Hi!!
First, apologies for my poor English. Iīm from a town next to Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) and my skills on Shakespeareīs language are low.
Iīll try to make a decent Build Diary full of images and when it comes to life i promise that iīll make a video demo of the Es-3. There isnīt much information about this kit and i think it could be helpful.
Iīve been playing guitar (not professionally) for the last 18 years in a couple of bands, and i continue doing it. From punk-rock to metal, hard-rock, stoner, classic rock, heavy, alternative... I just enjoy being part of a band. Now Iīm in an alternative/indie/pop-rock band.
Searching for an interesting kit and something different to my usual gear i find the ES-3. After a little research i decided to purchase it. Itīs been a long wait, 1 month, because of the spanish customs... But here it is and iīm already working on it!!
Fist of all, the unboxing:
It came in a good package. I purchased it with the Groover upgrade option and "no pickups" because im not going to use the stock electronics. Ernie ball slinkys, Ernie ball/Pitbull Guitars pick, an sticker and a decal... Everything perfect except the pick guard, it came with some scratches. Not an important thing, but i have to say it.
First look to the body (Laminated Basswood):
Beautiful wood with nice grain, a good binding... Well... i felt very happy when i finally touched it.
The neck (maple whit rosewood fingerboard):
This is an slim 60īs kind of neck, quite similar to my 2003īs Gibson Les Paul Standard DC Plusīs neck profile. Well made, it will need some fret work, but it feels nice, the wood is nice, smooth and the rosewood fingerboard is going to look gorgeous after an oil treatment. It fits fine, once you insert the neck into the body you can lift the guitar and it won't release.
I was anxious, so i started working the day it arrived. What goes first?? Sanding... my right arm still hurts but a nice sanding work is required. Sand, wet cloth, sand, wet cloth... I begun with 280 grit sandpaper (about 4 times) continued with 360 grit (another 4/5 times) and ended up with 500 grit.
When you clean the guitar with a wet cloth the grain of the wood comes alive... An it also makes you see the remaining sand work.
Once i decided it was enough sanding, i masked the binding:
And donīt forget the neck!!
I masked the neck joint, donīt want any stain or oil or anithing on places that are going to be glued.
Iīll use water base stain, Birchwood Caseyīs Filler and Sealer and Birchwood Caseyīs try oil. Iīll try some kind of Burst and if it doesīn work it will go full black.
Avoid using water on the guitar as much as possible, as the veneer on the outside is quite thin, and the glue it is stuck on with is soluble in water. So if you wet it too much, it can come loose in patches and you end up with bubbles in the veneer that need to be stuck down again. It is always best to use turpentine or methylated spirit (aguarrás o aguardientes metilados) to check the grain pattern and also to check for glue patches. Stain won't work on glue patches.
There appears to be a vertical mark at the rear of the guitar (see your masked binding picture), which may just be a mark in the wood, or it may be a glue mark. Just be sure to check any similar marks to see if they are glue or not. They should show up when you wet the surface. If they are, you'll need to try and either sand them out (using a wire brush to break up the smooth surface of the glue) or try a glue removal product - in the UK and Australia we can get a product called 'Goof Off' which is very good for doing this. If you can't find it in Spain, then you should be able to find a similar product.
When you use the stain, as it is water based, it is best to avoid applying too much at once. Apply several light coats rather than one big wet coat, and allow the wood to dry thoroughly between coats.
Also, fill up the inside of the guitar with screwed-up newspaper before you start staining the top, otherwise unless you are very careful, you'll get spots of stain dripping through the f-holes and unless you manage to stain all the inside of the guitar as well (which isn't usually done), then a few dark stain spots against the pale wood of the interior are going to be quite noticeable. So just fill the inside with something absorbent to absorb any drips.
Hi!!
Thanks for the replies.
The guitar is stained already, iīll continue posting today the process.
You are right Simon, i should avoid using water. Iīve used it only to wet a little bit the cloth, applying light coats of stain and waiting between them helped me avoiding spots in the inside of the guitar. Also it lets you see how it really goes, the stain looks different when it dries.
The vertical mark shown on the back of the guitar is the joint of the wood. I found some glue marks, there were some on the neck next to the nut. I tried to fix them sanding and staining again... Maybe not perfect, but it look nice now. Will post pics in a few hours.
Thank you again!!
G-axe, the colors on the burst are yellow and walnut, and in-between mixes... Itīs my first time and i feel happy. Youīll see it soon.
As i said in the previous post, iīm going to try some kind of burst. From yellow to walnut with walnut back, sides and neck.
So here they are, the stains:
The yellow one is water base, the walnut and black ones are concentrated stains that will work either with water or solvent.
I decided to go from yellow to walnut and leave the black one. Iīll use it only if something goes wrong and i need to cover the whole thing on black. Something like a "B-plan". Iīm not going to dilute the stains with water, just use them as they come making mixes between them.
My right arm was praying for a rest, so i left the sandpaper away and took a pine piece i had lying around from an amp build i did not log ago. I stained it in yellow and put it over the guitar just to see.
Pine wood is a little bit lighter than the kitīs basswood, but it seemed to be fine. I begun staining guitars top. Thin coats that need only a little bit of stain, and after 2 yellow coats the top was looking this way:
Beautiful "amberish" yellow look coming from an low cost water base stain (about 2,5 euros/4 AUD the little bottle shown above), i couldīt be happier at this point.
It needed time to dry so i begun making some trials on the pine piece...
That wood piece became an important tool, i could try different mixes and try to imagine how it will look on the guitar.
Well, next step... 2/3 drops of walnut stain mixed with the yellow one and i begin with my first burst ever!!!
All the pics are taken with my smartphoneīs camera, no daylight... Well, should be enough for the "step by step" diary, but iīll try to take better photos when itīs done.
Again, when it dried, i added 3/4 drops of walnut onto the mix and after that another 3/4 drops... this was the result after the 4th mix
You can see the different colors on it... I wasīt worried, will fix it later. The positive thing i that mixing both colors gradually makes the color change very natural, so it seemed like itīs going to work fine.
The darkest color of the burst, the same thatīs going to be used on back, sides and neck, is a mix of 10ml of walnut and 3ml of yellow. at this point the yellow only adds some brightness and consistency to the color. And her you can see how it looked after some work:
When i thought that it was enough staining... i get rid of the binding mask and cleaned it with nail polish cleaner (acetone). very carefully because this solvent will clean also the wood if touched
And here how the body looks at this point.
Unless something gets terrible wrong, the "all black B-plan" is not going to be used. Iīm very happy at this point.
On the next posts Iīll put pics of the neck. I had "glue mark" issues on it, so it needed a little more sanding work, but it looks almost as god as the body.
And after sanding again the whole neck, i stained it and this is how it looks now
The neck is made of 4 pieces of wood, not the same grain, so it takes the stain in a different way each piece. The good thing is that it looks brighter on the center so it seems like a little relic. Not bad, im not looking for the perfect look.
Once it dried, i put the neck into the body only to see how it looks
I know... pics are terrible... But they are the best i can take right now. Iīll take better ones when my children goes school. My working place is somehow like a bunker without day light.
And now, i only can wait for my other orders to come. The filler&sealer and the tru oil are coming this week (i hope), the same with pickups, pots, push-pulls, humbucker rings... At the moment i donīt know which is going to be the next step, Finish and glue or wiring harness... Weīll see.
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