Vintage-y ES-3

[neverwas]

It is finished, short of some minor tweaking, been waiting for some D'Addario Chromes to be delivered.

I'll go through what I've been up to, I type slow so this could take a while and a few posts.

Made a pickguard from scratch. Drew up a shape, cut out a template from MDF and routed some 2mm acrylic to get the main part. Then glued on purfling and binding.

Seemed easier to have rounded corners on the stepped side so could use continuous pieces and avoid joins. Scraped down the binding and sanded flat to 600, then up through the grits and polished.

Couple of oopses, broke the end off the purfling at the top point, glued a piece back on, looked OK at the time but when cleaned up it is noticeable. Also didn't allow for the width of the binding when I made the template and it doesn't line up with the bottom edge of the pup ring, probably won't annoy anyone but me.

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[neverwas]

Going a little overboard, made a TRC from a large piece of Mother of Pearl.
Cut and filed to shape then sanded edges and top to 800 grit.

Had a go at engraving. Got some dremel bits and practised on the acrylic offcuts and realised I would need some sort of guide. Printed off a suitable font and glueit on with pva. Took a deep breath and started engraving. Bit wonky in places.

Then used a scribe for the straight lines.

Mixed epoxy with black stain and lay a coat all over. Sanded off to 800 again.

A few spots to touch up. Wasn't all that happy at first but it's growing on me.
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[neverwas]

Final bits were to fit a brass nut and file out the slots to suit the strings. Also had to file the v's in the saddles to keep the strings from pulling out, the tailpiece has a narrower string spacing than the bridge.
Intonated and adjusted pup heights. Rocksongs sound great, need to find someone who can do a proper sound demo, my playing still sucks. Here's lots of pics...



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[neverwas]

Used a finial from a brass hinge to go in the top of the HS. Had to glue it in and it ended up off to one side a bit.

Something I was keeping to myself, added a piece of timber to the neck heel and put an inlay in that as well, just coz I could.

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[neverwas]

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[Tweaky]

Used a finial from a brass hinge to go in the top of the HS. Had to glue it in and it ended up off to one side a bit.

Something I was keeping to myself, added a piece of timber to the neck heel and put an inlay in that as well, just coz I could.

Cont..

That build of yours is looking incredible, well done.
I put a extension on my neck heel as well.
I doubt I'll inlay it though, the wood I used is incredibly hard, I'm not sure what it is, it's a very similar colour to maple....probably Palm wood.
I had wanted to have my guitar all blonde shellac,including the neck, but with the filler and different wood on the heel block it wouldn't now work, so it's going to end up "Burst" at heel and headstock like yours
Is that just MOP as the truss rod cover without anything backing it?
I planned on doing the same sort of thing, but by inlaying a 2mm bit of maple headstock veneer, I'd be too worried about breaking it if just MOP, especially on a new build which is when you are most likely going to be doing fine adjustments to the truss rod as everything settles in.
Interesting choice of a Brass nut, it can make a guitar sound dark and bassy depending what strings you put on it, my Gibson ES-347 has a Brass nut.

I've been extremely slack with my build, mainly just been testing different things to see how they might look / work.
While cutting MOP for my neck inlays [I removed the originals and frets] I decided to try making some Tune O Matic string saddles out of Ebony, that worked out OK
I've plugged the bridge post mounting holes on my build, changed the bridge to a floating Ebony one, which needed a different Tune O Matic bridge so it could mount on the floating bridge, it's a Gold GOTOH one....I went to unscrew the bridge saddles from it to put the Ebony ones on and the little nuts won't budge, from internet searches it seems Gotoh puts Loctite on them so they won't move, and I don't know which type it is to remove it, so I can't fit the wood strings saddles...bummer.

[Dedman]

man, that is gorgeous.

[J.P]

man, that is gorgeous.

+ 1 on that, sweet looking guitar.

[pablopepper]

Guitar of the year, right here.

[wokkaboy]

Grant that is an incredible build, amazing results. If it plays as good as it looks it's would be pretty close to GOTY