TL-1HA first build

[Groovyman32]

Thanks guys - I've ordered a bunch of replacement stainless steel screws for everything. I wasn't planning to try do anything fancy - best practice is good enough for me .

I put the ferrules in and clamped the neck in to make sure the bridge is still in the right place. The strings run over the pickups okay when they're mounted in the new pick guard so that all seems good. I noticed there is still very small gap (0.5mm) at the front of the neck pocket (I thought I'd fixed that) - should I attempt to fix this?

While I was shopping I also got some gotoh strap buttons and a jack plate... and with that I think the only PB parts left for the guitar are the nut (bone upgrade) and tuners (Grover upgrade).

On the subject of nuts... I bought a couple of Graphtec Tusq XL pre cut nuts with the intention of using one of them this guitar. But comparing it to the nut supplied with the kit the string spacing is different. The XL spacing is the same as a strat/tele (35.05mm). I did a bit of digging around but couldn't find anything that documents what the PB nut spacing is. (I guess I could measure it - duh). I assume this needs to match up with the spacing of the tuners so that the strings travel as straight as possible?

[Simon Barden]

On the subject of nuts... I bought a couple of Graphtec Tusq XL pre cut nuts with the intention of using one of them this guitar. But comparing it to the nut supplied with the kit the string spacing is different. The XL spacing is the same as a strat/tele (35.05mm). I did a bit of digging around but couldn't find anything that documents what the PB nut spacing is. (I guess I could measure it - duh). I assume this needs to match up with the spacing of the tuners so that the strings travel as straight as possible?

There are US and non-US Fender nut widths and string spacings. The kits normally use non-US spacing hardware, and the Tusq ones you have are probably US spacing which is why there's a difference.

A slight change in string spacing won't affect the tuning pull by any noticeable amount. It's rare enough for a Pit Bull neck to have the tuning holes drilled in a straight line, let alone in exactly the right place to have the strings travel perfectly straight from the nut to the tuners.

The main consideration is whether the nut slot spacing suits the neck. If the E strings don't sit too close to the edge, so that the strings lie on the rounded end of the frets or will be easily pulled/pushed off when you fret a string, or sit too far from the edge of the fretboard, then don't worry about a small difference.

[Simon Barden]

I put the ferrules in and clamped the neck in to make sure the bridge is still in the right place. The strings run over the pickups okay when they're mounted in the new pick guard so that all seems good. I noticed there is still very small gap (0.5mm) at the front of the neck pocket (I thought I'd fixed that) - should I attempt to fix this?

It's up to you. It will be more a visual thing than anything else. Unless you can machine the end of the pocket and the end of the neck on a CNC machine or a complicated router jig (preferable CNC made), getting the curves to match exactly is nigh-on impossible.

I've used chalk on the end of the neck pocket to mark the touching spots on the end of the neck before, and using that method you can get quite close to a match, but still never perfect. It's very easy to just keep going and then you find your neck is 2mm shorter and the neck pocket 2mm longer and you've still got a 0.5mm gap!