Noobie attempts a Grizzly kit-the birth of the Suncaster

[Joefaity]

Hi Everybody,
First off I would like to start by saying thank you to all of you for your amazing build threads. They have been a great inspiration/tutorial for my future builds. Second, I know that kits can be unpopular amongst these crowds, but I wanted to get one for my first because I'm no wood-wiz, and I want to be able to take plenty of measurements for future builds. Let's get down to business! I am going to be dyeing it yellow with a water based dye from McFadden's that I got at Grizzly, then I am going to put on a gloss nitrocellulose finish with my brand new spray gun. I just bought the kit, and hopefully all of the neccesary accessories, so here's the pics!




Look Familiar?

[Joefaity]

The Products

The bridge, complete with chinese newspaper for that authentic telecaster feel.

Now the two imperfections I noticed
This would be a drip of something presumably sealer that I will have to sand off

Same deal here I think, might be glue though. Either way, it goes under the control plate, so I don't care

[Sawarow]

Kit or no kit, you'll end up with a nice guitar. Just be careful, you're going to end up with a garage full of tools to build the next one.

[udimet720]

The grizzly kit looks pretty nice from the pictures. Whatare your impressions of it out of the box?

[Joefaity]

Originally Posted by udimet720

The grizzly kit looks pretty nice from the pictures. Whatare your impressions of it out of the box?

I am actually quite impressed, the neck seems very nice, the body needs quite a bit of sanding, but that's the fun part! Actually I did notice a few minor dings around the edges, but not a big deal. I have a feeling that the pups and tuners won't be very good, but I can't say quite yet. One of the things that surprised me was the controls, they are better than I was expecting. They aren't the typical tele knobs, they have lateral grooves, and I really like them. One thing I did notice is that the neck is just barely too big to fit into the pocket, but I thought maybe they do that so you sand the pocket down to a snug fit, I dunno. One last thing worth noting is that I think that the headstock is a bit too short for a traditional fender t-style head (I think and saw other people say). It can be adjusted easily though, and I'm not planning to make the traditional anyhow. Anywho long story too late to be short I love it so far! Didn't like the strat style one in the store though, looked like a bad copy. The curly top PRS style that they had instore was VERY cool looking. Transparent orange dye, light clear coat, beautiful curl, TOO stinkin' cool!

[mgdesigns]

Why the big bottle of Titebond? The wood is all built up already. Unless you're planning on doing a binding, or drop top you shouldn't need any glue at all. Right?

[teleblues001]

Originally Posted by mgdesigns

Why the big bottle of Titebond? The wood is all built up already. Unless you're planning on doing a binding, or drop top you shouldn't need any glue at all. Right?

Subconciously he knows he will be doing more builds in the future.
His mind is preparing for that inevitability.

.

[barkley]

If the neck seems to big for the pocket you might be better off sanding the heel of the neck, rather than the pocket on the body, to make it fit right. I found it was easier this way, plus its easier to fix any potential 'mess ups'. Also , any lacquer, or sealing coats on the body/neck will obviously make the fit even tighter. Just be sure to keep the neck in line with the bridge.
good luck!

[930vet]

Originally Posted by Joefaity

. . .One thing I did notice is that the neck is just barely too big to fit into the pocket, but I thought maybe they do that so you sand the pocket down to a snug fit, I dunno. . .

This will be tricky. The neck pocket and presumably the neck are already drilled, so any resizing of the neck or the pocket will need to maintain the alignment of those holes, not to mention alignment with the eventual placement of the bridge. It looks like the bridge mounting and string-through holes are not pre-drilled, so you have a little flexibility there but you will want to make sure that you don't wind up shifting the bridge so much that the bridge pickup route becomes visible on one side of the bridge. Also be careful not to throw off the alignment of the neck so that the strings slant relative to the fretboard. One thing that may help is to drill clearance holes through the neck pocket so that you will have a little bit of free play for positioning the neck. My inclination would be to measure the neck heel and pocket against Fender neck specs and see if it is possible to match that to help you decide whether to shave the pocket or the heel. A good caliper will help, so you can remove the right amount of material from one side first and then the other, but remove less than the measured difference so you will have a little left for final fitting.

I'm not sure I would put a transparent finish on a 4-board body, but I can imagine it coming out well; after you stain it, if the board lines are too accentuated by the stain, you can change your mind if you want.

[Joefaity]

Originally Posted by mgdesigns

Why the big bottle of Titebond? The wood is all built up already. Unless you're planning on doing a binding, or drop top you shouldn't need any glue at all. Right?

Yeah, the other guy was right, I know I'm hooked!

Thanks for the neck advice, thankfully the neck pocket has holes, but the neck doesn't. Hopefully that will help.

[k-wad]

I made a template for my Grizzly kit by using my Squier headstock.

Seemed to work out OK.

[mgdesigns]

Looks good.

[weiner71]

I got one of these kits a while back and loved it. the only problem was that the pickguard looked like it was meant for a tele twice the size of the guitar (it covered the whole cutaway arm). I did buy a different pickguard from warmoth and it fit perfectly.

[Joefaity]

Originally Posted by k-wad

I made a template for my Grizzly kit by using my Squier headstock.

Seemed to work out OK.

