1st build - ESP-1

Hullo,

My Kit arrived last week and so far i've done a mock build, everything seems to fit fine and the neck seems to sit nicely. I've measured the scale length and checked that the strings sit where they're meant to. There's a few scuffs and one chip on the back by the neck recess but nothing that will stop play,

I was planning on staining but after seeing how tight the grain is I think i'm going to paint it instead (I avoided a nicer grain wood as i didn't want it too heavy). I'll need to do some research on how to go about that as all of my prep plans centred on staining.

Today the plan is to drill some extra control holes and route out some space to fit the extra pots for the new pickups, then if i gain enough momentum i'll start some sanding.

I'll try and keep up to date with photos on here. :)

Unless you've got a heated garage (or similar) that you can use as a spray area, spraying is pretty much out of the equation until around May, when the temperature picks up. You really don't want to spray indoors.

Thanks for the response. I assume that's for the paint to cure? I've got a heated workshop that i can use, it'll take a while to de-dust it but it can be done. Any suggestions on what grit to sand to before/during painting? and do you know if i'd need to use a grain filler first. I've spray painted in the past but mostly metal parts for cars.

Mainly to stop moisture getting trapped in the paint finish, though too cold and the paint doesn't dry as well. If you use cans or a spray gun, the gas expansion cools the paint and solvent evaporation cools it more. Moisture in the air condenses out and you end up with a milky finish. Sometimes this will clear, and sometimes it won't. So you really want 18°-22°C ambient for optimum results. Also helps with spray cans to warm them in warm water first to get the paint moving freely.

Grain filling depends on the wood. Closed-pore woods (like your basswood body) don't need grain filling, but open pored woods (like ash or mahogany do). No need to go too mad on fine grits before painting. You basically want to remove any tooling marks and get the surfaces of the body and edges as flat as possible. Don't be afraid to start off with a coarse paper, say P60, then move to P120 and P180. Flat sanding pads are vital here. You could go to P240, but not too smooth in order to help the paint stick to the wood.

Going with a solid colour? Then a primer/filler on first is a good idea. Only dry sand the primer as it's not normally that waterproof.

You've got the option of painting the neck and body separately (physically easier) or glueing the neck on and spraying it as one. Pre-glueing allows you to fill in gaps around the neck join area before priming. You then end up with a nice smooth neck/body transition. If you glue the neck on after finishing, you've then got to fill the gaps (if you feel the need) and re-do all the finish in that area.

@Freak_Hybrid, I used a little (plastic) greenhouse in a workshop to keep dusts out, found that way more efficient than cleaning a hole workshop, heating wise too. However, you gotta love a clean workshop.

The only thing is, when you convine yourself to spraying in such a small boot, H&S becomes a pretty serious thing, think full mask.

Anyway, have fun, the kit looks great!

Thanks for the input guys :)

Yesterday i found a bit of traction and decided to cut the holes for the new pots, I know it's very messy but it's the first time i've worked with wood in about 15 years so i'm very pleased w/ it so far. Today i'm going to clean up the pocket a little and see if i can cut a back plate out of some ply i've got (I thought wood would look nicer than plastic). I thought i'd need to cut an extra slot for the battery but it all fits inside, i'm going to just velcro the battery in place to stop it moving around.
I've created a bit more work with regards to sanding as without realising i've dinged it up all over the place and rubbed rust patches off of the drill but i'll clean that up today too.

I've got next week off work so i'm hoping i can start getting some paint on the thing, I'm trying not to rush it but i do like the idea of getting it finished before Christmas. I've got some tools on the way to level the frets, i haven't looked at it yet but i assume there will be some high spots.

@simon Barden I think i'm going with a solid colour (Haven't decided on what yet but i'm leaning towards white w/ a decal). I haven't decided if i'm going to spray them separately or as one to get a smooth transition between the neck and body. I'm leaning towards together and smoothing it off. Thanks for the grit recommendations, i bought the sand paper but had no idea on where to start.

@RocknRolf That sounds like a good idea, i think i can find/build a little tent and add some fans to it. I was planning on borrowing my gas mask from work (Chemist on a chemical plant) to avoid the fumes.

Oh for a nice workshop!

