Grizzly kit: Please share your experiences

[sarastro]

My Grizzly uke kit has arrived!

While not expecting much, I would still like to make this as good as I can. Please share your advice, tips, experiences that you think might be helpful to a total novice builder, and by all means post photos of your completed instruments.

Thanks,

Roger

 

[Pukulele Pete]

If you do a search here on this site you'll find lots of info.

 

[ukeeku]

My end result was to throw it in the fire at UWC. It was the humane thing to do

 

[Ahnko Honu]

RussBuss made a very unique change to his Grizzly 'ukulele kit which I think is pretty awesome and original, sounds pretty decent too at least in his hands. :shaka:

 

[gspears]

My first experience building a kit from grizzly. Be careful, the fretboard is fragile. And throw away the tuners that come with it.

 

[Mark EB]

Wow I really like the stencil there on the finish work. Very interesting alternative to inlay not as gaudy as painting ... Can you describe how you did that?

 

[Mbowman]

mistaken instructions

I ordered a Grizzly concert kit for a quick-to-build Christmas 2012 gift. A grave error in the instructions and photo illustration showed the saddle placement at 7-9/16" from the center of the 14th fret. This really raised the "red flags" because the 12th fret is usually used for the center of the nut-to-bridge scale. Using a fret scale calculator I verified this to be the case and notified Grizzly customer service. A month later I received a phone call, an apology, and later a replacement kit with a *Model T10457 Important Update* sheet showing the correct placement.

The update is copyrighted 2013 and I'm certain that it is the result of my letter. From reading this forum and others I get that many builders and players are unhappy with Grizzly kits and find them unplayable. I wonder how many hundreds of these kits were unknowingly built to an inaccurate scale.

Having sorted that out, I built my replacement kit with accurate intonation, geared tuners, and a sound port. I'm quite happy.

 

[sarastro]

Thanks for the input.
I really like seeing what modifications and finishes people do.

 

[gspears]

Wow I really like the stencil there on the finish work. Very interesting alternative to inlay not as gaudy as painting ... Can you describe how you did that?

Hi Mark. I purchased a die-cut sticker from ebay and placed it in the correct spot I wanted. I then used a minwax stain. Once I was happy with the color, I peeled off the sticker and used a wipe on poly finish, also from minwax. I had made sure that most of the required sanding was done on the body prior to applying the sticker. Thats it.

 

[Mark EB]

Hi Mark. I purchased a die-cut sticker from ebay and placed it in the correct spot I wanted. I then used a minwax stain. Once I was happy with the color, I peeled off the sticker and used a wipe on poly finish, also from minwax. I had made sure that most of the required sanding was done on the body prior to applying the sticker. Thats it.

Very cool! I really like the idea of masking on the finish rather than painting or carving inlay (which I have no skill for).