Simon B's ES-3 build

[wazkelly]

I liked it after the Cherry had been added and would have stopped right there.

[Simon Barden]

I've never been a great fan of plain cherry sunbursts - certainly not as bright as that was. Reminds me of badly built 70s Gibsons. And it's not particularly 'jazz' either. Not that I can play jazz properly, (jamming along to some George Benson light jazz albums is about my limit) but I'm willing to give it a go.

[wazkelly]

Fair enough, was just saying the colour blend looked good at that stage. Like how you have done the back of the neck and waiting to see what you have done on the sides to tie it all together.

[Simon Barden]

Sides are just solid tobacco, so it should match the edges of the top and back (although it doesn't have any red underneath unlike the top/back). I sprayed them yesterday with several coats but possibly due to it being a bit too cold, I did get some runs, so I'm waiting a day for the lacquer to harden more and will then do some light wet-sanding to hopefully get it flat, without breaking through the lacquer too much. Will then probably spray one more coat but in stages, so that I can spray the edges when they are mainly flat and hold the body in my Workmate's wooden jaws so that I can rotate it a bit more each time when the paint is dry enough not to run. I probably should have done that to start with, but hindsight is wonderful and you learn all the time!

[wazkelly]

Ah, the dreaded paint runs. Hope you get it sorted soon before the really cold weather arrives and makes things even harder to finish.

[Simon Barden]

So do I! Thanks.

[Simon Barden]

Day 52. This was the result of yesterdays spraying of the sides.

Here's the bottom and you can see quite a few runs (I'm mainly blaming the cold weather for this as it happened almost immediately after I pulled the spray gun trigger). You may also notice that I've enlarged the jack socket hole so that I can pull a socket through from inside and then attach it via a screw-on jack plate, the same method as on a Les Paul. I didn't fancy fitting it securely from the inside with such limited access, plus I think it will look a bit nicer.



Just for reference, here's the 'top' view of the sides. Less running here.




Since those were taken I've rubbed down the lacquer to remove the runs and get the sides flat. In doing so I found that on one corner of the cutaway I'd folded over a bit of masking tape, which meant that there was a small triangle of amber left! Another D'oh! So I've been over the tobacco once with the same lacquer from a rattle can (as I can warm that up inside) and now just touching up that amber corner.

One thing I have noticed is that the tobacco lacquer goes significantly darker as it dries. There is a tendency for me to keep wanting to spray it to make it darker, when I should really wait and see how dark each coat is when dry. I did put less coats on the top when doing the burst as a result.

Soon be time for scraping the binding. That's a full days work from previous experience.

[Zandit75]

Looking great Simon!! That's going to be an awesome looking burst when it's finished!

[stan]

great job Simon, second try looks amazing - aahh the joys of setbacks...

[Simon Barden]

Well, looks like the colder weather has moved in. Did a bit of touch-up spraying yesterday with the rattle-can on that amber corner and a couple of edges, and the last spray went cloudy due to cold/moisture, so that had to be sanded back today.

I then did some more touching up on the corner and on the headstock using a brush, sitting in the sun for extra warmth, but it was far too cold in the garage for spraying. Unless we get an unseasonal warm spell, I may have to put everything on hold until spring here in the UK next year. I can do a touch more sanding down, then scraping the binding and then gluing the neck on, but that may have to be it. After that, even one warm day would give me enough time to get the clear coats on. Might just get lucky, but I doubt it. I should have started sooner!