Nice progress so far, all I will say is be patient. From seeing lots of builds here on the forum and my own experiences, most of the issues with finishes not turning out as well as expected are due to rushing things and not letting paint/stains cure properly, especially in sub optimal areas. Having said that it looks as if you are on the right track, love the shape of those ESP-1.

Made some more progress on the build :)

I've tidied up the routing and made the back plate, progress was slow as i broke the first two attempts in power tool related incidents. The neck and body have been sanded to 340 grit ready for painting but i decided to glue the neck on to make the joint more seamless so there is likely to be a lot more sanding before i can start painting (I can't work on it until the weekend now so i'm just going to leave it clamped until then).

Here's the design i'm going with, I've played a bit with test wood and pretty sure i can get this effect with spray cans, news paper and stencils. I'm going to paint the back of the neck too rather than leave it bare/glossed.
The painting plan is several coats with light 400 grit sanding in between. I still need to look into how to get the gloss/polished look with the lacquer, i think it's something to do with polish and an electric buffer.

I'll likely do the fret levelling once the paint is on as i'm still waiting on some tools to arrive.

Really looking forward to stringing this thing up =D

You'll need to get a decent background white finish, get that finish as flat as you can by sanding back (and I mean really flat). Then add the other colours. After that you'll need to protect that with quite a few layers of clear lacquer - enough so you can sand that back flat and then go finer grits up to about P2000 and then you can polish it. But you need to put quite a few layers on as the pattern will leave the first finish a bit uneven, and you can't sand that flat as you'll remove the artwork. So to get a nice smooth finish, you need to build up enough lacquer thickness to both allow the surface to be sanded flat, and to still have enough thickness to protect the artwork.

Hi all,

So it's been a while since i posted and thought i'd share how far i've gotten and pick your brains a little.

I spent weeks repeatedly spraying it white and then having to sand back as little imperfections kept popping up and really bugging me. It was getting me down a bit and so last weekend on a whim i decided to just go for it with the cans and some newspaper (and hey, whats one more day spent sanding it back -_-). At first i thought i'd ruined it but since then it's really grown on me, i started on the front (Mistake) and had refined my 'screw it' technique by the time i did the back so i like the back more (figures) but i think once the front is keyed a little and all polished up it will look badass.

I'm gonna stick with it and so the next step is to sand it a little (I'm thinking very lightly w/ 600) then put a bunch of layers of lacquer on it. On that, i had a question; Do you lacquer the fret board? Or do i spray it with the board masked off. I haven't levelled the frets yet so i imagine there will be some light sanding on it anyway. When i was spraying it white i'd built up so many layers that there was a lip with the paint and the edge of the board, i've since smoothed it off and re-masked but was worried i'd get the same with the lacquer and it would bug me when playing.

Also, any tips on going about putting a decal or logo on the headstock? It might seem corny but i like the idea of putting my name on it. I'm thinking some form of calligraphy that would likely be too fine for it to work well with a stencil. Can i just use a very thin sticker and then build lacquer layers over it?

Any input would be appreciated, especially w/ regards on how to lacquer and buff it afterwards.


Also, side note: My hand has gotten a lot better recently, i can now get multiple fingers at once to do what i'm telling them and had one hell of a blast just playing heavily distorted power chords Metallica style xD I almost cried when my hand just started playing the intro riff to 'of wolf and man'. Finger memory for the win.

Well, no point in having a laid back understated restrained Expxxxer is there?

Assuming that's all spray effects you don't want to sand it back at all or it will look horrible. Get some lacquer on it, then some more. Its not conventional to varnish rosewood fingerboards, just treat them with lemon oil or similar, but if its engineered rosewood take a good look at it. Mine had the fibres very loose and I treated it with a penetrating epoxy primer to consolidate them, then sanded then oil.

Plenty of options for decals/graphics take a look hereabouts. You can get waterslide transfer "paper" for Laser printers, which would be my choice.

You'd typically mask off the top of the fretboard, but a lot of guitars have clear lacquer on the sides of the fretboard. As you have noted, it stops you having a step on the side of the neck, which is most off-putting in the hand.

