First Build Multiscale SMS-6Z

[MrRJAnderson]

Hi,

I bought a 6 string multiscale back in February and am finally getting around to building it this summer. I think I'm going to be OK with the staining and soldering, but some of the luthiering details are not making sense to me.

1) In the test build, it makes sense to check the alignment of the strings but why am I supposed to adjust the curve of the neck? That's totally going to change once the strings get on.

2) This is specific to me. In the test build, there's some wiggle room with the neck (glue in). Without the strings on, how am I supposed to correctly align the neck to glue it?

3) For the actual gluing, the directions are just install it (see below). So, any guides to gluing the neck? Otherwise I'll figure it out I guess. Using only glue makes me nervous.

Attaching the neck
As we had drilled our holes and aligned the neck earlier, it is now just a matter of installing
the screws and plate. If you have a glue in neck and have left it until now to install, allow the
glue a couple of days or even a week to dry before putting any tension on the strings.

4) Why am I checking the scale length in the test build? It seems to be checking for the sake of checking. There doesn't seem to be any instructions to attach the bridge, drill holes for it, or even modify the neck. The string holes are already pre-drilled for my body so things are pretty set. The intonation will basically be the last thing I do. It's not a big deal since things seem to be pretty on with my kit, but I'm wondering if I'm missing something.

Actually, one painting question. I bought copper tape to protect the electronic cavities. It's pretty shiny and I'm going to paint black around it, so I'm worried that it'll be very noticeable. Can I install the copper tape and then paint over it? It should still block the electronic activity, I'd think.

Thanks!

[Simon Barden]

Hi and welcome.

The instructions are by nature fairly generic, but I'd admit they could be better.

1. You don't have to adjust the curve of the neck yet, but when measuring things like scale length, you want the neck as straight as it can be. If you want to test for any proud frets before stringing the guitar, then you'll need to get the neck flat (but you'll need a notched straight edge as well as a straight edge to do it properly).

It's also good to test the truss rod works before you get too far. These double action truss rods have a slack spot in the middle of the adjustment where there's no positive or negative tension, and they can rattle. It's good to at least just get them biting with some resistance to stop any rattling.

2. There should be minimal room for movement with this sort of neck attachment. It should really be an interference fit. How much of a gap is there? If there's more than say 0.5mm, then I'd glue a piece of maple veneer to one side of the pocket. Which side depends on the neck alignment with the bridge, which ties in with item 3.

Obviously your bridge position is fairly well defined by the string-through holes, though there is often a small amount it can be angled by. But assume the bridge position is fixed.

You want to ensure the strings run down the neck parallel to the sides of the neck and end up at the right place at the bridge. You'd normally temporarily fix the bridge to the body (masking tape or double-sided tape), clamp the neck in position (you'll need a fairly large clap to do this), and run some thin string or cotton up from the bridge low E saddle, over the nut, through the low E tuner hole, out through the top E tuner hole, over the nut and back to the top E saddle. Tape the ends of the string/cotton in place if necessary so you can try moving the neck until the strings are aligned. This is where you want to have the neck positioned when you glue it. You may have ±0.5mm movement to move the bridge slightly sideways if it helps. If it does, mark the position.

This is where you determine if putting some veneer along the side of the pocket is necessary or not.

Also, now is a good time to test the fit of the neck pickup in the pocket whilst the neck is there. There have been some instances of the neck pickup not fitting properly. I believe the end of the neck should simply line up with the two open ends of the neck pocket, but IIRC, one or two necks had a different angle, so either left a gap or stuck into the pocket. Hopefully yours will be correct.

3. You should know exactly where you want the neck to sit. Apply glue (Original Titebond is recommended) to the neck heel and pocket sides where they'll make contact, slip the neck into place and clamp tight, using at least two clamps. The neck join length on this kit is quite long, so you should be able to get three clamps on.

Just ensure there's no finish at all on the surfaces to be glued. Always keep those masked. The glue binds to the cellulose in the wood. With finish on, that doesn't happen and the joint will be very weak. Wood to wood gives a very strong bond. And the surfaces need to be parallel so they touch, especially on the bottom of the neck as that's the surface that will be clamped and will have the strongest bond. Any big gaps need addressing as the glue doesn't deal with big gaps well.

You'll want some thin flat pieces of wood between the clamps and the body and neck to help distribute the load. Have the clamps ready and adjusted so they just fit on and need the minimum of tightening. The glue grabs quickly and it can be hard to make small adjustments once it does, so have everything ready so you can position it accurately and then clamp it in place.

Ideally you'd use a piece of wood with cut-outs for the frets on top of the neck. I bought some stick-on cork pads (meant for the back of coasters) and cut one of those in strips and stuck that to a block so they fitted between the frets.

