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Greetings and salutations from Finland!
My ES-2V arrived today and thus it's time to stop lurking and post some pics!
The figure is great and thank god there isn't too many glue stains on the veneer. There is this big problem with the binding next to the neck joint. I'm thinking that maybe I'll use some wood filler. Any ideas?
I'm quite inexperinced with woodworking so bear with me :)
More pics and thoughts:
Attachment 22020
The good thing is that most of the glue thing disappears under the fretboard.
Attachment 22021
The angle of the neck is wrong so some sanding there...
Attachment 22022
Minor fretboard issues.
Attachment 22023
The nut is horrible but that's to be expected :D
Hi Thibault mine turned out awsome good luck
Now to the fun stuff!
I played with some colors and the goal is to get this ocean like blue. I didn't manage to get quite the color I had in mind. Either the blue was too deep or it had too much green in it. I'm using oil based stuff so that the grain of the wood won't rise up and thus need sanding (which I thought could be problematic with a veneer). Here are some of my experiments:
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The underlined color is probably closest to my vision. I guess it was about 1 part phthalo blue and 7 parts of manganese blue hue. I used Gamblin's artist grade stuff, linseed oil for diluting and some terebine driers to help it dry and seal the color.
Attachment 22026
I took the finishing template from this video series :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMOl9-CFrXY
Here are my step by step notes:
1. Sand the body from 120 to 220 grit
2. Fill the grain (if mahogany/ash/other porous wood)
- Use grain filler or
- 50/50 mix polyurethane/white spirits and sand with 320 wet and dry sandpaper which releases sanding dust. The sanding dust mixes with the polyurethane and the mix fills the grain. If you have 4F pumice you can add that as well.
3. Apply artist grade oil paint. Spread it with terebine based drying accelerator (Japan drier) which also helps the paint to penetrate to the wood
4. Sealing the color in to the wood using 50/50 polyurethane white spirits mix. Cover the body with the mix and wait for ~5 or more hours for it to dry. Make 2-4 coats (and for the neck even more coats). You want to see the mix to build up (at the start it will seep into the wood)
5. Apply even more coats 6-8 of the same mix
6. Sand the surface with open-coat 400p sandpaper. After sanding wipe it out with the same poly/spirits mix. Let it dry for 4 hours. Apply another coat
7. Repeat phase 6 but using 800p open-coat sandpaper
8. Wet the body with the mix and wet sand with 1500 grit. Don't use much pressure and don't linger in any one area too long to not risk sand through. Remove the excess with paper. Do front face, sides and back separately
9. Apply 3-4 coats of the mix, first wetting the surface and then wiping "everything" off with clean cloth. Wipe it lightly in direction with the grain. Building very thin coats. Drying time between coats 3-4h
10. Optional polishing
11. Let the finish cure several weeks
(if you get sand through fix it spreading Japan drier and paint to the problem areas using cotton swab or similar)
Now I just have to figure out how to remove some of the glue stains. In this forum guys recommended using Goof Off! but unfortunately I can't find that from Europe. I ordered some Loctite super glue remover but I'm not sure if that's an appropriate product for this kind of stuff.
Attachment 22027
Cheers!
I assume it's the one in your profile pic. That's fabulous !Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam Barnes
Attachment 22028no same as yours
Hi and welcome to the forum!
That neck are gap will be covered up by the neck once it's glued on, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Fill it and sand it flat, but don't worry too much about it. My ES-3 kit is a bit like that.
I wouldn't assume the neck angle is wrong as the bridge is quite tall. I'd clamp the neck in place (if you haven't got any suitable clamps, then you need to buy or borrow at least one to allow you to glue the neck in place), then run a straight edge along the neck and out over the body so you can see what height the bridge has to be to hit the straight edge. The actual bridge height will need to be about 3mm higher than this. If the bridge is going to have to be set really high, then yes you'll need to adjust the neck angle, but they don't often get the neck angles wrong.
Yes, that's a very badly glued nut. But that's easy to remove and re-glue in the correct place, though an upgrade to a bone nut is well worth it.
