First ever build - TL-1 lefty.

[RevPartridge]

So I got bought an (Amazon) Strat kit for my birthday in May, all looked good til I pointed out to my son he'd ordered a Right handed kit and I am a lefty. That was duly sent back and said son left me to order one for myself.
Eventually, after a while trawling the inter-web I found Pitbull and was really impressed with the variety and a great range of lefty kits.
I decided on a TL-1L, something simple for my first build, hoping it will be a learning curve that may lead to other builds in the future.
It was finally ordered in July and arrrived here in the U.K. 2 days ago.

Out of the box it looks really good, the body is free from any major marks and everything just about fits, with the neck and body fitting well together. I haven't opted for any extras as I thought I would get it built first and then do some upgrades at a later date.
First job was to get and read the instruction guide and I have since been watching numerous how-to videos on Youtube. I have pencilled on a possible enlargement needed for the bridge pickup routing and a headstock shape but have not taken a tool to it just yet.

One question I am puzzling over, as a complete novice, is whether this is meant to be a 'toploader' or 'through the body' as the bridge seems to have 2 lots of 6 appropriately placed holes where the strings could be threaded just to the back of bridge or down through the body, I don't see any attachments to create a secure through-the-body hole, but I may be mistaken. I certainly don't want the strings to rip out the bridge when they are tightened. (I do own a Takamine Acoustic and an Epiphone Les Paul but they are obviously fitted with different style bridges).
I'd appreciate any pointers on this.
Thanks

[Simon Barden]

Hi and welcome.

The Pit Bull Tele kits have traditionally come with top-loading bridges. The exact hardware supplied changes from time to time depending on the factory and they seem to now be using a bridge that can both be top- and rear-loaded. So the kit itself is supplied as a top-loader (as it's missing any pre-drilled through-holes or rear string ferrules) but for a small outlay you can buy some ferrules and drill the holes yourself if you want rear loading.

The factory not drilling holes makes it easier for a builder to use their bridge of choice, as there are normally dimension differences between modern- and vintage-style bridges (with some designed on metric and some on imperial measurements). Of course that makes it a little bit harder for a builder who's happy to use the kit bridge but would like rear-loading.

Yes, those bridge pickup routs usually benefit from a small amount of enlargement. A sanding drum on a Dremel works well for that if you aren't handy with a router.

Keep the saddles in the position shown when measuring scale length for bridge position. The 'set the saddles mid-way' advice you may have seen isn't right, and can lead to not having enough room to move the saddles back for intonation. If you've had a Tele or know about them, then you will be aware that there should be a 2-3mm gap between the pickguard and the front of the bridge plate, they don't butt right up.

Hope your build goes well, post pictures and don't be afraid to ask questions. We're here to help.

[Wayne.Mumford]

Good luck Rev, just started my Tele kit on the weekend. Some great advice from Simon which I will be taking notice on. What are your choices in colour?

[RevPartridge]

Thank you so much Simon,
that makes things much clearer, I haven't owned a Tele or really seen one up close so your advice and observations are very welcome re the pick up plate and saddle position.
I don't yet own a dremel but it sounds like I have an excuse to add another tool to my supply

Hopefully more pictures will follow.
gbu

[RevPartridge]

Hi Wayne,

At the moment I am thinking of a light stain and then a wipe-on satin poly finish,
I'm focused on something fairly plain as my main playing context is in a church where they are slowly broadening their music repertoire, from organ to piano and acoustic guitar. I figure having something that doesn't look too different from the acoustic will give me a bit more time to wow them with the sound and scope of the Tele

Have you got a colour/design plan for yours?
I look forward to seeing pictures.
gbu

[Keith Walters]

One minor quirk about Pitbull's left-handed guitars.
I've built a left-handed Jazz Bass and a left-handed Strat, and they both have the volume and tone controls wired back-to-front, that is, you have to turn the pot anti-clockwise to increase the volume.
I've got a genuine left-handed Fender Telecaster and an Ibanez Les Paul copy; neither has the controls wired like that, so I don't know where they get that notion from....
Also, I don't know why this should be peculiar to left-handed guitars, but both the Jazz Bass and the Strat had one of the four pre-drilled holes for the neck attachment screws out of kilter with the holes in the metal backing plate. Another builder with a left-handed Jazz Bass reported the exact same issue, so there would seem to be a jacked-up drilling jig somewhere.
In the end I had to drill out the offending hole, glue in a bamboo BBQ skewer, and then re-drill the hole.
Of course they may have fixed this by now, but it would be a good idea to check it before you start assembly.

[RevPartridge]

Thanks Keith I'll keep an eye out for those lefty kit quirks.

I can't believe it's taken me a month to get back to properly working on my build,
although I've had time to watch a few how-to videos, I've not been able to get into the workshop.

This week I've managed to level the frets and swap in a bone nut for the plastic one, the bone one I ordered was 'right handed' so I've added a bit of bevel on the fretboard side to blend it in.
I loved the transformation that the wire wool brought to the frets after re-profiling.

I've now begun adding the finish. I've gone for something simple and straightforward this time, just multiple layers of Danish Oil that I had left over from a recent furniture restoration.
I warmed the workshop, wood and oil for the first couple of coats and it seems to be going on fine, looking especially good on the maple neck.
I'm happy with the body look, I decided the different grains probably look better than if I'd tried to stain it all over.
I may try staining on my next build...

[Simon Barden]

The finish is looking good.

Having a look at your fret photo, there appears to be a small rough area on the first fret, though it may just be a reflection.



Unless you remove all the cross-fret marks from levelling, you'll get very scratch feeling frets. When checking my fret polishing, I take an offcut of a top E string, hold it between my thumb and first finger and run it along the top of each fret. If it catches at all (which you can easily feel), then your strings are going to do the same. There have been several times when I've finished the polishing, done the test and still found that the string end catches. Then it's back to the P240 and rubbing along the length of the fret until those deep nicks have disappeared and running up through finer grits until they can be polished. The current kit guide skips out the coarser grit part and moves straight on to the polishing (making some assumptions that few inexperienced people will make), but wire wool alone will not remove the deeper cross-fret marks.

I use P240 as my primary scratch remover grit, rubbing each fret the same number of times with it to help keep the heights equal, and then stepping up through a few strokes each of P400, P800 and then through my micromesh grits selection. I always go up to the final 12000 grit micromesh, but 4000 is really fine enough. The rest is just to make the frets look shinier. For a final polish, if I've still got the fretboard taped up, I use a metal polish, normally Autosol, though Brasso works just as well (if a bit messier in liquid form).

[RevPartridge]

Thanks Simon, fortunately on checking it was just a reflection but I will certainly do the E string off cut test.
Being new to this I found a helpful Youtube video that encouraged using 220 grit paper for the main levelling and then finer grits to get back the fret profiles, finishing with the wire wool, but the YouTuber did mention the option of using metal polish as well, I will look into that.

[Simon Barden]

That's good. Metal polish is an option to make the frets extra shiny. Practically I feel there's very little benefit once you've got to smooth and shiny, but it does look nice; and if it makes the guitar look nice, then it can only make it more encouraging to play!