Rossc0's 1st Build - LP1-SS

Afternoon everyone, Haven't actually received the kit yet, sticking this here as a placeholder. I went into this adventure with the expectation that it would be a cheap way of getting a half decent guitar. Well that has gone out the window. Think I'm at 700 bucks or so and I've yet to decide on what pickups I want. Decided that I may only do this once so may as well go the whole hog and at least try and do it right.

Also trying to decide on an amplification route, my current thinking is either, a Marshall DSL15, VOX AC15 or a bit more digital Blackstar ID:15TVP. So if any one has experience of these love to hear about it.

So you can look forward to lots of questions and a seemingly never ending build. I might first up post my plan of attack, in case there are any glaring errors that are setting me off on the wrong foot.

Cheers

sounds good Rossco. I would read the amp reviews online and pick the one that will suit your style/sound. A digital amp will have a better range of sounds generally.
Sounds like you have some nice hardware upgrades planned.

The Marshall and the Vox are both amps that you should be able to do small gigs with.

The Vox on its own will have the better clean and 'just breaking up' sounds, so on it's own its great for '50s/'60s pop and rock 'n' roll, country, blues and jazz. But it will also take pedals well.

The Marshall does the Marshall sound very well, so if more distortion's your thing, then I'd go for that. It will do clean but a less inspiring clean than the Vox.

The ID is a good practice amp and a good all in one solution for bedroom playing, but it's not an amp I'd like to do band rehearsals or gig with. You'll be able to get a wide range of sounds from it, plus it's got the built-in effects, so you don't need any extra pedals to get most sounds.

Ideally you'd go somewhere and try them out. Reading specs and looking at videos gives you some idea of what to expect, but until you actually go and plug in and hear what it sounds like, you never know how well you will interact with it. I've tried a couple of different (and more expensive) models from my main amp's manufacturer (Two Rock), but didn't like them.

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Originally Posted by Rossc0

I went into this adventure with the expectation that it would be a cheap way of getting a half decent guitar. Well that has gone out the window. Think I'm at 700 bucks or so and I've yet to decide on what pickups I want.

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What are you planning as far as the upgrades? Sounds like you're looking at some decent quality stuff.

thanks guys. I will probably wait till I have the guitar in one piece and go try the amps, my local music store has them all in stock.

As for upgrades, not that much really, with it being the first kit I got all the additional bits and pieces, shielding, glue sandpaper, DT, basically just everything DB recommends on the site, saves me going looking later, so by the time you do that your well over 300 with the LP1-SS kit. I also did chicken out and got DB do the neck and head stock shaping for me as I'm very "tool lite" currently. The big expense was the Babicz hardware which was a bit oF an impulse buy, ( i need to stop doing that). Still deciding on pickups.

On a positive note, the kit is in the mail. Woohoo.

cool plans, hope to see it up soon

From reading the various thread, come up with this as my basic project plan, there are a couple of questions embedded in there. If I'm doing anything stupid please shout out.

Mock build, ensure everything is good to go. Check neck scale measurements.
Wet wipe veneer to hunt for glue spots (deal with them somehow)
Lightly sand veneer with 320/400, or just some 0000 wire wool?
Sand back and neck up to 320
Mask up neck and front
Grain fill back and neck with Timbermate Mahogany.
Clean binding
Sand up to 400 / 600, should I go higher on the neck?
DT front, let dry
Solder pots, ready for later install
Intensify front, let dry
Finishing coat let dry
Wax and polish front and head stock
Fit decals, add couple of coats of clear, let dry.
Mask off front and head stock
Tru-oil back and neck, many times.
Buff.
__________________________________________________ ________________________________
Fit copper shielding
Fit hardware, ensure earth lead to bridge in place.
Fit Electronics, ensure earths from bridge an shielding included
Fit Neck
Set up intonation.
Good to go.
Enter Guitar of the month :-)

Well its arrived, resisting the temptation to try and do anything right away will wait till the weekend when I have some time. At first glance, looks good, no obvious glue marks or other issues.

Attachment 17296
Attachment 17297

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Originally Posted by Rossc0

thanks guys. I will probably wait till I have the guitar in one piece and go try the amps, my local music store has them all in stock.

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Rossc0, if you have time, try out the Roland Blues Cube, either Artist or Stage version. for a solid state amp it gives tubes a run for their money. of course its all subjective, whatever suits you but I went and tried a bunch of tubes over Xmas and came back with one.:eek:

Nice Grain! I love the stripe down the middle! This one looks like it should be another pearler!

Thats a nice bit of timber that grain looks awsome

Nice looking top! If you haven't done so, I'd wet the body with either metho, turps or white spirit to check for glue residue. It can be very hard to see when dry, so you need to use a liquid (not water) that the wood will soak up and darken, leaving the whitish glue marls easier to spot. Deal with any glue marks before you do anything else to it.

Cheers Simon, was the plan, was probably going to use a water, so thanks for the heads up. First mistake avoided.

