Brewhook's ES-3 (First Build)

Hey guys, brand new here but I've been following a few different builds for a while. I love seeing everyone's projects come together and I'd been wanting to give it a shot myself. I was in the market for a new hollow-body electric so I figured this was the perfect time to build my own! I ordered the ES-3 kit and it arrived a couple of days ago. I'm doing a video diary of my progress, and uploaded the first video yesterday. The first video is basically an un-boxing where I check out and review the contents of the kit and mention a few aspects of my plan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vap8...ature=youtu.be

Today I shaped the headstock and began finishing the neck and headstock. Going to edit the footage later and hopefully have video two up soon!

Very excited to see this come together!

cool, I look forward to more episodes

Welcome Brewhook. Enjoy the process. Love the video.

Nice Vid Brewhook. Haven't done an ES-3 yet, looks to be cool. What are your plans?

Welcome to the forum Brewhook, cool video and some interesting axes in the background !
Look forward to your build diary and best of luck
Ask any questions you have in your build diary

Thanks guys! I got my headstock shape finished today and applied two layers of stain to it and the neck. Went with Minwax Red Oak stain and it turned out great!

Attachment 12643

Cutting up footage from today's work here now. Going to apply the headstock decal and put a clear coat over the neck tomorrow and then upload the next video featuring all the work on the neck.

As far as my plan goes, I intend to do a deep red/burgundy transparent stain on the body with a slight burst effect. I've never attempted the burst effect before with stain, so I will probably try it out on some scrap wood first until I'm confident with it. Going to install the stock pickups for now, but if it plays well and has the potential, I will definitely look at an upgrade in that department.

neck looks great Brewhook. Pretty cool headstock shape with the 2 humps. A tip don't put any clear coats or stain over the neck heel, the glue works best on unstained timber so I suggest you tape off where the heel meets the pocket and sand off the stain.

Good point Wokks. regarding the neck heel.

I reckon Brewhook should call that headstock shape...the Mooseknuckle! ;)

haha good point Andy, Mooseknuckle or Camel back haha

Good kick off Brewhook, Look forwards to seeing the progress and future episodes. The ES-3 looks a challenging beastie so I shall watch with interest.

Can't wait to see how this comes out, and video logs are great.

Thanks for the tip! I thought of that once I had it done. I'll definitely be sanding it off before assembly. The headstock shape started out as two points (which you'll see in the next video) but I thought it looked too aggressive so I sanded them down into humps instead.

Finally finished up editing the second video.

https://youtu.be/CoILpzrpsx8

Quickly learning that I'm not much for video production. Editing the video is taking longer than the actual guitar work!

Working on the finish on the body now and mostly done that. Hoping to have the next video ready this weekend!

cool, it's lookin good

I do like that head stock shape Brewhook, like you said leaving them pointy didn't seem quite right for the LP. Great work so far!

cool video again Brewhook, the neck is looking good. A tip you should pour your stain and poly into a small container so you don't contaminate the whole tin of stain and poly. Also you should be wearing gloves be best not to get poly and the stain on your fingers/hands.
Look forward to seeing the body stained ! Will the body be stained the same colour ?

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

cool video again Brewhook, the neck is looking good. A tip you should pour your stain and poly into a small container so you don't contaminate the whole tin of stain and poly. Also you should be wearing gloves be best not to get poly and the stain on your fingers/hands.
Look forward to seeing the body stained ! Will the body be stained the same colour ?

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That's a good point about using separate containers, I'll definitely be doing that from now on. I meant to mention in my voiceover about gloves as well. I usually wear them but I'm out and didn't want to wait until I could get to the store! The body is a different colour, a deep burgundy. I have the body stained and I'm doing the poly on it now!

ok no worries Brewhook, it's a bit difficult to pour from the tins into a container so I usually make a temporary spout with masking tape. Have a read on the poly tin it probably says avoid skin contact so if it does you should make getting gloves a priority. Resident luthier DB has drilled that into my brain !
Look forward to seeing the burgundy body !

Here's a little preview with the neck dry fitted into place. Still have some more poly to do, but very close to being done with the finish

Attachment 12691

Man I gotta build one of these sometime. lookin good Brewhook.

