Pre Owned ESB4.

[JimC]

And my pickup routs are't quite big enough either. However its only a question of slightly extending the cutouts for the ears, so that's easily done by hand.

[JimC]

Decided to make new white pickup rings. What you are looking at is bits of a jig to cut the interior using a supplied black one as a master. Bearable but not great results. Just cannot compromise on routing jigs... Gave up the idea of using the router to cut outside to size, here am about to use hacksaw.. its W/B/W sandwich, this will be pretty much the last of a bit i bought in the 80s. You see dear, that stuff I keep often gets used in the end...

[JimC]

Its sort of assembled now, but needs major setup work. The nut is too high for my taste i think, and haven't even tuned it, let alone looked at intonation.
Im not very happy with my pickup rings, i ought to be able to do better. I think i like the sandwich though.

[JimC]

Umm, question. Where does the strap button go? On the horn or the neck?

[Simon Barden]

Back of the body, roughly where the middle of a neck plate would go on a Fender. Nothing to screw into on the horn.

[JimC]

The Strat knobs, BTW, are temporary. I bought amber knobs with the pots from the same supplier on the same order, and they splines don't match. I think I quite like white knobs though. Not strat ones I think, have to see what's out there.

[fender3x]

It all looks good to me. white knobs will look good with the pup rings and truss rod cover. The pic is not super sharp, but the flaws you see may be flaws only you will see...

Simon's right about the button placement. I think you could put it on the heel if you prefer, but definitely not on the horn.

Best source for knobs that are not black that I have found is here:

http://smallbear-electronics.mybigcommerce.com/knobs-1/

Hopefully the shipping won't be prohibitive to the UK.


Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[JimC]

I gave it a hopefully final polish today: the tru oil has now gone hard enough that the abrasive auto polish is burnishing up to a shine that satisfies me. Here we have moody lighting r us - I was hoping for some sunshine earlier, but no such luck... the Maple flame is less than spectacular, but I've kinda aimed for an understated look so I think its OK. I had a bit of a go at my homemade sandwich pickup rings, and while not perfect I'm much happier with them now.
Remaining jobs are
- to coat the fingerboard with something as the engineered rosewood is a bit prone to losing fibres. I want to use SP systems eposeal, which is a clear penetrating epoxy sealer, but its 30 quid for a litre and I need about 50ml...
- get some final volume knobs - these are off a Squier strat hence my 2 vol one tone say one vol two tone
- decide whether I want to splash out on smaller tuners so it fits my acoustic bass case
- do a proper setup, which I may well try and persuade Simon to do. The nut is too high, the neck has too much relief and I haven''t set the intonation.
- put some decent strings on

[Simon Barden]

Not looking bad at all.

Those Fender knobs certainly don't belong on a Gibson body shape.

And Jim already knows I'll set it up.

[DarkMark]

Looking good, however your powers of persuasion needs some more work.