Ash Les Paul: Unboxing & Mockup

Today I started a new project - an awesome Ash Les Paul. It's a Pitbull Guitars LPA-1 kit and she looks a beaut! I've never built an LP before, and this looks to be a great starting point :). Right out of the box the kit looks great with a solid ash body and a one-piece ash veneer on the top. Both the top and the body display some really nice figure, and I can't wait to get some stain on it! 

As for the neck, the neck pocket fit is spot on with no gap on either side to be seen. The heel fits nice and snug in the pocket, and on the lower side the fretboard is sitting right down on the body. I'm very happy with the fit indeed.

In the past I've had mixed success with set neck builds. This has been mainly due to my own impatience, but I'm really hoping that this project will meet the high standard I set with my Solidbody PRS build. 

While the neck fit is perfect, the body does exhibit a couple of annoying glue spots under the binding, and there are quite severe machining marks all around the outside.

Nothing for it but to keep sanding away with 240 grit until all the machining marks are gone. I do hope there's some binding left when I'm finished! After sanding the body I'll hit the glue spots with a little stain to see if I need to get the wire brushes out. The fretboard also has some annoying little glue patches where it has obviously been filled. I guess I'll have to get a bit of fine wet and dry on to these as well.

Anyway, glue spots and machining marks not withstanding, I got the kit together for a mock build in next to no time. With the neck straight in the pocket, the bridge and stop-bar posts have been positioned correctly (phew) and the E strings travel straight up the fretboard. At it's lowest bridge height, the strings are on the deck at the 22nd fret so all in all she's looking pretty good for a straightforward assembly!

Before finishing starts in earnest, I am seriously considering routing a third "middle" humbucker cavity between the two existing cavities. I'm not sure what real use a middle humbucker would be "sonically", but I've always loved the look of 3-pickup LPs. On the other hand, since this is my first ever LP build, I might just keep it simple for now.

I'm also considering quite a radical dye job. I thought that something like the PRS "sandstorm" fade might look really great on this grain pattern. Something like this:

What do you think? Do you think it looks the business, or would I be better served with a simple honey burst?

Black Ash Telecaster: Tru-Oil Coats

After a relaxing 3 week holiday in Middle Earth, I have finally got back to the man cave! Feeling the pangs of withdrawal from my building addiction, I was immediately rushed to the man cave for a little guitar building therapy. Whew..!

Before I went away, I managed to sand the body of the black Ash Telecaster back with 180, 240 and 320 grit to remove the remainder of the glue spots mentioned in my previous post. Another coat of black Colortone dye was then applied and the glue spots all but disappeared. However, no matter how much I sanded, I just couldn't remove those small "grain" marks on the front of the body!

Leaving these marks for the moment, I applied a soak coat of Tru-Oil to the body followed by 5 more thin coats. I then applied two more thin coats of Tru-Oil with black Colortone dye (concentrate) mixed in. It turns out, at least in the case of black dye, that this works unbelievably well! In fact, the resulting mixture smelled remarkably like Wudtone. Hmm, I might be on to something there ;). The marks on the front of the body have been substantially reduced using the coloured oil and I'm pretty bloody happy with the result.

Anyway, back in the man cave today I lightly wet sanded the oil with 800 grit sand paper and applied two more thin coats of un-dyed Tru-Oil. The resulting finish is really starting to look good.

To be honest, I don't think the body is going to need much more. I really like the way the ash grain texture can still be seen and felt, and the semi-gloss finish really enhances this effect. Time to get started on the neck!

Black Ash Telecaster: Mock Build & Test Fit

Well I started a brand new project today - taking possession of a beautiful Ash Telecaster kit from Pitbull Guitars. This kit is their TLA-1 and the 4 piece body (thanks Tim!) that I've received sports some really lovely Ash grain. Just beautiful man.

The plan for this bad boy is a simple jet black finish, with the Ash grain still visible; both in a slight colour difference, and in the texture of the surface. I don't intend to pore fill at all, just colour and seal with Tru-Oil, so the natural Ash texture should come to the fore.

