good idea too. Now just waiting for the kit...

Well this afternoon I got that wonderful notification on my phone. You know the one - the notification that a package had arrived at the post office. Decided to roll the dice and see if I could strap the box to the pannier racks on my bike. Success! Very cautious ride home though

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I've opened the box and had a quick look to see if it's all there - seems ok, but will have a detailed run through before the mock build, which probably won't be till the weekend. I'll run my eye over it in a bit more detail on Saturday.

The downside of packages arriving on a Monday - gotta wait at least 4 more sleeps before getting into it. Going to be frothing at the mouth by Friday.

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kit looks great Michael, can't you start sanding during the week ?
Love the method you got the kit from the post office !
What Dingotone kit did you get ?

Michael - a couple of us have a secret to how to do both sides of a guitar at once - grab a hunk 'o wood - thick enough to take the weight of a guitar. Slot it into the neck pocket - may need to tailor the wood to do so. Drill a couple o' holes through the wood via the screw holes (spacing is pretty much constant between guitars and basses). The secret sauce is then screws and wingnuts to hold the guitar on. Screw head on the back of the guitar and wingnut on the other side - this way when you're done, it's easy to get it off the stick. I have a painting stick that I rest one end on the ground and then use some quick grips to hold it onto the edge of my benchtop. Others drill a hole in the other end and then suspend from the ceiling / roof / whatever. Comes down to what works for you. Given that the body is not resting on anything - you can work on both sides at once.

When you have a set neck - easy solved - I find a well placed quickgrip with some wire and suspend from the roof / ceiling / whatever. Gives you a handle for the guitar as well.

I've been using a socket extension from a socket set (a long one 400mm) with an appropriate sized socket to fit in the lead socket cavity on the body. I can clamp that in the vice or any where else and be able to apply finishes to both sides.

Thanks all!

Wokka, I went with uluru red. I think a black pickguard will look better, but we'll cross that bridge when I get there. I guess I can start sanding if I have a spare few hours. But i plan to take my time, no need to rush it. Also, I didn't answer your first question: I live in Sydney.

Thanks Brenden and Dedman for the tips. I've got some wood blanks floating around, I'll have to hit up the big green store for some bolts and wing nuts. Unless my housemate has some. Then just gotta find a suitable place to hang it to dry (I live in a townhouse in a small complex, no protection from rain in the backyard). Eh, they are future Michael's problems.

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Originally Posted by Brendan

Given that the body is not resting on anything - you can work on both sides at once.

When you have a set neck - easy solved - I find a well placed quickgrip with some wire and suspend from the roof / ceiling / whatever. Gives you a handle for the guitar as well.

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I'm not sure what you mean about "a well placed quick grip" Brendan. Where can I clamp a quick grip on a guitar body to allow me to finish all sides at once?

Hey Muzza, I have seen Bman put a clamp in between the neck and bridge pup cavities then think he hangs the clamp with wire.
I use another method of shaping the hanger to fit in the neck pup cavity and drive a wedge shape piece of wood in the back and one in the bottom of the neck pup cavity works well but still not sturdy enough to put the hanger in a vice to work on.

@ Michael, sorry to hijack your thread. Uluru red will look great. Black pickguard will work better than white. Good luck with the sanding when you find time

Found a few moments to try a quick mock up, and found issue 1:

My Wilkinson tele bridge pickup won't fit into the hole.

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Not much bigger than the hole, but enough that I can't force it. I also want a bit of wiggle room to be able to locate the bridge properly. So the hole needs to be bigger.

I guess I can use the dremel or a chisel to do this - but would appreciate any advice before I start chipping away. Surely others have had this problem?

I used a drum sander on a drill, a couple of diff sizes. As you say it's not much to take out

Use a piece of dowel and sand it out, like i did on my 12 string build.

I had the finish on so i used a glue stick but a piece of dowel is firmer.
http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...l=1#post101046

Thanks guys for the quick tips!

Been reading through Andy40's ash tele build diary and have been inspired to do string through holes. I'm going to try some test runs on scrap wood first, and see how accurate I get. Then will give it a burl on the real body. Friday is getting closer!

On the hanging of the guitar, I have been using a screw hook drilled where the bottom strap button will go, with the same size diameter as the strap button screw itself and I have some hooks already in the pergola outside so I can hang it nicely. Also works for necks!

Hi Michael, good stuff, a string through looks really cool. I'd get some sanding flap wheels from a hardware that attach to the drill - get a few different sizes and you should be able to enlarge your bridge pup cavity with that. Chisels can easily split the wood so avoid that unless you have lots of experience with them,
Mark where the bridge should be placed to give you intonation - let me know if you need some tips on that. Fit the pickguard to get an idea also

Rightio, thanks for the tips on the routing and body hanging everyone! Gonna hit up the hardware store for some sanding drums on the weekend.

