Simon Young's B-Bender "Esquire" project

Simon Young, singer from the London-based band Sonny, built a B-Bender Esquire-style guitar using the DIY Guitar Shop DKT01-A Ash Body Guitar Builder Kit. Here's what Simon wrote about his project:

"The inspiration behind the B-Bender Esquire was, no surprise, the ex-Byrds, amongst others, guitarist Clarence White who used the Parsons-White B-Bender to great effect on his Telecaster. Two significant moves though were to build a one pickup Esquire (because I don't use the neck pickup on the Tele) and rather than use the very expensive Parsons-White B-Bender, use the Higgins Peg-Bender - which also does the job rather well at a fraction of the price.

I bought one of the ash bodied Tele kits from DIY Guitar Shop – and very well constructed they are too. Ash, I believe, was used for early Fenders before they switched to alder and other woods. Even the current American Standard Tele's are alder still, but the custom shop bodies are often ash – which says something. To make it an Esquire I bought a new pickguard, a vintage style bridge, and also upgraded the pickup (no doubt the original would have been fine, but my brother who would use the guitar most has a custom-shop Fender Nocaster so is used to the very best!).

The first thing I did was to varnish the body. Steve at DIY Guitar Shop gave me some advice on guitar finishes and I decided to give the varnished look a go as it would prove to be the easiest and cheapest option. I sanded the body first and then varnished it with Ronseal Diamond Gloss Walnut Varnish. I did three coats on back, front and sides and lightly sanded between each. Finally I put a couple of coats of Ronseal Ultra Clear Varnish to finish it off. The result is a nice warm colour and you can see and feel the texture of the wood. It may not be the traditional guitar finish but I like it a lot and would do it again. For the neck I just used two coats of the Ronseal Ultra Clear Varnish. Though applied with a brush, you hardly notice the strokes on the finish which is really very good indeed.

Before final construction I drilled holes for the string ferrules as I decided to go with a string through body. This is not difficult as long as you prepare properly. Construction was straightforward and took little time, and after setting-up and installing the Higgins Peg-Bender it turned out to be a really great looking, playing and sounding guitar.

I couldn't recommend one of these kits more highly if you're interested in making your own custom guitar – and it's easy too with a bit of forethought and care. I'm already planning the second – a Tele with coil-tapped humbuckers and a Bigsby!"

Visit the Sonny MySpace page at

www.myspace.com/popgroup