Hi Gents, just wanted to say thanks for the beautiful custom archtop kit. It came out fantastic your workmanship and fretwork are next to none. I went for a faded denim colour on the top coated in good old nitro lacquer. Stuck with the natural mahogany on the back and neck with a tru-oil satin finish. A great set of Mcnelly pickups, tonepros bridge, Kluson tuners and of course cts and switchcraft electronics. Sounds and plays awesome. Very happy with it. Thanks again.
Rob
Can’t thank you enough. I worked on this everyday until I had to wait to buff the finish. It’s hard to put down now. It sounds way better than my other guitars, and plays a lot better too! The wood joints are extremely well cut, and wood quality is excellent , fret work is fantastic , fretboard inlays are very well made… very precise, and the extra jumbo frets makes playing this thing very fun, and easy.
I used colortone stain, mixed in alcohol , behlen nitro lacquer , Grover tuners, tonepros metric bridge and tailpiece set, zakk wylde emg pickup set and various other small parts.
I can’t wait to build another one . Thank you again, and I will surely be back .
Clayton.
Hi Phil,
My other guitars have been feeling neglected since I got my first Precision Junior finished. I’m loving the range of tones this little devil can produce. And the resonance is amazing.
Finishing the guitar was a piece of cake:
Grain filled with ebony filler.
Sanded it back then dyed using amber dye/rubbing alcohol mixture.
Applied sanding sealer, sanded lightly then clear coated with several coats.
Level sanded, then buffed to a gloss finish.
I purchased my finishing supplies from Wood Essence in Saskatoon.
Here’s a few pictures for your gallery.
Hi Phil,
This is something I always wanted to do and I am very pleased with the kit and the results. Especially for my very first build. I even got my wife involved with staining and such, and as a thank you to her I put her name, Jamie, on it.
I used your parts kit (perfect color for my on the dials, btw) and Seymour Duncan Vintage Blues pick up set.
Thanks again,
Dan Robinson
no images were found
As some of you may have heard there is a new international ruling now in effect, January 2017, regarding Rosewood. Now we and our suppliers are just not sure how various agencies are going to enforce this ruling. It’s a tough one for sure.
The reason it was initiated is that a bunch of ne’er do well bugger’s are mowing down forests to get rosewood. No replanting, no thoughts to soil erosion, no cares for the people who rely on the forest to survive. In reading the CITES brief on why this sweeping measure was put in place they stated that rosewood is the number one illegal item trafficked now. It’s in the same style as ivory and rhinoceros horns etc.
So I agree with what they are trying to do. To be clear, all of the rosewood we have used in the past is in accordance with the existing rules. It is part of harvest silviculture.
We are moving to a new wood for the rosewood look. Pau Ferro (Machaerium villosum or schleroxylon), also known as Morado, Santos Rosewood, or Bolivian Rosewood is not a true Rosewood, but it boasts many of the qualities that are highly regarded in a fingerboard wood. It’s stable, abrasion resistant, hard, attractive, exotic and has good compression strength parallel to the grain. It’s not so resinous that it can be difficult to glue like a few of the Rosewoods. From Brazil and Bolivia, supplies are adequate and no shortages are anticipated.
Pau Ferro is the fret board at the bottom of the pic. Nice eh?
I never met Jay in person, he was one of my favourite grumpy curmudgeonly funny as hec customers though. Really enjoy working with him
I thought I’d just share this with you in his memory. This came from his wife when she responded to the Merry Christmas email.. ( see.. Jay didnt have an email either..:) and told me Jay has passed on November.
The guitar form you made for Jay made him so happy. I don’t know if I ever saw him so engaged in a hobby before. He was so proud of his finished guitar and really enjoyed playing it. His granddaughter has it now. He would have liked to do another but just did not have it in him. We had one of his friends play it at his memorial and he said it was one of the nicest guitars he has played. Thanks so much for helping to make Jay’s guitar venture such an enjoyable one.
RIP my friend..
This is where the boys in the paint shop rise above the others. The attention to detail is crazy good, This on of the PH-AT, plain maple cap arch top with the maple cap sides taped off. It creates a binding that’s so cool, because you can look at it up close and see the grain of the maple. It’s quite beautiful actually.
Through the years building our guitar I’ve come to understand what works well with our guitar. I mean most pickups are pretty darn good, it just some really stand out when placed on our “BONES” These pickups are hand made here in Vancouver, with the pieces we’ve come to know are tone giants… Okay well maybe not tone giants but pretty darn good… I have them made for our Junior, 59 Carved top and especially the Archtop..
Here’s one of new Archtops in the paint shop. The bursts has just been applied. This is a triple threat, a triple burst. Burst on Top, Burst on Bottom, Burst on Neck.
And then we’re going to pull the tape and scrape a binding. It will be the natural beautiful grain of the maple that will show through.
Triple Tobacco Faux Archtop.
Hi Phil,
Hi Phil,
Hey Phil,
Phil,
Wanted to send you a pic of the first kit I got from you. You remember this one? Has the four little knots between the pickups? Anyway, its the best playing and sounding Carved Top l I have ever picked up.
So we are making some changes of our offerings. I tell ya, making new guitar shapes is both fun and hard, a good amount of both.
This is a take off on one of our older kits.. I called it Bird Of Paradise, cause it looks like is flying.
One of our most excellent customers had a tie with this image on it. Lets do it he says. The tie comes to us, we send it to our airbrush team and voila, we have an exclusive amazing one of a kind guitar…
Hello all PGK team;)
I wanted to say that I was very satisfied with the kit that I bought you, it sounds crazy, mega rock guitar! grin emoticon
I exploded view to realize the black over goldtop heavy relic, everyone finds beautiful and it sounds great!
