Drew's ES-5V first (ish) build

[pablopepper]

The glue joint should be bare wood on to bare wood for the best adhesion. Just sand back the areas that will make contact in the pocket and you will be fine.

[Fretworn]

So quick question, should I have glued first and be oiling after? Or do I keep oiling and glue after? (with some corrective work around the join perhaps?)

There is no "correct" answer to this. Gluing first can make the guitar unwieldy when trying to finish. Finishing first can mean you need to touch up the joint after gluing. Either way works, but there are trade offs for each.

[Simon Barden]

Oiling first and gluing later, with some touch-up work round the join is normally the easiest way to work, especially if you are spaying. But if you glue the neck on first, it's not too hard to work with a whole guitar if tru-oiling as long as you've got the space to work on the complete guitar.

Spraying is a lot more awkward to do with it assembled, though it's more than possible to do if you've got the room to hang the whole guitar up when spraying.

[blinddrew]

Thanks folks. Taping is in place and one of the advantages of this kit is that there's lots of joint surface for the glue.

[blinddrew]

So, neck has 6 coats of full strength true oil and is, I think, looking pretty good. There are a pair of dings on the back of the neck, no idea how they got there, and a bit of splitting around the tuner holes but otherwise I think this is shaping up nicely. Very smooth and shiny:



The fretboard though has never recovered from the initial masking-tape balls up:

That's never going to look right, but giving it a matt finish will make it a little less obvious.
The body's had 4 coats but at some point we had a breezy day and the finish has picked up a load of dust particles:

Hopefully the next round of sanding will lift those off easily enough. I was going to put another couple of coats on before hitting the 600 grit but given this I'm thinking I'll do that now.
Finally, replacement knobs and truss rod cover, still a bit to do on these but I think they'll shape up ok in time. Not sure whether to go with a gloss, matt or satin finish.

Decisions decisions...

[FrankenWashie]

That is starting to look superb Drew, everyone loves a blonde!

[blinddrew]

Thanks FrankenWashie, weirdly this whole idea started with seeing Kris Drever playing a Godin 5th Avenue with Lau and I was never really able to get it out of my head. I couldn't afford a Godin but when I saw that Pitbull had a kit, well...
I'm still undecided about whether I need a scratch plate for this job though, having chosen to try some wooden knobs and truss rod cover I'm going to need to make it from wood as well. Fortunately that's a decision I can make further along the line.

[Andyxlh]

This colour is lovely. Nice depth of shine too. Keep going!

[blinddrew]

Cheers Andy

[nitroburner1000]

Make sure you have tissues on hand. For the love of God don’t make the mistake of dabbing at your tears with a turps soaked rag.😁👍🏾

Haha or giving yourself a good scratch after getting thinners on your hands! Oowww.