Ash Les Paul: Looks Great, Sounds Even Better

Well, my rock beast is finally complete! This morning I filed a new bone nut and got the action at the 1st fret as close to perfect as I dared to go. Whether or not I could have gone down any further, playing open chords now feels oh-so-sweet! With the nut sorted, I focused next on the bridge height and brought it down until just before the height where the strings started to buzz. There's still the slightest amount of buzz on the E and A strings, but it helps playability so much and its not enough to come through to the amp. All along the neck, the strings are now nice and low on the fretboard and she feels really, really wonderful to play!

With the action sorted, on went the truss rod cover and that was the entire build completed. What do you guys out there in inter-web land think? Compared to my Epiphone Les Paul Standard that I've had for 20 years, she doesn't even compare in look or in playability. Colortone dye + Tru-Oil really is a simple and effective means to obtain a professional looking finish cheaply and easily! I recommend anyone out there thinking about finishing their own guitar to give this combo a try.

I really love the ash veneer on this Pitbull kit. Filling the ash grain with Walnut Timbermate was definitely the right decision - especially with the Tobacco burst over the top. It has really popped the grain beautifully and helps to spread the dark tobacco theme out over the entire top. The dark filled grain even makes the wood look a little scorched don't you think? Maybe it's just me ;) .

How about those Entwistle zebra pickups - they just scream ROCK! It makes this LP look a bit like the Slash signature model from Gibson. You can't get more rock than that!

In terms of the headstock, I really like the way the burst headstock complements the body so well. When I first did the headstock I had serious doubts that it was good enough, but now I wouldn't change a thing.

The grain on the sides and rear of the body also looks great with the Walnut Timbermate fill. It has come up a little like Mahogany in that respect. It's really allowed what figure there was in the body pieces to come to the fore, even though there wasn't much there to begin with.

The Entwistle HDN pickups are the hotest pickup I've ever heard. I've been playing the guitar all day, and I've found that for my playing style the sweet spot volume-wise is about 7 on both the knobs. I've never needed to adjust the volume on a guitar before! When the volume is at 10, the guitar really drives the amp - the neck pickup especially. If I could squeal lead notes, then this baby would be on fire. Even better, lifting the volume knobs performs a coil tap on each pickup, modifying the sound of the guitar to give that more hollow single-coil sound. Just another awesome aspect to these amazing pickups.

All in all this LPA-1 is an amazing kit from Pitbull Guitars (Build Your Own Guitars), and I think I've done it justice. The set neck went on perfectly without issue or shim, and the resulting neck height is exactly matched to the height of the tune-o-matic bridge. For a perfect action, the bridge is raised about 2mm from it's lowest setting. No shim, and no bridge sticking out off the body. The end result of all my ministrations looks amazing (in my humble opinion) and is a real pleasure to play.

I'll try to get a sound demo recorded in the coming days - just as soon as I learn a song that will do this baby justice!

Stone Roses Tribute: Fret Level and Re-dressing

While I'm waiting for my oval jack plate and output jack to arrive in the mail, it's time I did a fret level on the Stone Roses Tribute build in readiness to string her up and let loose with some sweet tunes. After straightening the neck with the truss-rod, I protected the frets with some painters tape and marked the top of each fret with a sharpie.

I could then use my levelling beam - coated with 320 grit adhesive sandpaper - to sand all the frets until every fret had a strip of sharpie removed from its top edge. Some of the frets came right down let me tell you!

I then went on and did an additional level on the last 7 frets at an angle down towards the pickups. To do this I laid 3 pieces of tape across the 7th fret and used this as a rest for the end of my short levelling beam. Sanding this way creates a ramp down for the very last frets and allows a much lower action to be achieved.

With all the levelling done, I proceeded to use my trusty fret files to re-crown each of them. I use a combination of el-cheapo Double-edge Fret File from Stewmac and a Little Bone file from Rectify Master. Each has it's place depending on which fret you are re-crowning. The Stewmac files are useless down near the pickups if there are horns on the guitar as there are in this case. Before using the files to re-crown, I re-applied the sharpie to each fret as a guide to how much material I was taking off each side. You don't want to file so far that you change the height of the fret!

Anyway soon the frets were re-crowned and polished to a chrome lustre. Beautiful! I then gave the neck a soak of Dr Duck's Axe Wax and it looks spectacular.

Finally, the neck needed only a new bone nut to be perfect. With my trusty Stewmac nut files and my bench sander I soon made quick work of the new nut. The action at the nut is really nice now and the whole neck feels great.

With the nut superglued in place, it was time to string her up and apply my beautiful custom truss rod cover. I received the decal for the cover from Andy at City Signs and Print in SA yesterday and couldn't wait to apply it. It looks absolutely amazing and is the perfect cap to a wonderful

Now just that output jack to go and I can call this worthy tribute guitar finished! It's looking so awesome I'm lost for words. Can't wait to get her strapped on and noodle away!

