The Clueless German got herself a GR-1SF kit

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Originally Posted by ThatCluelessGerman

.... I'm considering cleaning the house. Or doing my taxes .....

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You need a hobby..... ever thought of taking up a musical instrument? :rolleyes:

I briefly considered it.

Currently my least favorite part of guitar building: Building the finish up. Adding coat after coat, light scraping in between, leveling out the biggest flaws/ridges, more coating, more gentle scraping, and even more coating....

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Back and neck start to look okay. Sides and front need more work. Having a dispute with the husband about the kind of finish. I would like to go for a semi gloss/semi matte finish, he wants high gloss. Torn here...

Also ordered these vintage style tuners as I like them better than the ones it came with - except for these ugly machine heads. I know they're supposed to resemble jade stone, but they don't, they just look like 70s style plastic. Me no gusta.
Any ideas what to do with these? I was looking for replacements, as I like the shape, but not the color. Was only semi successful, ordered some from China but who knows how long it will take to get there. I found nice, real pearl replacements here in Germany, but I don't feel like I want to spent 30 bucks per machine head. So.... Maybe spray paint them?

I have some Schaller machines like that that are that snot-green. But most of that style are a much lihgter cream/light green colour.

I now use Klusons for that style which have much lighter coloured heads.

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I get them from WD Music, who now own the Kluson brand name and make them.

They aren't that expensive for the basic tuners, these no Kluson name stamp ones are £33 for a set, though you'll also need adapter bushings for 10mm holes. https://www.wdmusic.co.uk/hardware-p...o-stamp-p13262

Though these machine heads with silver tulip heads might be worth considering. Korean, made at the factory that does Wilkinson parts (basically unbranded Wilkinsons) https://www.northwestguitars.co.uk/j...shape-buttons/

Proper Gretsch-style Grover Imperials are very expensive, about £135 a set for chrome.

Thanks Simon, in your photo, they look nice. The product photo however on the website does not do the knobs justice.
I have some of the Wilkinsons, but I wanted to go for the "vintage looking" style for this guitar. It's just the knobs' color that I hate. As they are just cheap plastic, I might as well just spray paint them black. Nothing to lose here, right?

I can almost see light on the finishing tunnel. Just a few more coats and then let it sit and dry. Still waiting for my sheet of super thin mother of pearl from Rothko & Frost, so I can do the headstock. Not sure WHAT I'll do with it, but I'll figure it out =)

I can't see any reason why you can't paint them. Rough them up with sandpaper first to give a bit of grip for the paint, and put a few layers on, as the edges will wear through quite quickly.

Thanks again, Simon. I'll see what colors my husband has hidden in his drawer ;-)

Currently thinking about the wiring. I have standard cables with plastic around them. Are these good enough in regarding to shielding, or should I get these vintage style cables with cloth and an extra insulation layer? Would it even make a difference? Planning to use 2 humbuckers, but if I don't like them, I have some humbucker sized P90's I'd really love to try...

You'd need screened single core wire to make much difference, not just cloth covered. So either the Gibson style braided single core wire like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-silv...913496&sr=8-25

or more modern insulated screened wire like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fafeims-Shi...6913545&sr=8-9

You're starting out with humbuckers as pickups, which is where 99% of the noise usually comes from, so you may not see much benefit from using screened wires. P90s are single coils, and normally very noisy, though the humbucker sized ones are a lot quieter being enclosed in a nickel case.

However, screened wires can cut down the number of actual cables you have to run, an can make life easier.

This guy does pretty good 'how to wire a ...' videos, but hasn't got one for a Gretsch style guitar (yet). So here's a 335 wiring example. You'll just need to extend the cables a bit and use common sense for the differences. But the general connection principles are the same.

http://youtu.be/Z42WwxbrWTc

Thanks Simon, I think I'll go with the more modern wire, then.

This morning, I realized I put a whole can of polyurethan on this thing. OK, it was a small can, but still. This thing is huge.

As I'm now out of poly (I still have a can of wipe on poly just in case...), I decided to do an initial light sand to smooth out the biggest lumps and bumps, and then let it completely cure. As I didn't use a filler or sealer on this build, the poly might sag in a little, so let's see. I ordered a new can (a bigger one this time) of poly, as I still need to do a headstock decal and I don't want to even try filling and leveling it with thinned wipe on poly. It would take years :D

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Unfortunately, this plonker is too big for my wall hanger :D

So I'll need a pet safe corner to store it for a while.

Oh, and I bought a brass nut. I ordered it for another build but it would look good on this one, so I could make matching brass accessories. It would finally lead me to a "theme" for this guitar.