TL Kit - a few issues, help please!

[patwhit14]

Hi Guys, I have received my first kit (of many I assume!) and I've run into a couple of issues.

I have fit the neck and am attempting to do a trial fit of the pickguard and also the bridge to get the intonation right before I disassemble to finish the wood.

First of all, the pickguard does not fit correctly, I have found that when it is in the correct position it has overhang over the neck pocket so I cannot then fit the neck. This is not a huge issue as I assume I'll just need to trim the pickguard a little bit.

The more pressing issue currently is with the bridge. The measurement from the inside of the nut to the middle of the 12th fret is 324.5mm. To achieve this measurement to the bridge saddle, the bridge will need to move forward (towards the neck) around 5mm at least.

The bridge is as far forward as possible at the moment and hard up against the hole which is cut for the pickup. There is also some pre drilled holes in the body for the bridge (only 3 for some reason?) which are not in the correct spot. Not sure if this is normal.

So my question is, how do I achieve the correct bridge position, it seems to me like the hole for the bridge is not in the correct position?

I have some photos but cannot see how to upload them, although I am posting from my phone so maybe I need to jump on the computer to do so.

Thanks,

Pat

[patwhit14]

OK, I have attached some photos below. The line from top to bottom on the body is the correct measurement of the saddle (324.5mm). The bridge cannot be moved towards the neck any further as it is hard up against the side of the hole which is cut for the pickup.

[RocknRolf]

Hi Patwhit,

The bridge position is an error on this kit, however relatively easy to fix. That being said I cannot see from your pictures whether you have the space to route an extra couple of mm forward and still cover it with the bridge. Last week there was someone else with a TL asking the same question, also there was heaps of info in that thread re intonation, well worth having a look. When I'm behind my computer I'll drop the link.

I had to route the bridge cavity too on my TL and used a router, but I hear plenty of people on here having success with a dremel/rotary tool and sand drums.

On the pick guard, please share some pics. It would be good to revisit the pick guard when you have the bridge position figured out to see if it still all lines out.

[RocknRolf]

Here you go, have a read, I am sure this will answer a lot of your questions

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ad.php?t=10559

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...123&viewfull=1

[patwhit14]

Thanks so much for the response. I think there is plenty of room to cut a little extra room for the bridge. I have attached another photo which shows a couple of things - first of all that when the bridge is in the correct position it will comfortably cover the entire hole for the pickup (which is good news), and secondly that the top hole (when looking at the photo) appears to be in the correct position to fit the bridge.

The bottom hole is off by almost the diameter of the hole. Am I right to assume that I should plug this hole and drill a new hole to fit the bridge or will this not be a strong solution? Would it be best to use an epoxy or something to fill this hole?

[patwhit14]

Here you go, have a read, I am sure this will answer a lot of your questions

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ad.php?t=10559

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...123&viewfull=1

Fantastic, thanks mate - will have a read now!

[Simon Barden]

I'd ignore the 3 drilled holes, they are obviously wrong.

Assuming this is a DTL-1 (it really helps us to help you if you give the full kit name as there are so many variants), looking at the kit photos, the chrome version of the bridge does have a 3-hole fitting. So why the factory don't supply the 3-hole version in gold I don't know! But that would seem why you have 3 holes instead of 4, but that doesn't help you. If you don't want to return the kit because of this, then as the holes will be covered by the bridge baseplate, I'd probably drill the holes out to a size where they can be filled with hardwood dowels (the smallest you can buy) and glue those in, chisel and sand the end of the dowels flat, and then drill more holes once you've positioned the bridge.

You can happily move the top E/B saddle to the end of the adjustment screw if necessary. You want to measure the scale length from the front edge of the nut's top E slot to the centre of the top E saddle in one go, not from the 12th fret as you can easily compound errors. Ideally use a 1m metal rule to measure. The top E/B saddle will probably end up intonated 1mm further back than this, but you want to be able to achieve the full scale length. The scale length should really be 25.5" or 647.7mm, so your measured 324.5mm from the 12th fret is slightly too long, but that does mean that the saddle needs to come even further forwards

It looks like you've marked the scale length on the body wood in pencil, but it's worth double checking if you haven't used a single measurement. Once you are totally convinced that you've measured correctly, then I'd agree that the pickup cavity has been routed in the wrong place. It's often a tight fit, and enlarging the rout forwards by a couple of mm can help to fit in aftermarket pickups with bigger baseplates, but yours looks to be at least 5mm out maybe more. But I'd wind the E/B saddle all the way to the end of the adjustment screw, just to see where that gets you in terms of the pickup fitting the cavity. You should get a couple of extra mm from the looks of it, but I doubt it will be enough.

Can you take a picture of the scratchplate and the overhang? This isn't a problem I've read about on these kits before, there's normally a small gap which is covered by the 22nd fret overhang. But the neck pocket is also typically much larger rectangular rout on the TL kits, allowing more latitude in neck pickup positioning when attached to the pickguard.

If you have a router, it's quite easy to use a small diameter bit with a bottom bearing to rout the pickguard to fit the neck cavity profile. You can screw the pickguard in its final position, or use double sided tape, run the router round and you get a great match.

Definitely email Pit Bull about these faults, but there may not be a lot they can do about giving you a suitable replacement, especially with gold hardware, if all their current kits have been made identically.

[Rodc]

As I mentioned before in another post, the kit I received needed a 3mm shim in the neck pocket as well. I ordered a Wilkinson bridge for my kit and when I assembled it before paint the saddles were sitting on the bridge plate and the strings were still to high. For the neck to sit relatively square in the neck pocket the whole bridge assembly needed to be moved over to the controls route about 3 mm. That was using the 2 E strings as guides.
Like everyone else's, the pickup route needed some work as well. I thought it was just my kit until I saw a post here last week or so back.