White GR-1SF Build

Next Build will start soon, I hope. I have been collecting bit for it
The Silver Hardware will be junked and replaced with some nice gold bits.
The Bigsby is out and replaced by a gold tailpiece. The chrome tunres are out and replaced by Wilkinson Imperials. Tone knobs are replaced with white speed knobs. and the Chrome bridge will be replaced witha gold roller bridge. Now have I forgotten anything. Oh yes the three pos tone switch becomes a 6 pos rotary, so more caps than a surf beach. :)

Cheers PK

Oh BTW I am still waiting on the Kit.

http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...Falcon-035.jpg

nice one PK, haven't seen you on the forum for a while. So this kit is on backorder, hopefully it arrives soon.
Nice upgrades, what are the gold pups are they GFS ?
should look sweet in all gold and the flash gold tailpiece.
So will it be white all over including neck and headstock ? Thats what Jarrod did white with gold hardware and it looked awesome, should be a build diary for it
Not sure if this was the kit DB and Jarrod had a bit of work on the neck pocket, make sure you do a mock build as soon as it arrives.

Hi Wokka

The Pups are form a builder in USofA the only clues on the stickers are MBS2-GD, the Neck coils are 4.47K and 4.45K I haven't measured the Bridge coils yet.
The pups are split coils. :)

Cheers PK

I am also looking at a Gresch Gold pickguard on Fleece Bay, that's selling for about $40++ postage But not to fussed about it saying Gretch really just want one with the Falcon

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/141079024...84.m1423.l2649

Cheers PK

nice one PK, so solid white paint for this baby ?
I'd have a chat with Jarrod about his build, the colour scheme is identical.
Whats the ETA of the kit ?

ETA was early Oct. I am toying with the idea of putting some pearloid into the white.
My understanding of how it is done is to paint the body white then repaint with the white pearl then clear gloss it.

PK

Hey guys, just caught this thread on email. I'm going to do a bit of an announcement post on this "missing shipment" that was originally due "late August". TL;DR it's now expected mid next month (November). Stand by for the details in the feedback thread.

No Probs Ad's We trust you implicitly.

I've still got several other builds that have been in stall mode due to the weather, the missus having a milestone birthday, and the grand kids visiting from Singapore. And also me finding a part time job door knocking for the ABS

Cheers PK

bugger not another missing shipment Ads, not good, oh well more time to plan your build PK

As long as when it turns up the Bridge post support holes are in the Bridge support.... :D

PK

I'm very keen to see how this batch come in. I've wanted a gretsch forever but my luthier skills just aren't up to the task if they still need as much work as last time. Sounds like a killer build man, can't wait to see how she comes up.

Yeah, we put a lot of effort into providing feedback on those first GR-1SF kits, so if they f*ck that bridge support up again I will be severely annoyed. We will wait and see.

Gretsch wiring. 3 Pot 2 switch setup.

My intention it to replace the 3 pos tone switch witha 6 pos rotary switch. starting from clean going through .01, .023, .047, .07, .1
Hopefully it doesn't end up too bulky, as then i'd have to junk the idea. :)

PK
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-con...1SF-wiring.gif

First Mock up. While it is most likely to end up white. I am still not set on that.
The kit had a few lumps of veneer missing, but as these sit under the neck heel I can see no issue with that.

Gold fittings look nice. I am still waiting on a the floating bridge to turn up.

I found the kit interesting in that it has 4 pots and a 3 pos switch. I guess so it can be done as 2T2V. my plan is 1 master Vol, 2 individual Vols and a rotary switch for the tone, very similar to the Gretsch wiring style. Except they usually only had a three pos tone switch.

Cheers PK
I hate fords.

Might be one to wire up before you put the neck on - may give you a little more access to be able to get the switch, etc in there. Looking like a great idea and love the headstock!