I want a hollow body soooo bad whenever I see a nice one. That one's looking great!

looks awesome Brewhook love the burgundy body. What are the temperatures in Canada ? better not rush the poly coats as each coat needs enough time to fully cure. Don't rush the build for the sake of plugging it in sooner. The best builds are the ones that take more time and not rushed.
I've got one of these ES-3 kits been sitting in the pile for almost 2 years I think. Had too many other projects happening to make a start !

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

I've got one of these ES-3 kits been sitting in the pile for almost 2 years I think. Had too many other projects happening to make a start !

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Are you ageing that one for better tone Wokka? ;P

haha must be Franken, you know how it is with all the side projects and the pile of kits has got a bit smaller, just haven't started the ES-3. Maybe I'm waiting to get ideas from other builders of that kit !

that's looking nice

The kit's looking great so far. Based on the first video it looks like your neck fits much tighter into the body than mine does. I'm hoping it won't be a problem for me. How tight is yours - loooked like you had to give it a pretty good push to seat it.
Temps in Canada (Ontario at least) have been brutal this summer so finish coats have been drying really fast - where are you located in Canada?
Looking forward to the rest of the build!

Peter

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Originally Posted by peterh

The kit's looking great so far. Based on the first video it looks like your neck fits much tighter into the body than mine does. I'm hoping it won't be a problem for me. How tight is yours - loooked like you had to give it a pretty good push to seat it.
Temps in Canada (Ontario at least) have been brutal this summer so finish coats have been drying really fast - where are you located in Canada?
Looking forward to the rest of the build!

Peter

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My neck is a pretty tight fit. I'm not entirely sure how tight it's supposed to be, but this seems ideal to me. A good fit, but just enough give in it that I can get it apart again.

I'm located in NL, where we've been suffering through a miserable summer so far, average temps are around 15 degrees. So I've been keeping the project inside to dry and cure, where it's always 21 degrees and 55% relative humidity.

Update time! I glued the neck two days ago, let it set for 24 hours. Looks like it came out straight. I soldered up all the electronics while the neck was setting, and installed everything yesterday. Didn't leave enough slack on the wires between the pots, so I wasn't able to poke them in out of the way and you can see them through the f-hole. I wil be going back after to fix this. Installed the bridge and the tuners then as well. All that's left now is the tailpiece, strap pegs, truss rod cover and pickguard (might actually leave it off), then strings and intonation!

I'm still filming all the work, but way behind on editing the footage. I will get some more videos up eventually though!
Attachment 12761

Looking very nice Brewhook. The wall colour behind is very similar so it really enhances the grain. When did you start the build about 2-3 weeks ago? Seems like this build has been rushed

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Looking very nice Brewhook. The wall colour behind is very similar so it really enhances the grain. When did you start the build about 2-3 weeks ago? Seems like this build has been rushed

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It's been nearly three weeks now. You're right though, I've been eager to get it done and I probably could have taken a little more time and care doing the finish. I do have a lot of free time to invest though, so I'm punching more hours per day. I definitely realize I should have picked something easier to do for my first build, a strat or tele perhaps. But all in all, I'm very pleased with this one so far!

Attachment 12837

Looks like a guitar to me! I'm very satisfied with the way this turned out, hoping to have a demo video together soon. I wanted to get this put together and see if it played well before considering investing in any upgrades, but after giving it a go, I think it's worthy of a few improvements. Going to start with a set of P-90s, and probably some upgraded tuners. All that's left now is to decide what to build next! Leaning toward either a TLA-1 or TB-4

Very nice good job. Ah, what to choose next... TLAs are nice kits


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

looks awesome Brewhook love the burgundy body. What are the temperatures in Canada ? better not rush the poly coats as each coat needs enough time to fully cure. Don't rush the build for the sake of plugging it in sooner. The best builds are the ones that take more time and not rushed.
I've got one of these ES-3 kits been sitting in the pile for almost 2 years I think. Had too many other projects happening to make a start !

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Wow i would love that many to work on......

Great job Brewhook.

A really cool and classic build, very nice, too nice for a pickguard....

build looks great Brewhook well done. Look forward to the sound demo

Great Job Brewhook. Nice looking ES-3 you got yourself there. time for a new kit I'd say

Great job man! I love playing my ES-3 and I'm sure you do too.

cheers,
Gav.