Gr-1sf

[Simon Barden]

That neck joint really doesn't look good at all.

The neck inlay seems to be from an ES-3 (not currently for sale on the site), not the top diamond tooth inlay the GR-1SF should have. Here's the neck and body from my ES-3 when it arrived. Apart from the cutaway style and a few hole locations. they are very similar kits.



The GR-1SF neck's headstock should come with the two rounded 'scrolls' on the end, as in this PBG website picture of the kit.



If you haven't got that, then you may well have been sent the wrong neck for the body. If so, it looks like you may well need a new kit.

Whilst you have a lot of side area for gluing on the neck, the bottom the heel to the body joint is the most important one as that's the only part you can really clamp together for a strong joint. With that big a gap between the heel and the body, I wonder if any of that heel is touching the bottom of the pocket?

I'd also be looking at checking the neck angle,as it seems if you get the neck sitting flush to the top, then you get a gap between the heel and the side of the body. If you have it so there's no gap between the heel and the body, you'll end up with a gap between the neck and the top of the body. Which means that the neck angle can vary significantly. On my (and others) ES-3, the neck angle is too shallow and I cant get the bridge low enough for a good action. I've replaced the bridge with a lower one and tried filing things away, but still no luck.

So I'd straighten the neck so it's flat, run a straight edge along it and see where the end of the straight edge ends up where the bridge will sit. See how much of a gap you've got there and will the bridge fit in at its lowest setting (allowing for post insert rims etc)? If the bridge does see-saw, then does the neck need to be pointing up or down in order to get the bridge in the space under the ruler's edge.

If the angle looks OK, then you could glue layers of veneer to the bottom of the pocket to fill in any gap between the heel and the pocket bottom. I'd shine a light through the gap to see if the gap goes all the way through or not.

I tend to fill small cracks/gaps with a filler I've tinted with artists acrylics to to match the finish. But the current gap by the heel cap is pretty large, so if that still exists (or it's filled with a couple of layers of veneer that look ugly), then other people have added an extra block of wood as an extra heel cap to cover the join. It could be basswood to match the body, or it could be a dark wood to provide a contrast.

[Gunut75]

My headstock is not cut. So, it's the wrong neck.

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[Gunut75]

I checked the neck angle last night with a straightedge. It does see-saw, and a good neck angle is right in the middle of that movement.

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[Simon Barden]

I'd say so. I'd email Pit Bull with the neck joint and headstock pictures and see what they say. Sometimes the factories change the spec of what they send out and PBG don't update the kit photos to suit, but I've seen 2021 GR-1SF builds and they've been as per the photos.

You often get slight gaps right by the end of the pocket, but this is excessive.

[Gunut75]

Also, the .05" gap goes all the way up the pocket. I CAN SEE THE LIGHT! The neck isn't touching the bottom of the pocket at all.

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[Gunut75]

I bought this kit in July. I'll email them right away.

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[Simon Barden]

You do that, though as they generally work part-time, you may not get a reply until after Christmas now, and possibly into the New Year The Christmas holidays are generally longer in Australia (and the UK) than in the US, so 24th to the 28th December are all official holidays, and often people take between Christmas and New Year off as vacation (well it is mid-summer down there) and make use of the public holidays.

[Gunut75]

Does this kit have a 24.75 fret scale?

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[McCreed]

Sorry, the first half of this reply was intended for a separate thread by Gunut75 about a chipped headstock:

Personally, I'd send it back, or at least email PBG to come to another arrangement.

Whilst it can be glued, there are drawbacks to doing so. If you're planning to stain, you would need to get a stainable wood glue, not standard Titebond or superglue (there are a number available nowadays) but I suspect the seam would not be completely invisible as the glue is not going to take up the stain the same way timber will despite being "stainable". I guess it depends on what you can live with.

Does this kit have a 24.75 fret scale?

As for the scale length, I didn't see in the PBG description but by tradition it should be 24.75". You can verify by measuring (preferably with a long steel rule) from the fretboard side of the nut, to the centre of the 12th fret. It will be half the scale length (314mm if 24-3/4").

[Simon Barden]

Gretsch scale length is normally one of two scale lengths. 25.5” for the large bodied (17” wide) models like the Falcon. The others have a 24.6” scale. As McCreed says, the kit page doesn’t state the kit’s scale length, but I expect it should be either one of the normal 24.75” or 25.5” scales the kits come in. I doubt it will be 24.6” if it’s based on a smaller Gretsch.

As McCreed says, measure from the nut to the middle of the 12th fret to check the neck’s scale length. With the neck in place, you should measure double that length (maybe a couple of mm longer) to the high E bridge position. If so, at least the neck is the right scale length for the body. (The ES-3 neck has a 24.75” scale). If there’s a mismatch, then the bridge position will be about 10mm further away from the nut than it should.