Amid' s GR-1SF Build

Hey peeps,

As my wife didn t know what to buy for christmas and was sick of another guitar i asked her to offer me some wood. So she bought me a GR-1SF kit ;)

I m already planning some upgrades for that kit and i prefer to say i m a total noob at guitar building. I m more used to build motorcycles actually.

As i said in my greetings i own some tools in my shop like a spray booth and power coating oven so i would like to use it in this build but still don t know if it will be doable.

So yeah i have a ton of question! :cool:

Do you think some parts will be powder coatable like Bridges, bigsby and other stuff ?

Next question is about pickups. I plan on uograding pickups so i m struggling about choice. You can imagine with that kind of style of guitar i won t be playing heavy loud metal with it but i don t want to be stuck in a rockabily style even if i would love a pickup able to give that result. So i m after pickups for rockabily, bluesy, and rocky style. That s how i discovered this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W07tA-5lnKY but i m not sure how they sound overdriven and if they will fit the GR-1SF.


Last question (for now) is about string mechanics. Can you put any mechanics with this kit ? I heard that it was better to have locked mechanics with a bigsby style bridge. For now Schaller locked or Grover locked ones. Good choice?

Well and for now my kit seems to be in PBG offices so no wood porn for now ;)

Cant go wrong with either TV or Dees, both have a good range of sounds.
Deffo go for locking machine heads.

Not sure about powdercoating the hardware, the Bigsby style trems are made from Mystery Metal so some experimentation may be in order..

Hey Amid, great kit - very interested to see what you do with it. If you are ordering the TV Jones, you'll probably want the humbucker mount I'm guessing. Personally I am also very happy with the guitar fetish Surf 90s. Awesome rockabilly pickup and sound great overdriven too.

cheers,
Gav.

@Dingo : The problem with powder coat is that it s kinda hard to "experiment" as the powder is kinda hard to sand after it s on the piece :) But i would really love to customise the mechanics of that guitar.

@ Gavin : That s what i was wondering, for the GR-SF1 i need to get the humbucker version of the TV's, right?

welcome Amid,
love the plans for this build.
Experiment with the powder coating and if it doesn't work then you may have to replace the hardware.
TV pups would sound great. Sure you will get great results with a spray booth.
Look forward to seeing the build diary.
I'd say PBG staff should be back on deck today so hopefully the kit will be posted to you soon.

Welcome Amid!

Ok so far for pups is :
Neck: http://tvjones.com/pickups-2/filtert...le/super-tron/
Bridge : http://tvjones.com/pickups-2/filtert...-classic-plus/

This way i Will have a super bright clear without being too twangly and a good crunchy rock sound with the Classic plus

@wokkaboy : i m not worried about color matches or applying powder correctly. My main concern is how it Will sound with a layer of powder on the mechanic as powder feels like plastic when it s cured... :/

@fret : thank you :)

I've seen powder coated hardware used before, it looks great. I wouldn't worry about how it will effect the sound, it will be minimal at most.

I might just be reading this wrong, but you're not planning on powder coating the guitar body are you?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pablopepper

I've seen powder coated hardware used before, it looks great. I wouldn't worry about how it will effect the sound, it will be minimal at most.

I might just be reading this wrong, but you're not planning on powder coating the guitar body are you?

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Of course not the body because wood won t stick and definetly not love the 200°C oven. No, i m planning on powder coating hardware like the bigsby :)

Good, good. Here's an image of the guitar I thought of when powder coated hardware was mentioned.

http://www.feelnumb.com/wp-content/u...y_close_up.jpg
Jack White's tele. Tidy as.

That's a nice looking guitar Jack has there.

And defintly powder coated mechanics ;)
Well i ll give it a try !

Hey Ami, I have a few of the PBG supplied Bigsby style trems here.
Would be happy to post one out to you to experiment on.... Would be a real pain the backside if it doesnt work and you end up with a manked trem :p

Email me your postal address to dingobass at pitbullguitars dot com dot au and I will send you one.

