Hi and welcome.
I'd suggest reading through the (not all that easy to find) PBG build guide, which discusses tools.
https://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-co...s%20Manual.pdf
Whilst some of those kits contain a few useful items, most contain a lot of filler items that you are unlikely to use during the build.
The most obvious items you'll need are screwdrivers, spanners and a good metal straight edge/ruler or two. Certainly a sanding block to go with the sandpaper as getting a flat surface on the body is important to getting it looking good. Masking tape and pencils, sandpaper of various grades (a fair bit of that) and one or two small files.
I'd suggest investing in a decent set of needle files, the ones in those kits do tend to be made from very poor steel and I find I use needle files quite a lot for many things, so it pays to have a reasonable set if you don't have any already. Diamond coated needle files do make things quicker to file down but you pay a bit extra for the benefit.
You'll also need a decent soldering iron and a basic soldering knowledge of soldering (or someone who can do it for you or show you how). A solder sucker or de-soldering braid is also something that comes in handy here, as do wire cutters and thin nosed-pliers. You'll probably already have a sharp bladed craft/Stanley knife.
The main area where some more specialised tools come in handy is with setting up the neck and adjusting the nut. Your neck may come with all the frets seated properly and all the same height, which makes things easy as all you'll need to do is give them a polish. But if there are one or two badly seated frets which are high, then this will make the guitar difficult to set up with a reasonable action, so you may then want to try and either reduce the height of those particular frets or do a complete fret level (my preference). If so, there are a few basic tools that you'll need, including a notched straight edge and a fret profiling file, but these can all wait until you're setting up the guitar and be purchased as necessary.
The other area you'll need to work on is the nut, as the basic kit nut will come with a high string slot height which will need lowering. Yo can either use a set of nut files to cut the slots lower, or remove the nut and keep filing down the bottom of the nut until the existing slots are low enough. Unfortunately, good nut files are expensive, about the same price as the kit itself, so are best only bought if you are working on several guitars. You can get very cheap 'nut file' sets from Amazon and eBay that are repurposed welding tip cleaning files,. You'll need to measure their width to pick the right one for your string gauge (so having a cheap digital caliper is almost a must) and the thinner files are very soft and will only last for a couple of nuts, but they will work well enough for one nut. But you can get by with the filing the bottom of the nut method, although it is quite time consuming as you need to keep fitting it and removing it to check progress. As the kit plastic nut isn't a great nut, I'd suggest a cheap replacement bone nut from Amazon or eBay. You'll need to measure the existing nut to see whether you need a 42mm or 43mm wide nut. It needs to be the same 'Gibson' style as the kit, and not a thinner 'Fender' style.
Pit Bull themselves sell useful luthier tools, which are similar prices to those on Amazon,etc, but you can choose just the ones you want/need.
https://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/...hier-tool-kit/
Keep posting your progress with pictures in the build diary, and if in any doubt, stop and ask a question before progressing. No build question is stupid. If you don't know or are unsure, ask. We're always glad to help if we can.
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Originally Posted by Simon Barden
