First Build -- PB kit

[Simon Barden]

Yes, the outer skin on the basswood ply used by the factories for a lot of the hollow and semi-hollow kits is almost always a very nicely figured single piece of basswood. Unfortunately you don't get quite the same uniform quality of wood on the solid bodied kits. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes it's very plain or a selection of very dissimilar patterns.

[PB4ME]

This has been interesting to read, and there has been a lot of good advice.

One thing that I would suggest is showing pics of the body to Adam. The cost of return is high, but he may give you a discount on something to offset the poor quality of the body. One thing I would suggest if you purchase one in the future is to ask Adam to take a look at what they send you before you get it. This won't catch everything, but would probably have caught whatever is going on with the horn.

Australians can send their kits back for free, I think, so the "check" is not as necessary, but he's been willing to do it for kits that go overseas. From hard experience I can tell you that the US kit suppliers and even high end suppliers like Warmoth will make you eat return shipping, and they typically will not go to the trouble of checking what they send before it goes in the mail.

Couple of thoughts about the finish. I think what Simon says about basswood is mostly true, but YMMV. This is a basswood back on an ES style bass:

Attachment 42447

I liked it so well that I just sanded lightly and clearcoated. I have also seen basswood with almost no figuring.

I also have a Fender Coronado with an Antigua finish. I have read that it was probably intended to be a "wildwood" top and back, but on some the glue used to attach binding stained the wood so that they could not finish clear. for that reason they developed the weird solid color burst. Ever since I have wondered how many solid color Fenders (and others) started off with clear. Not sure about this, but I can say with certainty that you can find a failed stain attempt under one of my builds ;-) I also have one successful stain as well where I had already picked out the solid color for if I botched the stain job.

On your build, it would be interesting to see what the "flaw" will look like if you do stain it. The conventional wisdom is that it's a flaw, and the conventional wisdom is usually right. If it sucks you can always paint a solid color.

On the other hand, I have a PB neck with an eye in it (not a birds eye). This would generally be considered a flaw, albeit one that does not affect the stability of the wood. I finished it clear anyway. I was pleasantly surprised by the chatoyancy it developed. It actually looks really cool.

Fender3X, You have hit on something that I had not considered. I can always attempt the sunburst and see how it turns out. If I don't like it, I can always paint over it, hopefully. I say hopefully as I am just starting to look at the various products that are available these days and there might be some step needed in order to transition from a botched stain job to a primer/paint job. I would assume a sand/seal/prime paint should do the trick. Again, my expectations are realistic , at least I hope so. I know this won't be a masterpiece by no stretch of the imagination. I have seen a few guitars where a clear finish appeals to me, but the wood has to "fit" that look IMHO. Everyone's taste is different. If this was my 4th or 5th build I am sure I would have much higher expectations on this project, but might also be looking at a higher quality kit at that point ( if there are any). I do hope it makes noise and is at least not embarrassing to show someone and admit I made it. (or assembled it to be politically correct). The embarrassment should come after they hear my playing! LOL. What was the ole saying about lipstick on a pig!

[PB4ME]

I'm really going by what the manufacturers generally do. Ash and maple have long been the preferred woods for Fender and Gibson for their decorative tops. Fender generally switched to alder for their solid colour bodies not that long after starting production because even then, good light swamp ash was getting hard to find, but they stuck to it for transparent, translucent and sunburst finishes where the grain could be seen.

Both ash and figured maple (flame, quilt etc.) will take either dark grain filling or dark staining well (and then rubbing back) to further highlight and accentuate the grain patterns. Most other standard guitar woods don't, so you generally get what you first see when looking at the grain.

The current shortage of ash in general due to disease has forced Fender to drop ash except on custom shop models, so they generally use alder or poplar now. You can still do a sunburst on alder (and they do), but the much finer and straighter grain pattern makes it far less interesting to look at than a highly patterned ash body.

Basswood is very soft (softer than alder) and varies between pretty bland looking and reasonably figured, but still makes decent sounding guitars. So as it's cheaper than alder, it's become a firm favourite for solid colour guitars, especially where there's a relatively hard finish like polyurethane or polyester applied. Typically a veneer layer is applied for sunbursts and other fancy finishes.

That's all pretty sweeping statement stuff, and there are any number of exceptions, which is why I believe in letting the wood decide what the best finish for it is as you may get a basswood guitar with some really good grain patterns that will look great with a clear or tinted finish.