Progress update:

Thanks for the input guys. I changed my mind once again and decided I didn't like the front, the longer I looked at it the more I thought I could do better. I sanded the front back down to roughly the primer level, resprayed a rough white and then went back at it with the colours, trying my hardest not to get carried away with the black this time. It's ended up a slightly different finish than what i achieved on the back but it looks a lot better than it did, i think my ('screw it') technique had changed slightly.

Over the last month or so I've put on about 13 layers of lacquer, roughly 5 coats with 15 minute intervals between coats then 2 weeks drying, a little 600 grit sanding and repeat. My photography skills are lacking but I've tried to capture the shine it has (which is so fricking awesome!!! xD).

I've tried to capture the 'orange peel' texture that it has at the moment and once this last coat has fully cured (still smells of solvent) I plan to sand to 1000, 1500 and then 2000 grit before using some rubbing compound to get that shine back (Then maybe some wax or something for a final polish? Not sure on what/if this is needed)

Thanks for the input with masking just the front of the fretboard, it's worked and there's no bump between the neck and the board but a quick look shows I've gotten a little lacquer under the tape in places, so i'll scrape/sand that off once it's hard.

I didn't put a decal on the headstock in the end, mostly due to not knowing what to put there. I may regret this later on but we'll see. I still need to buy a new bridge (Forgot to ask for it in black when i ordered) as the chrome one just ruins the look.

Timeline wise I'm thinking another 2 weeks for the lacquer to cure, a day to sand and polish and a few hours to level the frets and drill the holes for the hardware then she be good to to take for a test drive. The project has taken far longer than i though it would but I am so looking forward to amping up and see how she plays :D (I'l be a little heart broken if it's horrid but that's a bridge we'll burn when we get there)

Hopefully, my next update will be one of a fully finished axe.

Looking great. A very unique finish, so you'll certainly stand out from the crowd.

Waxing won't be necessary with lacquer. If the back of then neck feels sticky, then a Fender custom shop guy suggested applying a couple of coats of carnauba wax, but otherwise, sanding and buffing should get it as shiny as a really shiny thing.

Definitely avoid any waxes or polishes with silicates in, as you can't get rid of them if you ever need to touch up the finish. They stop any new finish adhering to the old.

No reason why it shouldn't be a great player.

Just don't forget to fit that bridge post ground wire before you pop the post studs in.

Since the last post i've sanded to 2000, polished it to a shine, levelled the frets, wired up the pickups and let loose.

I'm loving the look (Though i'm waiting on a new black bridge), the pickup sound is great and the neck isn't sticky but i'm having problems with the setup and buzz. Specifically, i can't achieve a low action and not get every fret buzzing. I've got the feeler gauges and the such (All the gear, no idea) but can't seem to find anything definitive online about setup measurements (Current measurements at the bottom). Any advice welcome.

I need to adjust the bridge/saddle posts as i'm at the lowest adjustment on the high e before the post bottoms out, i'm thinking when my new bridge arrives i'll recess the post hole slightly so the post holder sits ~1mm lower.

I'm going to buy new plastic housings for the pickups too as they're for an LP and so are angled and don't look right w/ the flat body. The battery in the pickup cavity is strapped in, i just didn't have a photo and am too lazy to remove the back plate.

I also think the nut is too tall but haven't filed it yet, thought i'd seek advice first.

I think i levelled the frets correctly (levelling ruler thing is off screen). I'm hoping there's just a sweet spot with the setup i'm missing and it's not to do with the neck angle as removing that would be disheartening (I didn't sand it before gluing so it's at factory height/angle)

Current setup gives buzzing all over. (All measurements taken in playing position)
relief: Cappod 1st fret, fretted @22 (Last fret), 12th fret = 0.01", 0.25mm
Cappod 1st fret, fretted @ neck meets body 19th, 7th fret = 0.014", 0.35mm
Action: 12th fret high e height = 2mm,
12th fret low E 2.2mm
1st fret to nut = 1.1 mm

Running w/ 9's, i need light strings and a low action or my left hand can't move the strings. Before my crash i loved heavier strings for the tone but currently even bending w/ 9's is out of the question.

PS: The EMGs i bought didn't require a bridge ground but thanks for the heads up. I was sure i read it somewhere but went back to double check.