Evening all, long time no guitar building!
Nearly two years since my last one, a Telemaster, although technically I only finished that a couple of weeks ago when I noticed GuitarbuildUK now supply the scratchplate for it.
I've had a Pit Bull Guitars ES175 kit on my ebay watch list for all that time on the off chance that I'd one day have enough pennies spare to order it. Just shy of £200 and with a fair bit to add on for postage from Australia, and a bit more for "custom options" like different position markers and a shaped headstock but it's been hard to justify spending on yet another guitar while so many stand unplayed in the workshop especially since
"the incident" (idiot neighbour burst in with a petrol can and threatened to burn it down with him and me and all my guitars still in there).
Thankfully all survived unharmed but the workshop hasn't felt like a safe place for a while. I needed an excuse to get back out there and make use of the place and found this....
It's very similar to the Pit Bull Guitars kit but I prefer the dot markers on this one and it has a shaped headstock instead of the flat, shape-it-yourself one and more importantly it's only £113 including postage! Well it'd be rude not to
Colour choice changed daily while I waited for it to arrive but I settled on a dark, reddish brown with black around the edges and sides. The dye arrived and was nowhere near dark, reddish brown and I couldn't remember where I left my stash of patience so yellow/red/black sunburst it is.
I've changed the tailpiece and the pickguard and I've ordered a better nut, the fitting of which is scaring me a little...
Not sure what's going on there, maybe it's like that so you have the option of a zero fret? Not too confident of removing that wood neatly or of cutting the binding neatly but we shall see.
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Comments
I'm replacing the tailpiece with the harp type and the black pickguard with a tortois-shell. The bridge might get used eventually but I'm going to use this wooden floating bridge for now. The tuners seem ok, better than I expected in a kit so they will stay.
The nut looks as cheap and nasty as you'd expect but I have a choice of brass or Tusq to fit on there.
Irongear will be supplying the pickups, probably a Rolling Mill HB and Alchemist P90.
At least nuts are cheap to replace. Oh yea, a harp tail will look fab
Irongear make good stuff. I have an Alchemist in the bridge of a sort-of strat (that also has Pig Irons in it) and it sounds great. Actually, I replaced one of the magnets with an Alnico II and it rounds off/warms up the sound a little.