But the factories don't spend any time matching up planks for body blanks for best effect, so on a multi-piece body you often get a bland piece of wood sandwiched between two highly patterned ones. Which makes a veneer topped body quite appealing, except that the factory workers seem to have no basic training in using glue and not getting it all over the veneer, so you are likely to have a large number of non-absorbent glue areas all over the veneer, which either ruins the finish or takes a lot of effort to remove with a glue remover.

The hardware is all generally useable and of a quality similar to that used on Squiers. On the basses, the tuners aren't as good as those supplied with guitars, and you may find that one or more are very stiff or loose to turn, or go stiff the loose, so I'd check the operation of those now. If they are all relatively smooth for a full rotation of the spindle, then they'll be fine.

Note that all the fixing screws are made from poor quality metal and the heads are prone to snapping off if the pilot hole isn't big enough. In my view, all the smaller screws are best replaced, especially if you do think of hardware upgrades, when you don't want screw heads snapping off when removing the old hardware..

I haven't used any of the kit hardware or electrics on my builds, that's all been replaced from day one. But it's not difficult to replace the kit hardware or electrics later on. Especially for a first build, it may be worth sticking with the kit hardware, seeing how it turns out and then deciding if you want better hardware or not. There may be some hole filling required to do so, but almost all holes should be hidden underneath bridge plates or pickguards.

Simon, I did read others statements pertaining to the poor quality of the screws and the tendency to snap off. Where are you sourcing new screws in the USA? I will check the tuners as you suggest also. I don't like the neck back plate, it has some kind of plastic frame it sits in. I may can toss that part of it, but I need to lay it all out and take a REAL GOOD look at it all. I have learned to sleep on it before making a rash decision. (and get other's opinions). Thank you again for your input!

[PB4ME]

Fender3X,
I just took a good look at that body and noticed it is 1-piece. Sweet! I'll trade ya 4 for 1! I think you made a good choice on that finish.

[fender3x]

Fender3X,
I just took a good look at that body and noticed it is 1-piece. Sweet! I'll trade ya 4 for 1! I think you made a good choice on that finish.

Ha! It's a finished bass now. But it's not on the market ;-)

Here in Florida, my local Ace Hardware or True Value Hardware seems to have the best selection on stainless steel screws. I just get a small box of any that I need. For specialty screws (like for a bolt on neck). If they don't have it, Amazon usually does. Just make sure you get stainless steel. This is particularly important, in my experience anyway, for screws that go into maple, because it's so hard. Those are the ones most prone to breaking... Neck screws and tuning machine screws particularly. With the rest the stainless is more to avoid rust in the Miami humidity.

[Simon Barden]

If your local hardware store doesn’t have a decent selection of suitable screws, then online suppliers of guitar hardware will carry suitable stock. Allparts and WD Music will certainly have them as should StewMac (Stewart MacDonald) and Guitarfetish. But there will undoubtedly be other guitar stores carrying suitable guitar-specific sized screws.

[PB4ME]

If your local hardware store doesn’t have a decent selection of suitable screws, then online suppliers of guitar hardware will carry suitable stock. Allparts and WD Music will certainly have them as should StewMac (Stewart MacDonald) and Guitarfetish. But there will undoubtedly be other guitar stores carrying suitable guitar-specific sized screws.

Thanks Simon, I know that sounded like a somewhat dumb question to most but I picked up a couple of vendors I did not know about!

[fender3x]

Thanks Simon, I know that sounded like a somewhat dumb question to most but I picked up a couple of vendors I did not know about!

Not dumb at all. If it weren't so easy to get crappy screws I wouldn't have thrown away so many of them ;-) Most of the screws that come even with decent hardware are crap.

[PB4ME]

Not dumb at all. If it weren't so easy to get crappy screws I wouldn't have thrown away so many of them ;-) Most of the screws that come even with decent hardware are crap.

Have you tried soap or wax on the threads first? Nothing more frustrating that breaking a screw off in something, rounding out the head, or having stainless nus & bolts seize up on you. Good thing they're going into wood! Who made the kit of the body you posted?

[Simon Barden]

Yes, we recommend waxing the threads first before screwing in, and drilling the right sized pilot holes whenever we can. But sometimes people do their screws before posting on here and checking, so then we get ‘how do I remove a broken screw’ post. A lot of people don’t realise how much harder maple is to screw into than say pine, which may have been their only previous woodworking experience.