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View Full Version : Veneer and bridge holes.



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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wazkelly
12-05-2018, 08:18 PM
Good comments Fender3x.

The ply under the flame veneer on my latest project has a couple of small burl marks here and there which don't bother me and actually add a bit of character however some others may want a more pristine canvas to work with.

Those ESB-4 kits look great but that 3 point bridge is not practical and agree that they should instead come with a Bass TOM, something like the one on this example....
26422

Cheers, Waz

fender3x
15-05-2018, 12:25 AM
That's a good option. I did something similar with mine, just fashioned a trapeze tail piece rather than stop tail piece.

26456

...Or you could use these, rather than the bushings that come with the 3 point bridge:

26458

This might secure the kit's bridge better, but requires a smaller hole than the the ones that come pre-drilled.

I also think this could be done with the original hardware:

26457

This last one would require new drilling rather than re-drilling, but the placement of the holes is sometimes out of alignment.

If the kit came without drilling you could choose whichever option, and it would also be less likely that you'd have an alignment issues.

Particularly if I could offer one more friendly suggestion... to increase the width of the center-block by about 1/2" on either side. I like Waz's suggestions, but the current center block is pretty narrow and won't accommodate some of the stop-tailpieces that are available for bass.