Guitar Warehouse Ireland

Quillo · 30-06-2011 08:55AM #1

Just got a P Bass kit off these guys. For the money, the quality of the wood is unbelieveable. I've priced necks and body blanks in the UK and the US and you get a complete kit from G-W for the price of a basic neck on its own even on the likes of eBay.

http://www.guitar-warehouse.com/product_detail.asp?ProductID=95&Product=Unfinished P-Bass Guitar Kit Project

And it was delivered next-day for less than €9.

OK. The components aren't fancy branded items, but they are completely functional and, for anyone looking to have a go at a first custom build, you get everything in one go.

Even if you've built a few things before, this is a very cheap way to pick up a good basswood body and rosewood fingerboarded maple neck to add your own Hipshot bridge, Basslines quaterpounder and Gotoh tuners etc to.

This is a Irish company offering excellent value and service and so I thought this should be highlighted. (And no, I don't work for them !)

Squirrel · 30-06-2011 09:27AM

Not a bad price considering the same goes on Thomann for 113 plus 15 shipping.

http://www.thomann.de/ie/tenayo_p_style_bass_kit.htm

I can't imagine the quality being all that fantastic though

Quillo · 30-06-2011 10:25AM

The finish on the neck/frets is better than I've seen on the likes of Thomann's Harley Benton stuff - and the tuners are way better. It's at least as good as you'd see on entry level €200-400 basses.

The body is solid 4-section basswood, well routed, drilled and finished, including drilling for an earth wire to the bridge.

The pickguard has a foil strip on the back over the control cavity for screening.

The bridge is fine: typical basic bridge adjustable for height and intonation.

And all for €90.

travis1976 · 01-07-2011 05:07PM

Nice.. I've been threatening to but one of these kit for a while. Might just have to jump in now. Also, They have a discount offer on facebook at the moment. $$$ off

dubtom · 01-07-2011 06:28PM

Says on their site that no instructions are given,is wiring one of these fairly handy,I've never did one.

dubtom · 05-07-2011 10:33AM

The answer to my own question is no, just got an SG kit,seems complicated,especially with no instructions:o

Doc_Savage · 05-07-2011 12:56PM

the wiring in guitars is basic at the most... the most complicated guitar wiring you'll come across is some five way switching...

two pickup guitars with simple switching are easy to get diagrams for!

sites such as this are helpful!

if you find this difficult then maybe you've taken on more than you're comfortable with...

Banjo · 05-07-2011 05:01PM

Don't worry about the wiring, you first have to put it together!
If you google "saga guitar kit" you'll find tonnes of resources going through typical kit builds. Most of them will be for Strat and Tele-style kits, because they're usually the cheapest. Here's one I googled earlier :
http://www.guitarattack.com/mattocaster/sagakit.htm

It's also worth reading www.tdpri.com - specifically the Home Depot board - to see what kinds of problems people encounter during a full build and how they get around them (and what tools they use!)

With a kit you'll probably have to look at the fit of the neck in the pocket - some wood-work may be needed! - some fret work, depending on the kit you may need to drill the body and neck (bridge, neck bolts, tuners, scratch plate...), then you have to finish the body (seal it, oil it, paint it, whatever...)

At this point the only reason you should be looking at wiring is to make sure your pots, switch and jack all fit on the body (Don't assume the parts fit just because they all came in the same box. Check first and hope to be pleasantly surprised... if you're unlucky you may need to get handy with a reamer, file or chisel...) before you finish it. Once it all fits together properly and looks the business, THEN worry about making it electric! (well, you could worry about how it sounds, but sure if you cared about *that* you'd have bought a pre-assembled guitar!)

The Seymour Duncan site has tonnes of wiring diagrams and options.
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=2h_2v_2t_3w

If it's your first go, stick to standard 2 HBs, 3 way toggle (Neck / Neck+Bridge / Bridge), presumably you have 2 tones and 2 vols. You can get all fancy with phase switching and series/parallel on your 2nd go round:) Note, the bits in the SD diagrams that look like big blobs of solder on the back of the potentiometers are exactly that. Google Images will give you plenty of examples of what an SG should look like on the inside.

Get yourself a soldering iron and some solder. Next time you're walking past a skip that has an old radio in it, take it home, shake all the spiders and gick out of it and then spend an hour or two using the iron to desolder and resolder joints as accurately as you can. Once you're confident you can move on to the big leagues! None of the joints on a guitar are that difficult or fiddly really, so if you can do a tight PCB like you'd find in a cheap radio you'll be fine.

Quillo · 05-07-2011 05:12PM

The P bass kit came with the controls and pickup pre-wired on the back of the scratch plate. The only "wiring" required was to solder the earth wire to the bridge.

Actually I was kind of disappointed with how little was needed to assemble the kit ! I put the whole thing together to have a look, strung and playable in under 30 minutes !

Have since disassembled it to reshape the head stock (see pic), improve the body contours and to work on applying a finish to the woodwork.

Also plan to replace the bridge with a through-body one I already have and fit through-body ferrules to the back of the body.

Johnny Storm · 05-07-2011 06:34PM

dubtom wrote: »

The answer to my own question is no, just got an SG kit,seems complicated,especially with no instructions:o

This one?

Great advice from Banjo.
I have never built a guitar (or anything really) in my life but I would add that based on the above pic the wiring is the least of your worries and that the critical things to get right are:
- the exact angle of the neck to the body
- the exact position of the holes for the bridge
and as Banjo says, the fret levelling and crowning - I don't know if its better to do this before or after glueing the neck on?

