First Build GPB-4M

[Stuart D]

And take 2. Level sanded again (though the advantage of having already done it once, is that it didn't need much), polishing (with a different polish this time) and buffed. I was trying to get a sort of satin finish but it's gone a little glossy, however I'm happy enough with it.

[Simon Barden]

Looks nice and smooth. Well done.

[Stuart D]

Got round to finishing it off over the (UK) Bank Holiday weekend.

Note to self, when purchasing copper shielding tape - 25mm is one inch, not two!



Took a few more strips than I had imagined, but hey ho.












First assemble and when I started a basic setup, the action was stupidly low, requiring the bridge saddles to be raised to the full extent which I thought couldn't be right. Eventually decided that the neck wasn't seated correctly, so took it off. Seems that the screws weren't gripping the neck properly to the body, which was due to the holes in the body being the same size as the ones in the neck. I redrilled the holes in the body with a larger size, cleaned out any extraneous rubbish from the pocket and put it back together and bingo - 100% improvement.

I was pleased with how it turned out. My goal at the start was to keep the wood grain and hopefully end up with a simple, natural wood colour with a subtle grain. Basic and simple - pretty much like my playing!

I liked how the Danish oil brought out some of the figuring on the maple fret board. The picture isn't great but it's got a nice subtle gold hue which I like. I made a fair few mistakes and it isn't perfect by any means. The neck is a little too shiny for my liking. But with a basic setup, it plays very nicely - little more dialling in to do but I'll give it a while to settle down. Good chunky sound which I like. I'm primarily a JB player so the bigger neck is taking a little bit of getting used to. No hum whatsoever which is a relief and the pickups aren't too bad. I was originally thinking of putting some replacements in but I'll carry on with these for a while.

Big fan of wipe on poly and would definitely use that again, either on its own or over the top of a stain. It's so easy to do. I mixed up my own using a can of International yacht varnish and some white spirit, both of which I had lying around and I would do that again, as I like the ability to vary the strength.

Really enjoyed the process and definitely going to do another. Can't decide whether to do another PG one or have a go at doing one from scratch. Or both! I like the look of the IB4/5 (except they seem to be out of stock of a large amount of kits at present, unsurprisingly) so I'll wait a bit.

[Cliff Rogers]

That looks ace. 👍

[Simon Barden]

Yes, very nice.

"How much more PB could it be?"

"None. None more PB".

[JohnH]

Came up great!