Grizzlly Guitar Question

[Hal Peeler]

Has anyone here built one of the electric guitar kits from Grizzly? Or one of the "saga" kits from the big auction sight. I am wanting to do this pretty bad and I think that doing a kit first will help me before I attempt one from scratch. Any help is appreciated.
Hal

[scott spencer]

Hi Hal - I have not tried one of the Grizzly kits, but I'd like to urge you to consider somewhat of a more custom approach. With a few shortcuts, it's not that difficult. It's possible to buy a premade neck, build the solid body, and choose your own pickups and electronics that'll give a much more unique sound. I'm sure the Grizzly kit is fine, but I'm also sure that it'll sound very much like a million other Chinese Strat clones.

The body is not that difficult to do, and there are hundreds of schematics for guitar electronics on the web. There are also many good support sites that are very helpful, including many veteran players and builders here.

I don't play, but was able to take the approach I described when I built my son's guitar, and made out quite well. I bought a neck, built the body, and originally bought a full set of electronics from a scavenged Chinese Strat....we liked everything but the sound, and eventually upgraded all the pickups, and now have a custom look and a unique sound.

It's a great learning opportunity and a very rewarding journey. Hope you'll consider it!

[Bill Petersen]

You might want to check out Carvin Guitars. They make a strat-like kit and their electronics are top notch. Look for the "Bolt" guitar kit. They also sell individual parts. U.S. company in San Diego, CA.

I have built the kit for myself and loved it. I'm thinking of doing another but will build the body myself next time like Scott did.

Bill

[Carlos Alden]

I built a tele kit with my son. Might have been the Grizzly kit. We did it for the reasons you stated: he wanted to make on of his own design, and although I have built a bunch of acoustic instruments I wanted to try an electric kit first before I sailed into uncharted waters.

It was a great experience. Although it was little more than doing the finish and bolting the pieces together, there were lots of little steps involved and it was a great way to get a teenage kid involved with working in the shop with Dad. I made him go through all the steps of finishing - filling, sanding, sealing, sanding, priming, sanding, several coats of colored lacquer, sanding between each coat, and clear lacquer and final sanding and buffing. He is very proud of all the work he did despite wanting to quit along the way "isn't this good enough like it is" during the tedious finishing process (rule of 3's.)

He's almost done with his real project. It's too cold in my part of the world to be finishing it, but the body design is ready to go. Building the cheap kit was a very good way to prepare him for the design and construction. The parts for one of the cheaper Griz kits or Saga kits are bottom -of-the-line but serviceable for a knock-around axe. And it was great to work on a cheap guitar and not have mistakes matter so much.

Also look at the kits at Stewart-McDonald (stewmac.com). There is also a great kit at Luthier's Mercantile (lmii.com) which is a collection of all the raw, unmilled pieces and parts you need to make a guitar. For my son's final guitar we ordered the neck from Warmoth guitar parts, where you can spec any part of the neck: width, scale, fret size and height, head shape, nut configuration, type of fingerboard wood, type of neck wood, etc. etc. Stew-Mac also has stock necks. You can buy a huge range of colored lacquers and get great advice from Guitar Reranch, or, again, get supplies from Stew-Mac.

By the way, this forum often talks about tool acquisition syndrome as a disease: gotta have this jig, buy this tool, upgrade to a 12" jointer, etc. Once you get into luthiery tools it gets even worse. Watch out. Give your Visa card to your spouse.

Good luck and have fun.
Carlos

[Alan Frazier]

I have only built one of Grizzly's acoustic kits it wasn't too bad. From what I've heard the Saga kits and similar cheap ones should be avoided I've heard people getting them with neck pockets out of alignment and similar problems. The more expensive Grizzly kits are supposed to be pretty good. I would suggest not doing a kit, it's really not much of a project. It won't teach you much about how to build the guitar what it will teach you is how to put it together in the end but there's no reason that can't be done first on a guitar you built. I have built many guitars and my first was a mahogany strat with a pre bought neck and a pre wired pickguard. Only thing I didn't like were the pickups which I later replaced. Also if this is something you keep doing or if you feel up to it make the neck it's really not that hard, you can buy pre-slotted fingerboards off of stewmac or lmi.

[John Bush]

I bought a mandolin kit to make for a friend( I'm not a musician) and it appeared to be a reject likely from the offshore places that make them to sell as a completed instrument. Never having made a stringed instrument before, I didn't know how components should fit, and as it turned out, they didn't fit that well. At least it will look good hanging from the wall. Hopefully the electic instruments are less demanding, and it may be a good idea to look at the more expensive kits for better quality.

[Hal Peeler]

[QUOTE=scott spencer;1055015] I have not tried one of the Grizzly kits, but I'd like to urge you to consider somewhat of a more custom approach. With a few shortcuts, it's not that difficult. It's possible to buy a premade neck, build the solid body, and choose your own pickups and electronics that'll give a much more unique sound.

That is my intention but I am wondering if the kit approach first will give me an idea of how everything goes together

It won't teach you much about how to build the guitar what it will teach you is how to put it together in the end but there's no reason that can't be done first on a guitar you built.

That is what I was wondering. Thanks for the replies.
Hal