Simon B's Custom ES-1/ES330 style build

[Wayne.Mumford]

That’s so sad Simon, after you had it looking so good. I was expecting to see a brilliant, finished product in your next post. So sorry mate. Hope all goes well this time. We are all cheering for you.
Wayno.

[Grubsta]

That's very disappointing Simon I'm sorry to see this has happened to you after all the hard work you have put into this build. I can sympathize with you due to having to start over on my last build as well it can drain the motivation really fast.
I was wondering why we haven't seen you online much recently.
I'm sure you will get on top of it though and produce something brilliant.
Best of luck with it mate.

[phrozin]

The reason I have been fairly quiet recently is that I have been taking a rest from the guitar building side of things after a most annoying setback. I should have had the ES-1/330 complete by now, but when I went to do a 1200 grit wet sand sand before polishing the body, this happened on the bulge of the top horn on the front:

Attachment 26308

I'd hardly touched it. I'm sorry, but my experiment with Tru-Oil is over and I'll never use it again. It's not like there were only a couple of coats; there must have been 30 on all the surfaces and I'd waited about 10 days since the last coat went on. There's no way that I could patch that up and have it look presentable. So it's sand everything back time and see if the body will re-stain. If not, it's solid colour time. The weather's warmed up, so it will be back to the nitro.

So today I started on the back:

Attachment 26309

The really annoying thing is that the finish on the back is very hard, and it's taken over 3 hours to get the back stripped back, even using power sanders. A heat gun was of no assistance. Never mind, here it is almost finished:

Attachment 26310

I completed the back (camera battery is currently recharging so no fully sanded pic at the moment) but I've now run out of decent sandpaper (ordered more), so I've stopped for today. The next few days are forecast for sun, so guess what I'll be doing over the weekend! Just hope I can sand the front back without going through the veneer.

Oh Simon that would have peeved me off no end as well was a lovely shad of red mate, at least you can pull out the sander and go again at least it wasn't on a veneer top really feel for you mate

[Simon Barden]

It is on a veneer top!

What's really annoying is that on the rest of the body, including the same area on the bottom horn, the Tru-Oil's thick and taking ages to sand off!

Done the back and sides, now doing the top, but my Amazon prime order of sandpaper still hasn't turned up yet and I've exhausted all my good sandpaper, and the cheap stuff is going in the bin as it's useless.

[Simon Barden]

Well I've been carrying on sanding as the new sandpaper eventually turned up.

Back and most of the sides done here:




Then I started on the top and have gone as far as I dare go on one side without sanding through the veneer:



So I will be carrying on sanding tomorrow.

And then I'll have to start on sanding the neck back. The stain won't be the same otherwise, plus I tried some nitro lacquer on top of the Tru-Oil and it bubbled up, so I can't leave it as it is and just spray clear nitro over the top. I need to re-do the headstock face anyway, as my gold-pen backed 'Three-Thirty' decal got damaged when I was sanding the Tru-Oil finish over it level, so I'll use some pearl veneer with a decal over it in a similar way to the main logo.

Onwards and upwards.

[Marcel]

That's one huge setback Simon...

Do you have any thoughts as to why it happened? Not a happy mix between your stain and the Tru-oil, or something going on in the wood?

[Simon Barden]

Not really. That area got the same treatment as the rest of the body, but the TO simply must have been thinner there. I vaguely remember having one run around that location which I had to sand back, but was trying only to sand the run and certainly not that whole area. Of course it is the most pronounced curved raised area on the guitar, so more easily over-sanded (and maybe the TO coats wiped thinner), but the corresponding lower bout didin't show similar symptoms and has already undergone some rigorous sanding with coarse sandpaper without getting anywhere near to the wood.

[wazkelly]

Man, what a bummer.

Just discovering the lumpy bits on the ES-1 picked up from Tony yesterday and found it very easy to sand through veneer on both horns. Doesn't take much effort at all as they are the steepest part at that end of the body.

[Simon Barden]

Well, I finished sanding the top:



So it was time for the staining. Shots taken after the initial applications.

Top:



Back:



Spirit-based stain seems more forgiving than water-based. It doesn't leave a tide mark at the edges and it dries more quickly, so there's less likelihood of runs.

The sharp-eyed amongst you will have spotted the elephant in the room; the small area on the top horn where I've sanded through the veneer. So now I've got to try and patch it up somehow. It might be out with the acrylic paints and paint that area. But I'll need to match the colour to how the rest of the guitar looks with clear coat on (which will be a brighter red).

[blinddrew]

Such a bummer about that. Is it worth trying to 'paint in' a bit of grain?