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I test fit the tuners on my headstock template. I do not know why but I thought they looked too close to the edge and not spaced correctly. They looked fine. I machined the holly veneer with the G logo route and truss rod access as well as the outline offset about 1/16" all the way around. Then got out all my clamps. I have had issues with veneers sliding in the past but did not want to put locator pins. Maybe next time as this was a bit of a pain. HHG again and lots of clamps. I'll keep it clamped over night. I mounted the pearl on a block with CA glue and some accelerator. I'll give this a try and see how it works. I double face taped the block to my CNC lining up the cross hairs to ensure it was in the correct location. Then let her run. I cross my fingers sometimes when running these toolpaths. I just got new shell cutter bits and this is the first time I am cutting MOP. The bits are 0.0156" diameter and are remarkably strong. I ran about 8/1000" per pass until I cut right through the blank. I got two inlays out of this one piece. Now the fun part. Trying to release the MOP from the wood backing. I trimmed to the edge of the pearl blank with the bandsaw and dropped the whole thing into an acetone bath. I'll see if it loosens up later on and then I can epoxy in the inlay. Cheers Peter.

Went over to the candy shop (wood store) and bought a chunk of Holly. I had a few pieces licking around but none wide enough. They had a pretty decent selection but none looked that great. I bought a small piece probably enough to get 10 veneers or so. rough cut - jointed - nice and clear piece re-sawed a thin veneer - and got out my other tools for the veneer and MOP inlay - Cheers Peter.

Onto the neck body join. It is a very complicated joint. There are 3 faces on the tenon and then the top of the body has to be sanded down to be flush with the neck angle. But only about half way. There will be small wedges placed under the fret board. I placed the body in a vise and placed the neck in the mortise. I just used a rasp to take down the edges to be flush with the top of the neck. It went pretty quick. You can see the pencil marks where I wanted to take some material away. a quick mock up. Cheers Peter.

You do not have to route all the way through. Just stop so you have enough space to get a wrench or allen key on the adjuster. I built a couple of Rickenbacker style guitars with 5 degree neck angle and very thin necks. Just don't ask me about sanding the neck into the truss rod channel from the underside. Cheers Peter.

I created a new template for the head stock. taped it to the head stock and used a pattern bit to cut to the line. I took quite a few passes so as to ensure there would be no tear out. finished up - blended the back of the head stock with the neck join. Cheers Peter.

I did mark the outline on the front and the back but I like to drill holes from the front. Then trim out on the bandsaw with the face down. Finish up by getting the sander and the router table all ready to go. I'll sand close to the line on the sander then cut a head stock template, probably from 1/2" fly wood and use the router table to finish the head stock shape. Cheers Peter.

Great build thread. That Rhino model looks awesome. I gave Rhino a try but never really got the hang of it. I use Fusion 360 now and it is great and it is free. I was wondering why you are not using a double action truss rod in a flat slot? Actually Gibson used one way rods in a straight slot as well. The slot was deeper at the heel end which allowed it to work. I've built a few that way but it is a good idea to build forward bow in the neck when clamping on the fret board. Cheers Peter.

Head stock wings are dry and out of the clamps. I printed out the drawing of the head stock with the G logo. I jointed the front face as the ears were pretty consistently raised above the head stock face. Just a few swipes with my plane and sand a touch. The face looks like it's a different colour but I think it is just because I didn't take much off the face so a bit more oxidation than the ears. This will be under a holly veneer anyway. head stock layout - Thickness on the band saw. Cheers Peter.

Thank you. I started this about 7 yrs ago and it is a great hobby. I've met lots of cool people and try to meet up with forum members if I am traveling. I can see retiring into this as it sure doesn't make financial sense considering how long it takes me to build a guitar but I enjoy it immensely.. Yes Chris is a pretty awesome dude! Unfortunately he has gone over to the dark side and gotten himself into blacksmithing. . I try not to follow him too much in that respect as I may be tempted to buy a forge! I might also have to look for a new place to live if I did that. I'm lucky to have a tolerant wife but do not want to push it. Just kidding. I'm sure Chris will be back building some guitars at some point as well. I would imagine he checks out the threads here as well. Cheers Peter.

