Gr-1sf

[Jeff Sheridan]

I got my GR-1SF kit over the weekend and was able to start it after a little research. First, a few of the things about the kit I learned from the other members:
1. the tuning peg holes don't line up. Not sure if this was on just the first few kit orders (ordered mine two weeks ago) but mine were more or less lined up. One was off with its partner by about 2mills (I'm learning metric instead in inches because of this kit and its users!) but it wasn't enough for me to want to plug and re-drillI got my GR-1SF kit over the weekend and was able to start it after a little research. First, a few of the things about the kit I learned from the other members:
1. the tuning peg holes don't line up. Not sure if this was on just the first few kit orders (ordered mine two weeks ago) but mine were more or less lined up. One was off with its partner by about 2mills (I'm learning metric instead in inches because of this kit and its users!) but it wasn't enough for me to want to plug and re-drill
2. Bridge placement. This was definitely something I looked at for a while, as I want the guitar to play properly. As was stated by a few other members, the bridge seems to be a little too far back, mine was about 5mil back (past the equal measurement from nut to 12th fret). I got a little confused by the video on the web sight, but the main thing I learned was don't cut the neck down and the bridge needs to be a little further back to compensate for string thickness and bend. Looked at a few other guitars and found that it was a fairly consistent 3mil longer on the high E and more growing to the low E. Anyways this looks like the bridge placement should work with my kit. Worst case scenario I can take the bridge off and put on a floating bridge.
3. Just something I didn't see but thought might be useful: a generic numbered list of steps taken from kit unwrapping to completion would be helpful for someone like me.
4. The forums are very helpful. I have never been a part of any forum ever so I was fairly hesitant in joining. But I had too to see any pictures and I'm glad I did! I was instantly welcomed after posting on the welcome board and have already learned a lot from everyone, especially the Gr-1sf builders. Glad to meet others who love this guitar and thank you Adam for providing the kit that I couldn't find anywhere else!

[Jeff Sheridan]

i started building the guitar yesterday, and since I'm a carpenter by trade, I decided to take on the woodworking aspects as step one. First I thought thru the guitar and decided what type of finish product I wanted and how that differed from the kit. So reshaping the headstock and plugging the output jack and the three way tone selector switch hole were first. I was a bit torn over the headstock since the "v" shape was really starting to grow on me but eventually decided on a different Gretssh style headstock, I felt that was a little more my style. As for the tone selector switch I would rather have it lower on the body. Having the pickup selector up high on the body as well as the volume placement is new to me but i think I'm going to like having them there and learning to use them.
Next was the mock up. I decided to put all the hardware on because I imagined marking up the the guitar while lining up the components and I wanted the holes to be pre drilled before the paint to lower the risk of marring the finish. (Although for this guitar I have a flat black in mind) Also I felt like i needed four arms to get the neck/strings/body/bridge/bigsby to all line up together at the same time without some of it nailed down. Once i got everything looking good and holes predrilled it all came back off.
As I looked through the "how to build" thread I saw that there was only one step between finishing the guitar and putting the neck on which was Sheilding the cavities. I decided to do one step out of order which was attach the neck before finishing the body and neck. Not sure why this always seems done later but it seemed easier to clean up any glue or scrapes while still in the sanding stage. Also any custom home built hollow body guitars seemed to follow this sequence as well. So now its sat clamped for almost 24 hours and is going to move onto the sanding sanding sanding stage.

