Community Kit Build (#3)

[Andy40]

Its called the “ST Special” kit.

This kit, in all its glory, has the following:-

• Ash Body (ST Shape)
• Maple Neck with Rosewood fingerboard (24 frets no inlay dots)
• humbucker in the bridge and single coil in the neck
• no pickguard and one volume control with a 3 way switch
• controls are rear routed
• Gold hardware
• usual kit goodies (Ernie ball slinkies, mock build strings, cable, two allen keys etc.); and
• gold knob wrapped in special Chinese flower paper

[Andy40]

Chinese flower paper and knob


To give you an idea of the size, here is a size comparison against my ST-1

The body size and shape is identical



24 fret neck as against the 21 fret ST-1 neck



The full scale length sits at about 645mm to 650mm with that little bit of play to get it right (also check out the gold trem with black screws).

[wokkaboy]

kit looks great Andy, what are the stain plans ? Gold hardware will look choice on that nice ash grain

[Andy40]

Wokks, I'm considering building this one stock first, then upgrading.

The stain will definitely be Dingotone......I'm considering either a Karajini Red and Black Stump burst or Coolangatta Gold and Black Stump burst.

[wokkaboy]

sounds good Andy, you might even consider a lighter red stain like bushfire sunrise and a black stump burst.
Any DT stain should look good though

[stan]

looks cool Andy

[Andy40]

I got up early..............Mock build time........



I will re-think building it PBG stock, just because I don't think its right for me and because the ST special doesn't have a pick guard I really need to be certain about the pick-ups and any body modifications from the beginning.

Couple of interesting points......

• The neck pocket is an ok fit, but you can see some overhang from the side - I will need to check the centreline as well
• there is not a lot of play with the length of the wire from the neck pick up - It will do but i wouldn't want to make a mistake
• The pot is a new type - long shaft - here is a comparison with the pot from my TLA-1R kit
• The vintage style string trees have metal spacers rather than the plastic ones you get with the other ST kits
• the tremolo arm has a white plastic end - rather than a black one?
• the back plate is not recessed (which is the same as all other kits - so if i want it recessed ill have to do it myself
• the back plate and control plate are two different plastics - the back plate is matte and the control plate is glossy
• the headstock has the same holes as all other ST and TL models - ie with the slightly wonky hole.

[stan]

interesting kit - recessed control plate, but not the back plate
most minor errors are reasonably easy to deal with, but I just hate imperfect tuner holes - they show up so easily and can be tricky to hide.
My main wish is for kits not to have pre drilled headstocks for this reason
However the rear access for the hardware makes for a very nice strat style option

[adam]

Hey guys, hear you on the wonky tuner holes.

I'm heading to China for a visit to the Factory next week and this is one of the issues I'll be bringing up; tuner and string through body holes being out of alignment.

I'll start a thread later today so the Forum can offer suggestions to bring up when I'm at the factory.

[Andy40]

Brilliant. Thanks Adam.