Epiphone Sonex Project

Painting? Routing? Set-up tips? Or just straight-up making a guitar from scratch? Post here, and post pics!

Moderated By: mods

User avatar
cooter
.
.
Posts: 1257
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:42 pm
Location: Blue Ridge, GA
Contact:

Epiphone Sonex Project

Post by cooter »

I've always liked the looks of the Gibson Sonex and I had started this project awhile back but lost interest in building when covid hit. I recently got back to work
on some of the projects I had started and here's where I'm at on this one.

I had an epiphone neck I bought from the Guitarfetish clearance section. It seemed pretty nice but the finish was dinged up quite a bit.

I stripped it down to bare wood and started on a body and pickguard. I also bought a cheap set of GFS zebra humbuckers, tulip tuners and such.


Image

Image

Decided to change the pickguard pickup routes a little.

Image

Image

I also opened up the wiring routes more but I forgot to take a photo.

Assembled with a couple other projects.

Image

Painted. Moss green matte finish. Still needs wiring and setup but it's getting there.

Image

Image
Smells like Rock n' Roll
User avatar
BearBoy
.
.
Posts: 6998
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:27 am
Location: Strung up to the lemons

Post by BearBoy »

Looks great. Love the colour 8)
Fran wrote:I love how this place is basic as fuck.
ekwatts wrote:I'm just going to smash it in with a hammer and hope it works. Tone is all in the fingers anyway.
User avatar
Thom
lamp
Posts: 6987
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2006 8:23 am
Location: Exeter, UK

Post by Thom »

BearBoy wrote:Looks great. Love the colour 8)
+1 looks great
User avatar
sunshiner
.
.
Posts: 8028
Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2012 4:05 pm
Location: Around the corner

Post by sunshiner »

Looks super rad. We had spray cans of paint in our stores with that colour like 8-10 years ago and I always dreamt of building a hollow 63 Danelectro/Silvertone 1449 style guitar and spray it with that. Which was quite dumb considering that I had no skill or place to build something like that and Thomann at the time was blowing out exactly that guitar in that colour for around 170 Es all day long
matte30is wrote:Someone man up and get a balloon.
User avatar
Doog
mid-century modem
Posts: 23024
Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:49 pm
Location: London

Post by Doog »

Looks great, man; I always loved the look of Sonexes... Sonexi?

Image
Last edited by Doog on Mon Mar 01, 2021 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
sunshiner wrote: You don't understand my kindness, drown in shit
User avatar
Thomas
.
.
Posts: 3591
Joined: Thu Oct 09, 2008 8:05 am
Location: Glasgow, UK

Post by Thomas »

This looks great. The Sonex was a great guitar that was kinda spoiled by that heavy resinwood body. I love the colour too!
User avatar
cooter
.
.
Posts: 1257
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:42 pm
Location: Blue Ridge, GA
Contact:

Post by cooter »

Thanks everyone. Painting is not my thing usually but the matte finishes turn out really nice. I'm trying to knock out the paint on the other projects
while I'm feeling good about it. More projects to come.
Smells like Rock n' Roll
User avatar
Noirie.
YOUTH
Posts: 5364
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:51 pm

Post by Noirie. »

Amazing.
theshadowofseattle wrote:less being WOKE
more being STOKED
User avatar
plopswagon
cutesy tag
Posts: 18521
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: 3rd Fret
Contact:

Post by plopswagon »

Does look great.

On your Swinger, is there the belly cut?

I’m debating doing one on mine.
► Show Spoiler
ekwatts wrote: Wed Dec 21, 2022 12:53 pm The word "moisty" has made me irrationally angry.
User avatar
Nick
Y'SEE!?
Posts: 9459
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:13 am
Location: Albany, NY

Post by Nick »

Love the color, it’s like the matte version of my favorite epiphone color
Image
User avatar
cooter
.
.
Posts: 1257
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:42 pm
Location: Blue Ridge, GA
Contact:

Post by cooter »

plopswagon wrote:Does look great.

On your Swinger, is there the belly cut?

I’m debating doing one on mine.
The body is so small I decided not to do a belly cut or a forearm contour. I like the slab bodies on the duo and musicmaster and this feels good to me.



Nick wrote:Love the color, it’s like the matte version of my favorite epiphone color
Image
That's really nice. Looks amazing.
I actually went super cheap with Rustoleum 2X paint and primer. It goes on nicely when you put the can in warm water for about 10 minutes. Then I cleared it with Krylon matte clear. Under 10 bucks to paint a guitar. I picked up a can of matte blue for a teisco/vox phantom project.
Smells like Rock n' Roll
User avatar
NickS
.
.
Posts: 13524
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:08 am
Location: Close to the edge, down by the river

Post by NickS »

plopswagon wrote:Does look great.

On your Swinger, is there the belly cut?

I’m debating doing one on mine.
Mine has it.