Well - I had to put this project on hold due to a newborn. I am just about to gear up to start again. If anyone reads this, can they tell me whether this top is flamed or not? I am spraying this a solid pale gold. I was under the impression I need to sand the top, but the instruction manual advises against sanding the top if it's maple/quilted etc. Should I avoid sanding the top? I believe I have a few images above of the body.
If I cannot sand, can I still get the paint to appear smooth?
Last edited by LexLuthier; 11-02-2023 at 02:23 AM.
If you're painting fine to sand and fill smooth.
The no sanding is generally if you're staining as it doesn't take a lot of effort to go through the veneer and ruin the flame/quilt effect.
Tony
Thanks! Also - silly question - but I was set to use my reamer to enlarge my potentiometer holes for imperial CTS pots, and I noticed my reamer is too long to bore out the hole larger without punching through the back of the guitar. Do you know if they sell reamers that work for ES-335 / Trini models? I *could* try to be careful with a drill but I'd rather do it properly. It seems like I would need a shorter/stubbier t-handle reamer but I don't see any on my local hardware store's website or even Stew Mac.
Step drill will do the job without a lot of tear out. Can get some pretty cheap ones around
Tony
Thanks! I will give that a shot!
Update:
I've got this thing mostly sanded and I am waiting for the weather to improve a bit before I start spraying. I don't know how accurate this is, but I read that spraying in sub 60 degree (15ish degrees celsius?) weather can be problematic because condensation can develop.
At any rate, yesterday I got all of the replacement hardware I wanted to use. I did a mock build and it looked good to go. The neck seems to have a decent convex bow, but it is otherwise straight and the strings mostly cleared all of the frets. I will probably clean up the frets with a file on the back end. I did not sand the heel or pocket, so I am hoping there are no problems with the angle of the neck.
It's been really fun to get to this point! I got this kit in the fall, shaped the headstock, and then put everything on hold for a new kiddo. I am lucky enough to be on leave now so I should have plenty of time to work on this in between naps.
Anyway, here is where I am at now (hooray! the neck did not fall off when I unclamped it!)
My next steps will be to finish/fine tune sanding, make the wiring harness (I got some orange drop caps, CTS 500K left handed pots, and a switchcraft switch to sub out the items that came with the kit). Once the weather clears up, I am going to spray this pale gold with nitro paint in a tent outside with proper safety gear. Once that settles and looks good, I will drop the burstbucker 1 and 2s in it and have a buddy 3d print me a truss rod cover. I am still debating whether to do a waterslide decal on the headstock.
I was admittedly intimidated by the neck gluing process. It feels so final. Even though the instruction guide was helpful, I found myself hanging on every word of different Youtube videos as well. I am hoping to get good action from the neck despite not fiddling with the neck angle or modding the pocket/heel.
I can relate. It looks good, though!Originally Posted by LexLuthier
I just rattle-can sprayed an ES body and neck. My second--or third, if you count my first botched attempt ;-) Are you planning to tape the binding? I know from the internet that you can scrape after finishing, but I have always taped with 3M vinyl tape. I still usually need to do a little scraping, but just a little cleanup rather than the whole binding.
Thanks! I actually plan to paint over it. I am going for something like this: https://images.reverb.com/image/uplo...f1ko8cdaa0.jpg. I’m hoping the paint and finish will be enough to adhere to the guitar on its own.
The gold top is cool ;-)
My experience from trying to scrape binding has not been too good. My impression from watching youtube is that the folks who get the best results are the ones who have done it a lot. I tried it on my first build, with less-than-stellar results. In fact, I ended up redoing the finish and using tape the next time.
FWIW, I use 3M 1/4" fine line vinyl tape. It's not perfect, so there is usually a little scraping to do, but it minimizes the amount. It takes an hour or so to apply the tape because I wear a magnifying visor to help me get the tape right up to the edge where the binding meets the wood. On the finish I just applied I had almost no scraping to do. It left a sharp line right at the edge of the binding over most of the body. There were just a couple of places where the tape pulled away a little where I had to scrape. A bit of a time investment at the front end, but I have discovered the hard way that I am much more likely to have an accident with a scraper than with tape.
Last edited by fender3x; 30-03-2023 at 12:15 AM.
This is good to know. I might want to build a Les Paul with a burst next, in which case I am sure I will have to fight the binding to make sure it looks clean. Luckily for this one, I just want the binding hidden by paint.
Good call on the magnifying visor! I was wondering how people do binding edges properly and think it would be tempting to take shortcuts that I would regret later.
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