Upcoming Builds this Year

It has been ages since I've posted on here.

In the time that has elapsed, I've moved, changed jobs, been super busy, etc, and have neglected to put much time towards building the kits that I have.

However, now that everything is seemingly squared away, as soon as the weather stays consistently above 50, I'll be back to work on the following projects:

- 7 String Pitbull Explorer Kit - I need to get the bridge holes drilled, pick a paint color, pick the hardware, and then obviously paint and wire it up. Neck is glued, just need to do the rest.

- Precision Guitar Kits Les Paul kit - I need to pick paint and hardware for this one as well.  It's been glued, and that is about all.

- Matching 6 and 7 string Pitbull EX kits - Finally got the necks back from Pitbull after a manufacturing issue.  I need to shave the tenon on the 7 string neck a bit, and trim out the nut slot on both.  Once that is done, I can glue, paint, and assemble them.

- Another budget Les Paul kit build - Like the first guitar I built, this one is just a cheap chinese kit from eBay.  I have glued the neck, but need to drill the bridge holes, and figure out the finish and electronics.

This should keep me pretty occupied for a while.  I'll make sure to post up photos as progress gets made.

Build #2: Sinister Seven String Explorer

Now that the weather is finally starting to co-operate, I will be able to start building a new axe.

The kit:  Custom 7 String Pitbull Guitars EX-1 (www.pitbullguitars.com).

Build plan:

- Black body, neck, headstock
- Black locking tuning heads
- Black tune-o-matic bridge
- String through tail
- Gibson style pick guard, with 3 way toggle
- EMG 81-7 (bridge)
- EMG 60-7 (neck)
- EMG AB-1 Gain boost
- Graphtech TUSQ-XL Nut

Anxiously awaiting my next builds

Back in March, I ordered a pair of kits from Pitbull Guitars (http://www.pitbullguitars.com/).

On top of that, I received a bunch of gift certificates for my birthday to purchase a Precision Guitar kit (http://buy.precisionguitarkits.com/).

Looking forward to building these kits... However, as each is coming from outside of the US, it is taking a bit of time to get them. Patience is not always a strong quality of mine. Hopefully they get here soon, so I can build some sweet axes.

Ibanez Rebuild = Complete

It is official, the Ibanez is done.

Finished wiring, installed the pickups, installed the nut, installed the bridge and tail piece, tuners, and strung it up.

Here are some photos of the last phase of the rebuild:

Ibanez rebuild: Some more progress

Spent most of the day today apartment shopping, working on a website for a client, and spending the evening with the girlfriend, but I did manage to get a couple of tasks done on the Ibanez rebuild

- Finished the battery compartment (finally managed to drill a hole between the battery compartment and the control cavity, so that i can hook the gain boost up.

- Removed the old plastic nut.   I'm putting a graphtech man made ivory nut on there, which is slightly wider E to E, but should make the guitar much more of a pleasure to play.


As always, here are some pics:

Ibanez Project - Tear down and some progress

So, I have begun tearing down the Ibanez.

Here are some photos of it all torn down:

Through doing this tear down, i discovered a few things... I have to do some mods to get some of the new parts to fit.  Mod 1:  Expand the control holes for the volume and tone pot, Ibanez uses smaller metric pots from the factory, so the holes are slightly too small to fit the new CTS pots.  The other problem I came across is the new 3 way switch's thread sleeve was too small, so I have to remove some of the wood around the hole so that I can bolt it on.

Simple enough.

The fun part was routing the battery compartment cavity.  Having never used a router before, I think I did a decent job.  Accidentally took a small chunk of the paint off when I first started...  Gives it character, right?  HAHA.

Here are some photos of the progress i've made so far.

Finally, might I also offer a word of caution... working with guitars can be dangerous:

Next Build(s) have been ordered

So, I took a chance and decided to custom order a pair of 7 string guitar kits from Pitbull Guitars

(http://www.pitbullguitars.com).

The kits I ordered are:

#1: 7 String Explorer (Pitbull EX-1 model)

#2: 7 String Les Paul (Pitbull LP-1 model)


Both guitars have customizations:

- Ebony fretboard with no inlays
- No binding
- No tailpiece drilling (going to do a string through)


These kits are supposed to arrive sometime in April or May, so I hope to begin a dual build at that time.