Clamp firmly but not excessively tightly. You can squeeze out most of the glue if you over-tighten. Wipe away excess glue with a damp cloth.

Wait 24 hours. You don't need to wait any longer than that, there's no benefit. That's the Titebond web site guidance for joints that will be under tension.

Don't worry about it being strong enough. There's a big contact area. On the SG kits, the contact area is tiny, yet the necks are fine just help on by glue.

4. You check the scale length because these kits aren't perfect, so you want to make sure that holes have been drilled in the right place and all is in order before spending a lot of time and effort putting a nice finish on, only to discover that you can't intonate it. The kits aren't made on CNC machines, but by fairly inexperienced people using templates and routers and are prone to human error. This is the main reason you check things, ideally as soon as you get the kit.

5. Yes you can paint over the copper tape, though you'll want to run wires to allow the tape to be connected to ground before you paint over it. I prefer to use black shielding paint for exposed cavities as it's easier to apply and you shield and paint at the same time. But it can be messy stuff as the carbon in it comes off quite easily, so apply it as the last thing you do before installing the pickups. It too will need to be grounded, and I normally use a ground wire soldered to a small washer that I screw into the cavity out of the way (often beneath the pickup so it can't be seen).

Pickups are best left lose and just taped in position until you've strung up the guitar for the first time so you can align them with the strings before drilling the mounting screw holes. I'd always allow to use one set of strings for the set-up process as the could be on and off several times, and then put on a new set once you're happy.

[Simon Barden]

Oh, and while you've got the neck clamped to test the alignment, check the neck angle is OK - another reason you want a flat neck. Run a long straight edge along the neck and make sure that it hits the bridge saddles so that they can be adjusted up or down enough (allowing that the strings will be 2-3mm higher than this once set up). If the edge is way over the bridge, or ends up below it, then the neck angle will need adjusting.

[MrRJAnderson]

Thanks for the reply. Writing a wall of text like that takes a good amount of time and I appreciate it.

It seems a lot of it comes down to quality checking before you get too invested which makes a lot of sense. I seem to have gotten a pretty good kit. The neck pickup was fine but the one in the body was off because the wire hole was 1/4 inch (5mm) above the bottom, so it stuck out. I was able to file it down but it was a pain due to only being able to move an inch at a time.

I will do another test before gluing the neck on, but I'm pretty sure to get the string alignment right, I had to pull the neck all the way one direction which left a fairly large gap. I'm assuming you glue the veneer in? My plan was just to use some wood fill in the gap once assembled.

Also good to know the glue properties. I bought mine from pitbull because I didn't want to mess around finding the right product and the price was right. I guess I made the mistake of staining too far down. I didn't measure where the neck was hidden so I went further than I needed. Glad it's not a stain/poly in one so sanding back won't be too bad. I'm experimenting with different top coats on scrap now, but all that's on hold while the weather is too freaking hot and humid to do it properly. I'm staining most of the top and neck and then back and headstock black enamel. I'm testing if I need different top coats for the different materials.

Sounds like I'll at least try leaving the copper tape bare for now. I want to have the painting done before I mess with wiring. I was just thinking maybe I wouldn't have to tape those holes off and kill 2 birds with one stone.

Good thought on the neck angle too. I hadn't been thinking in all the axis and angles.

[Simon Barden]

Staining shouldn’t stop glue working, though it possibly might not work quite as well - I really don’t know. It’s any finish like paint or lacquer that will stop the glue touching and soaking into the surface of the wood you need to avoid.

Yes, glue the veneer in place. I had to do it to one guitar. Glue it separately to the neck and you should be able to clamp it in place so it has a very strong bond to the body. If the body curves make it difficult to clamp, you could try a block of wood that’s almost the size of the neck pocket, and then use wedges at the ends of the pocket to hold it in place firmly whilst the glue dries.

Filler has no real strength, and whilst useful for surface gaps, it’s not going to add any strength to the neck join. Add some glued veneer to fill the gap, and it should provide the same strength join as if the pocket was the right size. I’d use fine filler or grain filler to fill any cosmetic gap left once the neck is installed.

I often resort to my Dremel for a lot of jobs on guitars and I’ve used (or maybe ‘misused’) various sanding/grinding attachments to make cavities bigger and enlarge the access to pickup cavity lead holes so the wire doesn’t stop the pickup from fitting correctly. Whoever chooses the position to drill the holes obviously does it for their convenience and has never had the job of fitting the pickups.

[MrRJAnderson]

I've made progress on painting so here's some pics:
https://i.imgur.com/Ww1Lxci.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/US01WCr.jpeg

I did a gray woodstain on the top of the body and neck. I tried for a slight burst. Then added a black stripe from the headstock through the center of the body which flares slightly past the bridge.

