Les Paul in progress...

[Setch]

Well, here it is - a pile of lumber soon to be turned into a Les Paul. It's going to be for sale, to one of two friends, depending on exactly how long it takes to build.

Woods are:

-1 piece mahogany body blank.

-2"x4"x30" Mahogany neck blank.

-1" thick bookmatched plain maple top.

-Rosewood fretboard.

Also in the shot, an agoya inlay blank, and u-channel trussrod.

More of the same here - including the fretwire and body template.

[Setch]

In this shot I've ripped the neck into 3 blanks. The two L shaped blocks will be 1 piece necks with scarfed headstocks, the other will be ripped the same way to make a 2 piece laminated neck.

Here I'm truing up the neck blank with a big sanding block. It's supported at either end to prevent any bending - I want the top to be dead flat when the neck is sitting passive.

Once the blank is dead flat, I cut the scarf with a japanese pullsaw, and true it up using a plane and router jig (much like the one shown in Martin Koch's book/website).

[PaulNeeds]

Very useful stuff - keep em coming!

I'm looking forward to seeing how you do the tenon.

[Setch]

Once the headstock is glued up (no decent pic) I trued it up and thicknessed it using the same router jig. Once it's trued up I have a fixed reference point to markout all the key neck dimensions on the blank.

Next I routed the trussrod channel on my new router table, taking it a bit deeper than normal so I can fit a tiny fillet on top. This isn't necessary with a u-channel rod like mine, but I though I'd try it this way for a change. Pretty lousy picture...

Once the trussrod is routed, but not glued, I shape the heel and headstock transition using my belt sander. I clamp it sideways to a flat slab of counter top material (a tip I got from Lex) and carefully sand down to the thickness marks I laid out. I mark my neck thickness at the 1st & 12th fret, and mark it 1mm thicker than final dimension - no matter how I carefull I am I always creep .75mm too deep, so this gives me a little wriggle room!

Once it's done at each end I rough bandsaw the profile, before setting up my router thicknessing jig...

[john]

looking good setch, i`ll be keeping an eye on this thread as im toying with the idea of building one myself too!

by the way, how much does a plain maple top like yours generally cost?

john.

[Drak]

With a master craftsman like you at the controls, that will be one kick-ass Les Paul.

[Setch]

The neck is thicknessed using a simple router jig. I clamp down a pair or aluminum rails to a flat slab of counter top (I think every workshop needs a slab of this) and place the neck blank between them, clamped at the heel end. I then slide a wooden wedge under the headstock to raise it until the correct taper is achieved.

Once I've checked everything twice, and ensured that nothing can move, I run the router along the rails, removing the excess until the neck is at the correct thickness along most of it's length, leaving a tiny portion at each end untouched.

Once I've removed the thickness I clean up the transitions where the router can't reach, using a sanding block, and a few different planes. Below is a shot of the finished neck, and the planes I use to clean up: On the left, 2 homemade carving planes, and on the right a record block plane with interchangable noses - it can be used with a long nose, snub nose (as pictured) or no nose to get right into corners.

[Setch]

Drak - Thanks, but I'm still very much a journey-man, if that

John, my maple came from Craft supplies and cost £20. They don't list it in the catalogue but you can ask for it if you talk to the tone wood guy (Roger... I think?!)

[jay5]

More pics! Looks great!

[croaticum]

gorgeus work dude!

keep us posted

[Drak]

Yesbut...

Your attention to detail and your attitude of not settling for half-ass results makes you more than a journeyman, your state of mind is top notch, and if that's in the right place, everything else that follows is always top-flight.

I always looked at it as the guitar just being an extension of your mind and your attitude.

The physical realization of what your mind is capable of.

If you can't even imagine it, not to worry, you'll never build it.

If you don't much care about the quality, don't worry, it won't be there.

If you're not willing to go hunt down what you want, don't worry, you won't find it.

So a guy can have all the best woods available, and if his head is up his errrr, well, his guitar won't be 'all that and a bag o' chips'.

But another guy can have barely acceptable lumber, but his mind and attitude are truly reighteous, and make that muthu sing Mother Mary.

You strike me as that kind of guy.

Judging by the guitars I've seen you do.

When I look at a guitar someone's built, I can see far far more in it than just a guitar. I can usually see THEM in their work.

[Simo]

Jeez I wish my friends could build me guitars like that Great work

[gpcustomguitars]

Very nice work Setch!!! And also very very nice planes! Did you make the blades, or gotten some replacement ones? What's the width?

Looking forward to more pics, always a joy to see an LP in progress!

Cheers

Goran

[themikestro]

Looking very good indeed, i'm thinking of giving a neck a go for my next project while work is slow this summer and this thread smells like a neck making tutorial to me.

Keep up the good work!

[GregA]

Looks like a great start!

Keep us posted.

Greg A

[Setch]

Next I glue on ears to make up the width of the headstock. Before glue-up I thin the blank a little in the head area to ensure that the ears will not be glued where the headstock shaping will expose the joint. The only evidence of the joins should be in the end grain on the end of the headstock, and the end grain where the headstock tapers to join the fretboard.

Once the glue has dried, I plane off all the excess from the front and back of the headstock, and prepare the head veneer. In this case, it's madagascar rosewood from LMI.

