SGs SG

[Scott J.]

The First Build!

Yeee Haaa!!! ... the big day's finally come and the postie had a box with a big PitBull Guitar label on it (lucky for him it wasn't for anyone else!).

Within about 30 seconds there was a blizzard of packing paper all over the place and amid a growing "pool of drool" I was assembling all the constituent parts for a stock-take ... ah it was all there! (who says I've ever grown up? ... or plan to! )

Time for some serious scrutiny and the long awaited dry-build ... nah, to hell with it! fun before business - the dry build then the scrutineering.

Ah 'twas lovely seeing it all come together, a thing of beauty 8-) .. and then realising it would many,many hours of work over the next several weeks 8O before I saw it in the same shape again

Went together a treat - a superbly tight fit on the neck and nearly all the bits fit just as one would expect them to (I'll get to the minor offenders later) ... it was just shame to have to take it apart (but then I'm sure we've all had the same experience on our first build! )

[Brendan]

Scott - great to see - know that feeling when you get home and there's a brown cardboard box waiting for you... hope for many fun hours and that you've got a fault free guitar. Looks like it all goes together nicely.

Rock on!

[Scott J.]

The Plan:

This will be an almost completely stock build to begin with ... the only immediate change will be the nut (it'll be swapped-out for bone).

Initially it was to be in Carmine Gypsy but after conversations with the Guru (DB) I decided on as rich a Flamenco Cherry as I can get it for both body and neck ... and hopefully a nice ebony cap for the face of the headstock

... other than that it'll be "as it came" (with a p/up upgrade sometime in the future if I think it needs it)

But now its here and in my grubby little hands, we're rolling ... on with the scrutiny.

The Scrutiny:

Very surprised at the condition of the body especially after reading some of the stories of "worm holes" and great gobs of filler! Needless to say I was more than happy that this one had no holes and no filler. The grain was fairly well regimented and defect free - "straight and clean" as they say. The only imperfections were two pin-head sized dings on the lower edge of the body no more than 0.25mm deep (which'll disappear with the second wipe of the sandpaper!)

The neck was little less perfect unfortunately but certainly nothing too much to worry about - maybe just some brain-time to figure out how to work it.

As the pictures show, there's ...
- a small amount of filler in the lower edge of the fret-board (easily dealt with)
- a bit of messy gluing around the nut and 9th fret (from the MoP dot inlay I guess)
- and (of most concern)is some quite noticeable scratching (with the grain) around 8th & 9th fret and a little across the grain on the 1st and 9th frets ... and some less concerning machining marks running almost the length of fret board

... however the rest of the neck and head was as clean and straight as the body.

I'll just need to figure out "how to/if I can" deal with the fret-board scratching without having to remove the frets ... anyone got suggestions!

Other than that there was only a slightly too-tight fit on the neck p/up cavity (1-2mm from the tail end of the cavity needs removing - no biggy!).

All-in-all a VERY happy camper who's already lodging an application with the "Committee of Ways & Means" (the missus) for the next kit (an EX-1 ... unless Adam brings in a "Ricky 4" - "who said Rickenbacker!! )

More pics and descriptions to come over the next few weeks.

[Tim]

Nice one Scott, The cherry flamenco is a great colour ,I used the cherry on my SG twin neck looks sweet, enjoy the build..

Tim

[Scott J.]

last scrutineering pic ... bit of a messy 1st fret

[Brendan]

From memory, DB posted some tips on sanding fretboards recently... Guess if you go up the grits you should be relatively fine - risk would be how thick the inlay dots are, though Tim has recently replaced his when he defretted the neck (check his recent posts)! Sure Gav and DB will be around soon to give the full blow by blow though so it'd be worth waiting. Make a start on the body!

Good luck...

[Scott J.]

Yep, just couldn't help myself ... have already started sanding ... to the tune of the "Volga Boatmen" (if any recall that old working tune!)

[keloooe]

Hey Scott, I remember when my LP-1 arrived here in the Pest Cave, I was at school when my mum said it was here so I was thinking about it for the next 90 minutes..... Got home, grabbed a knife, sliced the tape, then there was a mess on my bed, a big one....

[Gavin1393]

This was discussed in a thread just two days ago by DB and myself. Here is a synopsis of that discussion.

Give the "scratched" section a gentle rub with '0000' steel wool. If it doesn't solve the scratches issue, then proceed as DB suggests below:

You can get rid of those scratches by wrapping some sand paper around a six inch steel rule and carefully sand, following the radius.
Work your way up from 240 to 800grit then polish with fine steel wool.
You will end up with a super smooth fingerboard.

My suggestion for the smaller frets is to attach or wrap sandpaper around a Popsicle stick as opposed to the steel rule.
This should sort it out for you.

[Scott J.]

Well, after stealing away any spare hours from my studying to work on the SG, I thought it was about time to give an update ... and its coming along REALLY nicely!

After a total of 10-12 hours of sanding ... the body work was done ...