Wow, the mockup looks great PK! I want one of these kits BAD now. I reckon you're gonna need a gold bigsby :).

cheers,
Gav.

very sexy looking beast PK, you must be stoked its turned up. I'm with Gav I'd probably be putting a gold bigsby on this one.
Will look stunning in white.
Interested to see how the wiring goes with the tone switch

Tks Guys.

Your right Brendan, definitely wire up before glueing.
I do have a Gold fake bigsby on my es335 PIG. while it would look nice I probbaly wouldn't use it. :) Unless it was areal bigsby. but then if I bough one of them I'd have to find somewhere else to live.... rofl
The tone switch set up is pretty easy with adouble pole 6 pos. basically wire the caps from one side to the other so that the signal comes in one side, through the selected cap, and out to earth through the other side. WeirdBits would understand me. :)
That aside I have been having a look at some high/low bypass tone pots.
But for now I am happy to do the rotary setup. as the rotary switch fills the top small hole, and the 3 pos pick up selecter the bigger top hole.

Cheers PK

Is it just the angle of the photo, or is the tuning machine for the D string out of alignment?

good point Fretty, from the front the top 2 tuners looks like a wonky eyed person !

Looks like it will be an awesome build, I'm eager to see it come together. Another alternative for your 6-pos rotary tone would be to use resistor-cap combos allowing for partial and full settings for 2-3 caps, rather than 5 different caps 'full on'. Something like:

1. Clean
2. 0.01uF cap (or even smaller) linked to ground
3. Resistor bridged to 4 (parital tone)
4. 0.022uF cap linked to ground
5. Resistor bridged to 6 (partial tone)
6. 0.047uF cap linked to ground

Resistors would probably be in the 1K-20K range, tweak as needed. Just an idea. I guess it will depend on your ears and how warm/dark the hollow body sounds with your pups, but I have a feeling going as high as 0.1uF with your caps may make it too muddy.

Hey PK,

Looks like we're sharing the many of the same ideas on what this model should look like (as they say in the classic's "great minds think alike"!) ... but your wiring plans - wow! (and I thought my wiring ideas were getting ambitious! :D).

Really looking forward to seeing yours come together too ... for me it was definitely a toss up between a solid gloss white and the Gr*tsch Orange (Orange won out but I did decide to restrain myself from putting the big branding-iron "G" on it ... but only just! :D) ... but a gloss white always looks so very cool, especially on these "big ol' gals".

After reading the comments and seeing the pics on your "wonky tuners", I got suspicious and did a detailed inspection of my headstock with a vernier calliper and unfortunately mine are out of alignment too! ...
- along the length of the head the spacing between the holes is up to 3mm out alignment when compared with their partner hole on the opposite side of the head
- width wise its up to 5mm difference in spacing between the edge of the hole and the edge of the head (the 3 "low string" holes are all closer to the edge of the head than the "high string" holes).

... bugger! ... still, a cut and glue of some plugs and re-drill will solve the problem ... and with some smart positioning and a bit of luck, each tuner's post-support/washer/seat (on the face side of the head) should cover over the plugs so they're not visible

Adam - you might want to point out to the factory that its probably a good idea to get their drilling jig set up square and its holes evenly spaced

Yeah thanks guys really needed to find out the machine holes on all three high strings are actually about 2-3 mm closer to the bridge.
Basically All the machine heads are 40mm apart give or take half a mm. but the RHS ones are drilled closer to the bridge.
If it was just one that was out, I'd have a go at plugging and re-drilling, but all three may be a bridge too far.

WierdBits. the inital plan for the rotay is based on a setup I found some where or another, going through .47 -.23 -.01 -.006 -.003
and clean. Yes the .006 and .003 were muddy on the Youtube clip that went with the info I found.
I am interested in your idea, but wouldn't the resistor pul the vol down a little?

Yeah Scot, we are thinking along the same lines. But with the White I plan to add some pearl to it so it has a a little bit more than just gloss. I expect the pearl to give it some depth as well. This plan is based on what AJ did with the pearl on his LP build. that thing has a gloss that looks so deep you could dive in and swim around in it. It's like a deep deep pool of crystal clear water.

