SpondonBassed

Thanks for that. It's useful to know for any given vendor if one can drop in unannounced if, say, on a road trip. Please don't take it that I have any prejudice other than that. That wasn't intended.

Biscuits always. Mine's a hobnob ta. Milk and no sugar in my tea thanks. I've never seen a Luthier use biscuits except for repairs. Stick to your plan young man. Fender T'Bird? WTF's that? Heavy and inclined to decapitate your band mates every time you turn to see who's wolf-whistling at yer that's what. You can always do one as the next build.

@honza992 was concerned about glue witnesses in his butt joints (Pipe down you lot at the back!). I described a process for mating matching parts that is more often used in metalwork. In short; when you've cut your timber, rub the mating surfaces together. Use short strokes with a firm pressure to keep the mating surfaces square to each other. Then take down the high spots (where you see a shine from rubbing) with a scraper until you've got even contact across the joint. If you have a plane and a shooting board however, I'd recommend that above all else.

Well done! It looks much more integrated like that.

Welcome Owentherozzers.

Welcome Little Dragon.

Welcome Karl.

Massive bell bottoms at the very least.

Crikey! The paisley scares me because of what you might have to wear to carry it off. Go for it.

I can think of a pair... half-ars3d single-buttocked. Time for some polite customer feedback?

Oo. They look like those nasty boingy cables that refuse to follow a route other than the one in which they've been set at the factory. Hold them down with cable ties and anchor screws or replace with more compliant ones cut to size? The burning question - do you make a wire harness or work with what you've got?

I'd say you need to decide whether to use a grain stopper at all if you are only thinking about the colour. It seems to me that you would have a smooth enough texture on finished wood with a 'fine straight grain' and that stain would be a more subtle treatment than filler.

Welcome Musgit. Tone safari? Cabinet making? You've been paying attention. Come right in, pull up a topic in the build diaries and make yourself comfortable.

They're even banning the substance known as glitter now; Don't click me there!

Put it another way... How many people do you know who would admit to singing along with 'Do you wanna be in my gang my gang my gang, do you wanna...'?

No book then...?

Yes. I got an ash body and a maple neck. The body is three sections glued together where I expected four going by the example on Pitbull's website. That was a bonus even though the butt joints aren't parallel to the centreline because the grain is so interesting. The neck has some lovely birdseye figuring on the headstock and it has a profile that I like better than my most recent new purchase. It's on my signature file or here if you haven't already seen it. I used most of the components as they were adequate with the exception of the crackly and ill fitting output socket and selected screws that I replaced with high quality stainless steel posidrives. Needless to say the supplied strings weren't kept after the first stringing. It's not quite how I want it even now but it plays well enough for me to put additional work on the long finger. I intend to use this at OM nights and stuff.

Mine worked out at about £250 with import duty. You did well.

Assuming you do a neat job routing for the split pick-up why not keep the chequered theme by doing black squares on a clear polycarbonate or acrylic pick guard against the natural finish? Keep the kit's J type control plate and with clever placement of the check pattern, you should be able to conceal the internals. If you want to tie it in a bit more with the black, stain the grain with jet black ink before finishing with oil. Is it vulgar of me to ask how much you paid for the J kit? It's very good in the photos. PM me if you want discretion.

Nippy aren't I? It's a pity you aren't an incandescent light bulb. You've nearly got enough Watts to dimly light a pantry! Let me make it 59.

Nice. I'd go for the simple wipe on, wipe off approach with Tru-Oil or similar. A light coat of Teak Oil every 24 hours with a minimum of three coats worked very well for me on an ash body. I think it tolerates knocks better than a thick coat. If the wood beneath is easily bruised, nothing is going to prevent that and I'd be even more inclined to go natural as a consequence. You can still tint the grain if you want a bit of colour in there. May I ask who's kit did you go for?

I didn't use any fancy terms just "headless thunderbird" in the advanced search panel with all the defaults checked.

Natural. I am not fussed about so-called authenticity. Do you have the kit yet and if so does the body grain lend itself to the idea?

Welcome Gary. Lots of folk here are having their second bite of the big bass cherry. I suppose there are even some who are going for their third and all.