Stiryx's First Build, ES-1L

[Stiryx]

Neck fit is amazing Sonic, I cleaned that up the other day and its sitting flush.



Unfortunately I have bad new for myself, without measuring the holes are definitely drilled wrong. The bridge won't fit on the pegs when they are hammered in the entire way! If you take them out and put them on a big angle you can force it on, but it isn't practical.





I am 100% going to have to dowel and drill now, something I really didn't want to do. To add to injury the nut is chipped very badly and is going to require replacing, and this project is quickly becoming 1. very costly replacing parts and 2. getting out of my skill level.

Really starting to wonder if its going to be cheaper/easier/better end product to buy a second hand epiphone dot and repaint/replace with what I'm after.

[Woltz]

I don't know the kit and someone who has done one maybe able to shed more light but is one of the pegs a different length to the other? I can't see why they would be, that wouldn't make sense but that's what it kind of looks like in the photo. If they are different have you tried swapping them to the opposite holes?

[Stiryx]

Hey mate, the image shows the pegs being different lengths because thats the only way to get the bridge on. The holes are about 3mm too close together, aka a big distance for something with such a tight fit. Definitely going to be doweling and re-drilling the holes now.

[Andyxlh]

Oh dear, some bad luck here. I'd consider contacting Adam and letting him know.
It does seem that dowelling and redrilling will solve both of the main issues you have.
Have you tried to tighten the truss rod a little to make sure it is fully seated? On my AG kit the truss rod slid out like that but was fine when screwed in

[Stiryx]

Oh dear, some bad luck here. I'd consider contacting Adam and letting him know.
It does seem that dowelling and redrilling will solve both of the main issues you have.
Have you tried to tighten the truss rod a little to make sure it is fully seated? On my AG kit the truss rod slid out like that but was fine when screwed in

The truss rod came with a huge back bow in it and that's when it was loose (that's weird right?). It was only when I straightened the neck to allow me to level the frets that it has become tight inside.

No use contacting Adam I don't think, this is just the problems with buying a left hand kit I guess, they don't make many so the QA isn't as high as the right handed versions.

As I said above though, this is quickly getting out of my skill level to fix the problems. I was expecting to take it to a luthier to set up the intonation and all that, not sure I will get that far haha.

[Simon Barden]

I think this is a full money-back job. You had the paint issue (which has been covered), the truss-rod installation is wrong, and you shouldn't have to dowel and re-drill holes, especially on a veneer top. Have you tried fitting the stop piece inserts to see if that fits?

A 335-shape leftie doesn't really differ that much from a r/h version. The neck should be the same apart from a l/h nut, the body is symmetrical so it's only the hardware, control and wire access holes that require drilling differently. The bridge hole issue may be down to something basically simple like changing hardware supplier, with the new bridge having holes closer together and not updating their drilling jig to suit, but it's probably down to either the wrong template or sloppy drilling.

Definitely contact Adam.

[Stiryx]

I think this is a full money-back job. You had the paint issue (which has been covered), the truss-rod installation is wrong, and you shouldn't have to dowel and re-drill holes, especially on a veneer top. Have you tried fitting the stop piece inserts to see if that fits?

A 335-shape leftie doesn't really differ that much from a r/h version. The neck should be the same apart from a l/h nut, the body is symmetrical so it's only the hardware, control and wire access holes that require drilling differently. The bridge hole issue may be down to something basically simple like changing hardware supplier, with the new bridge having holes closer together and not updating their drilling jig to suit, but it's probably down to either the wrong template or sloppy drilling.

Definitely contact Adam.

Have sent Adam an email with your advice thanks Simon. What you say about the body makes a lot of sense, seems that they have just used the wrong template or hand drilled holes out of allignment. The B tuner peg hole on the neck is missdrilled by a few mm but that should be a non-issue to fix hopefully.

[Steev3d]

Second problem encountered. Checking the neck fit, rough action guide etc and measured the scale. Seems that Its the same distance from fret side of the nut to middle 12th fret, to middle 12th fret to the very, very front of the bridge. As in screwed forward as far as it can go and its still half a mm longer, and thats measuring to the shorter side. I realise that the bridge to 12th fret should be a bit longer, but i think its off by a mm or 2. Any thoughts?

- bridge pushed forwards as far as it can go

- bridge to 12th fret (313mm)

- 12th fret to nut (312.5mm)

I have the exact same problem and was thinking exact same solution...dowl and re-drill ... how'd you go with this?