Hi everyone, my name is Eitan I'm a guitar teacher from Israel.
Recently I discovered the world of guitar kits, my 1st build was a Thomann strat kit which turned out way more good than I expected, I learned a lot with that build (fret leveling, nut making etc.).
Anyway, today I got my custom ordered Kit from Pit bull, there were a few errors in the specs but the customer service is really great and I got a nice discount, so I decided to go for it. Hope I'll get it right, this kit seems more challenging then the previous one.
Also maybe somone here will have an advice, it seems that the neck don't have screw holes so I need to do the aligment and drilling myself, didn't do this before, what is the best method considering I don't have a drill press?
Your Thomann kit turned out pretty good so I doubt you will have any trouble with the new one.
Assuming that your new kit is a bolt/screw on neck it probably came with a neck plate. Just position the plate, clamp the neck and the body together and use the neck plate as a guide to drill your holes, making sure that you don't drill too deep into the neck.
Don't worry too much about no drill press, there are plenty of us here (me included) that don't have one. Just try and hold the drill as vertical as you can. Wood is fairly forgiving.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you lubricate the screws before you tighten them up, especially for the first time. I just use candle wax, but there are probably better solutions out there.
You could drill the body and neck holes in one go, or you could drill the body holes first and then the neck ones, as the body holes will then act as a guide for the drill. But do clamp the body and neck together when drilling the neck holes.
As Robin says, use the neck plate as a guide. Look at pictures of other bolt-on neck joints to see where the neck plate fits in relation to the edges of the body.
I don't have a drill press, but I do have drill stand, which helps to keep the drill vertical.
There is also this sort of metal drill guide, which will also help keep the drill as vertical as possible and is useful for smaller items or where space is limited and a drill stand won't fit.
Both are useful tools.
The initial body and neck holes should be the same size, and the drill should be the diameter of the central solid part of the neck screws. Once you've drilled the neck holes, the body holes should be re-drilled out to the outer diameter of the neck screw threads, so the screw just fits in the hole without needing to be screwed in.
Here's a good video on why this should be done. Unfortunately, even big manufacturers rarely do this, but drilling out the body holes can give a much tighter neck join.
Hello from Israel
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