I have swapped out most of my nuts for either the Tusq, Brass or titanium replacements.
The tusq is great on my non trem guitars. I have brass on my most recent strat and the tuning combined with the locking tuners is super stable. The titanium is on an EMG powered tele and it rings great.
All my builds https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ad.php?t=11989
I wonder if Jimi Hendrix ever reversed the nuts on his left-handed-strung right-handed Stratocasters.
It's not like he couldn't afford proper left-handed Strats, and there is film footage of him playing actual left-handed guitars, so I often wonder what the story was there, particularly since he wasn't left-handed himself.
Obviously there must have been something he liked about that configuration.
Ok, finally had a little time to play with this. So I drilled the neck and mounted it, also mounted my tuners and then took a little time to play around with how it's gonna look as far as the bridge and all that. Tomorrow I'll grab a laser thing that I have used in the past for this same thing and establish a centerline and make some legit markings. I'll need to clean up my drill press as it is in my metal shop and is quite dirty/oily. And I will make my best stab at a nice straight accurate line of 6 holes haha. I'm not new at this kinda thing so I'll just be diligent and try to do a nice job of it. Once I have it strung up and "sort of playable" as I have done no fret work or anything, I will adjust the pickguard (scratchplate? hehe) and put it where I like it because I'm going to make a pencil line of the pickguards perimeter so I that when I tear it down for shaping/sanding I will have a visual reference. After that It will be time to have my way with it and finish it in its initial form. (initial form being the hardware and stuff that came with the kit and my woodworking, later you could always replace that stuff or re-frett it to suit). Grabbed a 12 inch drill bit locally for under 8 bucks for the spring claw screws. So here are a few pics.
It really is best to use thin string or cotton on the two E strings to centre the bridge, rather than try and work out a centreline with a laser etc. You definitely know then that the strings run parallel with the sides of the neck. That’s what you want to achieve, so you might as well use the method that tells you that.
Make sure the saddles are wound almost as far forwards as they’ll go when measuring the scale length, none of this ‘halfway’ business that’s in the guide.
I found that the spring claw screws Pitbull supply are really not up to the task. It may be that they're copies of Fender screws that are OK for the wood that Fender use, but I didn't feel they really gripped convincingly in the wood that Pitbull use.
I had a pack of assorted stainless steel wood screws, some with a much bigger diameter and coarser thread. I had to considerably reduce the head diameter with a bench grinder to make them fit in the space available, but they are really solid. Considering the strain that the spring assembly is constantly under, this might be worth looking at.
Plus what other "helpful" posters sometimes tell you on here (as I discoveredOriginally Posted by Simon Barden
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Yeah the screws are pretty cheesey. As are the tuners but I don't expect much from a low cost kit. Just wanted a neck I didn't have to build from scratch and a easy build as my actual woodshop is not really in a working way right now. I'm not following any specific "guides" as I already know what I want to do. I combined an old strat style neck on a homemade body a few years back and put a tune-o-matic setup on it so its a combo of fender/gibson stuff hahh The laser to throw a quick centerline down the body is more about just my visual references when I start sanding/shaping, I want to know where that strap button is going to end up. Also the wood of the body is laminated together in such a way that its not really inline with the centerline of the guit so it is an optical illusion that makes you think it looks strange hahah. Once I have a few pencil lines as guides the real fun begins.
"As are the tuners but I don't expect much from a low cost kit"
I haven't found anything particularly wrong with the ones on the ST1-L I built, or the tremolo assembly for that matter.
At one point I had visions of upgrading them, but I can't really see what's crying out to be improved.
It is very important that you know how set the tremolo up correctly. Mine rarely gets out of tune, although admittedly I don't use the whammy bar much; I just like the "twangy" sound you get from a floating bridge.
I have a genuine Fender Left-Handed 1982 Telecaster, and while, yeah, some things on it feel a bit nicer than my cheapo Strat kit, the difference isn't massive.
I think the bottom line is pretty much that if you can't play a properly-built and set up Pitbull kit, you probably aren't going to be able to play the real thing either
Ok, took a few hours today to brainstorm a bit. Use up some masking tape (few times) and figure out some things. Most likely if I do the headstock as a 4/2 like that, I am going to just buy some locking tuners in the configuration that I want, (mix of left/right handers and heights), and I am considering maybe just buying a better bridge. As I fool with this I start to think well, I can't play left handed at all, while it is in this form I might as well make life easier on myself. (Still resisting refretting the neck in 6100 stainless like I did my old strat (which I call my wife)).
73 strat I bought in like 87 I think for 400 bucks. Old Charvel neck no numbers no boogie parts or anything, and the wonderbar. Seymour duncan hotstack strats (when they were 3 models bridge/mid/neck). It has been Many iterations 3 switchs that would do phase or just series/parr/singletap. Right now it is a 7 tone. It was originally natural finish, it is swamp ash and my mix of linseed oil/turpentine/clear spar urethane. Took months to finish that and finally polish it with steel wool, and waxed with carnuba. Then what will become the lefty. hahah See if I can do it. It's a long road but well worth travelling as nothing good comes from "easy". So It should be fun.
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