Received my TL-1 today

Hi folks,

I have finally received my TL-1 kit today.
I was really excited to open it up and have a first feel of it. Reading your experiences was actually pumping my confidence up about the quality of the whole thing.

At first glance and hand inspection the piece of wood for the body is really nice, and so is the neck. No scratches, dents or any major flaw.

Then after having a closer look, I don't know what to think...
First think I notice is that the maple fretboard thickness has major discrepancies. Closer to the nut it is just about 4mm and at the bottom of the neck it is about 2.5mm. That one is pretty obvious. I am not too sure whether this is expected.

Then the frets... There are a couple of frets for which I could question how they were installed. There is a clear gap underneath those few frets and the maple fretboard, as if there is some missing material on the fret itself. And the gluing of the fretboard at the bottom of the neck looks suspicious.

Attachment 31888

Attachment 31889

The neck pocket is too narrow by a couple of mm, but as I understand it this happens quite often. And I guess sanding would solve this.
Sanding the top side of the pocket seems to be the only way to proceed though on a TL-1 neck pocket?

Attachment 31890

The holes for the neck plate are quite misaligned. If you want to have the drilled holes match the wholes on the plate than you end up with a tilted plate.
Can this be solved as aesthetically it is not really nice?

Attachment 31891

The bridge came dirty and scratched... And the pickguard, err... I don't know. It could turn out fine with a bit of wiggle even though not ideal.

I can't find the screws for the control plate. Given the openings it seems like we're talking about the same screws as for the bridge, which I only have 5 pieces for the bridge itself. However I have 10 pickguard screws for 8 pilot holes.
Could it be that the control plate uses the same screws as the pickguard?

The neck pocket and those frets especially are my main concern now.
What do you guys think?

Hey, control plate and pick guard should be the same screws.

The misaligned holes for the neck plates is really common. What I do is drill out the holes in the body slightly larger. This will usually let you straighten it up, then drills some small pilot holes in the neck using the centres of the plate. The screws don't need to bite into the body wood, just the neck. It's the clamping force that is important, not binding the wood together with the screws. If you progressively tighten them down going from one corner to the next in a cross pattern (like putting on a car tyre) That will also help keep everything aligned.

Alternative you can also drill them out, plug them with dowel and re drill. A few people on here do that (and also with the tuner holes which are sometimes a bit out of whack)

The changing thickness of the fret board is not uncommon either, I've seen it on some commercial guitars as well. It shouldn't be a major issue, and won't be noticeable especially with the pick guard installed.

The raised frets are also pretty normal. You should go over them with a mallet and tap them home before doing any other fret work. You may find that this makes the ends protrude slightly, but some careful filing and sanding will rectify that.

If you are really not confident with the neck, shoot Adam an email and discuss it with him before you do any sanding or finishing. He is very accommodating and helpful and sometimes things slip through the Pitbull factory inspection of the kits.

The kits are a good start point but almost always require a bit of tinkering to get just right, so don't be disheartened.

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The kits are a good start point but almost always require a bit of tinkering to get just right, so don't be disheartened.

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Agreed. Guitar kits in general are not a "paint it; screw it together; play it" kind of item. If it were that easy, Fender & Gibson would shut down.

And ditto on talking to Adam. I wish all customer service was as good as PBG.

As for the varying fretboard, I've not encountered that (yet). It might be worth measuring the overall thickness of the heel at its four "corners" (top edge of FB to bottom edge of heel) and make sure the discrepancy of the fretboard isn't affecting the heel thickness.
If that's wonky it will definitely be an issue.

FWIW, most little oddities in the kits can be overcome, and every build (kit or otherwise) presents its own set of challenges. It's just part of the game.

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Originally Posted by WeTheNorth

Hi folks,

First think I notice is that the maple fretboard thickness has major discrepancies. Closer to the nut it is just about 4mm and at the bottom of the neck it is about 2.5mm. That one is pretty obvious. I am not too sure whether this is expected.

Then the frets... There are a couple of frets for which I could question how they were installed. There is a clear gap underneath those few frets and the maple fretboard, as if there is some missing material on the fret itself. And the gluing of the fretboard at the bottom of the neck looks suspicious.

Attachment 31888

Attachment 31889


What do you guys think?

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Don't stress too much about the varying edge thickness of the fretboard. along with being tapered in width, it is also subject to a standard radius down its entire length. if you imagine taking a rectangular piece of timber and putting a 12 or 14" radius across it, then you will have a even edge thickness all the way down the length.
If you then put it across a band saw and make that rectangle taper in width to one end, the narrower end will of course now be thicker top to bottom than the wider end.
I think you can counter this by using compound radii or by tapering the board thickness, but that may be beyond the capability of a factory that can't get 4 neck bolt holes in a regular square aligned to the edge of the neck pocket.

