Marcel's ES-1TL

[wazkelly]

Yeah, most UK immigrants get a huge shock when they arrive in Qld as the critters are so much bigger and quite often deadly too the further north you travel.

[Marcel]

Critters...lol

There was an TV news story today from down at the local river (the Fitzroy river) boat ramp. Some of the local Barramundi fishermen had complained about a Crocodile that had been harassing them for the past few weeks so the Games & Fisheries officers went out and caught the buggar to relocate it from the wild to a Crocodile farm. Only a medium sized one at 5.2m...

[Marcel]

News story from this morning.. Local Police are conducting a murder investigation after another 5.2m Crocodile was found shot dead in the same river. Crocodiles in the wild are a protected species in this part of the world.

[Kick]

Hm... I live a boring life when reading this...

[Marcel]

It came up in another thread and I thought it is relevant to add on this build diary.... setting the neck.

On most set neck kits I've done there is considerable leeway on the position of the neck relative to the body, but there is only one correct position.

When setting the neck you are dealing with the body, the neck, some glue, some heavy and awkward clamps, at least two strings and a long measuring device such as a steel ruler or tape measure. Reducing that count by one at this critical and busy time can make a huge difference. In my case it was the ruler that had to go.

After finding the correct place for the neck in the body (by measuring from the 12th fret to the point the strings land on the bridge) I noticed a gap between the end of the neck and the back of the PU hole. Once the neck has been set this gap in the long run will never change so I fashioned a small piece of wood (ply in my case) to fill that gap as best I could, and glued it in place prior to setting the neck. Now when I go and glue the neck in (setting the neck) so long as the neck tongue butts up against this piece of ply it will be at the correct distance between the 12th fret and the bridge. and thus eliminating the need for a ruler at that busy and complex moment of building a set neck guitar.

A year down the track I've noticed as a side benefit it does increase the strength and rigidity of the neck-body join, thus helping in tuning stability of the guitar build with varying temperature and humidity. For those who are concerned if negatively affects the 'tone' or the sustain of the guitar I can tell you it doesn't, if anything I think it improves it...

It's a gawd awful pair of photos but it demonstrates the construction issue point extremely well...

[FrankenWashie]

Very timely Marcel as I’m about to set the neck on my Reso. Good method.

[Marcel]

As outlined earlier in this thread my "finish" on this build is Shellac. The same stuff as used in French polished furniture... Well, it turns out that a Shellac finish needs maintenance, and it seems there is nil better maintenance than actual furniture polish...

I used some O'Cedar, as directed on the bottle's label, and was presented with a sweet scented Wow moment that lingers in the air for days after. Yes, there is a lovely smooth and beautiful glossy sheen on the guitar now, and the aroma now in the room is delicately positive... Just need to remember to not touch the O'Cedar treated guitars for 24hrs to allow the wipe-on polish to dry properly before giving it a light buff out...

I'll be using O'Cedar on all my Shellac builds from now on...

[JohnH]

Neat trick Marcel