ES-3 First Build

Hi gang, after much deliberation the Es 3 summer special finally forced my hand.

I've been playing and tinkering with guitars for a bit over ten years but I've never undertaken anything of this magnitude.

Kit arrived promptly and in perfect condition and looks great, couldn't be happier! Minimal glue spots and a really clean job on the binding.

Only question I have at this stage is about the gap between the top of the body and the neck (pictured). The heel of the neck fouls on the pocket on the back of the guitar before this area is flush with the body... Simple as sanding the neck heel lower until it comes flush or will this mess up the intonation?

Anyway hopefully you enjoy me fumbling through the process of putting this bad boy together I'll steal some collective wisdom in the process!

Cheers,

Alex
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welcome Alex, you've jumped in at the deep end with this one!
Not sure about the neck fitment on these, so hopefully someone who has done one will see it soon.
More pics of the gap from other angles will help too: do you mean the neck angle itself, or the way the neck fits into the body?

Thanks Stan, been lurking around for a little while for inspiration so thought it was only fitting to post a build diary!

That could've been explained clearer. In the first picture you can see a gap between the top of the guitar and the neck, just above the binding even with the neck fitted within the pocket properly. Just wanted to know whether taking a few mm from the bottom of the neck heel to close that gap would be ill advised. More than likely I'll just clean it up and leave it as a shadow line of sorts.

The pickup layout is quite close, similar to that of the ES-175 albeit with the fretboard intersecting with the neck pup as opposed to a 135 (if that makes sense to anyone else!).

In terms of the build I'm planning on a black stain with chrome hardware with a few new parts and mods, pics to follow!

aaahhh, see what you mean Alex. Once you start playing with neck heals and pockets you can chance heights and neck angles, might leave advice on that to someone who has built one, or for DB to chime in.

I wonder if a little timbermate filler under that part of the neck would fill it in well or chip out.

Colour scheme sounds really cool, and classic

I'm with Stan - if you're going black stain - ebony timbermate and if you're worried it will chip out - stabilise it with a bit of CA glue. If you protect the body with something (greaseproof paper?) and then get your timbermate in, you might be able to take the neck off again - let it dry, stabilise and then sand to a perfect fit. With that said, it will be on the bottom of the guitar as you play it. Downside is once it's taken CA, I don't think you'll be able to stain it (hence ebony timbermate).

May also be worth trying a dry fit with the hardware - don't knock the posts in just yet, but running a steel rule down the fretboard and placing the bridge in the right spot underneath it will give a very rough idea if there's any room to move on the neck pocket. Maybe a photo of the base of the pocket?

Thanks guys, some food for thought! Looks fairly plum as is with a straight edge so I think I'll just clean up the edge and leave it as is.

Had wanted to fill the gap with Timberlake or something but that's gone out the window now that I think I'll leave everything natural apart from the top. Stained up the top and damp ragged the entire thing and it looks great as is!

Three coats of Japan black feast Watson later:Attachment 2179

ES 3 in black - this will look great - nice choice!

looks good in black Alex. Will watch this build with interest. I got one of these kits and I was lucky the neck binding sit flat ontop of the body. I won't start my build for another month or two, getting through a large backlog of builds

Coming along nicely, black top will contrast nicely with the hardware. I'm about to put together the wiring harness for my ES so watch this space for what not to do!

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the heads up Andrew, let us know how you go!

My most recent plan is to go with master volume and tone pots and use the other two holes for mini switches for coil tapping the SD Alnico pro II set I just bought...

Anyway we're all here for the pictures so here's two coats of Tru Oil (I've just recently come across the aversion of some forum members to both tru oil and fw stain so I'm probably about to be shunned!)

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Straight to the naughty room, place your pizza order with AJ and Woks will pour you a beer :)

Oh wow. That's gonna look killer. Great stuff.

looks great Alex,
oh and humbuckers are coil split and single coils are tapped, surprised DB didn't get you on that!

This is going to look so hot, nice job

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Originally Posted by stan

looks great Alex,
oh and humbuckers are coil split and single coils are tapped, surprised DB didn't get you on that!

This is going to look so hot, nice job

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Been known to split and tap on occasion...
This baby should have a great range of sound options :)
If you ever get stuck or run into dramas wiring her up, Weirdbits or Lawry are our wiring gurus and they are always happy to help

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Originally Posted by stan

looks great Alex,
oh and humbuckers are coil split and single coils are tapped, surprised DB didn't get you on that!

This is going to look so hot, nice job

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The party fouls just keep coming! Hopefully the finished product can earn me some redemption :D

that looks unreal Alex after 2 coats of naughty oil. I'm in charge of pouring beer in the naughty room so presume we will be catching up regularly !

Alex that colour has come up a treat. Quite a few TO users here we just keep a low profile.

haha yeah Tony but they don't often get missed by the DB banned products radar (DBBPR) can reach the east coast just fine !

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

haha yeah Tony but they don't often get missed by the DB banned products radar can reach the east coast just fine !

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Actually, the DB radar is worldwide :)

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Originally Posted by dingobass

Actually, the DB radar is worldwide :)

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haha nice one DB, I knew TO users think you don't know about it but you can tell if someone in Europe or US is using it - wow
I just hope Ads tele radar isn't that powerful mate !

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Originally Posted by ajmac

The party fouls just keep coming! Hopefully the finished product can earn me some redemption :D

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It'll look great - redemption enough!

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

haha nice one DB, I knew TO users think you don't know about it but you can tell if someone in Europe or US is using it - wow
I just hope Ads tele radar isn't that powerful mate !

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Mate, if a Tele was being built on Galifre, Ads would know about it!

Aaaannnd a photo of the back:

Attachment 2209

It's begging for someone to do an all natural Es, this only us a single coat of the naughty oil in this photo.

Also wokka and anyone else planning on undertaking this kit, I'd highly recommend filling the binding with something (maybe super glue?) as small cracks have taken on some stain which I wasn't prepared for. No biggie from my perspective, this guitars going to be a little "different" by the time I'm done anyway!

wow that natural back/sides looks wicked Alex,
thanks for the tips on the binding, will do !

the natural looks really good