For the rest of it, effectively, what Sonic said.

That makes sense and would account for why I've seen it before on cheap commercial guitars.

Yes, A+ FrankenWashie!
I hadn't thought about that.

It was one of those things that drove me bananas with my first fretboards.
I couldn’t figure out how I was getting it so wrong so I drew it out and realised I wasn’t “getting it wrong” I just wasn’t picking up the realities of the 3 dimensional shape.


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It was one of those things that drove me bananas with my first fretboards.
I couldn’t figure out how I was getting it so wrong so I drew it out and realised I wasn’t “getting it wrong” I just wasn’t picking up the realities of the 3 dimensional shape.

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I knew there was a story behind it!

Some updates as I wasn't as active on this project as i would have liked.

I did a 'dry fit' assembly just to check everything was sound.

Attachment 31998

Then I had thoughts about what I wanted to do with the body, and settled on some kind of rustic look. Hope I'll be able to achieve this.
So I had to prep the body by sanding it with 240 grit before grain filling (ebony tint).
Once dried more rounds of sanding 240, 360 and 600 grits.
And only then I started applying tru-oil. Below photos are after 3 coats, no (light) sanding yet.

Attachment 31999
Attachment 32000

I kind of thought light sanding every 3 coats of tru-oil... What would you suggest 1000+ grit or 0000 steel wool?

As for the neck, I have removed the plastic bone. i was quite anxious about this to be honest but it went alright.
Did some fret leveling and crowning. Still need to finish it with tru-oil.
But I need to shape the head stock.
And that's a bit of a scary dilemma to say the least.
I was looking at a Tele head stock shape, but that means starting to cut the wood quite close to the neck where the head stock is actually shaped out of the neck. And I don't feel comfortable with it.
I think I'll opt for a strat styled head stock which seems to be less risky.

I already have Tonerider TRT2 Hot Classic set which I will use instead of the stock one, and I am waiting for a 4-way switch. See if it's going to fit the cavity. :)

I'll update you a tad later.
It will go slow as I initially announced it.

Cheers.

Looking good

Hi all,

It has been a while since I haven't given an update on where I was at.
Busy with work, busy with life and busy completing this first build LOL.

Anyway as per my latest post I was on to tru-oiling the body, which quite frustrating because one coat is quickly applied and then you have to let it sit until it's ready for the next one...
So I decided that 15 coats of tru oil was good enough for the body, and about 5-6 for the neck.

Attachment 32181
Attachment 32182
Attachment 32183

During that time I was waiting for electronics upgrades to come in.

So a 99% finished guitar looks like this.

Attachment 32184

CTS 250k pots w Sprague 0.047uf capacitor on tone
Oak Grisby 4-way switch
Switchcraft Mono Jack
Tonerider Hot Classics TRT2 pickups set
Grover 406C locking tuners

On the photo is the stock set of strings which I had put in for the sake of testing. Those will be replaced shortly as I need to adjust string height and intonation.

What remains to be done is to install the string trees.
I've seen many Teles with only one of them. With the TL-1 models would you put in both or only one?

I have sound tested the stick through a Fender Champion 30.
It is pretty cool when pushed up in gain. The pups react beautifully.
I didn't initially have any volume control... Everything looked fine from a wiring perspective, even the volume pot lug which is meant to be grounded. However a quick continuity test showed that it wasn't properly grounded, and a bit of additional solder fixed the issue

One thing I haven't done is shield the cavities which I was considering but dropped the idea. I might do it later but i can't be bothered now un-wiring the whole thing. I found that it does generate a fair bit of noise but i can live with it for now.
One question though: would you ground join the two pots as I've seen it done on a couple of strats?

I'd like to stick a decal on the head stock but I'm struggling to find a 'good name'... :)

Oh I forgot to mention that the bridge cavity was a tad small to accomodate for the Tonerider Bridge pup...
A bit file did the job.

Looks good WTN! It has a nice rustic appeal with the Tru Oil over plain timber.

re: string trees - One or two, depends on whether or not you're getting any pre-nut resonance, and an extra string tree is not the only only way to fix it if you do.
I would say most people just throw on the second tree and be done with it (I used to be one of them) but a properly cut nut can eliminate the need for a tree on the D/G strings most of the time (but not always and typically it's just the G that is the problem).

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with having two trees, it's just not necessary all the time.
See how you go with just the one, and if there's string weirdness happening, make sure the the string nut slot is angled properly or chuck on the 2nd tree if you're not confident about filing the nut.