Bareknuckle Super-Strat

Well, it's a couple of weeks since the man-cave fire incident. I dried my tears, collected together a few tools, and have managed to clean out a spot in the shed to create a new workspace, I bought a replacement electric drill and I'm now in a position to actually start building again.

A week after the accident, I found a box on my doorstep - an Ash super strat kit sent to me by Andy in the Pitbull Guitars forum as a pick-me-up after all the fire hassles. It was an amazing act, completely unexpected, and really choked me up. They really are an amazing bunch of guys and gals over there in the forum. The kit is actually a special order (not an off-the-shelf kit by any means), with no front cavity and only pickup and bridge routes.

A Pitbull Guitars Special-Order, Ash Super-Strat

Since it arrived I've been itching to get going on the kit, and today I managed to get a simple mock build together. I loosely positioned the bridge, ran the outside strings to test for neck straightness, and used my new electric drill to bolt the neck into place.

Neck looks straight in the pocket.

It all took less than 10 minutes with the new drill. Do you know I've never tightened neck bolts with the drill until today? Such a time saving, and no stripped screws! Anyway she's looking pretty sweet.

Neck bolted into place and looking good.

Given that the top of the guitar is so clean, I'm planning on leaving her a bare-knuckle build with no rings around the pickups and just bare wood as far as the eye can see. A real no-nonsense shredder.

The Ash grain on this 2 piece body is pretty good and should look great with some grain filling and stain. For a finish I was thinking ebony or walnut Timbermate in the grain, and a trans-black dye job over the top. I was also thinking it might be cool to add some "natural wood colour" hot-rod flames. As with my previous builds sporting hot-rod flames, the idea would be to mask off the flame sections with artists frisket. Then the stain would be applied, hoping that the masked off wood remains clean and untouched. Another option might be to mask off everything *except* the flames and seal those up good with Tru-Oil before trying to stain the rest of the body. Hmm, as this is completely new territory, I might have to actually spend some time testing these techniques!

First draft - hotrod flames.

Anyway, as you can, see I dummied up some flames to try to get a feel for how it would look on the body. I think the black/natural contrast could really work with this design and I'm really excited to give it a try. I must say, I do like how the flames look on the body. Time to start some testing while I get the body sanded and the grain filled. Stay tuned for test results!

Ash Mosrite: Unboxing

Well, the postie has been and gone this morning and left a spanking new kit on my doorstep. A special order from Adam and the lads at Pitbull Guitars, it's an MKA-2 - the version of their popular MK-2 Mosrite kit with a 2-piece ash body. I ordered this bad boy the minute I opened up my original basswood MK-2 kit, and although it has taken a couple of months to arrive, it has been well worth the wait!

Unboxing time - I'm still like a kid in a candy store!

The kit comes complete with a solid ash body, a 23-fret rock maple neck (with the important zeroth fret and Mosrite headstock shape), and an authentically shaped pickguard. The stock configuration is powered by a single coil at the bridge position, and a Chinese mini-hum at the neck position. Exactly the same as the MK-2 kit.

With the box open, I could get a good look at the slabs of wood that I had purchased. The body is made up of a couple of nice pieces of ash with a subtle vertical grain pattern. To be honest, I wouldn't have said no to a little more of that beautiful ash grain - but hey, that's the luck of the draw.

The body is a two piece, subtly grained slab of ash.

The neck on the other hand has the most grain I think I have ever seen in a piece of rock maple, with many vertical grain lines to be seen all over the headstock

Now that's some grain for a rock maple neck!

The craftsmanship on both the body and the neck are spot on with no nicks, dents or even glue spots in evidence. That's great news since I am planning a tobacco burst for this sucker. The neck fit is also nice and tight which will give me maximum sustain once this baby is bolted together.

You might remember that I recently purchased a roller bridge and Xtrem tremolo system for my Thinline Cabronita build. I would dearly love to get a tremolo onto this build too - it would just look so damn good. Here is a mockup with the Xtrem and roller bridge in place. It looks awesome if I do say so myself.

Xtrem tremolo and roller bridge positioned on the Mosrite body - cool as!

Unfortunately there is a problem with that plan. The problem is that the post holes for the stop-bar have come pre-drilled. I was hoping that these holes would be such that the tremolo would hide them - all I would have to do is fill them with dowel and finish right over them. Unfortunately no such luck with the Xtrem. The holes are too far apart for the tremolo to hide them completely. On a stained finish they are going to look awful.

Another option is a Bigsby B5/V5 combination. This will attach straight into the stop bar post holes perfectly, but at around $200 AUD a set (and then some) I'm still considering my options. I may have to finish the guitar sans tremolo (using the original stop bar for now) and purchase the B5/V5 when I have the cash.

Anyway, I'll keep my eye out for other tremolo options while I complete the mock build. For this kit that really only amounts to bolting the neck in place, so in no time at all I will be sanding this beast. Fun times!