Yep - that's me. I've been a CAD monkey for about 30 years now. From AutoCAD to 3DS Max to Revit and now onto Fusion 360. Still got a lot to figure out but it's a lot of fun designing and then cutting stuff out on the CNC and then doing all the wood working and setup etc etc. Don't get bored doing one thing when building guitars. That's for sure. Cheers Peter. PS - skyjerk - Chris, got me over here.

Thanks - It's my favorite build so far. Cheers Peter.

I got my hide glue setup out to glue on the ears, which are quite a bit wider than normal LP ears. The grain looks like it will match quite well. Gotta move quick with HHG but it's such a small amount of glue it went pretty well. All clamped up and I wiped off the squeeze out the best I could. I'll let it setup over night and I will turn my attention to frets. Put away the glue stuff and get out the fret stuff - I have my fret bender setup to bend to about a 10" radius. I like to over bend it slightly as it seems to grip better. I'm using one of the Stew Mac by the pound fret wire as it is almost identical to the vintage wire used on these guitars. It comes in 24" lengths and I use just over 2 lengths. Just over by one piece of fret wire. Put away the fret wire stuff and get out the fret press. This is the second time I am using this press and I like it for pressing frets into boards that are not glued to the neck yet. I wasn't that impressed with this tool but I think it will work out fine but I might have to make a couple of simple fixtures to hold the work piece better. All pressed in and ready to snip and file the edges - It's nice to do a simple board for a change. No binding, nibs, or clipping fret tangs. It makes short work of a fret board. All trimmed and filed and ready to glue to the neck. Cheers Peter.

Back at this one again. My friend wants the big "G" logo on the head stock. There is some debate whether this was ever a Gibson thing or not. Apparently Billy Gibbons had a luthier build him a few guitars with that logo. I guess in that case it could stand for Gibbons as well. I did some research and found quite a few old examples of a similar head stock logo on what seem to be Gibsons. I even found one that they say was a Futura / Explorer neck mounted on a J-200. and also some more modern ones and specifically a Futura - This is the one I will try and duplicate. I took a snipit of it and scaled it to about the right size and tried to match it up to my CAD head stock drawing - I think this is pretty close. I bought some shell cutting bits for my CNC machine, which are not cheap. So hopefully I won't break too many. I also got my hands on some MOP blanks. I should be able to get two big G's out of each 1"x 2" MOP blank. Regards Peter.

Cut up some ears and some mock ups. Has to be a little wider than normal. couldn't resist a mock-up. Cheers Peter.

Finally got some time back on this build. Got out my fret board sanding jig and went through a number of grits. I use a 18" aluminum radius beam in a jig thta holds the fret board right in the center. I double faced tape my fancy walnut push stick for nice even strokes. I usual mark the top so I know I'm sanding evenly and just take off the pencil marks then move up a grit. I start at about 80- 100 and work up to about 400. Cheers Peter,

I found a couple of pics doing the truss rod cavity. I find the router table works the best for just a straight slot. I have the Stew Mac low profile spot facer tool and it seems to work OK but I would not recommend this rod for the angled head stock design in this orientation. It takes a bit of fiddling to get the rod to sit perfectly in the slot. Cheers Peter.

So I will move on with the second build now. I think I stated that I finished the first build about a year ago and then I was contacted by someone wanting to buy the test body and neck as long as I built it up into a finished guitar. Challenge accepted! So here is where the parts sat when I picked this build up again. The body was pretty much done the neck was rough shaped and I had picked out a nice dark brown EIR fret board. I routed the neck for a double action truss rod, not vintage correct but a good idea in my mind. Machined the fret board and glued in MOP dots. front - back Notice this is a two piece body, again not vintage correct but a lot cheaper. I actually couldn't find a nice wide piece of Korina at any price. Cheers Peter.