Wouhou, my guitar has been dispatched yesterday, can t wait!
Dingo, i sent you a mail :)

Guitar finally managed to cross my door !
Time for some pics!
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I must say i m really happy to start this journey but also ...

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A bit worried about that neck dry fitting...
As it is my first build, i don t know if it's a common gap or not but i m sure i will have to work on those gaps ...

Hi Amid, kit looks great other than the neck fit. Looks like you will need to sand down under the fingerboard around 20th fret to the end of the fingerboard. Draw a pencil line on both sides from the existing corner to the end of the fingerboard so the fingerboard will lye flat on the body, and that should eliminate the gap on the front of the body neck join.
Once you get the fingerboard sitting flat on the body then you may have to glue thin veneer on each side of the neck pocket to make it a tight fit.
Does that make sense ?
The first picture shows the underneath end of the fingerboard is too proud causing the gaps

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Hi Amid, kit looks great other than the neck fit. Looks like you will need to sand down under the fingerboard around 20th fret to the end of the fingerboard. Draw a pencil line on both sides from the existing corner to the end of the fingerboard so the fingerboard will lye flat on the body, and that should eliminate the gap on the front of the body neck join.
Once you get the fingerboard sitting flat on the body then you may have to glue thin veneer on each side of the neck pocket to make it a tight fit.
Does that make sense ?
The first picture shows the underneath end of the fingerboard is too proud causing the gaps

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Yeah i see except i think i may just have to start sanding where the perpendicular angle is (wich doesn t end perpendicular at all).
The other side just slide in the pocket so sanding won t help.

Hi Amid, once you get the angle of the neck heel/fingerboard same as the body neck pocket it should fit snug and the heel bottom should touch the pocket. I think you understand now what to do

Well i m still lost about that neck fitting.... :mad:

I don t want to do any mistake so i sand micrometters after micrometters but still it doesn t seem to fit the way it should be... On one hand i never saw a guitar with a neck pointing that way and on the other hand i watched all builds of GR-1SF and they all seems to have that "not square" routing cavity on the neck... So where is the problem?

I don't want to start anything else before that neck is properly fitted to me so i m kinda stuck.

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Amid my neck fit looked average initially however is now looking really good as I've taken the time to ensure it is right in the slot where it should be. It took some effort to get it there without clamps.

Even with clamp it doesn t go differently as the uperside touch the body of the guitar ... Still don t know what to do

Can you post some pictures of the inside of the neck pocket, so we can see if there are any issues there. The neck fit definitely looks to have improved over the series of your photos. The most important things in this situation are: 1. the angle of the neck relative to the bridge height, so that you get an acceptable action, and 2. good contact between the neck heel and the pocket so that you get a strong bond when glued.

If you sit the bridge in position and then clamp the neck in place with a clamp each side of the fretboard you can then get an idea of the neck angle by standing a long steel rule (or straight edge/level) down the centre of the frets, it should line up close to the top of the saddles with the bridge at its lowest setting.

Hi Amid, what Scott said.
The second batch of photos you posted you have improved the fit, just needs a bit more sanding so all the faces are flush, including bottom of the neck pocket.
Maybe you need to sand it with a lower grit paper and remove a bit more excess under the fingerboard. Work out which places are causing the gaps and sand those areas.
Do a trial fit fairly regularly so you don't oversand.

Once the heel fits flush you can do a mock build as Scott suggests to check what the string action will be.

These kits have about a 4 degree neck angle to compensate for the high TOM bridges

Well after 2 more hours of trying to adjust i m getting better on the angle but way worst on the fitting. I still don t know if i should sand more or not... Considering i will change the nut because i don t have lumberjack fingers, the cords will get closer to the board.
Probably will have to veneer the sides of the pocket. If i have vener the bottom i m scared to have to adjust the height again :/
Would have loved a plug and play neck because it s the only thing i really don t feel confortable with :o

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I ve received my Tv jones ! ;)

Well not doing anything until i don t get this neck done.
What you think of the neck angle so far? What you would do?

TV Jones are great pickups

I am putting a TV Jones into my Carbronita build, i bought it ages ago, its a Powertron plus .