Here we go... Muzza's first build. Non PBG PRS-1TS

[Muzza]

OK, the first 2 posts are my initial thoughts - a bit of an 'unboxing' and 'review'. I want to reiterate that this is NOT a PitBullGuitars kit. (It may have come from the same factory... I hope not, as you'll soon understand...)

So...not too impressed with the kit straight off the bat. First up, I thought I was buying this kit...


But got this kit...


And with all the crap going on in my life at the moment, I only just realised tonight...

I paid an extra $110 to upgrade to 4 wire wilkinsons and gold hardware. I got a nice surprise when I saw the gold faces for the humbucker mounts in the kit. I wasn't expecting that.




Makes up for the missing 3 way switch cover. ($1.20 from my local brick and mortar music store.)

[Muzza]

I was REALLY disappointed with the headstock though. The neck itself looks OK. I guess I won't know for certain until it's finished and strung up.

When I placed the truss rod cover in position, as you do, it didn't look right. I thought I had the wrong glasses on. So I put the hardware on the headstock and yep... centreline to E machinehead hole was 3 mm different to centreline to e hole. Look at the space between the machine head washer to the edge of the headstock. 3mm doesn't sound like a lot, but look at the picture.


And the machineheads? If this is an upgrade, I'd hate to see the quality of the standard hardware. Of the 6, I could only hand tighten ONE to about 75% of its total travel. That's not a quality fit. I had to get a 10mm ring spanner on to them to get the rest of them past 2 turns.

However, once they're on, I shouldn't have to worry about them. The machine head action seemed very precise - no wobble and that part of them feels 'right'.


Here you can see how far off centre the holes were.


The other poor quality thing about the headstock is that it looked like somebody got a little over-enthusiastic about hand sanding the front face and left a visible dip on both sides just in front of the nut.


Overall I'm pretty disappointed, but... I love the flame maple. I wish I'd discovered PBG and this forum a week before. As it is, the PRS I THOUGHT I was buying is winging itself over from WA as I write this.

[wazkelly]

Hi Muzza, bit of a bummer however being a first build use it as such to fine tune your skills before starting on your dream guitar that way hopefully any mistakes are made or discovered on this one and not on the next.

[Muzza]

Hi Muzza, bit of a bummer however being a first build use it as such to fine tune your skills before starting on your dream guitar that way hopefully any mistakes are made or discovered on this one and not on the next.

Yep, we're on the same page there Waz...

[Muzza]

First up, I got stuck into that appalling headstock. Some of you may have caught my post about not pre-drilling the headstocks. I hate the Gibson type headstocks, so a redesign was always on the cards, regardless of a drunken Chinese 'craftsman's' inability to accurately locate a drilling template.


First thing I had to do was cut some 'plugs' from the excess headstock material. I needed 6, but there was only enough for 3.


So I've decided to put some flame maple veneer on the face of the headstock (from guitaraust.com.au -$7.95 for a headstock) This enables me to cut some plugs from any old timber for the top, and cut the 3 maple plugs in half for the underside.

This is where I came a little unstuck, and I unreservedly blame the Americans for not following the rest of the world in adopting the Metric system.

My plug cutters are imperial. Try and find an imperial clean cut auger bit... Well, I found one, but it's quite long.


So to cut a loooong story short... it wasn't a very pleasant experience and the plugs didn't work as well as I'd liked. (Better late than never, I'm now the proud owner of a Carbatec 8 piece Forstner/Plug cutter set...)

Luckily, the back of the headstock and neck are going to be solid 'Black Stump', so I can fix the f@%kups with wood filler, and the veneer will cover all sorts of evil on the top.



(Yes, I've got a Rockerverb MKII. Cool huh?)

I've still got a bit of final shaping to do on the headstock, but for a first go with dodgy equipment, I'm satisfied I won't make the same mistake on the NEXT PRS.

And I learned something very valuable... Never do any critical work on your guitar build if you've had a couple. No matter HOW impatient you are...!

Actually, let me re-phrase that... never do ANY work on your guitar build if you've had a couple.

[Maddogm]

And I learned something very valuable... Never do any critical work on your guitar build if you've had a couple. No matter HOW impatient you are...!

Actually, let me re-phrase that... never do ANY work on your guitar build if you've had a couple.

I think that might include purchases for a build after having a couple. I was browsing stewmac after going to a gig and made a purchase for a build that I didn't entirely think through

[Muzza]

So, after all that crap, I guess I'm happy with how the headstock is going. Nobody will see the learning curves.

Now on to the bits where I ask for advice. When I first did my dry test fit, to my eye the neck looked to be dead straight, lining up perfectly with the body. But when I put the straight edge on it tonight I found that I DO in fact need to straighten it out a tad. Do I take material off the neck's heel, or from the socket? Uber, sooper dooper, mega sharp chisel, or more f@%king sanding???


The bottom of the heel doesn't quite sit snugly on the bottom of the socket. I reckon I might just put the eensy weensy tiniest of shims in there to fill the gap. Or will the Titebond fill it up?


I measured from the face of the nut to the centre of the 12th fret and (I think) it was 314mm. It was also 314mm from the centre of the 12th fret to the centre of the hole for the bridge on the treble side. I'm assuming the hole will be in the correct spot for the bass side. (Unless the same guy that drills the headstock also drills the bridge holes... ) Any advice on the correct location of the bass side bridge hole?

Then I put the straight edge along the fretboard (after straightening the neck with the truss rod) and measured the height at the bridge location. It's 18mm. Is that about right for a Tune-0-Matic bridge?


LAST QUESTION! (Well, for tonight, anyway...) Where the neck sits in the socket, it partly obscures the hole where the wires are going to pass. Should I remove a bit of material from the corner in front of the hole, or should I just get over it???


Thanks in advance, and thanks for having me Adam.

[Swanny]

With the neck, I reckon it's be easier to take from the neck heel.

The pickup wire route, wouldn't hurt to take the back corner from the neck, depends which way you have to feed the wires as to whether you need to put in a feeder ramp or not.

[Muzza]

I got this on Friday. Should avoid any more plugging dramas. I'll probably end up plugging and veneering all my future headstocks.




My current build has 4 holes for the pots, (potholes???) but I only need 3. So I'll either cut a plug from the flame maple veneer I've ordered for the headstock, or use a Strat style output jack. (could prove awkward as the PRS has an arched top.)

Anyway, I just did a rushed example using all 4 sizes (8mm, 10mm, 12mm & 15mm) using a bit of cheap pine. Normally I would take measures to prevent tearout, but as this is just a quick trial, I didn't bother. (Note to self... wash your hands!)

The maple veneer shouldn't tear out like this. I would imagine that if done properly and carefully, it would be damn near invisible - especially so with clean fingers.

Here are the plugs drilled out and the guinea pig holes.





Here are the plugs ready to go in and the roughly finished end product. The grain on this bit of pine fell away at a very acute angle, which is why the two tone grain doesn't line up on a couple. Shouldn't be a problem with the veneer as I'd be working with gnat's testicle thicknesses.

[WeirdBits]

You could also try using a file to create some clean grit-free super fine saw dust from an edge piece of your maple veneer and rub that into the plug cap seams when you glue them in. That may help to hide any glue line and allow some stain to take.