The mock-build went ahead smoothly. The neck was drilled and screwed in place without incident, and the strings are travelling well from the bridge up the neck to the nut. I'm not sure If I'm going to use a humbucker in the neck position or the traditional single coil and pickguard, so for the moment I'm assembling with a humbucker just to make sure the strings travel across the pole pieces correctly.

All in all I'm very happy with the quality of the kit and I can't wait to get started. The finish is going to be a very simple Colortone dye job with Tru-Oil as the sealing coat. It's been a while since I did such a simple Tru-Oil finish so I'm really excited about getting it done. From the other black Ash guitars I've seen, it should look killer when completed!

The next step is sanding, sanding, sanding and then a trace dye coat to make sure there are no glue marks or anything other blemishes. Onwards!!

James' Les Paul Jnr DC: Unboxing & Mock Up

I received a new guitar kit on my doorstep this morning - a new Les Paul Jnr Double Cut from Pitbull Guitars. This is a build for my friend James who has requested a spanking new Jnr in butterscotch and tortoiseshell. No worries James! I gotta say, I love this particular model of kit. It's simple and elegant in its design, is straightforward to assemble and finish, and requires minimal wiring. It's just a joy to build, and the resulting guitar is just so nice to play!

The kit came well boxed, with a very generous compliment of butterscotch Wudtone nestled inside. James has requested that both the body, neck and headstock be finished in the butterscotch, so thankfully Adam and the boys at Pitbull have furnished me with a full bottle - enough I hope to finish the job! The basswood body looks good with no obvious machining marks or dents. There's some nice figure in the basswood, especially on the front of the guitar. Unfortunately, there are three obvious glue spots on the back of the body, and these will need to be sanded out before the Wudtone goes on.

The neck is 22 frets with a fretboard made from a beautiful piece of rosewood. There's a very nice grain pattern along its length that will look amazing when conditioned with a little Dr Ducks Axe Wax! The back of the neck, like the body, is free from blemishes and dents; and will come up beautifully with the Wudtone applied.

With the body and neck out of the box, the first task before sanding can begin in earnest is to get the guitar assembled to make sure everything is where it should be and that the strings can be aligned correctly up the neck. The neck has quite a bit of play in the neck pocket, so some care was required to make sure the correct lateral angle was achieved to allow the two E strings to sit equidistant from their respective edge of the fretboard.

This achieved, the neck was clamped and the neck screw holes drilled. A transfer punch allowed the exact position of the neck holes to be transferred onto the back of the neck heel. A hand drill was then used to drill into the neck and the neck was screwed to the body (using a little linseed oil for lubrication) to check that everything was OK.

At the same time, I checked the neck for backwards angle to see whether a shim will be required at assembly time. All indications are that the neck and body has been machined correctly - the E strings travel from the wrap around bridge down the neck and at the bridge's lowest adjustment height sit flat in the first few frets. This will allow a good action to be achieved when this beast is finally strung up. I also checked the location of the single P90 pickup and the pole pieces seem to line up reasonably well with the strings. The P90 pole pieces are a little narrower in total than the width of the bridge, but the pickups route allows them to be centred under the strings.

Now, on with the sanding! Best results are achieved with Wudtone when sanding up to a maximum grit size of 240. Therefore, sanding at 180, 220 and 240 grits will be the go here. Stay tuned!

Mosrite Ventures Mk II: Mock Up and Test Fit

Well the mock build on the Johnny Ramone Mosrite is done. With a nice tight neck pocket, everything fit together like a dream with absolutely no wiggle room at all. What a quality kit this is turning out to be!

With the neck bolted into position, the E strings sit perfectly up the neck. No adjustment necessary.

That's all there is to report campers! When everything goes so smoothly, and fits together so damn easily, the news is often fairly bland. So it is this day! So without further ado, it's on to the finishing proper for this punk rock beast.

First job - sanding to 600 grit. Gabba Gabba Hey!