[wokkaboy]

nice one Jeff, some people prefer to glue a set neck early in the build, as long as you got somewhere to hang it while stain/clear coats are curing and you don't mind working with a bigger object.
Would love to see some pics but not sure if the site is allowing uploaded pics yet

[kells80aus]

Hi Jeff,

Welcome to the torture that is a GR-1sf.
2 mm is about 5/64. easiest way to work between metric and imerial is that 25.4mm is 1 inch. most people drop the .4 and call it 25mm to an inch, but if you want accuracy. it's 25.4.
My GR-1sf is one of the ones where the tuner holes were all over the shop. I found that if you try to recover the holes that are about 1/16th out the plug will most likley just rip out as you get to the bottom of it with your drill. In the end there was only one hole the plug stayed in place. Effectively what I had acheved was to elongate the tuner hole so that they were oval shaped. the washers covered the holes so it was no big deal.
With my Bridge I waved the white flag and went with the floating roller bridge. I intend to pin it when I get to it.
What ever you do for a coating on this thing stay away from Minwax. I am locked in a battle with this pile of horse excrement called min wax. It is very hard to get a nice flat surface. At the moment mine is comming up with a bit of an orange peel finish. like you find on a bad spray job.
With the wiring I have used StewMac shielded cotton push back wire covered with clear shrink wrapp. this should overcome any chance of a hum or buzz that these beasts were known for.
The layout I have used is pickup selector at the top with the master tone, master Vol bottom front and pup vols at the back.
For the tone control I used a push/pull switch with the options of .023uf and .068uf.
I had found with other builds that using .023 and .047 was not a large enough tone gap to be worth while.

Cheers PK

[Jeff Sheridan]

Thanks for the info guys I will sure be looking into the wiring guides when I start in on that aspect of the build. I had it in my mind to finish the guitar flat black in the style of the Gretssh Tim Armstrong, anyone have any tips on getting this look? I did try and upload some pictures but wasn't able to for some reason, I'll try and get some input from one of my more computer literate friends to see how to do that. As for the torture of the GR-1SF, I just spent some quality time trying to tape off the binding on one F-hole, how do they do that at the factory it must be a trade secret!!!??!!

[kells80aus]

Hi Jeff, you may have to shrink the size of your pics to get them to upload. I generall just use my smart phone to take pics of my builds as these usually upload ok. I f I take a pic with my Nickon it preduses a file around 6 - 8 Mb and this is way too big. I usually just used Microsoft Photo Manager, which is inbuilt with most Microsoft OS's well it's in the XP I am using. but any app(programe) that can resize the image down to around 1024x768 will do.
The Wiring layout I have built, is based on the original Gretsch layout, but I have substituted a push/pull pot for the tone switch they used. Thye origianl had two capacitors hooked up to a switch to change tones. I just felt it was a more versatile set up to use an actual tone pot.

Cheers PK

[Jeff Sheridan]

I was able to get the pics loaded today, so here is the plugs and shaped headstock.
the kit is beautiful in its raw wood form... Fingers crossed on the painting!

[wokkaboy]

so Jeff trying to work out the new configuration of pots/switch and output jack, have you moved the pup switch closer to the neck and now the output jack will be on the top with maybe 1 volume and another switch on lower horn to split the pup coils ?
What colour is this going to be and will it be solid paint to cover the plugged holes ?

[Jeff Sheridan]

Yeah Wok good eye on the configuration, right now I've got it as follows: Upper horn still got the pickup selector, lower horn master volume, output jack is moving to the top just cause I don't like having the jack stick out and catch on stuff. Then as far as the tone and volume controls they will be also on the face, I just haven't drilled the holes for them. Im still thinking this part through as to how many controls I want and if I can combine some, perhaps a master tone instead of two separate ones. I generally just leave the tone all the way on all the time anyways!
Im planning on a solid flat black, so with taking off the extra upper switch and the color instead of a White Falcon it is more in line with the Tim Armstrong. So last night I taped off the binding (still wondering how they do that in the factory) and today was able to prime it.

[wokkaboy]

sounds good Jeff, must have been hard work taping off the binding and the thin part on the top face. I don't see the point in a master volume plus another volume but thats up to you. It will be a long reach to the lower horn to the master volume. If you don't use the tone control much no point having 2 tone pots. I'd just drill a hole for a master tone.
When you get to the wiring stage the forum wiring guru Weirdbits may be able to knock up a wiring diagram for you. He can possibly give you the option for 2 different capacitors for the tone so you have the option.
Keen to see some pics even if its primer !