ES 3 Custom Kit

Good evening.

Hope everyone is doing well and holding up OK.

Just received my custom ES 3 kit and unsure of the finished product. Just not sure if this is normal and there are fixes.

The rosewood fret board seems to have 3 deep scratch marks in them. Will the old damp rag and soldering iron trick fix these?

https://i.imgur.com/9pZPnBL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hOrmcsa.jpg

Part of the binding is pretty poor.

https://i.imgur.com/SIHRNWv.jpg

The bottom has rip marks in the veneer where i dont think it was cut clean. The rest of finsh around the binding is great. I was going to stain it a butterscotch colour as I already purchased dingotone stain for it but maybe fill with grain filler and do some sort of burst finish with black around the outside to hide grain filler?

https://i.imgur.com/0jheJSs.jpg

And the overall veneer finish has a few gouge marks and small pit marks all over it. Again will the damp rag method fix this?

https://i.imgur.com/DRIAZ3A.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZeT6Scz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/yIyFxlh.jpg

Or am i just being fussy lol.

Stay safe

Steve

I wouldn't be happy with that binding. That alone means rejecting it. It should never have been sent to you like that.

The edge chips are bad if you are doing a light coloured or natural top. You could grain fill them and hope they look OK, but it is a compromise. I think I had some on my ES-3 but as I was planning a dark-edged sunburst I knew they could just be filled in.

You may be able to cure the other dent issues with a damp rag and a hot iron, or maybe a bit of scraping on the fretboard.

But also look at the neck angle. On mine and DarkMarks ES-3s, the neck angle is too low, and even with the bridge set as low as possible, the action is very high (4mm or so at the 12th fret). Even after filing down the base of a bridge so it sits on the top, and deepening the saddle notches, mine is still on the high side and the saddle is now making sitar noises, so I'm not at all happy with it.

So I'd check that neck angle, see what you think on the bridge height and if it's an issue for you, I'd just ask for your money back and forget about the ES-3 as a kit rather than get a replacement.

I agree with Simon.
It looks as though you got a 'Friday afternoon' kit. There are too many issues to make it a viable or enjoyable project.

The damp rag and iron trick works well for compression marks but not very well for scratches where the fabric of the wood has been damaged.
That binding looks irrecoverable and in fact the wood behind it was cut wrong in the first place.
Fixing a damaged fretboard without removing and refretting would be a definite compromise and not something I would put up with in a new kit.

Sorry but I would reject it.

Cheers
Ricky

Thanks for advice guys. Looks like it is going back. Waited 11 months for nothing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Twodogies

Thanks for advice guys. Looks like it is going back. Waited 11 months for nothing.

---

Commiserations twodogies.
I take it being left-handed was the reason behind the long wait?

cheers, Mark.