My ES-1Q Build

Getting into a semi-hollow for my second build, and adding a burst colour scheme to up the complexity.

Hi and welcome JonT.

What colours are you using for the burst?

Hi, thanks for the welcome! I'm going to go with a blue burst.

I've done a few color samples - need to learn how to post a photo - so this weekend, it's dive into the deep end and start!

I finished the soldering last weekend. Gave the frets a dressing. Checked the fit in the pocket... Time to do something irreversible!

Colour samples for the quilted maple. Picturing an azure darkening to navy blue. Used 3mm white mahogany plywood as a sample board.

Attachment 44018

Soldering is done!

Attachment 44019

Glad I did a continuity check. The switch tabs, volume pots and jack were all sounding a tone together on the multimeter! I had a stray strand of solder bridge across the the jack. Needed a magnifying glass to see the problem and scraped it away with a knife point.

Pity, looks like my photo progression from yesterday got lost.

Went back to touch up the burst this morning.

Attachment 44025

The Saman stain - for the darker colours - has a lot more solids than the turqoi- turqou- turquoise. For the surrounding blue, I thinned it with water to let the grain show through. Yesterday's first application was kind of muddy (despite the photo) so I used a spray bottle to move some of the blue towards the edges where I'm going for the abyssal look.

Another pass later today with more turqo- turq- blue-green ; ) Maybe, just maybe, a sanding pass over the muddy blue areas to try to accentuate the grain...

...Where I'm going to take full advantage of the high solids in the stain is the neck and mahogany panels! I thinned the stain for the maple quilt and moved on to the neck while I still had the workspace set up.

Attachment 44026

It's going to take a few more applications at that rate. We'll see how the full strength stain takes to the rest of the wood to get a solid coverage.

I still have the photos, even if the original post is lost. A quick progression showing raw to burst on the quilted ES-1Q.

Raw.
Attachment 44027

Base coat for grain 'pop'.
Attachment 44028

Sanded back.
Attachment 44029

Aaaand, burst!
Attachment 44030

Water based stains let you play with the burst a lot. This is more or less what I had in mind but the quilt starts to get lost in the blue sooner than I pictured. Catch-22: add another coat of stain to get more vibrant colour, or sand back to see the quilt? Decided to stop adding and subtracting and move on to the clear coat.

Attachment 44065

First coat of water-based clear coat was half-dabbed, half-brushed, because I expected the stain to move around. Sure enough, it did! I brushed from the pale center out to the edges so nothing that hurts the burst.

I did have to follow up with a wipe around all the binding to remove the clear coat that picked up some stain and dripped over the edge. And when it dried, I realized I should just scrape the binding all over again. Handling the stained body had transferred some pigment into the binding.

Attachment 44066

There! Done. Colour coat is done and set with a clear coat on top.

I trial fit the neck of the ES-1 to the body back when I first got the kit. It was straight to the body but always had a bit of a wobble that would change the bridge height.

Finally sat down to decide how I would shim the pocket on Glueing Day. Turns out the shoulder of the neck would pivot on the face of the body. I could set the heel of the tennon into the floor of the groove, or I could rotate the neck back a couple degrees to sit flush to the toe of the groove and seat well around the side wall.

Back and forth, pros and cons. The bridge and action sat better when the heel was shimmed so I dry fit enough splintered veneer to pivot that way. Also shaved the fulcrum off the shoulder of the neck to sit all the way down into the groove. AND had some more veneer ready to shim the sides of the groove that weren't perpendicular to the floor of the groove.

So a lot of fine tuning and dry fits! But once you rehearse it enough - even down to what order to cinch up the C-clamps - when I realized I can't get back to to build for a couple days... Well, I hadn't planned on setting the neck today but *shrug, here we go!

Lay in the glue, set the shims, hand fit the neck one last time, check the wobble is gone, fit the first clamp and veneer covers for the jaws, arrange the second clamp, reset the first clamp, check the angle is right, then stuff veneer and more glue into the remaining crevices [panic just a little that I'm sure I put enough glue in there?], and then gently, gently set it back down to cure. And check the mating surfaces are mating as I expect, again. [And I'm going to check again after this post!]

Attachment 44067

And that's enough for today.