The Belgians first kit

[davedhaens]

Hi peoples,

so...my build.
Searched the internet an stumbeled onto Pitbull Guitars.
Bought me a ES-2V kit...i just love them hollowbody guitars.
...
Anyway...

With the unpacking i kind of panicked at first
Ik new the kits needed work done to em, but some flaws arent fixable so i thought...

[davedhaens]

But after a while i knew what to do...
"Work with what you got"
That way has helped me a few times before.
So sanding and cleaning up the body showed the real deal...
Black mark didnt go away but sanding did fill up some binding gaps.
The torn veneer bits are there to stay...

Work with what you got...i'll make it a used looking guitar

I wanted the warm color of a classical instrument like a violin cello or contrabas
An old stained look?...i cant make it look perfect so

First coat of red dye (Chestnut spirit stain)folowed by sanding and scraping off glue residue that pop up after you dye

[davedhaens]

The black mark...
And the tuningmachines holes
Work with what you got

[davedhaens]

Already under the spell of luthier

Goin fanatic on the kit

Yellow dye over red over yellow over red again trying to make things pop.

[BenWA]

oo wow the yellow over the red is looking amazing already. shame some of the cap is a bit rough around the edges, the caps are pretty thin on the semi hollow models though, if you go with a darker colour around the outside it should cover up the blemishes nicely

[Gavin1393]

Nice work. It's looking really good.

[davedhaens]

Ow that's right...
The neck and frets i checked first even before sanding
PERFECT STRAIGHT FRETS LINE...

Wich is nice...

I scraped the fretboard free of factory sanding scratches
Taped them off and cleaned the frets

After a packed in the fretboard i started staining

[andrewdosborne]

This is coming along nicely and like the red and yellow stain. 1+ for darker colour to hide blemishes.
'Work with what you've got' is a good mantra to work by. I used the same when I 'renovated' what my daughter affectionately calls the 'Disaster-Caster' which was basically a really old knocked around MIM Telecaster. Stripped off the damaged poly, discovered body was made up of at least 7+ bits of Alder with a naff veneer worn around edges. Ended up with a sunburst and the dark edges/sides camouflaged all the joins and poor/damaged veneer edging..

[stan]

great work Dave, you did a nice job on the top

[davedhaens]

Cant seem to post no more