fender3x
10-05-2018, 10:35 PM
I have been thinking about this since I damaged the flame veneer on an ESB-4 kit. I have now seen a number of experienced builders doing ES kits who have damaged the veneer and ended up doing solid colors.
So I noticed a couple of things. First, I got a pretty good stain on the neck and back, which are either solid maple or are ply rather than veneer. In both cases flaws can be sanded without excessive caution. The second thing I noticed is that most of the old Gibsons and other semi-hollows didn't have the fancy veneer.
Recently I saw that Waskelly sanded off the veneer on an ES toll be able to get a good stain on the ply below.
This leads to my 1st suggestion: could there be an option on flame veneer kits to get the kit without the veneer? I think it would be easier to get a good stain on and would make a more accurate vintage looking ax for those interested.
The other suggestion is more specific to the ESB-4 kits and possibly others that come with a gibson-style 3 point bridge.
It looks like these bridges, at least on archtops, have a pull-out problem. This may be fixable by drilling the body to do sting-through. It might also be solvable in a couple of other ways, like using screw-in bushings which are a bit smaller than the gibson-style bushings. Or one could use a two point or floating tune-o-matic and a trapeze tail-piece. All these options require drilling, or filling pre-drilled holes or both. Add to that that sometimes the pre-drilled holes are a bit off center...
So my 2nd suggestion is offer the ESB-4 kit without drilling for the bridge.
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So I noticed a couple of things. First, I got a pretty good stain on the neck and back, which are either solid maple or are ply rather than veneer. In both cases flaws can be sanded without excessive caution. The second thing I noticed is that most of the old Gibsons and other semi-hollows didn't have the fancy veneer.
Recently I saw that Waskelly sanded off the veneer on an ES toll be able to get a good stain on the ply below.
This leads to my 1st suggestion: could there be an option on flame veneer kits to get the kit without the veneer? I think it would be easier to get a good stain on and would make a more accurate vintage looking ax for those interested.
The other suggestion is more specific to the ESB-4 kits and possibly others that come with a gibson-style 3 point bridge.
It looks like these bridges, at least on archtops, have a pull-out problem. This may be fixable by drilling the body to do sting-through. It might also be solvable in a couple of other ways, like using screw-in bushings which are a bit smaller than the gibson-style bushings. Or one could use a two point or floating tune-o-matic and a trapeze tail-piece. All these options require drilling, or filling pre-drilled holes or both. Add to that that sometimes the pre-drilled holes are a bit off center...
So my 2nd suggestion is offer the ESB-4 kit without drilling for the bridge.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk