ES-1 build for a friend.

Inspired by my ES-1/ES 330 style build, my mate Mark picked up an ES-1 kit from Pit Bull when he was visiting Perth a couple of years ago. However he'd only recently moved house which has been a bit of a project and taken up all his spare time, so the kit was languishing in its box. So I've offered to put it together for him.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/kO8jMr.jpg

There were some dirty fingerprint marks on the top, which I found a bit worrying, and a 2cm x 1cm raised smear of glue on the rear.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/z9QdeQ.jpg

But a wipe-down with white spirit didn't show any glue marks on the top and removed the fingermarks.

Splintering on the veneer around the upper horn and a strange grey mark that seems to be ingrained in the wood and not on the surface:

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/duFL21.jpg

The usual soft core wood cut with a blunt routing bit:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/GNgOHg.jpg

But a bit of sanding has got that looking reasonably presentable.

Mark wanted a blue guitar, along the lines of Daphne blue, so I said I'd have a look at the top to determine if it was good enough to try staining that colour or whether we went with a solid finish.

Wetting it with white spirit (I'd run out of turps and methylated spirit) showed what I'd expected from the look when dry:

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/qpQB9s.jpg

The flame pattern was only strong in a couple of areas like the lower horn. The photo improves the actual contrast which was far less. So it was decided to go with a solid colour.

So it will be this blue:

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/GeYbzB.jpg

I then had a look at the neck and the neck angle once fitted, as too shallow a neck angle has been a persistent problem on a lot of ES-1 kits.

The neck wouldn't fit in the slot, primarily due to this thick mass of glue on the side of the block (and a smaller amount on the other side):

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/4IZxSv.jpg

A few minutes work with some sandpaper removed the glue and got the neck fitting about as well as any of the PB kit set necks fit.

An annoying chip out of the end of the underside of the fingerboard:

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/rvkHVN.jpg

But at least the choice to go with a solid colour means that I don't need to worry about glue marks, and I can fill in the small chips and cracks without having to try and match things up so they aren't noticeable.

The next thing was to check the neck angle. The neck itself had quite a severe back-bow, which took about 1.5 turns of the truss-rod to correct. Once the neck was flat, I set it in place and ran a straight edge along it so I could see what sort of height I had at the bridge position.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/5wpCbq.jpg

Luckily there's plenty of height. Possibly too much, so I may well try reducing the neck angle very slightly as I don't like bridges sitting too high on posts for stability reasons.

So that's it to start with.

Forgot to mention the fretboard. Unlike my own ES-1's synthetic 'Blackwood' board (due to the CITES hiccough on Rosewood input/exports), this has a figured ebony board.

They often come pretty dry from the factory, and this one has been sitting around for a couple of years. I gave it a preliminary oiling, and you can see the huge difference in colour:

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/aFTynu.jpg

It just absorbed it in no time at all, so it will be getting a few more applications as time goes by.

At least it doesn't appeared to have shrunk significantly, as there are no sharp fret ends.

Weather cleared up for a bit, so I decided I might as well glue the neck on.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/M8vrBe.jpg

It can remain clamped for a day.

I had found that the neck developed a bit of a square shoulder to it by around the 12th fret, so I sanded that away. It's now got a consistent feel as you go up the neck.

I’m going to enjoy this! Will you be building with the stock components, or do you have other plans?

If I wanted an ES kit built, I couldn't think of a better person to do it! Good on ya!

When you said the kit was a couple of years old, I was hoping it may have been a bit better quality than the ones of more recent times. Alas, that does not seem to be the case (though maybe not as bad).
At least your mate isn't married to idea of a stained finish. That all but guarantees a nice finish job by you.

Will watch this with interest.

It will be mainly stock apart from pickups, the bridge and the electrics. And probably the knobs. I've ordered some Tonerider Alnico IV Classics (was going to be Iron Gear Blues Engines but they are out of stock). The kit bridge gold plating is rather lumpy, and I had a gold Sung Il T-O-M bridge that I bought for the ES-3 thinking it was lower than the one I originally tried to fit on it (it wasn't), which is a much better quality item. Oh, and straplocks.

I'll stick with the kit tuners as they are decent tuners and the stop bar is fine (one of the posts is a very snug fit in the bar slot, so it won't fall off when there are no strings attached). I've got a stock of better quality gold screws to replace the soft kit ones.

Clamps off today, and filler in the gaps. Cold, wet and windy outside today, so a good day to let the filler dry hard. I think I'll run some CA over it once sanded to help stop it absorbing the paint.

I have a question Simon about "Once the neck was flat, I set it in place and ran a straight edge along it so I could see what sort of height I had at the bridge position."

This is interesting, but what are you checking? What is a good string height at the bridge with the straight edge? Is this check something specific to this type of guitar?
(Rookie question probably)

You’re a good friend building a kit for your mate. I would of like to of seen a stain attempt first, but alas, it’s not my guitar. Good catch on the neck profile. I hope they sort out the ES kit neck angle one day.

It's applicable to any guitar, though it's far less likely to be an issue on a bolt-on neck guitar.

I've done the same thing again now the neck's glued on. You really need to clamp the neck in place when testing, as it's amazing what a bit of extra force can do to the final neck angle.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/9PUZj3.jpg

The straight edge is now touching the top of the bridge, with the straight edge being raised off the end of the neck slightly (less than 1mm). If the straight edge was touching the top of the saddles when flat on the neck, then that's really about as low as you'd want the straight edge to be pointing. The bridge will have to be raised up by 2mm-2.5mm from that point in order for the strings not to hit the frets. There's normally 1mm or so of rim on the post insert, which will account for some of that height adjustment, so you've then got maybe 1mm of height adjustment to do on the post screw.

If there's a gap between the straight edge and the top of the saddle (as in the first photo I took if it), then the bridge will have to be raised up on the posts by the gap height+ approx 2mm extra for a low action guitar.

You don't want the bridge to sit too high, as you then have very few post screw threads in the insert, and the play in the screw threads allows the bridge to rock back and forth more. So maybe 5-6mm maximum. Too high, and the neck angle needs to be reduced.

Conversely, if the end of the straight edge would hit below the slot in the saddles, then you'll find that the strings will sit too high off the fretboard and you've got no way of lowering them as the bridge is as low as it will go.

I had this on my first ES-1, tried filing the bridge so it sat lower (to no avail) and then finally managed to find a really low profile bridge (a Goldo Lowrider) which allowed me to get a really nice action on the guitar. But they are rare beasts, seem to exist in shops in France and Germany only and may now even be discontinued, as everywhere I looked at that sold them were out of stock (and they only do them in nickel, no gold option).

So view the straight edge as the string, hold it off the end of the fretboard by say 2mm, and where it passes over the bridge position, that's pretty much the height the bridge will need to be set to. If it can be set to that height without being too high off the body, then all is well. But too high, or an inability to set the bridge low enough, and you need to do something about the neck angle before the neck is glued in and the angle is fixed.

On a bolt-on, you can use shims at one end of the neck pocket to increase or decrease the neck angle if necessary. But generally on a bolt-on, the neck is parallel with the body (which is generally flat) so the string height at the bridge is determined by the neck height/depth of pocket and so by how much the neck sits above the body. It's a lot easier to get the bolt-on pocket bottom parallel to the top than it is to make a correctly angled pocket for a set neck guitar.

Thanks Simon for taking the time to explain!
Very clear and 100% makes sense. Will introduce this step in my workflow.

Neck join areas filled and sanded, so as the weather is a bit better at the moment, I've masked up the binding and put on a first coat of sealer/primer.

Masked:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/7O530b.jpg

Primed:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/JBsHAe.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...921/tuz6o0.jpg

You may notice that this year's pop-up toilet tent/spraybooth is white. A much better colour choice than the previous two green/brown camo tents as it stays a lot cooler inside when zipped up after spraying.

The primer/sealer is from a spray can, and it's a bit spluttery and has run in p[laces, but as it will get sanded right back before the blue goes on, I really don't care too much. :D

The primer's been sanded down. I'm now waiting for some more Daphne Blue paint to arrive. I thought I had more left than I did, and I don't want to mix different batches, as I'll probably end up with slightly different colours.

The white pigment in the nitro paint settles out a lot more than the blue, so you need to make sure it's thoroughly mixed with no residue at the bottom of the tin/bottle. I've failed to do that before, and then sanded through from a lighter blue to a darker blue layer when levelling the finish, requiring more layers to be sprayed to get a consistent colour.

First coat of blue just gone on. Weather has been rather windy and showery for a while.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/o4jIsD.jpg

The headstock face will be black, but no harm putting some more paint underneath that which I can sand flat before applying the black. It's about the one truly flat surface on the guitar, so might as well get it as flat as possible.

Well, I pulled off the masking tape from the binding and I think I overdid the paint thickness around the edges as it pulled some of the paint off with it, displaying thin streaks of the white primer (probably shouldn't have used the primer). Spent a bit of time scraping the binding where some spray had crept underneath, then touching up the edges with a paintbrush. With the thick striped binding it is very difficult to get a decent edge with paint that looks even, so I finally thought 'sod this', and decided to paint over the binding again and just scrape away to display the white edge before the black/white striping to give a more 335 look to the binding. So a more authentic look and generally easier to achieve. Just need to put enough layers on so I can feather in the paint edges and remove the line currently there due to the different numbers of paint layers.

Just wished I'd thought of it before I put the masking tape on and sprayed it!

Lots of touching up round the edges to hide the binding, sanding back, then a bit more touching up. Need to let the paint dry for a couple of days before each sanding so it's hard enough to sand properly. I think I should be there after today's touch-up stint, but it's so easy to sand it a bit too much and have to get the paint out again. Sanding is with a maroon Scotchbrite pad, so it's more gentle than normal sandpaper, if a bit more work.

Quite slow progress on this, mainly due to the weather, But I've been hand painting around the binding to cover it up on the top then sanding back after a few days after the paint has hardened enough, and then painting some more as I sanded through in my attempt to get the finish level around the edges, so repeat that x 2.

Today I scraped the bindings clean, and have just done a little bit of touching up in a couple of places where the scraping revealed a bit of primer or the line was a bit jagged, so that needs to dry and the final scrape applied. The paint is otherwise pretty much fully flattened and rubbed down with a maroon Scotchbrite pad.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/Emgi9L.jpg

Then the headstock face needs the logo backing applying and then painting black, before the clear goes on.

Not too far to actually do now. Just a matter of time and hoping the weather stays dry.

That’s looking very handsome.

Well, the weather turned too soon last year and I never got it finished.

So it was mid-May this year when I got round to getting a new spray tent (the old one got left out in a storm and ripped to shreds) and fired up the spray gun again. The binding edges were proving impossible to get properly even/straight by scraping, touch-up painting and re-scraping, so I decided that it would have to do as I couldn't face another round of painting the binding white and then re-spraying the blue, so the minor imperfections stayed, as my friend Mark, who I was building it for, much preferred a slightly imperfect guitar rather than one that took another year to build. I must say that since I put the clear on and polished it, I don't notice the slightly wavy edges unless I look for them.

So then it was down fitting the hardware and setting up the guitar. My optimism for the neck angle being right on this ES-1 was unfounded, and the neck angle was too shallow. Had Mark chosen chrome hardware, I would have fitted a Lowrider bridge, which would have got around the problem, but they don't do them in gold, so it was a case of trying to modify the kit bridge to make it work.

I filed the undersides of the bridge ends so that it sat just very slightly off the body, and then used my nut files slot the saddles, by between 2-3mm. As I took over 1mm off the base of the bridge, the bridge would have been over 4mm too high without remedial action. When setting the intonation, it became clear that the bridge position was a couple of mm too far back, as the intonation with the saddles right forward is between 1-3 cents out. Not the end of the world, but still annoying.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/ACBabp.jpg

I don't like having the saddle slots, but it worked, and the guitar now has a good low action.

I replaced the kit electronics with CTS pots, a PureTone output jack and a lever-style selector switch. Pickups are Tonerider Alnico IVs. The pots went in and out several times as something kept breaking each time, but 4th time lucky (plus replacement tone caps).

So it's now all done and set-up.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/6s0k4N.jpg

It's very bright and jangly, not quite how I expected it to sound, but overall I'm happy with it, if not with some of the details.

It will be a couple of weeks before Mark gets it, but I think he'll be happy too.

Looks great Simon. Nice work around with the bridge to get a good action.

Hi Simon.

Were the Alnico IVs a drop in replacement for the stock Pups? I'm waiting for Tonerider to produce another batch of Alnico IIs, but they are 2-3 weeks away. But I'm otherwise ready to start building my ES-1F kit. I just don't want to do too much if I need to alter the body to accommodate Toneriders.

Your ES looks terrific, Simon.

Mathew.

Yes, the Pitbull pups are standard humbucker size and the Toneriders just dropped in the kit rings.

The only 'watch it' is that the Tonerider tabs/wings for the height screws are a bit bigger than the Pitbull pup ones, and sometimes the cutaway for them in the body isn't quite large enough to allow the pickups to be positioned correctly. I filed the corners off the Tonerider tabs to make them a better fit, but you might want to enlarge the end of the pickup routs slightly. This is applicable to most aftermarket pickups compared to the kit pickups, not just Toneriders.

I find it best to position the pickups and rings after the strings are on for the first test fitting, so that you can best centre the pickup pole pieces with the strings. Just hold them in place with tape if you do the electrics first. I forgot to do this on this guitar, so they aren't quite as centred as they could be. I did a reasonable centreline fitting, but there's nothing like positioning them against the strings themselves.

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on one of these as a bit of a pet project. They don't seem to be built as well as I hoped and looks like I have to be prepared to modify bits.

I want to use a clear finish with a green stain so hope I get a nice top piece of wood.

Great work on this. It looks great.