Meanwhile, finished a quick mock up. Nothing is screwed in yet, just playing with the spacing. Neck fit is snug and appears to be on straight - i followed the neck positioning guide in the instructional forum.

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@Wokka for bridge positioning, I measured the distances from the flat face of the nut (fret side) to the crown of the 12th fret - 322mm. I then moved all the bridge saddles as far forward as they could go, and positioned the bridge so that the high E saddle was 322mm from the crown of the 12th fret. Is that correct? I feel like there's no room for correction if I needed to move the high E saddle forward during setup?

I'm going to order some string through ferrules tonight, and will order a black pickguard, and some DT wax and neck finish soon. Kinda hard to choose a neck finish though, not all the finishes on the site have sample photos. Any recommendations on a neck finish to go with the uluru red? I was thinking a mission beach or bloodwood. Or even colourless and let the maple be as nature intended it? Decisions!

Plan for the weekend is to route the bridge pick up cavity and locate the bridge so I have an idea where the string throughs are going to be.

Productive day today. I did a mock build, but decided to locate and screw everything down. I wanted to know how much I needed to route out the bridge cavity, so thought I should locate everything properly first. Sorry for the low quality mobile phone photos

First step was machine heads. The holes aren't exactly straight, which seems to be a thing with some of these necks, but honestly not enough for me to replug and redrill.

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Next was neck attachment. I widened the holes on the body for the neck plate screws, so that I only threaded into the neck (not the body). I then placed the pickguard and control plate.

I lined up the bride using the E and e strings, pretty happy with the location. Spent a bit of time making sure the spacing between the pickguard and bridge was even.

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For reference: distance from nut to crown of 12th fret was 323mm, so I placed the bridge so the high e string saddle was 323mm at maximum length.

I was able to mark out how much to route the bridge cavity. I went with @wokka's tip - got some flywheels on my hand drill, took about 4 minutes of careful removal, but the pickup fits now

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I strung her up and had a strum - getting heaps of open string buzz.
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I haven't tried any set up or anything, but it looks like the strings are pretty much touching the first fret. Is this something I should look at now, before starting sanding and finishing?

you will probably find the adjusters on the bridge are wound right down, but also check the fret heights with a straight edge, there might be a few that are in need of adjusting.

Thanks Dedman, will keep it in mind when it's reassembled...

Small ish update. Just started sanding with the 180 grit today. Took a while, but just watched netflix while doing it. Working my way through Utopia, bloody hilarious show.

I've also made a few practice attempts at string through holes using a hand drill, on a piece of oak 42mm wide. I've used an adjustable square with the rule removed to help keep the drill bit straight. I drilled through the two outside holes all the way through, and the four inside ones half way. I then flipped the wood over, lined up the bridge using pins in the outside holes and marked the location of the 4 inside holes. I then drilled through these ones.

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I can get the holes relatively straight, however it's very hard to do repetitively. This is the best I can do - of 5 attempts, this was attempt number 3..I also have trouble locating the forstener bit for the ferrules - forgot to take a pic, but it's pretty rough.

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I think I'm going to locate a drill press and make a drilling jig. I'll need one for the string holes and a larger diameter one for the ferrules. Rather not take a gamble on this.

Sanding this week - I'm going away next weekend, so I'll aim to have sanding done by Friday to try to get a coat of DT on. But, we'll see.

Not much news, just slowly sanding down the body when i get a chance. Just finished 220 grit.

Michael good drilling practice. you can never have enough practice at this one. Its near impossible to get this perfect without a drill press but you can get close enough. I did not use a forstner bit for the ferrules, I used an appropriate sized drill bit that was marked with a nikko pen for depth. then...you guessed it, lots of practice. I think it turned out ok on mine.

Thanks Andy, practice makes perfect (or near enough to perfect). I liked the way you did yours - they came up alright!

I've been practising with the forstener bit but it's still a bit dodgy. My thinking though is that close enough is ok - the smaller holes just have to be close but not perfect since they're covered by the bridge anyway. As for the rear ones, as long as the ferrule holes are straight then it should be ok, right?

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Originally Posted by michaelS31

as long as the ferrule holes are straight then it should be ok, right?

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Yep, spot on. Even if the string through holes are slightly out (which is almost inevitable without a drill press), the larger diameter of the ferrule holes will cover it. So I found it helpful to measure and draw out the spacing and marking of the ferrule holes at the back of the body once the string through holes were drilled. the drill bit will always gravitate toward the string through hole (which may be off centre) but I would drill a small pilot hole first at the centre to keep it straight.