Surf Monster Telecaster: Test-Fit

Today I managed to complete the test-fit for the seafoam green telecaster I'm currently building.  As you may have read in the threads for my other kit builds, it is very important to get everything on your guitar kit fitting together nicely before you start the finishing process. If you skip this step, chances are you'll reach the assembly steps of the build with some woodworking that needs to be done. When that happens, say goodbye to the pristine finish you spent weeks getting perfect!

Anyhoo, the kit from Guitar Builder Store Australia went together without a hitch using the supplied bridge, scratchplate and control cover. There was no woodworking to be done at all!

In particular, the neck fit was very good, and no work needed to be done at the bottom of the neck pocket to better fit the neck heel. Awesome! Another surprise was the scratchplate which fit snuggly around the base of the neck; again without any adjustment necessary! All-in-all I'm very, very happy with how this kit has fit together. I can't fault it - kudos to GBSA!

With the neck screwed in, it was a very simple process to position the bridge to get the high and low E strings running straight up the neck to the nut and sitting equidistant over the neck and bridge pickups. The bridge pickup in particular aligned perfectly with the E strings sitting directly over their respective pole pieces. Brilliant!

With this done, it was a simple matter of drilling all the screw holes, tightening everything down, and I was done. Nothing to do now but to shape the headstock and then get the body ready for it's coat of seafoam green gloss acrylic.

I'm staying with all stock hardware on this one, including the pickups - something I've never done before. I can't wait to see how she plays! 

335 Semi-hollow Bass: Unboxing & Test Fit

It's been sitting on my shelf since November waiting for the right time to start, but now I'm excited about the 335 bass guitar kit that I've snagged from Pitbull Guitars.

It's an ESB-4 kit with a semi-hollow body, flame maple cap and maple back. (identical in most respects to the ES-1G/ES-1GT 6-string kit). The front of the body has 3-ply binding whilst the back has singe ply. Pretty standard for this style of guitar. It was on the basis of an enquiry from yours truly that Pitbull decided to stock this particular kit. I've been trying to source such a kit for a while, and Adam from Pitbull came through for me. It's a testament to their truly amazing customer service.

Since it was the first of ts kind, the version that I received was the very first production run from the chinese factory. As such there were bound to be a few issues - and there are - but nothing that can't be handled with a little patience.  Firstly the neck pocket isn't really finished, and when positioned in the pocket, a sizable gap exists between the neck heel and the base of the pocket. Nothing a little filing won't fix.

And in the end, that's all it took - a few minutes work with my bastard file to flatten the inside floor of the neck pocket and the neck fit was pretty well perfect. Come gluing time, there will be no issues there.

With the neck pocket fixed, the rest of the mock-up process went reasonably smoothly. The neck alignment was perfect right out of the box, with strings from the bridge sitting straight along the neck.

The second unfortunate teething issue with the kit concerns the fit of the tuning pegs in the headstock. Unfortunately the headstock has been made just a touch too small for the large tuners that were supplied (and which are a signature for this style instrument). With the reduced size headstock, the pegs touch in the middle and cannot sit straight.

There are two possible fixes to this problem: a) to grind a little of the shaft off each peg so that they can straight sit opposite each other, or b) to fill the current tuner holes with dowel and redrill new holes for smaller tuning pegs. I'm leaning towards option a) because it means no complicated woodworking to attempt. The tuning peg shafts won't look as nice this way, but if I don't take too much off no-one will be any the wiser.

So, I think I will see to the tuners before I do anything else, just to make sure the grinding actually solves the problem and the pegs can be screwed into their final position. After that's done the finishing can start! Should be a great build.

Flamed Telecaster: Test-Fit Completed

While I'm waiting for coats of gloss white to dry on my Stone Roses Tribute build, I thought I'd get a start on my first ever Telecaster build. It's a kit that I ordered directly from China through aliexpress.com, and although there is no binding around the top (a source of some consternation on my part) it should be a great build.