On the issue of the tuner alignment I also used the vernier, as well as my little 150mm rule.
With the plugging and drilling my concern is that the plugs may be visible from the top. I suppose(thinking out loud) a thin Veneer over the top would take care of that. The rear of the headstock the should not be an issue as the tuners should be big enough to hide those few mm.

;) we could always post em to Dingo and get him to fix em.

Guess I'll make up a templete and align it by measurement. then Plug the Fings up.

Cheers PK

Bit of bugger having to plug and re-drill ... but I reckon worth it in the end!

Adding to Pearl to the white - a stroke of genius ... that'll do more than just give it depth, it will make it so cool it'll be HOT! :D

... and if you're painting it and you do the headstock too (a la white falcon, silver falcon), then it wont matter about the plugs, there'll be no chance of seeing them.

The resistors would just act like a fixed tone pot, controlling how much of the signal is allowed to pass through the caps. Sort of like having your tone pot set on 2 or 3 in a normal tone circuit, if you get what I mean.

makes sense Weirdy.

Ok Wierdy, I'll definitely have a look at this idea. Just have to visualise it, and draw myself a little diag to set it right in my mind.

Cheers PK

Using the resistors was just an idea, so it's not so 'all or nothing'. If you'd prefer to just use caps only, I'd probably start smaller in cap values so it only takes off the very top end at first. Maybe something like 0.0047uF, 0.0068uF, 0.01uF, 0.022uF, 0.047uF. Or, add 0.033uF, 0.068uF and 0.1uF into that range, test them, then pick the five values that best suit the sounds you want.

Wierdy, the idea of using resistors to alter the tone doesn't bother me as much as getting too much mud out of the caps.
as I am not planning a Pot to blend it back. So I may need to think about this a bit more

http://www.diyguitarmods.com/custom-varitone-wiring.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxizsEX0ygs

PK

Hey PK, seeing as we're both in process of creating our "dream" Gr***ch's, I though you (as well as anyone else who loves "that great Gr***ch sound") might like to have a look at something I literally stumbled across on the interweb yesterday ...

... one of the nicest scratch builds I've seen to date ... he's German, he loves the "old" big-G 6120's, but he just could never afford their price tag

... so he built one!

http://www.schmerzfrei-mucke.de/hobbythek.html

... and did such a f*****g amazing job of it, you'd be very hard pressed to tell the difference between it and the genuine article!

WoW Scot, that guy did a real serious build, and with superb crafting skills. That Gretsch is beautiful, I understand why you went for the Gretsch orange. It is gorgeous.
If ours come out half as good they will still be stunning. :)

PK

I may have forgotten to mention, the pickups I am using are split coils with around 4.5-4.7K Ohm per coil. I do have a set of Seymour Duncan TS-1 trembuckers

:D PK

couple of headstock shots. and missing chunks of Veneer. and a divot.

PK

and one more, if you can work it out.

Are the holes not aligned or the hs out of whack?

Hi Andrew,

all of the above. as to which set of holes are wrong is subjective. I am going to do the repair based on the high E set of strings, I will plug and drill the low E set. In other words teh High E's won't move they are my refernece point.
The headstock will need 1mm taken off the low E side, and some adjustment at the top left, and bottom right to get it back into symetry.
I expect many hours of teeth nashing, swearing and sweating, not to mention the odd angry beer being consumed. It is going to take a lot of careful work.

Cheers PK

You've got this mate.

Tks Andrew.

A question to the builders almighty.

What is the prefered method of earthing a floating bridge.

Do I drill a tiny hole through the bottom of the timber bridge plate and earth to the bottom of the bridge pin.

OR

Do I drill a small hole through the tailpiece mount/screw hole and earth to the tail piece.

Cheers PK

Tailpiece.

Tks Scott.

that's probably easier than some of the thoughts I had :D
ie things such as conductive paint patches etc.... :)

Cheers PK