Greg's #3 ES-1F

[GregLane]

No caravanning this winter so I decided to bring forward my next planned build - ES-1F
The only upgrades are Grover Vintage 135N and a bone nut.

I had origina1ly planned pup and electrics upgrades but decided to just do the stock build and then upgrade later if necessary.

I have read the warnings about having to wire and rewire an ES but Gavin's tricks make it look so easy. Let you know in the next month or two.

I also ordered bone nuts for my LP and ST. I just did a practice nut reset on the old plastic one on the LP. I could not believe how much more playable the LP was with only 3/4 of a mm off the bottom of the nut. The tuneup settings were perfect.

Guess what colour? Yep! Red again. Cherry red this time with reliable old Tru-Oil.

[GregLane]

Completed the mock build and eveything fits and measures.
Did have to do some sanding to fit the neck.

[GregLane]

Link to questions for the build

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ad.php?t=10608

[GregLane]

The saga below


Grain filled with glue - early in the process


Black just before the UUGGHH! moment


Where I am now





My last post on this project was in mid-June and I have been working on it constantly since then. I did not do progress reports as I was getting only small issues arising, not worth reporting. But slowly those small issues began accumulating until finally I stuffed it. I have had my first real disaster and have had to sand off the finish from the cap

It’s a long story but I learned so much more about Tru-Oil and finishing. I thought I already knew it all after two kits. hihi.

It all started when my wife asked what colour I was going for. “Red” I said “You know all guitars should be red.”
She advised black and as she is the family artist, who am I to argue. Black it is.

I searched and searched for glue on the cap and with lots of light sanding, GooOff and Turps on the cap even though I could not see much glue.

I wanted to do a thick coat of stain and wipe it off to expose the flame but that also exposed what looked like the cap had been sprayed with glue. The fine grain was full of it.
After more sanding , GooOff etc I got it reasonable and decided I would just have to have the cap a lot darker to cover the gluey grain. But the flame would not be as visible.

I found that a fine black permanent Sharpie run down the centre glue line covered well so I even dotted some of the worst grain areas.

Next problem was that after eight coats of TO I used 1200 wet and dry with water (I had shied away from it in the past) which left scratches. I seemed to get them out with 1200 and turps and a Scotchbrite pad.

Next coat of TO exposed fine scratches. I decided to do another 6 coats of TO hoping to bury the scratches. No luck. I also had very fine lines like a ploughed paddock in the TO. I think they were from the old T-shirt material I was using.

I went through this process twice trying to eradicate the scratches.

This was not a happy situation. I wonder if is it that black that shows every mark.

Luckily, I found an article on the web saying that steel wool and Scotchbrite do not flatten finishes. You should use 1200 wet and dry or finer or microfibe pads.

I shied off the 1200 so got out the microfibre pads. Being careful I started with a finer one but slowly got braver with courser ones. They worked well and as I rubbed I was going down through the scratch layers. One would appear and then disappear, and another would appear from an earlier coat. The ploughed paddock also went away.

I must have got almost to the first couple of layers, but all the scratches had gone
In the meantime, I had seen Youtube videos where guitar builders used and swore by the blue paper towelling shop cloth which apparently did not leave lines like the cloth. So, I got some to try. I worked.

Eight more coats of TO with a little rub of the MF on small scratches, 2 coats of 50/50 TO and FINISHED.

Next I began scraping the binding and got to the last F hole and SCRATCH SCRATCH. TWO ONE INCH SCRATCHES ON THE CAP NEAR THE F HOLE. Silly old b d.

I tried for a week to patch the scratches but to no avail. Got the s.. s and got the sander out. NO NO not the cap. YES YES the cap.

To cut a long story a bit shorter. The sander and 260 grit started cutting into the TO and as it did flame started to show through as I got to the initial stains. Now carefully I worked on the scratched area which luckily they had not got to the maple and so disappeared as I got back to the maple. Now I had the textbook (by my amateur standards) sanded off finish for flame maple and I did not go through the cap anywhere. And not a scratch to be seen. I also seemed to get rid of a bit more of the glue in the grain.

One bottle of TruOil had gone to dust.

One light coat of black and I now have a dark grey flame sort of like I drooled over when I was seeking inspiration on the internet for black ES335s.

[blinddrew]

That's quite a journey (one I'm fairly familiar with this year) but that third photo absolutely looks the business!

[DarkMark]

Talk about a happy mistake. Nice result .

[FrankenWashie]

Me and about a squillion other builders know your pain.

[Rodc]

Thanks for the link Greg. Wow..what a read!
I’ll be taking mine slow after the tips you gave me..😳

[GregLane]

This guitar should have been finished last month but due to poor planning of the quantity survey and a faulty pot I have been delayed.

My poor planning caused a couple of weeks delay waiting for the postman as I was just about to put the screws into the kit cream pup surrounds when a little birdy whispered in my ear that they should be black. Err! Why didn't I think of it before.

While I waited for the postman I rechecked my wiring which had had a problem with one pickup not working occasionally but appeared to go away. But it came back. After about 3 hours I gave up. Every component tested OK. Decided I would have to totally rewire the circuit. But one more desperate test and I seemed to narrow down the intermittent problem to a pot. I removed it, it tested OK. Put in a different pot and the circuited worked but is was only a 250 ohm pot. So I put the original one back. Didn't work. Finally found the right size in the spare parts box. The bad one still tested OK with multimeter but went into the bin. Any ideas?? It was a kit pot.

The I saw guitar on youtube with black knobs. Duh! Wait for the postman again.

I am very happy with finished guitar. The neck glued on without any filler and all the fittings are in the right place. I plays well and has intonated easily.




Link to GOTM photos https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ad.php?t=11006

[GregLane]

After using the ES-1F for a while I realized the action was too high and was unable to adjust the neck etc. to get it low enough.
I eventually found this Goldo Lowrider bridge. I needed adapters shown for the smaller bridge pins.
Fitted it yesterday and got action down to the Gibson ES specs.