First scratch build

[Stuart D]

Well after about two and half weeks, it was time to do some level sanding and a polish. Again, familiar territory for Pitbullers so I didn't take many pics. Wet sanded with 1000, until it was level (ish) and then carried on gently with 1500, 2000 and 2500.

I've used Farecla products before on boats and found them ok, so I broke out Amazon again and purchased some Farecla G10 finishing compound, which came with a buffing pad that fitted on my sander, Started off gently then increased the speed a bit and ended up with a fairly nice finish (in my opinion). Little bit glossier than I was going for, but glass smooth to the touch.

[Stuart D]

Now time for the wiring. I learnt two things doing this. One - soldering is a perishable skill, secondly - two pairs of glasses means I need another eye test!

I had to go and practice soldering some joints first and eventually got to the stage where I could attach the bits together. I stripped out an old mains lead - as you can see from the colours! It's probably a little heavy duty for the tiny current but it's all I had.

I followed the Seymour Duncan diagram which wasn't too difficult. The soldering was ... ok. In hindsight the wires look a bit of mess as they are all intertwined with each other and were soldered like that. The cavity - which I thought was quite large when I did it, turned out to be quite small. The black wire is the pickup wire, yellow and green (earth in UK) is the bridge ground wire and the blue and brown - tip and ground.



Still I tested it with an amp and it all works so all good. Drilled some holes for the cavity cover and it was all hidden. Unfortunately I didn't have the right screws as two of them (or one) are different, so I'll need to replace them. Looks ok though.

[Stuart D]

Finally it was time to put it all together. Attached the pickup with foam base and the jack socket, strap holders and then the bridge (with the bridge wire - only just remembered to strip the end of it!) and put the tuners on the neck, with a string tree, strung it up and voila.

I'm calling it finished.

[Stuart D]

Actually I was bit premature calling it finished. When I came to play it after doing a basic setup, it turned out that there were a few buzzy frets. I ended up having to tape up the neck and redo the frets. I had to do this on the Pitbull build as well, so I'm obviously not doing it right first time.

Anyway, after having spent yesterday doing this, adjusting the neck relief, filing down the nut slots, getting the action reasonable and doing the intonation (surprisingly close straight out the box), it now plays really nicely.

The sound is awesome - very impressed with the SD pickup. I have to say it's one of the best things about it and the sustain is excellent (of less importance on a bass but it's nice to have). A really nice growly sound for the low notes which is what I was after. Seems much louder than the other guitars I have and I don't really need to adjust the pickup height. I'm thinking of swapping out the Pitbull pickup on my P Bass which is a little weedy, to a Seymour Duncan 1/4 pounder.

The hardware is all Gotoh stuff and it tunes up up perfectly and easily. I've decided it's definitely worth spending a little more on the components and I wish I had done on my Pitbull build now. (Not really news to most I imagine, but I got there in the end!)

It will settle down after a few weeks so I'll dial in the setup a little more then, though it's pretty close to how I like it as it is now.

All in all I'm very happy with it. It's not perfect by any means. I don't need a 24 fret neck and I can't reach much above the 20th anyway - though due to the guitar design, the 24 frets makes the neck pocket longer and (in my mind) more stable. I guess I could have gone for a shorter scale (It's 34") but I wanted to keep that part fairly standard.

Also the tone control isn't as effective as on other guitars. Don't know if that's down to the condenser choice, but I'll live with it for a while and see how I get on. I don't use it a huge amount anyway, I use the amp controls more, however I don't suppose it's hard to swap it out for another one.

Definitely learnt some stuff for the next one! And there will be another. The kick out of building the whole thing from scratch (and the body from an old mantlepiece) is just fantastic and I really enjoyed the whole process - pretty much from start to finish - and the fact that it's nice to play (eventually!) is great. Taking it to a couple of rehearsals this coming week so I'll test it with some Hendrix/Cream covers.

Treating myself to a Triton belt/bobbin sander as a treat for finishing it!

[Toolman76]

What an elegant beast! That thing is beautiful!!

[dozymuppet]

That's come up very nicely. Well done.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

[Stuart D]

Thanks guys. I’m very pleased with it. Spent a couple of hours playing it this evening and it really is easy to play. The action needs dropping a touch - not for playing but just to get a little rasp. I’ll leave it a month or so.

[blinddrew]

Lovely work there Stuart!

[McCreed]

Looks great Stuart. Lovely finish!

[Simon Barden]

Really great first build!

Every time i see the pictures I keep getting reminded of my first bass. a mid-70s short scale Wilson (vaguely related to Burns). Apart from the colour, and a vaguely similar body shape, they are pretty different, but still it keeps reminding me of it.