*** Quillo - Ken Parker wants his headstock back

Quillo · 05-07-2011 06:51PM

Mr Parker was a bit one-sided in my opinion...:D

dubtom · 06-07-2011 12:08AM

Thanks for the replies men. My initial worry when I unpacked it was not knowing how the neck attaches,I assumed it would be pre drilled if screws or bolts were to be used, but it isn't. To my untrained and un instructioned eye it just looks like the neck sits under the pick up which is screwed in and I was thinking that can't be right,I'm still thinking that actually. Great advise btw lads, and I appreciate it,I may have to bother ye again though.
That's the one Johnny Storm, although I got the one with mop.

Johnny Storm · 06-07-2011 08:08AM

dubtom wrote: »

Thanks for the replies men. My initial worry when I unpacked it was not knowing how the neck attaches,I assumed it would be pre drilled if screws or bolts were to be used, but it isn't. To my untrained and un instructioned eye it just looks like the neck sits under the pick up which is screwed in and I was thinking that can't be right,I'm still thinking that actually. Great advise btw lads, and I appreciate it,I may have to bother ye again though.
That's the one Johnny Storm, although I got the one with mop.

Normally a Gibson style guitar has a glued in neck (set neck) while Fenders have bolt on necks

MetalDog · 13-10-2011 10:57AM

Sorry if I ressurected this thread, but I'm thinking of maybe getting either the Strat or Tele style kit, anyone any advice or links to finishing the body of the guitar with French polish?

Also, would anyone know what kinds of sandpaper or steel wool are required to finish the body?

damonjewel · 13-10-2011 01:00PM

MetalDog wrote: »

Sorry if I ressurected this thread, but I'm thinking of maybe getting either the Strat or Tele style kit, anyone any advice or links to finishing the body of the guitar with French polish?

Also, would anyone know what kinds of sandpaper or steel wool are required to finish the body?

Hi There, I have french polished my last project. There are a few websites around if you search in google to give you some pointers. One concern I would have is that French polishing one of these kits mightn't turn out so good. The body I used was mahogany and you need to fill the grain, seal and polish (which takes weeks/months to bring up a nice finish) I'm not sure what wood is used in these kits and therefore french polish mightn't be the best option. Also french polish isn't so tough so I put a couple of coats of danish oil over the finish. Here's mine below its a bit blurry but I think you get the idea

travis1976 · 13-10-2011 02:08PM

MetalDog wrote: »

Sorry if I ressurected this thread, but I'm thinking of maybe getting either the Strat or Tele style kit, anyone any advice or links to finishing the body of the guitar with French polish?

Also, would anyone know what kinds of sandpaper or steel wool are required to finish the body?

Just a quick one, Contact Stephen direct, details on the website, He's an absolute gent to deal with, I ordered a couple of bits from him, paid with postal order, sick credit card...ahem, ordered one of the bits wrong and no probs swapping.

.

MetalDog · 13-10-2011 08:23PM

damonjewel wrote: »

Hi There, I have french polished my last project. There are a few websites around if you search in google to give you some pointers. One concern I would have is that French polishing one of these kits mightn't turn out so good. The body I used was mahogany and you need to fill the grain, seal and polish (which takes weeks/months to bring up a nice finish) I'm not sure what wood is used in these kits and therefore french polish mightn't be the best option. Also french polish isn't so tough so I put a couple of coats of danish oil over the finish. Here's mine below its a bit blurry but I think you get the idea

Thanks man, if I'm gonna build, it'll be this kit: http://www.guitar-warehouse.com/product_detail.asp?ProductID=81&Product=Unfinished%20Tele%20Guitar%20DIY%20Kit%20Project says its basswood, which according to here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilia is used mostly for cheaper models.
I know its not going to be anything special but sure it'd be my first time putting a guitar together, may as well keep it simple. So is there another way to finish the guitar without polishing for months or simply resorting to spray painting it (which would be a cop out)?
Could I just clear lacquer a few layers and get the same nice brown colour you did?

damonjewel · 13-10-2011 09:34PM

MetalDog wrote: »

Thanks man, if I'm gonna build, it'll be this kit: http://www.guitar-warehouse.com/product_detail.asp?ProductID=81&Product=Unfinished%20Tele%20Guitar%20DIY%20Kit%20Project says its basswood, which according to here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilia is used mostly for cheaper models.
I know its not going to be anything special but sure it'd be my first time putting a guitar together, may as well keep it simple. So is there another way to finish the guitar without polishing for months or simply resorting to spray painting it (which would be a cop out)?
Could I just clear lacquer a few layers and get the same nice brown colour you did?

I'm crap at spraying and the finish always ends up really uneven so I'd rather use danish oil. B&Q have a range of Danish oils that are mixed with a dye (Coloron) for my next build I'm going to try it. Clear danish oil is very easy to work with, I have also read that some guys use tung oil with good results. Check out the tdpri.com site there are loads of great ideas there.

MetalDog · 14-10-2011 10:45AM

Thanks very much - will check that out, and if I'm in B&Q or Woodies I could also pick up the steel wool and various grades of sandpaper.

MagicMarker · 31-10-2011 10:54PM

I just purchased the tele kit. Need to pick up a cheap electric guitar so this seems to be as good a choice as any, plus I'm sure it'll be fun putting it together!

MetalDog · 01-11-2011 11:38AM

MagicMarker wrote: »

I just purchased the tele kit. Need to pick up a cheap electric guitar so this seems to be as good a choice as any, plus I'm sure it'll be fun putting it together!

Class, let us know how it turns out.

travis1976 · 02-11-2011 11:53PM

Looking forward to seeing some pics when it's done... Oh and a detailed build blog if you have time...lol;)

MagicMarker · 03-11-2011 08:21PM

Got the kit today, have to say I'm quite impressed, the body and neck feel very good. Too bad I'm going to have to destroy it by painting!

Anyone have any recommendations on what paint to use?

Guitar Warehouse Ireland

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