ES5V first build

[DarkMark]

I’ve never built a guitar FrankenWashie, what clear gloss would you suggest? Currently I’m favouring Tru Oil. I guess wipe on poly is the other popular option?

[DarkMark]

Some stain got under the 6mm tape covering the binding yesterday. Scraping that off plus the exposed binding on the back of the body must of cost me approximately six hours. I also had to fix two small chips of binding which were cracking off. There are a few other cracks in the binding around the place which have stain within the fractures, but I don’t mind, makes it look older to me which suits the overall look of the instrument. I made a nifty little tool to help scrape the top of the f holes from some of the leftover aluminium used to make the notched straight edge.

[trv]

That burst looks great! The hand applied stain gives it so much more character than if you had sprayed it. Definitely the right choice for this kit.

[DarkMark]

Thank you Trv! It looks better in reality compared to the photos which make it look a bit harsh. I agree with your comments.

[FrankenWashie]

I’ve never built a guitar FrankenWashie, what clear gloss would you suggest? Currently I’m favouring Tru Oil. I guess wipe on poly is the other popular option?

I’ve never used tru oil, but a lot of the forum swear by it. Poly is an option if you don’t mind the pong. I have had some good results with the Dingo Tone clear finish and Neck finish (just no luck with the black stump). I am using a rustoleum clear spray on with my SV and ST builds at the moment, which is going quite well, though it takes a lot of patience and careful spraying.

[DarkMark]

And the neck is stained. I had real trouble with this task. Difficult timber? General incompetence? I don’t know? After it was dry I decided to grab a near dry black stain rag out of the bin and give the unusually patched light areas a touch up so they don’t stand out like dogs b’s. I think it was the right thing to do.

[Singing Frog]

Looks like it's been damaged and repaired....not very well.

[DarkMark]

I was hoping it just looked worn. I saw your bursting efforts Mr Frog, nice work!

[Fretworn]

Maybe its the resolution of the screen I'm using or the lighting in the photo, but it doesn't look too bad in that picture. Maybe its not what you were hoping for, but you quickly learn that guitars often have their own ideas of how they want to look. They're a bit like adolescent girls in that respect.

[DarkMark]

As a parent of a five year old girl I think I already know what you mean, Fretworn. The joys of working with a natural product. I was aiming for a matching neck burst but one side of the neck went dark right from the first coat of golden teak. There where also areas across the neck which were horribly patchy. I almost gave up and stained it all black. Glad I didn’t take any photos before this stage, it looked horrible. So not what I was hoping for but happy in the end.