ESB4 New Build

Hi All

Retrospectively beginning my build diary after working on the bass for the last 2 weeks. I have been a long time reader of the build diaries and have learned so much. This is my first pitbull build and after making a lot of mistakes in every aspect of my one other build - I very much class myself as a newbie.

Photo 1: Mock build and everything seems ok. Neck a little bit loose and a few glue marks but nothing too major

Plan is to go for a vintage amber look. So will stain body with feast watson golden teak and then figure out what to do for the coating later. Used blue painters tape to try cover the binding for the back and sides

Photo 2: Back and side of the guitar after 2 coats of FW golden teak

Photo 3: Close up of the side of the guitar. This is probably the best section with no stain getting onto the binding

Photo 4: This is probably a more accurate reflection of the remainder of the sides of the guitar re cracking and the stain bleeding into the binding. Will attempt to scrap binding once all done

So before attempting to tackle the front of the guitar, I received some really good advice from DarkMark regarding the binding and using automotive tape (thankyou again!).

Picked up some 6mm tape from a place in Wangara (for those of you in WA) and had a go at covering the front and sides of the body.

Photo 5: Body taped up. Fiddly but not too difficult

Photo 6: Close up

So just before attempting to stain the front of the body, I think to myself how much I like the colour and that I'll be scraping the binding soon and that everything is going well so far...

Photo 7: Body immediately after staining. Amongst others, my 3 main headaches are the centre glue line, the line of spots running downwards from the neck pickup and the almost perfect circle glue dot at the bottom right. The darker patches of stain have evened out since this photo was taken.

Photo 8: Close up of the dots. Not sure what this is and how to fix

Photo 9: Positives to build on = close up of the best section of the front. The tape around the f hole has come loose due to user error but dont think huge issue until I see how I go with scraping. While I dont have a photo yet of the binding, the thinline tape has worked awesomely. Very happy with this but dreading the other issues

Was hoping for any suggestions or ideas on how to tackle these issues especially the dotting. I've posted a similar thread in the finishing section of the forum so apologies for the double up.

I keep lurking and hoping you get some good suggestions. All I can say is that you are in good company.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

Those spots do look detracting from an otherwise good job. I don’t know what to do about it and I’m also waiting for someone to give some good advice. The best I can offer is, do you like to play with a scratch plate? Perhaps that could be used to hide that area under the pickup. Black burst with black paint on the (I assume) glue spots?.

Is it glue? Perhaps wiping the stain off with metho, goof off on the glue and re-stain? But get confirmation from from someone who has goof off experience. I believe you may risk dissolving the glue under the thin veneer if you are not careful.

[copied from the other thread]

Hi All - thanks for the suggestions and ideas.

I sent some of the photos to an instrument repair shop here in Perth and his thoughts were that the glue would be embedded in the veneer.

His suggestion was to seal and then paint a solid colour over the veneer (and rest of guitar). Otherwise to try sand the veneer off with 220 grit sandpaper.

I'd be leaning towards sanding because I completely stuffed up the paint job on the one other guitar I have built. I am wary though because of what Fender3x mentioned above about another builder having a go at sanding a veneer and it being quite difficult.

Not sure which way to go!

Hi Thess, I ‘d really encourage you not to give up on this just yet. If you try and fail you can always take the paint option afterwards. I’m in Perth and willing to work together with you to try to make this work out as best we can. Can I suggest the following course of action;
1) let’s wipe it back with metho and have a go at removing some glue. Re-stain with Golden Teak.
2) If that is still unsatisfactory, do a tear shaped black bordered burst.
I have acetone, metho and FW black stain.
3) If that fails, paint it...not in my skill set.
We can private message contact details.

Mate thank you for the generous offer and I'd gladly accept your help.

Hi Thess, hope you don’t mind me high jacking your thread.
I called over Thess’ house yesterday and we tried to tackle the glue spots. We were cautious at first but by the end of an hour or more we were going hard on the spots with goof off and acetone. The results are not satisfactory. Thess did not sand before staining, so we can eliminate sanding through the veneer. There seems like a blob of glue on the lower horn, the blob was raised at the sides and sunken around the middle. The solvents removed the glue early in the process, but the spot is not taking the stain like the surrounding veneer. I have a sneaky suspicion it is a hole in the veneer but not sure how to confirm that. As for the other glue marks? No improvement. Around the f holes looks ugly (a detail can be seen in the above photos).
Thess will repeat the treatment again but I doubt this veneer will be stain worthy.
If Thess knew how this was going to stain I doubt he would of proceeded. Has he gone too far to consider a replacement? Wouldn’t hurt to see what Adam says. Anyone else got anymore advice?