Rightio, been a while but finally got an afternoon to work on this.
Firstly, string through holes. Did one practice run, using a similar method to my previous posts

1. Position bridge and mark holes.
2. Drill outside holes all the way through and inside holes halfway
3. Flip body and mark centres of 4 inside holes.
4. draw squares that would encompass the ferrule holes - makes sure they stay in line and evenly spaced
5. Drill Ferrule Holes
6. Drill remaining string throughs.

I used a hand drill and my notched square to help keep them straight - same as the previous post.
I did one more practice one on some scrap before biting the bullet.
Alright, here's the view from the top (After steps 1 and 2)
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After flipping the body and marking some holes. Very messy with the pencil marks!

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Breathe deeply and slowly, position the forstener bit carefully...

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Looks good so far! Let's finish it off

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Boo yeah!

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Question: At the moment the ferrules are just sitting loosely - I used a 3/8 Forstener bit to make the holes. Too large a diameter? Any tips for fixing them in the holes?

Also finished sanding today :) 400 grit baby!

Nice job! You've done amazing well with hand tools. I've had so many problems with this in the past.

cheers,
Gav.

if they aren't too sloppy your paint/clear might take up the slack

Thanks Gav for the kind words! Wouldn't have been possible without the info on the forum! Thanks Dedman too, will see how the clear goes...speaking of paint...

First coat of Dingotone Uluru red went on today. Followed the youtube instructions, did about three passes before deciding to hang it up to cure till next weekend. You'll notice I forgot to line the cavities with painter's tape beforehand - doh! - now I know for next time.


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There are a few spots (mainly in the curves on the sides) where the stain won't take - did I not sand enough here?

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Anyway I'm pretty happy with the colour overall. It looks great, lives up to the name Uluru red for sure!

And even though it's 3-piece basswood, there are some really cool grain patterns around the input jack that I like

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Hey Michael, nice job with the string through! Respect for using a hand drill. Have a quick look at bungees diary, I think when you fit the ferrules after staining, intensifying and final coats you use a soldering iron to heat them up. apparently this makes them stick.

The uluru red looks magic. its only going to get better with more stain coats and intensifying coats!!!! excitement plus. At the moment I'm leaving a full 7 days between coats and it seems to be curing well in that time.

I'm surprised to hear that the DT is not taking in some spots. probably more like you've sanded it too much and haven't left enough tooth for the stain to take. No matter just rough those bits up with a bit of 320 grit just before you do the next stain coat. Unless DB tells you otherwise.

Also, I don't bother taping up the cavities, if a bit of stain gets in there, no problem it'll be covered up by the bridge, pickguard and control plate.

Keep us updated!

Looking good. I've said it before but I'm always surprised how nice basswood comes up. Looks like you've scored a nice piece here.

Thanks Andy, I'll check out the soldering iron technique. So did you sand between dingotone stain coats? I reckon I'll lightly steel wool, but I might shoot DB an email and see what he thinks.

Andrew, the body has come up trumps, didn't start to notice the grain till now

Nice work so far, that body is nice, and nice work bring it to life

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Originally Posted by michaelS31

Thanks Andy, I'll check out the soldering iron technique. So did you sand between dingotone stain coats? I reckon I'll lightly steel wool, but I might shoot DB an email and see what he thinks.

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I usually don't sand between stain coats. That being said if the wood wasn't really taking the stain (bearing in mind you can really work the stain coats in), i'd probably give the trouble spots a light sand to get some tooth in there, then re-stain.

The stain coats will darken as they cure. To get a really deep colour, I do about 3 - 4 stain coats (the 4th only if necessary). Keep some stain left in the bottle in case you drop it or scuff it and have to sand and fix and apply more stain.

When you move to the intensifying coat, the colour will richen even more. I usually use, 600 grit (only if absolutly required), 000 steel wool and/or 2000 in the direction of the grain to iron out the lumpy bits in the intensifying coats before re-applying the next coat. same with the final coats.

Good luck mate, you'll get addicted to the aroma of DT

Hi Michael, having built 3 kits out of Basswood I can say that on some curves or edges the stain won't take as well as in other areas and only through reapplying will it gradually accept some colour. Just the nature of the beast with this timber.

That said, it is way too easy to over sand and end up with shiny bits that tend to repel stain. If you got up to 400 grit you went too far as 240 seems to be about far enough as you can get things smoother later after top coats have been done.

If you did go too hard on the sanding suggest going back to 120 then 180 and maybe 240 but no higher.

Unfortunately this will strip most of your first stain coat but will help getting it to take colour overall.

Thanks Waz,

I went up to 400 grit but it seems that stain takes pretty well. I've done three coats of the stain now. I'll throw some piccies up when I get home.

I've been a bit slack with updating, but will fix that tonight. Got some nice nice progress to report on.

sounds good Michael, look forward to seeing the latest pics of the build !