Process plan for the ES-1GT

[Joranaca63]

Greetings happy builders,

I hope the finds you well

The process would be first glue neck to body, clean excess glue, then sand 120, 220 400, clean dust, stain, varnish, assemble electrical components, and finally test this baby.

Would this assessment more or less work?

Thank you

[FrankenWashie]

Greetings happy builders,

I hope the finds you well

The process would be first glue neck to body, clean excess glue, then sand 120, 220 400, clean dust, stain, varnish, assemble electrical components, and finally test this baby.

Would this assessment more or less work?

Thank you

Hi Joranaca, welcome to the forum.

setting the neck can be done after staining, as many find it easier to handle the neck and body as separate parts, then bring them together for the final finishing. It really is dependent on whether you have the room to work with the guitar in one piece, and whether doing it in one piece is really awkward or not.

For stains, I probably wouldn’t go much past 300 grit, as you run the risk of polishing the wood so that the stain doesn’t take to the wood. The consensus seems to have been 320grit maximum but some have had good success at 240.

It is generally recommended to do a wipe down on the raw body with mineral spirits or naphtha, this will highlight any shiny glue spots on the body that will need to be dealt with, before you can stain.

hope this helps, look forward to seeing your build take shape!

[Joranaca63]

Hello Franken,

hope you are having a prosperous 2021.

Yes, 240 grit would do it, and mineral spirits to highlight any shiny spot on the body.

thank you for sharing.

[FrankenWashie]

Hello Franken,

hope you are having a prosperous 2021.

Yes, 240 grit would do it, and mineral spirits to highlight any shiny spot on the body.

thank you for sharing.

No problem at all, post up your progress as you go, everybody loves seeing progress photos! Best of luck with it.

[Joranaca63]

Hello all,

I hope this email finds you well.

I had some left over redwood stain and finish from my fence work that I used in the face of the guitar.

I did not work. the paint was bubbling. it was not what I expected.

So I got some regular cognac wood stain and it work fine, because I did not get bubbles after I applied the Polyurethane.

I still need to apply the polyurethane to face of the body.

I hope that by next week I would be done with the neck and start working on the hardware.

thank you all for the feedback and have a great day.

I hope you like the photos.

[Joranaca63]

Good morning Franken,

I hope you are doing well.

Questions for you.

What is the process of Properly Shielding the guitar? Where can I buy kit?

Thank you

[FrankenWashie]

Good morning Franken,

I hope you are doing well.

Questions for you.

What is the process of Properly Shielding the guitar? Where can I buy kit?

Thank you

I am well thanks Joranaca, hope you are too.😁

Shielding can normally be done using copper conductive tape https://www.stewmac.com/electronics/...pper-tape.html or a conductive painthttps://www.stewmac.com/electronics/...ing-paint.html, usually on solid body guitars. For the hollow body or semi hollow body kits it gets a bit tricky as it’s not feasible to shield the entire inside of the guitar.
Your kit also uses humbuckers, which shouldn’t get the same amount of interference or noise.
The key for you is going to be the wiring harness, the standard kit wiring is basic, if you want to improve it you can replace the standard hook up wire with shielded wire https://www.stewmac.com/electronics/...16-inches.html and this will help reduce any stray RF noise (from what I’m led to believe and have read, I’ve not done it myself).
making sure you have an effective ground to the bridge and across your pots will also help.

Please note: I include the StewMac links as this was the easiest place to find all of the references, it is not an endorsement of Stew Mac and their products.

[Joranaca63]

Hello Frankenwashie

I need help with the ES - 1GT wiring. I followed instructions as to set up tone and volume pots with 3 switch. unfortunately after trouble shooting. I didn't not get any sound on the speaker.

thank you.

[FrankenWashie]

Ah, and here is where my expertise ends, unfortunately electrickery is not my forte.

In my experience, if you are getting no sound at all, then it’s likely that the circuit is incomplete or broken at some point. Is there any response when you move the volume or tone pots?

[Sonic Mountain]

Very difficult to diagnose without being able to see what you've done with the wiring. No sound at all probably means the circuit is incomplete, so the signal from the pickups is not reaching the output jack.....