Adopted ES-1 Hollow Body Kit

[wazkelly]

Thanks for your encouraging words Guvna.

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[JohnH]

Nice score Waz. I must admit, I quite liked the green, but interested to see what you plan to do with it.

[king casey]

Didn't mind the green either, but with those glue spots really didn't matter what colour...
I would have a go at a solid colour on the top. Give it the Pablo treatment and you may even
beat the field of wood stain contenders for the GOTM.

cheers, Mark.

[wazkelly]

Dreaded glue spots ruled out rescuing the flame veneer.

Was experimenting with various colours yesterday and the missus came to check things out and chose what she thought would look best.

As we are still in the prepping and experimenting stage if those plans fail I suppose a very dark colour may be the go. Not confident with spray cans.

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[wazkelly]

Got all the old flame top sanded off at last....


Now time for some Timber Mate......

[vh2580]

Looking good Waz

[wazkelly]

Cheers Tony.

Top scrubbed up not too bad, just need to see how it looks after applying some timber mate. F hole bindings still need a bit more polishing which is quite a fiddly job.

Been pondering where fret board end of neck joins the body as there is now a bit more of a gap to contend with. Looking like I may need to glue it in after applying initial stain coats so that filler can be added and stained to match? Still have a few other things to do before reaching that point which will allow more think time.

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[Adamc]

Cheers Tony.

Top scrubbed up not too bad, just need to see how it looks after applying some timber mate. F hole bindings still need a bit more polishing which is quite a fiddly job.

Been pondering where fret board end of neck joins the body as there is now a bit more of a gap to contend with. Looking like I may need to glue it in after applying initial stain coats so that filler can be added and stained to match? Still have a few other things to do before reaching that point which will allow more think time.

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I’ve been unhappy with my neck fit on my hollow body kit so I’ll be interested to see how you tackle it. At the moment I’m thinking I’ll shim and glue it as best I can and then fill the gaps and stain the filler before I give it the clear coat.
Does that sound feasible?


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[wazkelly]

I’ve been unhappy with my neck fit on my hollow body kit so I’ll be interested to see how you tackle it. At the moment I’m thinking I’ll shim and glue it as best I can and then fill the gaps and stain the filler before I give it the clear coat.
Does that sound feasible?


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Hi Adam, I highly recommend doing several measurements first to determine whether a shim is required.

The main one is to place the bridge on it's posts without the bushings and maybe pack some stuff around them to position things in the middle of pre-drilled holes. Some folks suggest using plastic tubing or wrap lots of tape around bridge posts. Next you would insert neck and see how much wiggle room there is. On this build there is stuff all side to side or fore & aft so fractions of a mm could be crucial in terms of getting scale length just right.

But before worrying about scale length, neck break angle is what will cause the most grief as it has a huge bearing on action height at the higher end of the fret board. Too flat and strings will be too high, too steep and bridge will end up sitting extremely high with strings around 10,000 feet above pickups all just to get strings to clear end of the fret board without buzzing.

Lay it flat on its back, neck and bridge in place, and run a straight edge along fret board from the nut so that it passes over the bridge to get an idea of how high or low things might end up. I use a 1m steel ruler and in my case everything seems to be just about right. Bottom of neck pocket is a bit rough and was very gently sanded as was heel of neck that mates to floor of neck pocket.

All taped up at present getting ready for initial stain coat and will re-check once stain coats have been done and allowed sufficient time to dry and cure. Photos will definitely be posted to highlight gap that needs to be filled in a before & after sequence.

My thoughts are to get stain done, check neck break angle, scale length, action height, and if all good to glue neck before doing TO top coats. This should allow stain to penetrate without any glue getting in the way. Once neck fully set and cured probably fill the gaps/cracks with natural Timber Mate, gently shape and sand back, apply stain, and with a bit of luck hopefully end up matching surrounding colour. If not, black is always a last resort option or maybe spray a solid colour on the top. Not too keen on the latter as once neck and body are joined it becomes a hassle moving things around to cover every small nook & cranny.

Can't think of any other way to hide and disguise this flaw and only going about it the hard way to avoid glue spot seepage from around set neck joint.

[Andyxlh]

Great advice Waz, and a super save on that body, well done