I have finished all that needs to be done for this one today. I even recorded a shitty video of me doing some scales on a clean and a crunch channel on a cheapie modelling amp.
Kit:- the nice PBG upgraded one here...
https://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/...hardware-copy/
Hardware from PBG:-
Set of Grover locking chrome tuners and a bone nut at the time of purchase. EDIT:- Forgot about the set of noiseless Entwistle pickups.
Parts:-
Push pull Bourns pot in the volume position. 2 x bourns pots in the tones position. OIP Black Vitamin Capacitor. Switchcraft Jack socket. CRL five position switch.
White knobs to suit CRL five position blade switch, end of tremolo, 1 volume knob and two tone knobs.
Wilkinson WVP6 oval shaped screw holes tremolo bridge....straight drop in change with PBG bridge cut out.
2 x barrel string-trees.
Finish and Prep:-
Body and neck sanded to 180 grit and both hit with one coat of Cedar/Blackwood Timbermate. (Fingerboard not done.)
Body stained with three colours of Japan Brown, Jarrah, and Golden Teak Feast Watson Prooftint alcohol based stains.
Body then had four coats of Feast Watson Fine Buffing Oil in total. Left to hang for two weeks eventually.
Three coats of hand rubbed Gillys Cabinetmakers Wax...and lots of buffing. Left to hang for two weeks. Then three coats total of Gillys Carnauba Polish and even more rag based hand buffing.
Fretboard received three coats of Fine Buffing Oil, then three coats of Cabinetmakers Wax and two coats of Carnauba Polish.
Neck:-
Back of neck prepared the same way as the body. Front of headstock sanded and filled with timbermate....then decals applied and about ten coats of Tru Oil laid over the face of the headstock.
Back of neck and face of headstock finished with a number of coats of Carnauba Polish and buffed a lot.
Setup:-
As usual the setup on a tremolo start was crap.....still don't like them....but I like the options they give.
The rear of the bridge floats at 3/32 of an inch above the deck. This gives you a full step lower and a 1/2 step higher on the trem.
The bridge saddles height matches the radius and the neck is shimmed with two pieces of business card on top of each other at the headstock end. This lifted the fingerboard up and left me with some adjustment in the bridge saddles.
The strings were changed today from the kit strings to the Ernie Ball strings that came along as well. I was amazed to have to adjust things....then looked at the strings....they are like 08 to 42.....hmmm.
The bone nut was a drop in fit. The string height at the first fret is close enough for me. Once flattened the neck bent up to give 0.10 inch relief once strings applied.
I have string height of 3/64 to 4/64 across the fretboard at the 17th fret. Not too bad for an amateur like me. Pickups are set away from the strings at about 3mm on bass side and 2.5 on the treble side. No buzzing etc along the neck...only my fingers making bad noises.
A complete fret level, crowning and polishing was done. All ends of the frets filed and sanded. Edge of the fingerboard rolled and sanded. All hit with wax again and then one more carnuaba polish when done.
Intonation required adjustment on the fat E and Fat A string....the rest were good.
Issues:-
The Volume pot is push pull and the Seymour Duncan diagram for this was followed. The suggestion that a toggle switch may have been easier to use is probable closer to the mark. However, if the extra two sounds are not needed in a big hurry then the push pull volume pot is fine.
I found my missing tone connection and all is soldered good now.
The wiring diagrams on the net to give the bridge pickup a blend in the lower tone pot do interest me.....maybe later.
The pickups are very ringy like a telecaster even. My limited AMP setup skills are put to the test when I use a clean tone on the bridge pickup on the treble strings. The tone sustains extremely well....but the output is full of treble.
Drop the middles and trebles on the AMP...grab a chunk of Crunch or a Blues Amp Model and I like the sound. I love the spankiness of the fat strings in the slightly gainy Clean Tone and the bite they have in Crunch makes me smile.
The pickups make no noise at all. The pickups themselves and the worlds biggest collection of copper tape has seen to that. They are very impressive in that way.
Time for me to use this to make myself learn guitar to go with my average Bass playing.
McCreed especially for you......against my embarrassing wariness here is some video....just blues scales at the fifth fret in clean and crunch.
https://youtu.be/0kv3mwJMeJQ
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Originally Posted by wazkelly
