DIY ES-330/Casino kit guitar

[Little Jay]

OK, I'll toss mine in here.
It's a long story (full of life lessons) but the body/neck came directly from Bian Xuebin. All the other parts are StewMac.
Fun project. Kinda.

You got me curious! Tell the story!

I see you have a floating archtop bridge. Neck angle allowed for that? Wouldn’t be possible on mine… did you have it custom ordered? Body and neck came glued together already?

And how do you like it? How does it sound and play?

So many questions…..

[xiyangshen]

Well, I think the whole story might be a bit of a bore. I do like to ramble. It was custom ordered which is the longer story.
The bridge height was a little high for a TOM and a little low for a floating bridge. The neck was glued in when I got it. I started with an off the rack Stewmac bridge and lowered it to work.
And it does!
Plays pretty well. My initial inspiration was quelled by a number of factors and I didn't spend nearly as much time as I perhaps should have on setup and the fine work. When I was a kid I made handfull of guitars that turned out really nice. I spent many hours on the frets and setup. On this I spent many minutes. The nut is 1.75" wide as I like but the neck is a bit thicker than I usually go for. There's room to thin it down by a millimeter or two but I know some folks like a beefier neck and I'm not sure I'll be keeping it so I left it alone.
It's wired with a push/pull to be series or parallel. Both sound nice. With one pickup and fully hollow it weighs in at under 4.5 lbs.
Funny, seeing pictures and describing it make me like it more.

[Little Jay]

Well, I think the whole story might be a bit of a bore. I do like to ramble. It was custom ordered which is the longer story.
The bridge height was a little high for a TOM and a little low for a floating bridge. The neck was glued in when I got it. I started with an off the rack Stewmac bridge and lowered it to work.
And it does!
Plays pretty well. My initial inspiration was quelled by a number of factors and I didn't spend nearly as much time as I perhaps should have on setup and the fine work. When I was a kid I made handfull of guitars that turned out really nice. I spent many hours on the frets and setup. On this I spent many minutes. The nut is 1.75" wide as I like but the neck is a bit thicker than I usually go for. There's room to thin it down by a millimeter or two but I know some folks like a beefier neck and I'm not sure I'll be keeping it so I left it alone.
It's wired with a push/pull to be series or parallel. Both sound nice. With one pickup and fully hollow it weighs in at under 4.5 lbs.
Funny, seeing pictures and describing it make me like it more.

It sure is an interesting guitar like that! I like the tigerstripes in your top. The bridge is at it’s lowest now, so to see. But I guess once you got the right height you can just leave it alone. It has a nice jazz vibe going for it!

[xiyangshen]

It is very pretty! I kind of went for the John Stowell Hofner vibe.
I have plenty of room to lower the bridge if needed. I originally was going to make it from scratch from African Blackwood.
When I first unboxed the guitar I noticed the truss rod was off center. I think when he widened the neck it was done on the bass side so the rod is a bit to the treble side. Hmm. Seems to work though. Also the block under the bridge didn't go quite all the way to the back. I whittled a bit of wood to fit there. Seems to work also but my inspiration to do a fabulous job took a bit of a hit.