Bridge mounting holes are not centered on the pickups
I've been slowly working on my DGM-3Q kit (an SG clone with 3 humbuckers) that I purchased in Dec. 2021. I was looking at the bridge and the mounting holes today and I noticed that the pre-drilled holes for the bridge are not centered on the pickups routes. As the pics show, when I line a straight edge up with the right side edges of the pickup routes, the straight edge overhangs the right side bridge mount hole by about 1mm. When I do the same on the left side, there's about 2.5mm between the straight edge and the hole. So, it seems the bridge is out of line by about 3.5mm. I imagine this is going to cause some problems down the line.
This is a quilted maple veneer top, so to plug and redrill these holes will just look terrible. Anybody have thoughts? Should I ask for a replacement body? I've done a good bit of shaping work to this one already, but I don't want to keep going if this is going to be a show stopper later.
Bridge holes in the wrong place is something that occasionally happens on the kits, but sometimes appearances can be deceptive.
Whilst the pickup routs look evenly spaced either side of the neck pocket, the mist important alignment is the bridge with the neck centreline.
I’d clamp the neck in position and fit the bridge temporarily using masking tape wrapped round the bridge studs (don’t fit the splined inserts, just remove the height adjusting posts and use them) so that the posts are held centred in the holes. Then put the bridge on top and run standard string or cotton over the bridge up to the nut for the two E string positions and see if they run evenly down the neck.
If not, take a photo, email Pit Bull and ask for a replacement kit. The necks are matched with the bodies so you need both replaced.
If they do, loosely fit the pickups and surrounds in their routs and see how they line up against the strings. You’ve normally got 1-2mm or so of sideways movement available here. It might all come together, or it might not. Again if not, photos and email Pit Bull fir a new kit, and get them to check it properly first.
The Chinese factory QA is pretty dire at the moment, but holes that are slightly out are difficult for Pit Bull to spot.
Thanks. In my heart, I knew all this. I was in panic mode a bit, as I have already put a ton of effort into planing and shaping this body, steaming out dents, etc.
The good news is, the bridge mounting holes are correctly lined up with the neck. Whew! The bad news is, the kit didn't come with a nut! I would have replaced it with a tusq nut anyway, but still...
The additional bad news is the pickups routes are slightly out of line, and are routed "upside down" in that the wide route for the wide pickup is up at the neck, not down by the bridge. The wide pickup also has the longest wire lead. Sigh. All of the pickups were very tight fits in their routes, but I was able to get in with a chisel and remove about 1.5mm of material from one side to give me a little wiggle room to get the pickups in line with the neck and bridge.
Thanks for the help. Onward and upward with this project!
(Another small note about this kit, the neck was supposed to have veneer on the headstock and an ebony fingerboard. It has neither. The headstock is plain mahogany and the fingerboard appears to be some variety of rosewood (or something that looks very much like it). QC on Pitbull kits has really gone downhill, I'm sad to say.)
Not all ebony is black. Only a smallish percentage of ebony is very dark wood. A lot looks quite like rosewood but it has a much smoother surface to it. I’ve got a pit bull ebony board that’s quite light in colour, nicely figured and very smooth. Rosewood can have quite a few grain pits in it. I had a Brazilian rosewood board on a 1965 Gibson acoustic and that was very pitted.
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