This seems a funny contest - how do you lose when you start with the prize of a beaut guitar?
Anyway, here's my first-timer effort. It's the ESB4 kit. My wife got sick of me looking at guitars that weren't quite what I was looking for and told me to build my own instead. I liked the idea, so here we are.
I really like the look and feel of the spanish guitars. I've got an Ibanez Artcore that this was intended to be a stablemate to, and I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
The finish was deliberately kept simple - that was never my strong suit in woodwork at school and I like the simple stained look. So the main colour is a Feast Watson stain and varnish in Aged Teak - ragged on so no brushes. This was topped with a few coats of clear gloss varnish in the same product line. The neck was just done in the clear varnish and the headstock text was traced on using a light-fast archival marker after the 2nd coat went on. The fretboard was simply oiled up.
First, the full-frontal
In my build diary I made a comment that I thought the back would have made a good front. That was after only 2 coats of finish. This is why:
That looks even better in person.
Here's the front finish for comparison. The shot was taken before I started on the wiring and a cropped version is my phone background.
now I'm an old-school geek from my youth so, what else would I put on the the headstock but my name - in Elvish
Overall, this has been a fun build and I'm looking forward to a lot of playing with this little beasty.
Edited to add requested photos
Firstly, the whole back - on tilt to fit better.
And the front of the body - I'm only allowed 5 pic per post so that will come next.
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