Sundragon's Walnut 335 tribute build - A gift for a friend

So, this is the start of an ambitious build.
Ordered around midnight last night, thought I'd start the diary with the inspiration first.

Starting with an ES-1GT kit, and inspired by a blend of the two 335's pictured here, I'm building this guitar as a gift for a friend.

Will be Walnut high gloss finish with gold hardware and a capped and embellished headstock.
intended upgrades are StewMac electrics, Gotoh bridge and tuners, black tusq nut.

It will likely take a while, as I'm pretty pedantic about details, but can't wait to get started!

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Welcome Sundragon,

The inspiration looks awesome - love the walnut colour on the semi-hollow and the gold hardware will be the perfect accompaniment.
How will you treat the flamed maple veneer? Are you planning to pop the grain somehow or just go walnut and let the grain speak for itself?

Will be following your build with interest. Nothing like a tasty 335 build!

cheers,
Gav.

Welcome to the forum. The ES kits are very good. I like your plan for this one

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

Hey Gav,

My intention is to do a light 'pop' run over the veneer with Black Japan, and rub back until the depth shows, then do as many coats of Walnut as my eyes tell me is right.
Fortunately, I have a kit body from a different project that I can use to do the testing of the staining and wipe-on poly I will be using to make sure it works first :D

Welcome Sundragon, looks like an interesting project, all the best with it.

So, the kit arrived today!

Planning on getting hold of the remaining required hardware before getting into any work on the body though. Need to measure 30 times before I start anything :P

First impressions:

Overall, not bad at all actually.
The flame top is quite subtle, so the pop step will be important on this one.
Neck seems very good, slightly behind flat which is a good start.
Will be plugging and re-drilling peg holes. Considering putting a veneer on both sides of the headstock, depending on length needed for tuner posts.
Neck recess seems straight, but is both too tight and offset angle is too great. will probably need a shim and some trickery to make the end finish look pretty.
Not seeing much in the way of glue marks or factory repairs which is a bonus.
Binding looks pretty tidy, even f-hole binding is decent which I am pleased about.

Overall, a decent canvas to work with from the first look :)

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kit looks great Sundragon. The flame maple should pop more after you stain it black. Don't do any presanding as the veneers are thin. Look forward to progress

Ohhhh gold hardware...yummy!

I'd just like to point out, whilst I'm waiting for parts from StewMac et al to arrive... that I ended up with the ES-1GT sample image kit :P

Gold hardware should look really great. You will find that even the subtlest flame will pop as soon as you get some stain in there.

cheers,
Gav.

So, after many months of poverty, I'm back on the track with this build and a LARGE update :)
Will be keeping things pretty up to date moving forward now.

Here's the Kit, along with various bits from StewMac

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CTS Pots, vintage wiring kit + Gotoh bridge

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Special Gotoh Butterbean Gold tuners

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Nice upgrades Sundragon!. I love those tuners.....

And to throw the progress part of this job into gear.. Here's the TESTING of colour and clear I've been going through.

The body is from a crappy chinese kit I custom ordered a couple of years ago (in the Deusenberg style) that had a screwed up fretboard. One day I might re-board the neck, seeing as this finish is coming out VERY nicely.

Stragenyl red for a walnut to start with, not sure why
comparing difference in coats at this point.

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The little work space I have going on in my garage

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Colour balanced out very nicely after a few weeks resting.
Here is after one coat of Min-Wax wipe-on poly.

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Second Coat (wet) applied after rubbing lightly with 000 Steele wool, already gaining gloss.

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Continued:

After only 3 coats, with 000 rub between each coat. Very soft at this point, one coat per day and not hardening much.

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4th coat, wet

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Looking like this wet after only 5 coats of this process!

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Pre and post 000 rub today, for comparison of what the finish looks like

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And lastly for this post, this is halfway through applying the (I think) 8th coat today.
Left this finish for 3 days before this coat to see how the hardness is going. Seems to have hardened up quite nicely indeed!

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And now for the real thing.

Got some gripe points about the kit that I will address as I go as well.

The primary issue that affects anything is the neck pocket. It was cut very poorly. Not quite straight (up and down ways) so the neck, when in place, was as much as 3mm higher on the low e side than the high e sid, and also the pocket cut was not square! BAD.
I have had to do a LOT of delicate and fiddly 'shaving' to try and get the cavity to the point it will accept the neck squarely.
Here pictured is a shim I have had to insert, which has been angled today to give correct break angle.
The good thing about this is that it has added more solid and level material for when the neck is glued in.

You may also notice that the 'taper' angle of the pocket (widening the further toward the bridge) is quite over-pronnounced.
I will be forced to add filler wedge-shaped slivers of material into the gaps between the neck and the body after it is glued in. This is also the reason for the pictured shim not reaching the front of the pocket. I will have to fill this with a small piece of Maple to attempt to fill the gap without seam-gaps.

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Testing for break angle

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The figuring on this top is very subtle, not quite what I wanted, but might make for a nice understated vibe against the gold hardware

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One coat only needed of highly diluted Black Japan for the filler phase on the back and sides. Sanded back with 600 wet and dry, smooth as your best girl's butt!

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Very nice and shiny. Unusual body with just the high side f hole?

Yeah Waz, in the style of a Duesenberg Starplayer.
The controls get mounted to a scratch-plate and drop into a cavity cut in the top.. all nicely hidden.

Another update time :D
Basically a visual diary.

Plugged tuner holes.

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clamped veneer.

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Starting top colouring wipe.

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Back fully coloured.

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Binding Scraped.

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First coats of FeastWatson Wipe-on Poly.
I'm actually much preferring this to the MinWax version :D


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Also, finally got a process in place for headstock shaping.
This shape is a complete hybrid Gretsch/PRS/Gibson/Taylor!


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Making some good progress there. Looking good.

Like the headstock and the colour is great.

Coming along very nicely, and I have to applaud your patience. :D

Ohh man, that colour is beautiful. This is going to be a stunning 335 dude. You've give me an itchy wallet to start a similar build. I don't have a brown 335 yet and yours is stunning.

cheers,
Gav.

Cheers Gav, but trust me, the phone photos really aren't doing it justice either!

Once she's finished, I'll get some proper glam shots, then you'll have no choice!!

Out of interest, which stain brand / colour are you using? I've looked back through the thread but couldn't find the info.

cheers,
Gav.

Cool, we are making the same guitar

Hey Gav,

I use the FeastWatson stains. This colour is a mix of Walnut and Teak.
Also using the FeastWatson Wipe-on Poly.


That's a pretty sweet looking finish on yours there Stan! Nice work indeed.

This is what 'Lessons' look like......


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Lessons are good if we learn from them...

I just love that headstock shape - very nice

Looks familiar, keep at it!

Sent from Lineage OS 14.1

what happened Sundragon why are the holes plugged twice in different sizes ?

good to see the standard safety work boots on !

Larger plugs are factory holes. Note how unevenly close they are to the edge of the shaped headstock.
Original shape was terribly off-axis and I couldn't use it.

Smaller plugs are me. trying my best to use a hand drill and only had about 70% success :(
Hadn't accounted for the difference is hardness of the plugs and the maple headstock material and got travel I couldn't prevent.

Now have a new Drill press. try again after the new veneer arrives.

Did you drill Pilot Holes first???

Body is basically done now... pretty in love with how that paper-thin veneer is looking though!!

This is a handful of coats of wipe-on Poly. Sealed well, but still has some texture to it which I think I'll leave instead of turning full gloss.


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Very nice indeed.

That looks really lovely.