Second Build: WL-1

This is my second Pitbull kit but I think my 7th kit overall. Didn't post a diary for the first kit - it was an IB-7 I built for my son as a bit of a father/son joint project.

Anyway, this WL-1 I'm building for the missus. Not a big fan of the colour she's chosen but I'm just the labourer and don't really get to decide. I'll be taking my time on this one because on the same day, my boss sent me a 1979 Gibson The Paul body/neck only as a gift (I built him a LP kit with a Zakk Wylde bullseye pattern). The Gibson is my first restoration project and will hopefully become my new favourite guitar.

Anyway, enough rambling....

Day One (unboxing):

Attachment 30358

Applied some watered down timber putty for grain fill:

Attachment 30359

now, what colour does she want? (I'm hoping it's hot pink)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andyxlh

now, what colour does she want? (I'm hoping it's hot pink)

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No. I built a ukulele from a kit for someone else and the primary colour I used was a metallic blue. She saw that and wanted it. Looks good on the uke, but might be a bit much for a full size guitar. We'll see. I'm going to tru-oil the neck and back of the headstock which should break up the colour a bit. Also makes for good practice applying the tru-oil since that's how I'm going to finish the Gibson and I've never applied that before.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by m0j0

No. I built a ukulele from a kit for someone else and the primary colour I used was a metallic blue.

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I can really see that working. It'll be different from the black or red that I'd normally associate with that shape.

Grain fill sanded back and ready for a coat or two of primer/sealer.

Attachment 30361

I'm also curious to see the colour. Like sonic, I've mostly only seen that body shape in red or black or a combination of both.

This is the ukulele I built for my friend. That's the blue I'll be using for the WL (minus the bullseye pattern of course).

Attachment 30374

I like that. A subtle sunburst really won't work on that one. I used to play with a guitarist who made a big show of getting a black one of these out of a case mid-gig to play 'brown eyed girl', before popping it back at the end of the song and picking up his strat for the rest of the gig, often got a giggle.

Colour coats on. Next stop, clear coats aplenty.

Attachment 30383

Looks great.

Finally got around to giving it a polish and assembling today. First issue, I discovered the pot/switch cavity cover is missing from the kit. But, bigger issue is that after all the soldering and putting it all together, no sound. Doesn't matter the switch position, I get nothing. Not sure what I've done, but I couldn't be bothered trying to work it out right now. Hopefully I've just shorted out something, maybe a stray strand from an earth wire with any luck and hopefully I haven't fried a pot. Also going to need a lot of setup once I work out the wiring issue. Otherwise, it looks OK...

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Looks great in that colour, nice job! As you mention, probably an earthing issue.

Pulled the pots and switch out and spent a fair bit of time testing for shorts etc. Tested resistance levels on the pots without having a complete understanding of what results to expect. Measured the same short between the middle leg of the volume pot and earth a dozen times while working under the misguided assumption that this was what was expected. After finally coming to the conclusion that it was not expected, I squinted through my poor eyesight of an old man and my glasses that are obviously requiring a prescription update and managed to spot the tiniest sliver of solder that had managed to create a short. It was like a very thin spider web strand that had somehow managed to string itself in the course of my inadequate solder job. I flicked it away with my screwdriver, and voila! ... sound. Fixed up a couple of other dodgy solder joints and put it all back together and it's all working.

Got some dreadful buzzing on the fretting the first few frets and the action is already too high for my liking, so time for truss rod adjustments. I haven't even looked at leveling the frets - I didn't have to worry about that on my first kit but it may be needed here.

I doing same guitar as u did my bridge sits bit crooked from factory. Is this normal or bad pilot holes from factory ?