ES-3 First Build

[ajmac]

Hi gang, after much deliberation the Es 3 summer special finally forced my hand.

I've been playing and tinkering with guitars for a bit over ten years but I've never undertaken anything of this magnitude.

Kit arrived promptly and in perfect condition and looks great, couldn't be happier! Minimal glue spots and a really clean job on the binding.

Only question I have at this stage is about the gap between the top of the body and the neck (pictured). The heel of the neck fouls on the pocket on the back of the guitar before this area is flush with the body... Simple as sanding the neck heel lower until it comes flush or will this mess up the intonation?

Anyway hopefully you enjoy me fumbling through the process of putting this bad boy together I'll steal some collective wisdom in the process!

Cheers,

Alex

[stan]

welcome Alex, you've jumped in at the deep end with this one!
Not sure about the neck fitment on these, so hopefully someone who has done one will see it soon.
More pics of the gap from other angles will help too: do you mean the neck angle itself, or the way the neck fits into the body?

[ajmac]

Thanks Stan, been lurking around for a little while for inspiration so thought it was only fitting to post a build diary!

That could've been explained clearer. In the first picture you can see a gap between the top of the guitar and the neck, just above the binding even with the neck fitted within the pocket properly. Just wanted to know whether taking a few mm from the bottom of the neck heel to close that gap would be ill advised. More than likely I'll just clean it up and leave it as a shadow line of sorts.

The pickup layout is quite close, similar to that of the ES-175 albeit with the fretboard intersecting with the neck pup as opposed to a 135 (if that makes sense to anyone else!).

In terms of the build I'm planning on a black stain with chrome hardware with a few new parts and mods, pics to follow!

[stan]

aaahhh, see what you mean Alex. Once you start playing with neck heals and pockets you can chance heights and neck angles, might leave advice on that to someone who has built one, or for DB to chime in.

I wonder if a little timbermate filler under that part of the neck would fill it in well or chip out.

Colour scheme sounds really cool, and classic

[Brendan]

I'm with Stan - if you're going black stain - ebony timbermate and if you're worried it will chip out - stabilise it with a bit of CA glue. If you protect the body with something (greaseproof paper?) and then get your timbermate in, you might be able to take the neck off again - let it dry, stabilise and then sand to a perfect fit. With that said, it will be on the bottom of the guitar as you play it. Downside is once it's taken CA, I don't think you'll be able to stain it (hence ebony timbermate).

May also be worth trying a dry fit with the hardware - don't knock the posts in just yet, but running a steel rule down the fretboard and placing the bridge in the right spot underneath it will give a very rough idea if there's any room to move on the neck pocket. Maybe a photo of the base of the pocket?

[ajmac]

Thanks guys, some food for thought! Looks fairly plum as is with a straight edge so I think I'll just clean up the edge and leave it as is.

Had wanted to fill the gap with Timberlake or something but that's gone out the window now that I think I'll leave everything natural apart from the top. Stained up the top and damp ragged the entire thing and it looks great as is!

Three coats of Japan black feast Watson later:

[stan]

ES 3 in black - this will look great - nice choice!

[wokkaboy]

looks good in black Alex. Will watch this build with interest. I got one of these kits and I was lucky the neck binding sit flat ontop of the body. I won't start my build for another month or two, getting through a large backlog of builds

[andrewdosborne]

Coming along nicely, black top will contrast nicely with the hardware. I'm about to put together the wiring harness for my ES so watch this space for what not to do!

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

[ajmac]

Thanks for the heads up Andrew, let us know how you go!

My most recent plan is to go with master volume and tone pots and use the other two holes for mini switches for coil tapping the SD Alnico pro II set I just bought...

Anyway we're all here for the pictures so here's two coats of Tru Oil (I've just recently come across the aversion of some forum members to both tru oil and fw stain so I'm probably about to be shunned!)