DMS-1 The King's 4th Pitbull build

[king casey]

Thanks Sonic and Robin.
Not having a router certainly makes a difference.



The red dye certainly looks different without the 40-odd coats of Tru-Oil


cheers, Mark.

[king casey]

Finally got it back in one piece.

Now comes a prolonged 'settling in' period.
Put the old strings back on in case some of them snap during the 'wearing in'.



cheers, Mark.

[Simon Barden]

Nice work.

Trem spring cover plate or no cover plate?

[king casey]

Nice work.

Trem spring cover plate or no cover plate?

Hi Simon. I put a cover on the Strat Trem-King but ended up just leaving it off.

Probably leave this one off the time being...Hendrix didn't need one (on at least one video).

cheers, Mark.

[Simon Barden]

Yes, but then again, his Strat did burst into flames.

[McCreed]

Judging by your post times, a lot happened between 3:51pm and 3:54pm!

Complete assembly in 3 minutes!

FWIW, if you're going to do more of these mods/conversions, you can pick up a fixed-based router (aka: laminate trimmer; edge router) pretty cheap. I think I paid $65 at the BGS for my Ozito. I only use it a couple of times a year, but it's handy to have and I didn't want to spend much for just that reason.

IIRC this build originally was undertaken specifically because it was a hard tail

[king casey]

Hi McCreed.
Sometimes I take a break and post some shots, whereas what happened here was various steps that I forgot to photograph.

Thanks for the tip regarding a cheaper rout alternative...I'll definitely check it out.

My first Pitbull guitar was a hardtail strat that I intended to be a Tele/Strat hybrid.

cheers, Mark.

[OliSam]

I love it.
That mod would take a little weight out of the guitar i suspect.
Does it feel lighter?
I am wondering hoe i can “add lightless” to mine as the ash body is really heavy.

???????!???!!!!!?!!!!!!!!


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[king casey]

Hi Oli.
It weighs 5 kg.
I've already taken a bit of wood out for the 2 pickup switches.
Ash is quite heavy but I reckon if it was bass wood, it would be too light?

cheers, Mark.

[McCreed]

It weighs 5 kg.

Wow! That's a lot!

My Ash tele body (TLA-1 - the one in my avatar) was quite heavy even after doing forearm and tummy contours, so I ended up doing a swimming pool route as a way to attain some weight relief.

Shock horror, I know! But other than planing the thickness down to a wafer, it was the only viable alternative.
I only managed to eliminate 400g, but it made a very noticeable difference. All finished it weighs in at 3.8kg, which is pretty average for all my guitars, albeit at the upper end.

Ash is quite heavy but I reckon if it was bass wood, it would be too light?

Yes and no. I'm sure you know different pieces of the same species of timber can vary in their densities depending on where they are grown. Mineral levels in soil or differences in yearly precipitation can have an effect on an individual tree's density.

I have a Squier Deluxe Strat with a basswood body and it's total weight is 3.6kg. My alder strat (non-kit build) is 3.7kg. Both bodies are equal thickness and dimensionally the same. Same pickups/pots etc. Two different finishes, but I'd say that is reasonably negligible.

Any way you slice it though, 5kg is heavy!