Swanny's ES-12G

[Swanny]

Thanks Wokka!

The gold hardware is the Grover upgrade through Pitbull. It does weigh down the head a little (lot!).

The PVC sheeting is a bit thicker than a piece of paper. I bought it advertised on Ebay as "A4 Clear Self-Adhesive Sticker/ Label for LASER & INKJET Printer" though it didn't work in a laser printer. It has a peel off backing, leaving it as a clear sticker with whatever you printed on it. In my case I cut out the printing to make the stencil, then stuck it to the head.

After a quick string up, everything appears to line up, so I've clamped the neck to the body with a bit of PVA glue.

[andrewdosborne]

Good save in getting the tuners back around the right way. Those Grovers are solid as so more than compensate the additional weight

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[Swanny]

There were a few tense moments, as the screw heads are made of a fairly soft metal, and three of them stripped out the slots, meaning I had to carefully drill the heads out, and unscrew the screw shaft with a pair of pliers.

The tuning machines that came with the kit - four of them I swapped onto a ukulele that my kids got me for my birthday, and I constantly thank them by learning a few chords to serenade them. Now it stays in tune!

[WeirdBits]

[...] so I've clamped the neck to the body with a bit of PVA glue.

PVA or Titebond?

[Swanny]

I used PVA... I read somewhere that it was suitable... I can't recall ever seeing titebond. .? Have I done a bad thing?

[keloooe]

You want to use Titebond, it has a better grip than the wood itself! Also it looks as if the neck heel is painted too, you want wood to wood contact Swanny, the paint will not grip under the many kilos of pressure from the strings.

[Swanny]

Crap! The PVA would have mostly set by now...

Also, I left the contact points at the heel and socket as bare timber.

[gavinturner]

Headstock with all those gold tuning pegs looks fantastic Swanny! She's gonna look amazing with all hardware installed.

cheers,
Gav.

[Andy40]

Swanny, this is one of my favorite finishes...that blue coming out of the black is and glod hardware is just eye candy....if we get to organise a Brisbane chapter beers sometime..please bring it along

[Swanny]

@Gav - thanks, it's all coming together nicely - I might get the pickups mounted today!

@Andy - I'm glad I found Pitbull guitars, the beauty is that you can make something how you want it - of course my first build was going to be my favourite colour! If there's a meet up, I'll bring her along!

I just did some searching, and found Adam's video guide suggested the use of Selley's PVA glue... so I'm breathing easy. Next build I'll look at Titebond, if it has better bonding. Lucky I didn't break out the Araldite from when I was glueing wings on remote control planes! That's a strong bond!