Jon's 335-style build

[jonwhitear]

Hello all,

I'm starting out on an ES-335 style build. It's a kit I got from DIY Guitars in Sydney, received this week. So far I'm reasonably pleased with the kit - it's got a lovely burl maple top and back, basswood sides (I think), and a maple neck. It came with gold hardware that seems to be OK, and Wilkinson P90s.

I'm really looking forward to the build. I've pretty much settled on a Tru Oil finish, having done a lot of reading. I'm planning on a water based stain for the top (probably blue) and leaving the sides and back natural. I'm going to do a lot of the finishing before setting the neck, and I don't think I'll drill the bridge posts until I've done that.




- it's got a few issues I'll need to tackle, and I'd welcome advice.

(1) The neck pocket has a slight lateral tilt. I was pretty disappointed when I first found this, but I'm starting to think it's not really a big issue. It seems to have very little resulting tilt in the fretboard, and the neck fits the pocket quite well. The neck angle seems OK from an initial measurement. Any resulting tile could presumably be accommodated in the bridge. Does that sound reasonable? The thought of sanding out the pocket scares me.



... I'll add new posts with the other issues.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Cheers,

jon

[jonwhitear]

(2) The next challenge is the veneer. It's pretty messy. You can see from these pics that there's filler, and stains that could be (?) glue. I'm not sure what to do about this, as I'm wary of sanding through the veneer, and I don't know if that filler will take a stain. One option would just be to use a natural Tru Oil finish (i.e. no stain) as I think the blemishes will be less visible - they'll kind of merge into the burl.

[jugglindan]

Is that from the DIY Guitars that has had a "DIY GUITARS HAS CLOSED" banner in red across the top of the website for years? I have always wondered if they are closed, why is the website still running?

I won't offer any advice on the build or the specific questions though (see my signature!). It looks like a lot of potential for a great looking guitar.

DC

[jonwhitear]

It is the same DIY Guitars. They have an Ebay store that's still selling off stock (which is where I got the kit), though there doesn't look to be much left.

[king casey]

Combining Blue dye with Tru-Oil, will result in green.

cheers, Mark

[jonwhitear]

Combining Blue dye with Tru-Oil, will result in green.

cheers, Mark

Yeah, I'd read about that - seems to be dependent on the dye, but maybe I'm better off with a more "yellowing friendly" starting point.

[Simon Barden]

If the neck fits well in the pocket, then I'd leave it as it is. If you sand the base flat, then the sides of the pocket will stop it from tilting so that the neck wont sit flat against the bottom of the pocket, and that's the most important area for gluing and holding the neck on. You can only really clamp the neck downwards, not sideways, so if the neck isn't making full contact at the bottom, then your neck joint will be very weak. Plus you'd have a gap underneath which would need filling and it would look just the same! And your fretboard is currently level with the top, so angling the neck will angle that as well.

So unless you really attack the sides and bottom of the neck pocket to get everything square, and use veneer to fill in the gaps (which is a lot of work), or plug the pocket with a solid block of wood and re-rout it (maybe routing the neck heel to a smaller size to match a correspondingly smaller pocket size), which again is a lot of work, then I'd leave things be.

IMO, those burl tops really look best left natural, or with a very slight amber stain. I've seen a few builds where people have used dark coloured stains on them, and you really do lose a lot of the detail in the wood. And once you've gone with a dark stain you can't go back.

But it's your build, so please feel free to whatever you want to do with it.

[jonwhitear]

Thanks for your advice Simon. I shall leave the neck pocket as it is. The neck does fit pretty well, and does feel like it is secure when it's clamped. There is very slight lateral movement of the neck when it's in place, so I think I might shave a fraction off the heel so that it sits really flat against the back of the pickup route. That would also line the end of the fretboard up with the pickup route.

As far as the stain is concerned, I'm going to go with something more natural. I want a little but of contrast between the top and the sides/back, and the latter will just be finished with TO. I'm going to get a couple of Feast Watson proof tint stains (teak and maple) from Bunnings today and I'll try them out on some scrap, not that I have any maple burl scrap to hand ;-)

Would you sand before staining? The veneer is very thin, and I'm worried I'm going to sand through it. It feels smooth already. I think I'll dilute the stain and put one coat on, and then sand very lightly. I can always add another coat of stain.

Cheers,

Jon

[Simon Barden]

No real point sanding the veneer, it will be smooth enough. If the stain is water-based, then it will probably raise any loose grain, so you may deed a very light rub-over with say 800 grit afterwards once it's dry.

Make sure you double-check for any glue-spots before staining though.

[jonwhitear]

Thanks Simon - no sanding it is!

I decided to finish the back before I do the top, so that I can learn from any mistakes in a less visible place. I had a go at the glue marks with Goof Off, but only with limited success really - I don't know what the stuff is, but I'm guessing it's mostly filler. Either way, there's so much going in with this burl, that the blemishes become much less noticeable.

Here it is after one coat of tru oil. The oil really sank in! I'm really happy with the colour it's developed already, to the extent that I'm thinking the top won't need staining at all - this is the kind of colour I was looking for.