*****

Goran - I made the plane bodies, but the blades are both ready made. The tiny plane uses a replacement blade for the smallest Ibex carving plane, and the larger uses an iron from a rebate plane my grandfather gave me. I think the Ibex is 10mm and the other 12mm.

[Setch]

The next job is to shape the peghead, for which I use a template on the router table. I always perform the cuts across the grain before I go along the grain, so that any break out at the ends of the head will be in waste.

This doesn't help when this happens!

The cutter split the head just past my glued on ear, and tore out a bunch of short fibres in the process. Patching wasn't an option, since the missing wood had been atomised, so I simply glued the split (which ran about 2 inches down the head) and machined the head a second time, making about 3mm shorter. No biggie, but it really makes you sweat when it happens out of the blue!

After shaping the head I tapered the neck using the router table. I attach the neck to a piece of plywood with a machined edge, line it up with my marking out, then run it over a template bit. I take 2 passes with the sheet on, and 1 with it removed to achieve full depth at the head and heel. Once it's completed it looks like this:

Now it's time to fit the trussrod and fillet. I sand the trussrod with 180 grit paper, then wipe it down with alcohol to remove any grease or grime from it. I mix a medium quantity of epoxy, and apply it to the sides of the trussrod channel. Once I've got a nice even coat, I press in the trussrod, and coax any squeezout onto the top of the rod (away from the surface of the neck blank). I then mix up a second batch of epoxy and apply this to the top of the rod, before pushing the fillet into place. Lastly, I apply several clamps to keep the fillet from creeping, and set it aside to cure.

[Setch]

Once the glue is set I plane the fillet down level with the neck, and give the fretboard surface a quick going over with the big sanding block. This shows up any movement in the neck caused by shaping, and flats any remaining high spots on the fillet. Happily, this neck was still dead straight after thicknessing - not always the way.

With the neck flattened again I can proceed to attaching the head veneer. I glue this with titebond, using cut off staples to prevent it creeping (if you omit this, I guarantee it will creep). After gluing I trim it to size using a flush trim bit in the router table.

Next I cut the trussrod adjustment cavity using a roundnose bit and a straight fence. I attach the neck to a straight board so it will run straight against the fence on the router table.

I take a couple of passes, taking care not to go too deep, though I confess I did brush the adjustment nut this time. This isn't a problem - the sound of cutter against brass is easy to spot, so I barely grazed the edge of the nut - still, this is better avoided

Here's the result.

[mynamesucks]

wow looks tasty. how long has this taken you? you seem to be a quick worker

[Jehle]

Looking good. Very inspirational for me since I'm working on my neck at the moment.

[Slabbefusk]

that looks sweet!

[Setch]

Well, enough with the neck already, onto the body.

First I setup my router thicknessing jig. The router table makes a great flat base to work on, but before I got it I used the big slab of worktop, so don't worry if you don't have a fancy base.

This is a variation on my usual jig, since I'm working with such a big blank. Normally I mount rails on the router base, then run these rails on a second set of rails which set the height. In this version, I place plywood boards at either end of the blank to set the height, then clamp the rails across these, and run the router along the rails.

First I barely skim one side, to get it flat without removing much thickness. For this side I'll have to move the rails about 5 times to cover the whole area, and I'll need to clamp the blank to stop it rocking since it isn't perfectly flat.

Once I've machined one side flat I flip the blank, and repeat the process until I'm at final thickness. The second side is easier since I can leave the rails in one place and slide the blank to get the whole surface done. Here's the result - you can see a tiny area unthicknessed where the cutter couldn't reach - I'll knock this down with a plane.

[Jehle]

Where did you get such a tiny wheelbarrow?

[Setch]

Jehle - The elves who do my gardening left it here...

OK - Here's what I've been upto in the past couple of days. Once the blank was thicknessed I layed out the centre line and body shape and rough cut the outline on my tiny bandsaw.

Then I mark out the chambers, placing them so that there's plenty of meat around the pickup routes, hardware and neck joint. I route them very shallow, being careful to follow the lines smoothly, removing about 1/4" in two passes.

Once the shallow route is done I hog out the majority of the chambers using a 1" forstner bit in my drill stand. This pic is before I finished the hogging - you can use the forstner bit to get the chamber 95% done.

The shallow route can now be used as a guide to clean up the chambers, using a template follower bit. Finally, I route the wiring channel using a 1/2" roundnose bit.

[Setch]

Here's the maple top sat on the chambered body. I jointed the top using a router jig I got from the MIMF. Normally I book the top using a plane, but this one was *very* cupped and warped, so even after machining out a lot of the warp I had to clamp the top to get it flat, which made it very hard to joint using my usual method.

No pics of the jointing I'm afraid, I was too busy cursing and tearing my hair out to get any photos

I got the top glued on, and once it dried I popped the body back on the thicknessing jig and skimmed the top to get the front and back perfectly parallel. I routed and sanded the body to final shape using the router table, belt sander and a drum sander in my drill stand. I sanded for 2 reasons - 1 the depth of the body & 2 Because the router table tore a big chunk out of my maple top when I routed that, so I was keen to avoid a repeat! After shaping with the power tools I smoothed all the countours with 80 grit on a flat block, then sanded the sides and top through 180/220/320 until I had removed all the sanding scratches.

Inset in this pic is the router tearout in the maple. Some of this will be removed b ythe binding channel, and any patching should be completely hidden by the dark area of the sunburst.