Hi folks,
I have finally received my TL-1 kit today.
I was really excited to open it up and have a first feel of it. Reading your experiences was actually pumping my confidence up about the quality of the whole thing.
At first glance and hand inspection the piece of wood for the body is really nice, and so is the neck. No scratches, dents or any major flaw.
Then after having a closer look, I don't know what to think...
First think I notice is that the maple fretboard thickness has major discrepancies. Closer to the nut it is just about 4mm and at the bottom of the neck it is about 2.5mm. That one is pretty obvious. I am not too sure whether this is expected.
Then the frets... There are a couple of frets for which I could question how they were installed. There is a clear gap underneath those few frets and the maple fretboard, as if there is some missing material on the fret itself. And the gluing of the fretboard at the bottom of the neck looks suspicious.
The neck pocket is too narrow by a couple of mm, but as I understand it this happens quite often. And I guess sanding would solve this.
Sanding the top side of the pocket seems to be the only way to proceed though on a TL-1 neck pocket?
The holes for the neck plate are quite misaligned. If you want to have the drilled holes match the wholes on the plate than you end up with a tilted plate.
Can this be solved as aesthetically it is not really nice?
The bridge came dirty and scratched... And the pickguard, err... I don't know. It could turn out fine with a bit of wiggle even though not ideal.
I can't find the screws for the control plate. Given the openings it seems like we're talking about the same screws as for the bridge, which I only have 5 pieces for the bridge itself. However I have 10 pickguard screws for 8 pilot holes.
Could it be that the control plate uses the same screws as the pickguard?
The neck pocket and those frets especially are my main concern now.
What do you guys think?
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