Wow, looks good! I have a 72 thinline tele reissue, and it's head stock has a different tuner spacing, so I can't exactly copy it, but I will most definetly try to modify it a bit.

[k-wad]

Joe,

The tuner spacing on this neck is different than the Squier I took the pattern off of as well.

I just made a pattern out of cardboard and marked the hole for the high E tuner.
I lined up the hole in the pattern with the one in the new neck and traced it on with a sharpie. It only needed small amount of adjustment near the nut to make it look right.

It's not exactly the same as the original headstock it was patterned after, but it's real close.

[Joefaity]

Okay, so I finally got the sand paper yesterday, and here's what I did!

Here is the body as it was when I started, as you can see the body came with a sealer on it, I wore a respirator and glasses for most of it, I don't want to risk breathing too much of whatever passes for sealer in China.


This is it after I finished with the first round of 150 grit sand paper.


This is after I finished with the 220, then wiped it down with a damp cloth to raise the grain, then sanded it back down, then wiped it down again.


The things we do for love!

[Joefaity]

Originally Posted by k-wad

Joe,

The tuner spacing on this neck is different than the Squier I took the pattern off of as well.

I just made a pattern out of cardboard and marked the hole for the high E tuner.
I lined up the hole in the pattern with the one in the new neck and traced it on with a sharpie. It only needed small amount of adjustment near the nut to make it look right.

It's not exactly the same as the original headstock it was patterned after, but it's real close.

ooh, gotta go find some cardboard! thanks for the idea. I think that's the next step.

[tweeet]

I don't know what it is...probably the half a bottle of Port I've just drunk......but I don't half get excited looking at a new build with all this wood and tools and ideas......this is great stuff....Phil Bennett...brilliant ...oh that's brilliant.....JPR.Williams....Pullin....great dummy............can someone tell me what planet I'm on tonight..?

[Stuco]

You are making me want to buy a grizzly kit! I'm going to do my best to resist. I was thinking that these kits were string through but I guess they're not.

[Joefaity]

Originally Posted by Stuco

You are making me want to buy a grizzly kit! I'm going to do my best to resist. I was thinking that these kits were string through but I guess they're not.

Actually they're optional string through. The bridge can go wither way, it's just whether or not you want to drill it. I'm drilling it of course :)

[Joefaity]

Originally Posted by tweeet

I don't know what it is...probably the half a bottle of Port I've just drunk......but I don't half get excited looking at a new build with all this wood and tools and ideas......this is great stuff....Phil Bennett...brilliant ...oh that's brilliant.....JPR.Williams....Pullin....great dummy............can someone tell me what planet I'm on tonight..?

I don't quite know... I can't tell if that was good or bad. I'm thinking bad though.

[Joefaity]

Well, I haven't been very good about updating this. I stained the guitar yellow, and got the neck to fit into the neck pocket. Here comes the problem. I just tried the bridge on the body, and I'm ticked! When it's lined up right there appears to not be anywhere that you can move it to where the routed pickup hoke doesn't stick out. There's a sweet spot that you can hit where it is less visible, but it still sticks out on both sides a little bit. Is there anything that I can do? I assume no, but who knows, you guys might have some kind of unholy worksmanship that my simple mind has not grasped.

[sean79]

Originally Posted by Joefaity

I just tried the bridge on the body, and I'm ticked! When it's lined up right there appears to not be anywhere that you can move it to where the routed pickup hoke doesn't stick out. There's a sweet spot that you can hit where it is less visible, but it still sticks out on both sides a little bit.

Is this what you're talking about?

If so, that's considered normal for a vintage spec Telecaster. The bridge cover used to cover the gap. There are some aftermarket bridges that do a better job covering it up, or an ashtray cover might fit your Grizzly bridge. If this is the gap you're talking about, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Good luck with your project.

[Joefaity]

Yep, that's it. I guess I'll just tell people that it's vintage style :D

[Joefaity]

Oklie doklie, today is the day the sealer goes on, I have quite a few pics on my camera to put up, but I'm lazy. :D One more note, I have decided to tru-oil the neck (if I can find some). When I went to mask off the fretboard little slivers of walnut were coming up with the tape, and if it does that right when I put it on I don't even want to see what it would be after spraying and a week of curing!

[Joefaity]

Designing the neck template with construction paper and my 72 tele thinline reissue


Ready for the bandsaw


Dyeing the back to make sure that it will look good


Body shot with the rough neck

[Joefaity]

Body ready for some sealer, note the poorly homemade neck stick.


My test piece which I did a 30 second bandsaw job on for some reason


My sprayer $17 :)

[Joefaity]

Strung up and ready to be sealed


Body after sealer


Back after sealer


Not bad if I do say so myself :D

[barkley]

was this one finished?

[dilbone]

Looks great so far...I also did a Grizzly kit and I love it so much it is now my only tele. I've kept only it and my les paul...it's that good. The neck on mine was not very good at all. Had quite a twist in it that I couldn't live with. I got an SX STL50 neck, which is the fattest neck I've ever played and with jumbo frets too...it's nearly a perfect tele, for me anyway...

Here's my build thread

The kit for me was a way to get my feet wet and hopefully have a playable guitar, then build a body from scratch for my second build. I'm working on my templates right now and hopefully over the winter I can get the body ready for finishing this spring.

This looks really good, can't wait to see how it finishes up. Great job so far!!!