Solid Body PRS: A Bone Nut & Ramping the Last Few Frets

Well, I've been enjoying the PRS for a week of two now. It's really nice to play, even with the standard plastic nut. The fretboard inlay stickers are staying put (I haven't even noticed they are there) and it really is a beautiful instrument under the fingers.

To improve the action still further, two more tasks remained to get this axe into silky smooth territory. Firstly, as always, new a bone nut would allow me to get the string height at the top of the fretboard down to it's absolute minimum. The nut was quickly shaped and the nut slots painstakingly filed until the correct height at the 1st fret was achieved. Open chords are now wonderful to play :).

Along with the nut, I used my new 8" sanding beam to level a "ramp" into the last 6 frets at the end of the fretboard. Kudos to Fletcher guitars and their scratch build YouTube series for tips on performing this addition to standard fret levelling. The result is a much lower string action!

Basically you lay 3 layers of tape across the 6th fret up from the end of the fretboard and then sand the remaining frets with the beam resting on the taped (raised) one. The end of the beam resting on the taped fret does not have any sand paper stuck to it so that it can glide on top of it easily. The result is a "ramp" down to the end of the fretboard, reducing buzz from these frets as the string action comes down.

She's now even more spectacular to play. The action is the lowest out of any of the guitars I have put together to date, and I really love the feel of the fretboard. A little Dr Ducks axe wax, and a new set of D'Addario extra light strings, and she's now as shredable as she's ever likely to be.

Les Paul Florentine: Sound Demo

OK, so for those of you interested in how this beat sounds with the semi-hollow body and the GFS Dream 180 pickups, I have done a quick sound demo. Please excuse the crap playing. The guitar is being played through a Fender Reverb amplifier with no additional pedals or effects other than those provided by the amp itself.


In addition to the Dream 180s, I have added a bone nut, switchcraft jack and 3-way switch, CTS pots and orange-drop caps. The entire demo is with the tone all the way up.

I gotta say, I love the way this baby sounds. Quite a large tonal range to play with, and the light body fells great in the hands. It looks so awesome, and sounds so good, I'm sorely tempted to make myself another one!

I've still got the custom truss-rod cover to go before I call this one completely finished. Just waiting on some supplies from eBay!! 

Les Paul Florentine: A New Toy for a Better Nut?

Today I worked on a new bone nut for the Florentine build. It was the first time I got to use a new toy - the Stewmac "Safe Slot Nut Guard". In the past I have found it hard to hold and bend a stack of feeler guages against the fretboard radius by hand while tracing lines on my nut blank. This little tool from Stewmac seemed to be the answer to this problem, holding gauges firmly against the fretboard and thereby leaving my hands free to wield my pencil with confidence.

Unfortunately, following Stewmac's own nut making guide, although I was able to draw the first line at fret height + 0.030, adding another 0.045 for the thickest E string for the next line meant a stack of feeler gauges that was now too fat to fit the tool's slots. Talk about disapointing!! With slots just a few microns bigger, this would have been a perfect tool. Bad luck Stewmac.

Les Paul Jnr Double Cut: Sound Demo

OK, so for those of you interested in how this little rocker sounds, I have done a quick sound demo. Please excuse the crap playing and the snare in the background. Unfortunately I forgot to turn the snare off before recording. The guitar is being played through a Fender Reverb amplifier with no additional pedals or effects other than those provided by the amp itself.


Remember, what you are hearing is the stock pickup straight from the Pitbull kit. I have added a bone nut, but apart from that the sustain and the tone comes from all stock parts. The majority of the demo is with the tone circuit bypassed completely so you are hearing the P90 in all it's glory. Although I added an orange-drop cap, most of the time it isn't even in the mix.

I gotta say, I love the way this baby sounds, and it really is a dream to play! That stock P90 really is a surprise. I really didn't expect the quality (and quantity!) of sound that this thing pumps out!

Les Paul Jnr Double Cut: It's Finished!

Well, the Les Paul Jnr Double Cut was finally finished today - Woohoo!! I am very happy with how this one came out. In terms of the wiring mods discussed previously in this blog, in the end I used only a single push-pull pot to bypass the tone circuit. The tone bypass is the default - you have to pull the tone pot up (out) to enable the tone. In the down position you get the full dynamic range of the P90 without any modifications.

Apart from the custom scratchplate & truss-rod cover, only a small number of further changes were made above and beyond the stock Pitbull kit. I added an Orange-drop tone cap to the aforementioned push-pull tone pot for the tone circuit, and added a switchcraft output jack with an oval base plate. Lastly, a pair of black speed knobs finished off the look.

I couldn't be happier with how she has turned out. Even though the tuners, bridge and P90 are all stock standard from the Pitbull kit, she plays very nicely indeed with plenty of grunt and oodles of sustain. I would still like to get a P90 from GFS for this bad boy when funds become available, but what's there now sounds amazingly good anyway (go figure!). With a bone nut and the action dialed in, she's low to the deck and silky smooth! Man, I can't put this baby down - especially with the distortion cranked way up! Heaven..