Gsj-1 first build

[Dave Blonde]

Finally took the plunge and bought a Sg junior style kit for my first build.

I managed to fail magnificently to start a diary but, as you can see from the above image, I finished the build today so thought I’d give my overall impression in one go.

It was a lot more challenging than I thought. Constantly thinking I’d ruined it to then somehow rescuing it again made the experience incredibly satisfying if not more than a little stressful at times.

First off, the price of the kit was great. However, being based in the uk meant extra for delivery and import taxes. This bumped the price up by about £70 or so in the end. Worth bearing in mind.

The kit took about 3 weeks to land but considering everything going on I thought that was quite impressive, especially seeing as it spent over a week in customs at Coventry airport.





It arrived well packaged and in good condition. There were a few little imperfections but I’d already decided to go for a battered and bruised look anyway so didn’t really mind. Plus, it made for more problem solving which was half the fun/stress.








After test fitting everything and being impressed at how well it all measured up, I started with on reshaping the bevels to give it a more defined 60s look.

I just used a file and sandpaper which worked well.



Then after lots and lots and lots of sanding I decided to fill the mahogany body with some water based grain filler mixed with black acrylic paint. I put this on far too think and it dried rock solid so I had to go back to lots more sanding. That was a tough lesson to learn.

I then started dying the body using crimson guitars stain. This wasn’t the easiest thing to do as the wood absorbed the stain at different rates which started to give a slightly patchy look. After going back and forth sanding bits back etc I eventually decided it was consistent with the look I was going for anyway so went with it.




The body glued together absolutely fine.



However, that was the point I realised there hadn’t been a hole drilled for the grounding wire to the bridge. This made life difficult as all the hardware stores were shut and I wasn’t able to buy the extra long drill bit that I wouldve been needed. In the end I decided to drill through and piggyback on the hole from pick up to the cavity. This took a couple of go’s frustratingly but at least it’s all hidden so you can’t see the mess I made!

Another slight disappointment was the fact I bought the copper shielding tape from pitbull. However, no where near enough arrived so I had to order more from amazon which took a good while to arrive. Pleased I did tho as there’s hardly any hum at all now. But I’m getting ahead of myself.



I also decided to upgrade to locking tuners and a bone nut. Glad I did but must admit, the tuners that came with the kit didn’t seem that bad at all.

The nut was slightly problematic. When I removed the old plastic one I found the pocket wasn’t square and there was a metal pin in there. This made filing the new nut very challenging. But I went incredibly slowly and got there in the end. More difficult than I was expecting but again, another worthwhile upgrade.

I finished the guitar using crimson guitars finishing oil and some beeswax polish for extra shine. It made the guitar slightly darker than I was expecting but overall I’m very pleased with how it came out. It’s in line with the rough and ready jr look I was going for.






I made a decal out of inkjet water slide paper. There’s definitely a trick to it which involves making sure the ink is completely sealed otherwise it just melts away in the water. But for just a couple of pounds it wasn’t that bad either. The letters are just the initials of my 3 daughters - Molly, Charlotte and Rose.



Oh and looking at that last picture I’ve realised one more slight issue - the truss rod cover that comes with the kit is the 2 hole style whereas the guitars needs the 3 hole version due to the positioning of the truss rod pocket. I’m not fussed at the minute as I’ve been playing with the set up. I’ll likely replace this soon enough. But for now it’s done.

It’s taken longer than expected due to the shops being shut and parts taking forever to be delivered. But overall I’m satisfied with how it’s gone.

I made lots of mistakes but hopefully think I learned from them all.

Should set me up nicely for the next build...



Cheers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fender3x]

That's a great guitar. I like the way you kept a photo journal even though you didn't post it in small bits ;-)

[Simon Barden]

Nice job. You've had a couple more issues that I've had with my GSJ build, but a lot of the same ones, especially the metal pin in the fretboard (they use them to hold the fretboard in place when gluing it on, so the clamps don't skew the angle of it, but they have no need to put one right at the end of it).

I think my stain has gone on more evenly. I used Rothco and Frost's vintage cherry spirit stain. P180 was the finest grit I used when sanding before staining. If you use too fine a grit it can affect the way the wood takes up the stain.

What do you think of the sound of pickup? Any other P90 guitars to compare it to?

BTW, you really have too many turns on the locking tuners. Align the hole with the string direction, pull the string through tight, then lock. You should then be up to tension with just 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn of string around the post. Normal tuners lock the string well enough, the idea of locking tuners is to eliminate the extra turns of string required round the post, which is what many believe is the source of some tuning instability, especially when using a trem or big string bends.

[JohnH]

Looks great