I'm not the most experienced woodworker in the world but I have had some mishaps that have forced me to a certain workflow. Any time I am routing to a template I always sand the work piece as close as I can to the template edge, or bandsaw. It is almost imperative to do so if what you are cutting quite tall, meaning over 1" or so, like a body blank. Sometimes I get so close, like 1/16" or so that I can use a long top bearing bit, or bottom bearing bit and do the whole height. The problem comes in when there is enough wood to take away to pull the bit into the wood and make it explode. I've done it. If you don't have a sander or bandsaw to get close you can take lots of material but you need to use very short bits to start and take small amount off the height, like 1/8 - 3/16" or so and make multiple passes to finish up. In this case it is good to have a good selection of bits. I have template and pattern bits that start with about 3/8" cutter height up to 2 1/2" cutter height. Something like these - I also have a solid carbide spiral bit like this - If you are really not fond of money hanging around ;-). I would recommend these - TBH - it's all about patience. I do this as a hobby and do not mind spending a little bit more time than I have to so I do not have explosions. With my method it may take me an extra 30 mins or longer to finish the job but I have not had a major issue in the last number of years. Also I do not have to worry about grain orientation and can always do uphill cuts, which are safer. For me anyway! Frankly I find routers / router tables one of the more dangerous pieces of equipment in my shop, and I have most wood working tools. Good luck. Cheers Peter.

Thanks. My buddy had been saving that chunk for a long time to do something special with it. No pressure on me! LOL. I was more interested in the wild flat sawn chunk of brazilian rosewood he sent me in the mail. Cheers Peter.

Great recovery and it looks very nice. I assume you were using a pin router with a template underneath the workpiece? In that case taking shallow passes may have prevented the tear out. Also always cutting relating to the grain will help. Meaning uphill cutting and downhill cutting depending on the grain patterns. There are also some really expensive bits that would also help. Combine all these processes and you should never get tear out. Fingers crossed. Cheers Peter.

That is pretty much it for that build. My buddy wanted a tortoise shell head stock veneer so I did that and then a setup. Here is the final shots before I sent it off. As I said this was an unfinished build so it doesn't look that great without finish but I am happy with the fit and finish and I had fun building it. Regards Peter.

On to adding some parts. I sourced some vintage long bushings and tailpiece as well as drilled the ground wire into the control cavity. I thought the bushings may be a bit tight but they pressed in nicely using my drill press with a drill bit in upside down. Tilpiece slid on perfectly. Sometimes I struggle with getting this perfect, although sometimes it's nice if it binds a bit so it doesn't pop off when you change strings. On to plastics. The pick guard on these things are a little crazy as one leg of the bridge sits on top of it. I also want the switch to be centered in the cavity so I have to lay out fairly precisely. Not to mention that I want the pickguard equal spaced along the edges and pup rings. CAD Layout - I ordered the pickguard material from Mojoaxe who supply awesome vintage stuff. I'm trying to maximize the sheet, so I cut right to the edge. I also made a little 1/4" MDF template to use a chamfer bit on my router table. and a quick mock up again. Now I just have to do a setup and get it all packed up and shipped out. Cheers Peter.

Thanks Andy. These were definitely fun builds. Especially the more recent as I got to finish it as well. The first one was shipped without finish and my buddy was going to finish it himself. It never looks as good as when the finish and all the parts are on, Cheers Peter.

So back to the body. I did the round over on the router table and stopped well short of the neck route. I need to sand down quite a bit to match the angle of the neck for about half of the tenon. I printed out a layout of the pots from the CAD drawing and cut it out to fit in the control cavity. Then I drilled through with a small bit to locate and drill from the front. I test fit the pots with knobs - I will test fit the neck and fine tune the fit. I used a test piece and planed and sanded the ramp into the body - then fine tuned with the real neck. I bought some thin strips of sand paper in a box from Lee Valley and this works great for fine tuning the 3 vertical faces of the neck joint - Once the neck fit is good I can glue up. I cut shims to go under the fret board and glued them in at the same time and clamped. HHG again. This is a PITA especially when working alone. You have to work really quickly. and a mock up with paper for the pickguard. Just confirming that I want to go with the 4 ply vintage pickguard material with the white side up. Cheers Peter.

So I added some side dots and did a bit more rough sanding on the neck. So onto the body now. Back to the CAD machine and create the tool paths for the CNC. Layout everything in AutoCAD first then into my CAM software. I have switched over to Fusion 360 for most of my stuff but because this is pretty much all 2d routing stuff I use my old CAM software. Vcarve Pro - Then onto the CNC and cut out the body - front - and back - That pretty much took care of the body. I just hand drill the wiring channel through from the jack hole all the way to the neck PUP. This is probably another detail that was changed because it's a tricky maneuver. I laid out the drill path on some paper and got out my long drill bits and a spot facer for the jack hole. Cheers Peter.