Those fretboard marks look relatively minor and you can sand the fretboard a bit (with fine grit paper) if you want to try and get rid of them. Also treating the board with lemon oil (the fretboard wood is normally very dry when it come from the factory) will darken the wood's appearance and may help hide the marks.
Good luck with the build and if you have any more questions, just ask away!
Thanks a lot for the comments!
I investigated the neck angle more thoroughly and my judgement was premature.
About the bridge situation in general I'm planning to use a tailpece tune-o-matic combo. Maybe something like this https://www.allparts.uk.com/products...-1-2-inch-long and
https://www.allparts.uk.com/products...-6mm-post-hole. The specs are quite sparse and the adjustable height is unknown. On the other hand I have never encountered a guitar where the bridge's height adjustment would be a problem so I quess I don't have to worry too much about that as long as I buy a model which is used on hollow bodies.
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Welcome Thibault!
Your observations are spot on and as usual Simon is brimming with intelligent advice.[emoji1][emoji1]
Sent from outta space using MartianTalk
I'll second that, Simon has pretty much single handedly guided me through all my stressful moments in my first build so far! I owe you a drink Simon!!Quote:
Originally Posted by OliSam
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I've just soaked up a lot of other people's knowledge over the years, so it only seems fair to me to pass it on. Like anything, a lot of it seems obvious once you know it. The main thing is not to panic as there's normally always some way around any problem, and in some cases you may not have a problem at all.
Let me raise a glass to. On you Simon! Thank you! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by teamjeffo
I finally managed to do the sanding and painting :)
Here is the result:
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Attachment 22209
I'm pretty happy with the result. During the process I realized that I wanted darker blue shade. It just looked more consistent. I didn't know beforehand if I would go for the burst as I was doubting my abilities. In the end, I decided to go for it anyway :P
Off topic: I also got a bit crazy and ordered another DIY kit. There is pretty big glue problem in the center. If you happen to have some ideas how it could be dealt with that would be awesome !
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Hi Thibault, it's a bit hard to see the glue spots, can you wipe over the veneer with a damp cloth and take a photo and post please ? There are glue remover products such as goof off I would try that. The other method using a small wire brush you will risk damaging the thin veneer. The ES-2V build coming along well !
Is it just me, or is there a gap between the two halves of that veneer?
good point Pabs, certainly looks like it when you zoom in.
Use Goof Off for the glue spots. Works well but you might just need to use some extra stain on those areas. No big problem.
Yes! There is gap and in the factory they have "fixed" it with a random wood splinter and glue :DQuote:
Originally Posted by pablopepper
It's a good opportunity to learn new things :)
Thanks for the feedback!
I took some closeups !
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I used methylated spirits to highlight the area.
Yes! This was my instinct as well but I'm uncertain how it will turn out. The plan is to use violet with some black thrown in it.Quote:
Originally Posted by ILRGuitars
Personally I would have had a problem with that veneer not joining as it should be. Good that you managed to 'fix' it but I would have contacted Adam before doing any repairs like this.
I agree with kick that's a decent gap there, some of the kits around are not great for what they cost some of them with 4 pieces of wood which are totally different that's why i don't do dye finish very often unless there a close match it looks off imo.
Yeah. It's unfortunate. The "fix" in the center isn't mine. It came like this from the factory. Also this kit was from a European DIY kit distributor, not Pitbull, so no problems there :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Kick
The positives were that I didn't have to pay customs and thus saved a few bucks.
I should've just ordered the DM-1S
But yeah, challenges are fun.
My ES-2V has 3 pieces. Still looks great ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by phrozin
you could make a "feature" out of that stripe in the middle... as in actually paint a stripe over it making it look like it was your intention all along.. maybe even do another couple of stripes..
Nice idea! So... maybe non-transparent/semi-transparent centerline and then the transparency increases as we get closer to the edges?Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterSik
I spent some time looking for inspiration. These are pretty close. Although I don't want the burst to be that light on the edges and also that kind of sanded finish is impossible to achieve with veneer.
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Wish me luck!
Good to hear that this was not a PBG kit ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Thibault