Gibson ES 335 clone

Ed > kit or no kit – this is really nice work and a great show of love from you to your son.

-- > It takes a long time to become a child - Picasso <

Man this turned out beautiful! By far my favorite semi-hollow. Fantastic work Ed.

-- Billy

wow, you did an amazing job, your son will love it

-- steve, simple and effective woodworking---etsy.com/shop/SussmanWoodworking--

Wow! That is beautiful!
My hat is off to you. I hope my LP project turns out at least half as nice.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

what a wonderful, gorgeous gift. I’m sure it will be treasured

Love it! I have always wanted to build one of those. Could you share the source for the kit?

-- Eric - "I'm getting proficient with these hand jobbers. - BigRedKnothead"

Outstanding…

Great work. Is this the Rockler kit? I have been wanting to build a semi hollow for awhile but have yet to pull the trigger.

-- Failure is always an option. :-)

Thank you everyone for the kind words. His exact words were “best gift ever”. The kit was from Ebay. Here is a link to the one I made: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Semi-Hollow-Body-DIY-Electric-Guitar-Builder-Kit-with-Mahogany-Unfinished-New-/121209670328?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item1c38a8cab8 If you search DIY guitar kit you will find many options. I did put in some upgrades like the Bigsby vivrato, better potentiometers as the Chinese ones can hum/buzz, and a roller tunomatic. I got all my finishing supplies from http://www.stewmac.com/ and did all my building and finishing studies on youtube. Next project is a kalimba for my daughter.

-- Ed G., Hillsboro, Oregon, U.S.A.

Great job!

I’m very tempted to try one of these, but I’m really interested in playability and intonation. What does your son have to say about the way it plays?

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Charlie,

The key to the build was the neck set. GREAT care was taken to ensure square, 24 3/4” scale length and setting it to factory specs. He was thrilled at it’s playability. It took care , patience and a very accurate ruler to setup, and took some resetting as the string tension settled into the guitar neck and body. It is now holding tune and very playable. Again youtube was my go-to classroom. I will gladly send you my “guitar build” notes.

-- Ed G., Hillsboro, Oregon, U.S.A.

Yeah, I had a feeling the neck set was the critical element. Thanks again for the information!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"