Help ES builders et al

[GregLane]

I would appreciate some advice from ES builders and others of course about building my ES-1F.

I have done the mock build and fitted the neck which required a bit of sanding to get into the slot.

The next job will be to dress a couple if high frets and then a light sand.

Now the Questions start to pop up.

1. When should I glue the neck?
There is no hard and fast rule that I can find.
a. I am going to finish the guitar Cherry Red stain and TruOil all over – front, back, neck. I am inclined to glue the neck then do the stain as I will be not trying to protect any areas.
b. I would also be able to hang the guitar from tuning machine holes
c. I could also fill the fine gaps around the neck joint before staining. See next question.

2. Should I fill the Neck Joint?
a. The neck it is a good fit and the joins are pretty tight. However if was building a piece a furniture I would fill the fine gaps.
b. Should I fill the fine gaps around the neck joint?
i. I am thinking either TimberMate or wood glue and sawdust.

3. Should I tape the binding?
a. I have seen reference on the forum to just sanding the binding to 1200 grit making it more difficult for the finish to stick. Then scrape when finished. I notice that Gibson doesn’t tape and only scrapes. But they don’t use stain and TruOil.

4. Can you scrape the Triple Body Binding on the top?

Can’t think of anymore question at the moment I have tried to search the forum for info but the forum search engine doesn’t appear to lend itself to finding specific searches. It does not appear to handle multiple word searches. Or is that me?

[Simon Barden]

Its up to you when to glue the neck. It's harder to work on with the neck on due to the bulk, especially if you need to keep avoiding hitting things with it when turning it around. At least the ES-1 is pretty lightweight. It can also be easier to work on at times as the neck is a useful handle.

Glueing the neck on before staining means that you need to remove any glue squeeze-out before it dries, as it will stop the stain taking around the join. Which can be awkward when you've got several clamps and protective bits of wood in use. So I'd prefer to stain before gluing. But staining and clear coating before gluing still means that you have to fix up the neck area after gluing. which can make filling and hiding the filler a bit harder.

Masking tape around the join areas can help prevent glue squeeze-out from touching the wood, even if there is finish on and I'd recommend that.

On my ES-1, I compromised and stained and did a couple of light coats of lacquer before gluing the neck on. I ended up with some larger gaps than I thought I would, so they definitely needed filling. I used a standard fine interior filler which I mixed with acrylic artist paints (cheap set from Amazon) to get as close to the finish colour as possible. Always best to go slightly darker than lighter. let that dry and sanded that back. Having lacquer on the wood meant that I could use water and a damp cloth to clear off glue and excess filler around the joins without risk of loosing stain or raising the grain. If necessary, you can always go over the filler with a bit more paint if you haven't quite got the colour right.

I'm now in the process of spraying the whole guitar and covering up the joins.

Always a good idea to tape the binding. I ended up using modellers masking tape around the sides and 3M pinstripe vinyl tape on the top. The 3M curves really well, but always wants to contract if taped across concave curves and pulls itself off. The modellers masking tape I bought in a set of different widths from Amazon. One is just right for masking the binding on the sides and stick so much better to the binding on the curves. It's not perfect at sticking, so sometimes multiple smaller pieces are better than one long one on really tight bends. Most binding fine cracks are on the tighter curves, so mask those well. You will have to do a bit of scraping round the edges, but a bit is a lot better than a huge amount.

And yes, you can happily scrape and sand the triple binding on the top.

Gibson do use stain, but I have a feeling they stain before the binding is applied. They may also use a better binding material that doesn't make small cracks when bent. (I may be wrong on both counts here but the Stew Mac finishing book mentions stain for a base colour on Gibson finishes). They may also use a water-based stain, which doesn't penetrate binding as badly as spirit-based stain, will normally just sits on the surface and scrapes off along with the lacquer.

[GregLane]

Thanks Simon
As usual you have convinced me which way to go. I have seen the error of my ways and will glue the neck after finishing.
I think the key point is that glue and filler will clean off the Tru oil finish much better.

Is the “standard fine filler” you mentioned a wood filler. Is TimberMate suitable?. I could then give the TimberMate a couple of coats of TruOil with a very fine brush

Thanks for the confirmation of scraping the triple binding.

[Simon Barden]

Timbermate grain filler could be used, but I just use a standard domestic filler as it's got a bit more structural integrity for larger gaps. I've got a tube of Ronseal fine surface filler and a similar Pollycell one, and use whichever is handy. Not sure what brands you've got availble local to you. You won't need much though. They don't suffer from any shrink-back when they dry, like Timbermate can, so keep any filled-gap surface level.

You can make either way work, it's still a matter of taking care regardless of which path you take.