The mockup went together without incident. There was a little bit of work required to get the scratchplate to fit around the heel of the neck, but with my trusty nut files this was easily overcome. Although the scratchplate is a 3rd party addition to the kit (I liked the idea of white pearloid), the plain white scratchplate that came with the kit suffered from the same issue.

I'm planning to finish this guy in a combination of Colortone dyes and Tru-oil, with a final gloss coat of clear acrylic. The flame maple top will be dyed Vintage Amber, with the figure popped with Mahogany Red. To this I am planning to add a Mahogany Red burst around the edges, and I'm hoping this will help hide the edge join between the mahogany and the maple cap.

I've never done a burst before so this will be a first for me. I'm very excited to get started on it, but first there's sanding through 600 grit and filling the mahogany body with Walnut Timbermate. Fun times!!

Stone Roses Tribute: Video Build Diary #1

Since my Stone Roses Tribute build has been a dream of mine for quite some time, I have decided to make a video build diary over the course of the project! The first installment is now on YouTube and has been added to my brand new YouTube Channel: "Fires Creek Guitars". This first installment deals with the mock-up phase for the Pitbull RC-1 on which the build is based.


It's not as good as it could be, but I'm hoping my presentation chops will improve as the series progresses. In no time I'll have my news-reader voice and patter down to a fine art. Enjoy - if you can! ;).

Les Paul Jnr Double Cut: Unboxing and Mock Up

I've been looking forward to starting a Double Cutaway Les Paul Jnr kit for some time now. One of the simplest kits to finish, and yet with elegant lines that just speak to me. I received a Pitbull Guitars JR-1DC as a birthday present a week ago and couldn't wait to get the box open.

The kit fits together very easily and in no time I had the wrap-around bridge fitted, the single P90 pickup seated and the neck aligned. I always use the two E strings during this process to make sure that the neck angle produces correctly positioned strings down its entire length. It's also useful to get the placement of the pickup correct so that the pole pieces are as close to directly under the strings as possible.

And that's it for the mock-up really. The one thing I haven't bothered to do is the pickguard. This is because I am planning to make my own pickguard in tortoiseshell using the original black one as a template.  Should look killer with the planned butterscotch Wudtone - quite a close match to the 'TV Yellow' that many of the original LP Jnrs sport from Gibson.

Next I'll be shaping the headstock with a traditional Les Paul design, and then it's on to sanding, pore filling and grain raising. I'll be sanding to 240, 360 and 400 grits, and pore filling using a slurry of Timbermate after the first pass with 360 grit. I'll take the excess Timbermate off with 360 grit before moving on to 400. I'll raise the grain with water several times between subsequent passes at 400 grit to make sure the surface is nice and smooth prior to applying the Wudtone. Stay tuned for more double-cut goodness!

Siena's Stratocaster - Test Fit Build

It's always a good idea, hence this is the first time I have actually done it, to do a test fit build of your guitar kit before you start the finishing process. Today I fitted and screwed the neck, checked the scale length (using the oh-so-useful  Stewmac Fret Scale Calculator) and got the bridge set and attached on Siena's strat.

It's always nerve-wracking getting a bridge placed. I worry constantly that the bloody thing isn't going to intonate, or that the strings aren't going to be straight on the neck. The Stewmac calculator really provides the confidence to just get on with it. Once I located where the pivot point of the bridge should be (based on the scale length), I strung the two E strings up to make sure the bridge was centred on the fret board. Once I was happy, the bridge pivot screws went straight in - job done.

I also drilled and fitted all the mounting screws, including the scratchplate, output jack and tuners. One thing you should be wary of if you are doing this yourself is that, if you are using water-based dyes, then you should avoid drilling all the small screw holes (eg for the pickups, tuners etc) because water can get into the holes and swell the wood. For these you will have to wait until the clear goes on.

For an oil based finish (like the Wudtone I'm going to be putting on here), it's safe to drill and fit all the small screw holes early-on and minimise the possibility of screwing (yuk yuk) the finish later.