DIB-1F Electric guitar kit.

[Animal]

Hi people,

First time poster.
First guitar build in over 20 years. First Pit Bull Guitar, the DIB-1F electric guitar kit.
The project has been coming along nicely for two weeks now.
Firstly, gotta say, I love the quality of everything in this kit. The neck fit is perfect. Everything dummy fit perfect.
It's got a Mahogany body and neck with a Flamed Maple Veneer on the face of the body and an Ebony fretboard.

More posts of progress to follow, with how I've done it and hopefully some pics..

Also, how good is this forum!?!
So much Knowledge and inspiration on here!
Some truly amazing talent out there.

[McCreed]

Welcome. Look forward to seeing your build!

[Animal]

Thank you, McCreed.

[Animal]

Tonight I have essentially finished the neck and head stock.

What I've done is put a scallop on the bottom edge of the head stock, painted the face black and accented the scallop with gold.
I started off with a filler/ primer, block sand (x2), colour, block sand (x2) clear, block sand (x3) then a cut/polish with Meguiars Scratch X 2.0 then a nice Carnauba wax. similar thing with the truss rod cover. I accented the edges gold and kept the top black

Then there's the neck..
I decided to use Boiled Linseed Oil on my neck.
I heeded all safety videos on how to do this before I started.
In case you don't know, the used rags from applying the Boiled Linseed Oil mix can spontaneously combust. You need to dispose of any rags etc used safely. These can create a lot of heat as the chemicals oxidize and have burned houses down in the past, so PLEASE, use with caution!

So I sanded the neck, 240 grit, 600grit, 1200 grit.
Mixed the Boiled Linseed Oil with the Turps (50/50) wiped it on, with the grain.
Left it 24 hours in a warm dry room then wet sanded it (1500 grit) with a 75/25 mix of turps and Boiled linseed Oil.
I left that for three days in a nice warm, dry room then it was hardened nicely.
Nice smooth satin finish once dried.

So.. Pics or it didn't happen!.

[McCreed]

Nice. I like the headstock design with the black & gold.

[Trevor Davies]

Hi and welcome Animal.

The headstock is looking great.

[mrpearson]

that looks hot. nice work

[Animal]

Thank you guys.

So, Ive finally finished building this thing. I'm very happy with how it's turned out.

I guess I talk about the body work first..

I stained the flamed maple face with Feast Watson Golden Teak coloured wood stain diluted with their colour reducer
applied with a rag. For the edge fade in, I diluted their Cedar coloured wood stain with their colour reducer and carefully faded it in.
I had to do about 3 passes of both colours to get the saturation I wanted. I let it dry for a day between applications.

That started out with a 240 grit sand with a sanding block on the flat surfaces. That was followed by a 400 grit sand and then
800 grit in the same manor. Next I masked off the binding and the face then I made a paste with some Timbermate wood filler (Mahogany) from Bunnings and applied it with a rag to only the back and edges of the body.
Once dried I sanded it off with 800 grit and a sanding block.

For the front I did sand (against PitBull's advice, sorry guys!) very lightly with a 800 grit then 1200 grit. Once.
But, again, the emphasis on VERY lightly! Their veneer is pretty good as is, to be honest.
I stained the flamed maple face with Feast Watson Golden Teak coloured wood stain diluted with their colour reducer
applied with a rag. For the edge fade in, I diluted their Cedar coloured wood stain with their colour reducer and carefully faded it in.
I had to do about 3 passes of both colours to get the saturation I wanted. I let it dry for a day between applications.

Then came the clear coats..
I put 12 coats on the back and edges and 14 on the face.

I started out with the edges and back.
The first two were wet coats with no sanding in between.
Then it was an 800 grit wet sand with sanding block and another coat of clear. Starting off with a mist coat.
I leave it a few minutes to get tacky then apply a good wet coat.
I let that dry for a few days then gave it another wet sand with 1200 / 1500 / 200 grit. Then I let that dry, wiped it
down with Prepwash. Let that dry, then repeat the last wet coat process until i was happy with the surface and sheen.
The front was done much the same, except with 3 good wet coats to start off.

Once it was all dry I got my buffer out and got stuck into it with some Meguiar's scratch x 2.0 and once nice and
smooth and shiny, I hit it with a good Carnauba wax.

Then I decided to switch out the standard humbucker pickups with Artist Bullbucker pickups.
(was put onto them by a work colleague)

Next up was fitting all the electrics and wiring. The cavities were lined with the copper tape. I added a small solder joint
wherever they overlapped to make sure they all earthed. That also makes a good earthing point between cavities with a
few extra wires. Once it was all done, tested and good to go it was onto fitting the bridge and neck.

Everything was pre-drilled perfectly. The neck was a perfect fit. The bridge also, easy to fit.
It's probably worth noting, I always put some bees wax on the screws before screwing them into timber.

Then it was strings on.
Setting up the action and inotation currently. The neck seems to have settled in nicely after a few days with strings on it.

And, the moment of truth, the pics.

I hope you all like what I've come up with.

[McCreed]

Great burst there! Nice colour choices.
Did you use acrylic lacquer for the clear coat?

[Trevor Davies]

+1 for great colour choices. Great finish also. Well done. That is a lovely looking guitar.