I want the stripe matte but the rest of the guitar gloss so I'm doing the matte topcoat now while it's already masked off. Then the rest of the body will get a gloss black coat. I'll do another test build and glue the neck at this point. Then a gloss coat and polish the non-matte areas.

On to wiring. I watched a few videos and feel like I can do it, but didn't see my particular double humbucker setup. When I went to check my parts I was very pleasantly surprised to find most of the soldering has been done, but I don't know if it was done correctly.

There's a capacitor or something on one of the pods (the type A, volume). Maybe that's why it was done for me? I tried to get a good shot of all the tabs but if not (directions are knob side down, and tabs at 6 o'clock), the yellow wire goes from the left tab of tone to the right tab of volume, the capacitor goes from the center tab to the back of the pod, and a black wire goes from the back of the pod to the back of the tone pod.

Wiring parts
https://i.imgur.com/bH8lqQs.jpeg
Pot type A volume
https://i.imgur.com/xst2kJe.jpeg
Pot type B tone
https://i.imgur.com/fsfwpc5.jpeg
Input jack
https://i.imgur.com/mMho6AA.jpeg

The only thing left to wire is the switch and humbuckers. I'm pretty sure I can get specifics when I get closer. That's still a week or 2 away with dry times...

[Simon Barden]

You've got the tone and volume pots the wrong way round. The tone pot is the one with the capacitor. I don't know why the factory uses linear for volume. I'd use log for volume and tone. But some people do prefer linear for volume if they are using a lot of distortion rather than just clean or a mixture of clean and distortion.

This is the Pit Bull diagram for your general set-up. https://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-co..._tele_2014.pdf, though the pickup wire colours may well be different.

[pr0jekt]

Really keen to see how this looks and plays when you're finished.

[MrRJAnderson]

@pr0ject Me to! Waiting for paint to dry is agony.

@Simon That wiring diagram is just what I need. Thanks for doing the digging for me. It makes sense that the one going to the output jack is the volume (a type B) which makes the capacitor the tone (a type A).

I was going off of the instructions (page 26) that says A is for volume and B is for tone. If the difference is just the way it scales, I guess I can live with it? Or maybe rewire after I try it out and see how it works. I can see it'll be a bigger hassle later though. Third option: keep everything at 11 and never touch the knobs.

[Simon Barden]

Yes, the scaling is different. Both types will give you full volume or tone at 10 and no volume/full tone roll off at 0 (or 1 if it has Fender style knobs). But in-between, the result will be different.

The A and B pot designations for log/audio taper and linear taper respectively weren’t always universal and in large parts of the world, A was linear and B log. Which didn’t matter much when pot production was in the same country as your business and you chose accordingly. But once globalisation and cheap mass-production took effect and components were sourced from all over the globe, buying some A type pots from one country and B type from another and finding them both the same type became problematic and so standardisation occurred. But there may still be some places using the old designations (or at least believing that A is linear and B is log). The manufacturer’s own internal codes for the taper types can also be quite at variance with the norm, so when buying your own pots, check the description or the manufacturer’s data sheets to be sure.

The ear doesn’t hear volume in a linear manner, but logarithmically. So to match that, a volume pot taper needs to be logarithmic. If it’s linear, then you hear very little volume reduction to start with and then it’s all bunched up in the last few degrees of the knob turning. Log makes it a lot smoother and progressive, with more happening in the 10 down to 8 region. Both will work, and it comes down to how you use the volume control (if at all) apart from fully on/fully off mode. If you like to drop the volume just a bit, then linear will give you more control getting to 1/2 volume as that will be at the 5 position, and probably between 8.5 and 8 with a log pot (there are lots of different log curves available). But if you like to quickly nudge the volume pot with your little finger (especially on a Strat) to switch between rhythm and lead levels, then log will be your friend. The general recommendation is for log for volume, but it’s not mandatory.

For tone, it’s more of a personal choice. Linear is the choice of some manufacturers, log for others. I prefer log as it gives more audible tone changing effect over a wider range of pot travel. With linear, most of the tone change is in the lower reaches of the pot travel, say 3 and below. With log, that’s stretched out more to say 7 and below. So linear gives you more control over very subtle tone changes, until you hit the point when it becomes very unsubtle.

I don’t like extreme tone changes and the muddy sound you get with the tone on 0 with the standard capacitor choices, so I tend to fit 0.015uF tone caps on my guitars. Along with log pots, this gives me a much more useful tone control. But it is all down to what you prefer. It’s certainly worth trying some different cap values. They will make almost no difference with the tone control fully up, only when it’s in use.