First build: lefty TL-1L telecaster

[ElleBrooke]

This will be a collaborative effort- my son is building the electronics, I'm just here for the art! This is his first guitar build, and my first time wood burning an electric guitar. We hoped to kind of start off easy with the telecaster.

Regarding the kit, it is far better quality than I had expected for the price. And it arrived super fast. The day after it hit customs, it was being delivered to my door! Color me impressed all around. All parts appear to be accounted for, the wiring diagram seems to make sense, read through all the manuals, so now it's time for the fun parts, right?

Obligatory pre-build photo:


And because I am excited, first session wood burning:

[fender3x]

That is going to be tremendous. It will be tremendous to have an instrument that is itself a work of art!

[ElleBrooke]

That is going to be tremendous. It will be tremendous to have an instrument that is itself a work of art!

Thank you so much!

[McCreed]

Impressive artwork there.
Two suggestions I would make are: do a mock build and confirm the bridge pickup route location is correct before going any further.
This determines the placement of the bridge itself and will effect how well it will intonate. TL kits have regularly had issues with the bridge being set too far away from the nut. It can be easily remedied by extending the pickup route a few millimetres.

Second, given the lovely artwork you're doing (and there are no pre-drilled holes) consider not using the full pickguard. You can cut the provided pickguard to make a much smaller mounting plate just for the neck pickup. This would allow much more area on the front of the body for the artwork.

[Trevor Davies]

+ 1 for the impressive and lovely artwork.

[colin2121]

Looking good. I always like seeing another lefty kit assembled.
Cutting the pick guard is easy and can be done with a saw and tidied up with a file and sand paper. This was how I trimmed mine.

[ElleBrooke]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong this morning, but I've written out a lengthy reply to everyone twice, tried to post a photo, have the photo not show, so I go in to adjust it and the whole post gets deleted.

So I'll just say thank you for all the advice and suggestions. My son did go back and remeasure the bridge and he says it all works out. I'll try again to upload more pictures later.

[lotion5238]

Looking good. I always like seeing another lefty kit assembled.
Cutting the pick guard is easy and can be done with a saw and tidied up with a file and sand paper. This was how I trimmed mine.

Hey, Son of the person who burned the guitar, after a long hiatus because of mental health issues I'm back and ready to finally put this thing together, but I need a little bit of help. Is there a guide specifically for the TL-1L wiring and hardware setup?

[colin2121]

Hey, Son of the person who burned the guitar, after a long hiatus because of mental health issues I'm back and ready to finally put this thing together, but I need a little bit of help. Is there a guide specifically for the TL-1L wiring and hardware setup?

Good to see you back at it.
This is the link to the Pitbull wiring diagram.
https://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-co...f/PBG-TL-1.pdf

I am about to start working on the same kit but it won't look anywhere near as good as yours.

[fender3x]

Good to see you back at it.
This is the link to the Pitbull wiring diagram.
https://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-co...f/PBG-TL-1.pdf

I was looking for that one, but couldn't find it...then realized that Lotion might want the lefty diagram. Oddly there are some wires missing on that one...hot wire from switch to v-pot, wire from v-pot to t-pot, bridge to ground...