So I think that soon I will come to you to buy a sg jr and a flying V!
You address some pictures of my work hoping you like it! grin emoticon
cordially
Nicholas
This Name is ” T.T.Special ” ..Tracker Trip Special wink emoticon
Phil
Thanks for your help, I think it looks ok for my first one. The pick great, rod cap and back cover are made out of black walnut. My grandson loves it.
Thanks again
Terry
PS let me know if you get the photos
Yep…:)
Awesome job Allan…
Hello Phil,
Just finishing up!
This was my first build and it was quite humbling.
Great product you guys do.
I want to build another but with a killer quilt top.Allan
Hi Phil,
Some pictures of the finished guitar, for your Homepage if you like. The guitar was built by my good friend Werni Sahli, an absolute professional!
Pickups are OX4 Humbuckers, hardware is from Faber Germany.Many thanks again for your great work, the wood work was simply superb!!!
Indeed. Werni is one of the best Luthiers here in Switzerland. His paint jobs are simply outstanding. He was impressed about the quality of your kits, everything went together without any problems.
Greetings to the team, all the best
Michael
Hello Phil,
Hope you are well. Thought it would be worthwhile sharing with you some images of the completed double cut Junior based on your kit.
I am extremely pleased with the way the guitar has turned out, the way it sounds and the TV Yellow colour.
The luthier I used here in Melbourne to assemble the guitar was Cargill Custom Guitars and they are one of the better luthier’s here. They were also very complementary about the quality of the kit, which was good news noting their experience with guitars generally.
Thanks again and regards,
roger
Here is a guitar that is pretty awesome. It is 59 Carved Top with the Graphtech Ghost System installed. It has the most wonderful, full, acoustic guitar sound with just a bit of that edge you’d expect from an electric. Ken was very happy with the end result and we love making stuff like this..
Here is what Ken had to say:
Thought I would send you a few pick of the fantastic work you and yours did for me…I do not have the tools nor the patience to complete a project like this but Precision Guitar Kits sure do…the work that the CNC shop, the Bespoke build crew and paint is first rate…if you want to have a custom guitar built for you, I can recommend this wholeheartedly…fill your cart and press the buy button…then sit back and wait for “Precision” to arrive!
Ken
Hi Phil
Thought I’d send along a photo of my finished Jr. The kit was, as advertised, a dream to build. Everything went together smoothly; the neck/body fit was absolutely precise. A couple of things surprised me in a good way; the neck is described as a baseball shape on your site so I wondered if it would be on the large side. It turns out that it’s a very comfortable size and shape even for someone with smaller hands. The biggest surprise is how good this guitar sounds. I purchased the Seymour Duncan Antiquity P90 that you sell and I really like it. I usually play jazz through the clean channel of a small Blackstar tube amp and this guitar fits the bill. When my wife is out, I crank up the amp and it sounds very snarly. When I switch to the dirty channel, the windows rattle. Seriously though, I expected to end up with a decent guitar but this is WAY beyond decent. It’s fabulous.
The photo has a paper mock up of a decal that I’m getting made up. It says Muffin City custom in honour of two Toronto bands; Martha and The Muffins and a cultish 60’s band called The City Muffin Boy’s. They were kind of like Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground but sadly ,without Andy Warhol promoting them, they remained unknown except for members of Toronto’s art community back then.
Already planning the next build; a T style, no pick guard, natural finish with a Lollar Charlie Christian neck pickup and a regular Tele bridge pu.
Thank for making such a fine product. You guys are off the charts for quality and workmanship.
All the best and Happy Canadian Thanksgiving.
Tim
Hi there – Here a few pics of my SG Jr. build from a few years back. It plays like butter, and resonates like nothing else I’ve ever played. I’ve recommended PGK to anyone interested in rolling their own. Great bones – just like you say!
Named this one the “Les Ismore”. The P90 is an Alnico 2 kit from Stew Mac (8.4k dcr) The bridge is a Pigtail – and the studs and bushings from them are just spectacular. The tone cap was rescued from an old Hammond organ preamp. Wish I had more of em! It was hard (for me anyway) to get an accurate photo of the color. It’s a slightly yellowed white – nitrocellulose that I mixed up here. Thanks again!
Dear Precision Guitar Kits,
I wanted to express my appreciation of your product and give you an account of my completed Les Paul Junior DC. Love this guitar!!!I received the LP Junior DC with African Mahogany body and ’59 Black Limba neck with ebony fretboard in flawless condition. People rave about the quality of the lumber you use and the perfect fit of you neck joint. I was, nevertheless, impressed. Incidentally, I find this ’59 neck to be just as comfortable for either chords and single note playing,I decided to emphasize the beauty of the wood by using a clear oil finish–three coats of Odie’s Oxi Oil (which ‘ages’ the wood color) and a couple of coats of Odie’s wood butter hand buffed to a satin sheen.I used the really gorgeous Tonepros Kluson style vintage tuners and wraparound bridge from Precision with a really nicely aged finish.The pickguard and truss rod cover are from Quickguards and are in the “variegated gold leaf” finish which my photography really doesn’t do justice to.I wanted the look and something of the sound of a vintage Junior but without the hum. I went with The Creamery’s “Custom ’13 Dogear bridge” which is a true double coil humbucker but with a lot of P90ish clarity. I’m really happy with this choice and I think it will really allow this guitar to perform in a range of environments.Thanks so much for helping me create this guitar!Jonathan
