Thanks a lot for your wisdom and advice so far, guys! I've been really busy with things-other-than-guitars and only now got the chance to post this update.
I received the replacement kit from PitBull and... well, there are good news and bad news.
Starting with the good things:
The new body looks great! The grain on the wood is beautiful and the two pieces are glued together very well, and match nicely.
Most importantly - the bridge saddle and the stop-tail holes are correct and match their lengths.
The body does have a crack on the hole for the pickup cabling, but I don't think that would be an issue as it's going to be hidden from view (I might try to glue it so it doesn't get bigger though).
The bad/disappointing part is the neck. In a couple of aspects, it's in much worse shape than the first one.
1. It seems to me like the top edge of the fretboard wood has been cut to form a bevel between the wood and the white (plastic?) edge. I would imagine that is not how it should be? I also don't know how/if it can be fixed or addressed, and I imagine that bevel should not be there in the first place, is that correct? (The bottom side of the fretboard doesn't have such a discrepancy between the height of the wood and the white edge)
It's hard to get a notion of how steep the bevel is from the pictures, but you can get an idea:
Trying to think of a solution, I imagine I could sand the bevel to make it smoother and more discreet, but I'm not sure how it's possible to do that properly without removing the frets. And even if I manage to do it, I'm weary of changing the depth of the fingerboard, especially on a 12-string where there high E at the top will sit so close to the edge. What do you guys think?
2. Another issue: the higher frets are damaged. Is that something that can be fixed?
3. And last but not least, I noticed the holes for the tuners are not symmetrical or aligned. I know this doesn't have a functional implication, but it still bothers me from an aesthetic perspective.
I would really appreciate your wisdom and advice about the above. Does it warrant reaching out to PitBull again? Or are these issues expected from these kits and I should try to address them the best I can?
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