With the thin veneer tops, too much water can loosen the PVA glue holding them on and you then get bubbles/blisters in the veneer. So the minimum amount of water you get on them the better. You need to soak the top a bit to see the glue marks, so it's best to use another fluid that won't affect the glue.

Wow, super nice top, keen to see how this turns out

OMG that spalt is insane! I would recommend goof-off to remove the glue spots rather than sanding the veneer. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

cheers,
Gav.

So with the weekend finally arriving. got all the bits and pieces out and did a bit of a mock up.
Attachment 17331

All looks pretty good, neck to 12th to bridge all look spot on, as far as I can tell without anything being fixed. Only one pickup at the moment, the real neck one is a custom shop order apparently so will be here in a couple of weeks. Still plenty of time.

Couple of small issues. Bit of veneer (4-5mm) missing right at the top edge of the body, wondered if I had done it when putting the neck in or taking it out, so went back to my out of the box pictures and there it is. Will be under the edge of the neck so not to worried. will level out with a tiny bit of timbermate.
Attachment 17332

And the bottom bolt on the 3 way had been cross threaded. I'm upgrading all the pots anyway, so I'll order one of them while I'm at it.

Sanding time, oh joy....

On closer inspection there are two spots on the veneer like the photo above, about 3 mm by 2mm in the middle of the body, I don't imagine I'd fill them as it would be too hard to sand without going through, hopefully wont notice when the Dingotone goes on.

kit looks great Rossco. Can you please post a pic of the area of the veneer you are worried about ? Usually enough final coats will fill any small pits/pores. That area of the close up next to the neck pocket will be covered by the neck anyway.

Here you go with a 5c piece for scale.
Attachment 17336

So don't have anywhere in the house to hang things to dry, and cats and dogs make for a bit of hair floating around had to come up with something to try and keep it clean, so hopefully this will work, plastic box, few holes, double sided tape and flyscreen.
Attachment 17337

Necessity is the mother of invention ..

Hi Rossco, nice kit and hopefully you can keep the animal fibres away from things when applying the finish and waiting for it to dry.

The minute parts of the veneer near that 5c coin in the pic can be covered by loading up the clear top coats and allowing them to act as a filler.

In relation to amps you mentioned earlier in this thread I have a Vox VT40+ and it has plenty of usaeable onboard effects plus sounds great clean or dirty with lots of volume going into a 10" speaker. Been tempted to buy an all valve amp as I had a 100w Marshall head before kids and marriage some 30 odd years ago but find it hard to justify the expense as you will end up buying additional pedals to do this and that where the combos have that sorted already. If money was not an issue I'd buy the AC15 ahead of the Marshall as it has more to offer tone wise whereas Marshall's can tend to be a more one dimensional sound palate.

I'll be following this thread because I'm gonna order my LP kit soon. Love the veneer top on yours!

Hey Rossco, personally I would do a localised fill with ebony Timbermate. when you sand it back you wont take any of the veneer with you. It will look like another bit of spalt.

cheers,
Gav.

Thanks for all the feedback guys re body and Amp.

Been a fun weekend of sanding here. Everything back to 320 ready for the timbermate. That will probably have to wait for next weekend now as weeknight time is at a bit of a premium. Oh well no rush.

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You could always try vacuuming the animals. ;)

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

You could always try vacuuming the animals. ;)

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Have the Dyson attachment to do that very thing....you would need to sedate them, see it coming they run a mile.

Just put them in a plastic Box under the Bed....

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Originally Posted by Rossc0

Have the Dyson attachment to do that very thing....you would need to sedate them, see it coming they run a mile.

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Get some mates, all with a Dyson. and do it at night so they can't see it coming. Whoever gets the most hair wins!

So with the all the various wiring diagrams around the place, though the easiest way to actually understand them would be to draw one out myself. Thought I'd try the vintage style wiring first see how that goes, so planning on the following. No glaring errors that anyone can see is there?

Cheers

Attachment 17462

looks ok to me Rossco but I'm no wiring expert at modified circuits. What does the resistor/capacitor combo do between the 2 lugs of the volume pots ?

G'day, Its supposed to help retain tonality (if that's a word) when you back of on the volume. I seriously doubt it will make any difference to my ear, but what the hell, give it a go, its all a bit of fun.

ah got it Rossco, sure you can buy a pre-made treble bleed circuit from Realparts.

You can buy a treble bleed circuit here at PBG...

https://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/...elity-upgrade/

Very easy to do your own though

Yes, doing my own, got a Jaycar about 2 mins away.

Need a path to ground on the lower lug (as drawn) of each tone pot.

Hey Rosco, I hang my stuff in the bathroom. Maybe this is a possibility? Anyway, good idea for the protective shield. This is gonna look killer man with the zebra pickups against the spalt.

cheers,
Gav.

Pissing down here today, so with the humidity not great drying day, so did some soldering instead. That and masking. May get round to timbermateing this afternoon if it looks like it will dry.

Attachment 17506

Mahogany timbermate applied. Will leave it till tomorrow to sand.

Attachment 17507

Nice soldering! And is that a glue spot on the back of the body?