DanC Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 New here and am learning tons of info, lots to take in! My name is Dan and I teach Junior High shop class. We decided to try and build a guitar so we jumped in with both feet, attempting a Les Paul style. We glued up quarter sawn cherry for the body and quarter sawn oak for the neck and cut out the basic shapes. I did very little research on wood types before we started, I assumed that since it was hardwood it would work. Are these woods gonna work or are we gonna have to scrap it and start with something else?? I would hope it would work because I think it will look very nice but I also want it to sound good - any advise here?? Also, are there any sites that offer measured drawings that dont use CAD? Everything I have found so far is CAD and I dont have (or really want it), specifically we are looking for dimensions of Les Paul and Gibson SG style guitars. Thanks for the help!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccbryan Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Welcome... to the wonderful world/slippery slope of luthiery. Cherry and oak aren't normally used for guitars, though I'm not exactly sure why. I expect that oak's relatively open grain and huge pores have something to do with it. Les Pauls are normally mahogany with a maple top. Better (more traditional, anyway) choices as far as domestic wood would be walnut and hard maple. Don't forget you'll need something quite hard and preferably smooth and not oily for the fingerboard, traditionally rosewood or ebony. Are you going to do a carved-top or flat-top? Most carved-top Les Pauls have 1/2 inch or so of maple on top of the body, though some are mahogany throughout. A carved-top body is just over 2" thick at the edge and about 2 1/2" thick in the center under the bridge, that extra half inch being the maple. When I made my Les Paul from scratch I used a technical drawing sold by Stewart-McDonald (find it here). It was invaluable. Mine was for a mid-50's Custom though, so some minor adjustments were necessary for the pickup cavities etc. to accomodate current parts. To see the saga of my Les Paul building, go here. It might be bandwidth-restricted, but just try back later. Cheers, Chandler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizard_King Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Actually Cherry is used tomake guitars all the time. Try this site bro http://www.rampartguitars.com/Tonewoods.htm Do a search on the site for cherry. I'm sure there's more info here. Here ya go here's another topic on it. http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=12950 I wouldn't try oak though. But that's just my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asm Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 i'd advise using a pre slotted fretboard also. just make it easier on yourself and save alot of time. you can get a ebony fretboard thats slotted from stewmac.com for around 25$ i think. not bad at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primal Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 The main reasons oak aren't used in guitar building is that it has VERY open grain which is hard to fill, as well as the fact the some people claim oak contains acids that will corrode your hardware (truss rod, tuners, etc). Cherry is used quite a lot. If I'm not mistaken, it has a tone similar to maple (bright). I say go for it, but you should know that it probably won't sound like a traditional LP. As ccbryan said, most LPs are made out of mahogany with a maple cap on the top. Most people believe that the mahogany is what gives the LP it's warm, mellow sound. Take a look at www.lmii.com. They have a very good selection of fretboard woods, not to mention you can have them radius the fretboard to your prefered radius and cut the fret slots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizard_King Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 I heard that cherry actually has a warm tone to it. But then I was told it varies from piece to piece. I'm going to be making a guitar out of cherry here before to long. As soon as I get back on my feet again that is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisb0109 Posted December 22, 2004 Report Share Posted December 22, 2004 I have made a 5 piece laminated neck blank out of cherry and purpleheart. I have not used it yet though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jehle Posted December 22, 2004 Report Share Posted December 22, 2004 Also, are there any sites that offer measured drawings that dont use CAD? Everything I have found so far is CAD and I dont have (or really want it), specifically we are looking for dimensions of Les Paul and Gibson SG style guitars. Thanks for the help!! CAD drawings can be handy to print out an accurate, full-size drawing of the guitar. While I've had problems printing CAD drawings before, I can vouch for their usefulness. All of the measurements that you are looking for are going to be on that CAD drawing. I would suggest trying the CAD drawings that you've found. Even if you can't get a full size print out, you can measure the drawing and scale up to the correct measurements with a simple conversion factor. Measure the drawing from the nut to the 12th fret. That will be half of the string scale length. And, for a Gibson LP or SG the scale length is 24 3/4". Just knowing those 2 numbers, you can mark up that CAD drawing of yours to get any other measurement you need. This is exactly how I built my V, BTW. Welcome aboard too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanC Posted December 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2004 Too bad about the oak not being suitable, I think it will look very nice, being quartersawn its gonna show alot of nice figure. I think I will continue on with the oak neck just for practice, maybe I will make it a bolt on and then when I build a neck out of the proper material I can swap it out?? I have found some conflicting info. in my research. What is the correct headstock angle for a LP? How thick is the headstock? What is the neck angle? Does the headstock have to have a laminate on it? I definately plan on using a pre-made fretboard when making the final project, seems like a pretty good deal. Thanks for all the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanC Posted December 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2004 did alittle more research on the neck angle issue, seems to be 4 degrees on a LP. On a flat top body is the area where neck joins the body sanded to 4 degrees to match the neck? If I set my neck in at 4 degrees wont a portion of it be above the body near the pickup? Wont the fret board then also be above the body more than it should? I assumed that the neck should be flush with the top of body, and that the fret should then be about 1/4" above the body?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted December 22, 2004 Report Share Posted December 22, 2004 On a flat top body is the area where neck joins the body sanded to 4 degrees to match the neck? If I set my neck in at 4 degrees wont a portion of it be above the body near the pickup? Wont the fret board then also be above the body more than it should? I assumed that the neck should be flush with the top of body, and that the fret should then be about 1/4" above the body?? 1. Yes, but some people do the rout for the neck joint with chisels, routers, or sandpaper. Pick your poison. 2. Yes 3. Yes 4. No Think of a Les Paul with a carved top just like a violin or cello. The neck has to be at an angle to compensate for the strings coming off the bridge. The flat top-style Les Paul is no different if you use the same bridge set-up, however, the neck angle will be more visible as the fretboard IS slightly angled up from the flat body face. Two tips: Pick up the LP Plans from Stew-Mac, "Make Your Own Electric Guitar" by Melvyn Hiscock, and some nice mahogany for the neck. Oak is not as good a tone wood because of the nature of the grain and structure of the wood. It just has too many dead spots and can't resonate as well. I'm not sure about the acidic content of the wood, but if it's been properly dried and seasoned that should never matter. Cherry should be an okay sub for maple, but again, it is usually riddled with dead spots. La-Si-Do Music in Canada builds many guitars out of Cherry. Rosewood, ebony, mahogany, and spruce are the traditional tonewoods of choice. Maple is nice because it resonates fairly well and is rock hard for bolt-on necks. Rosewood and mahogany make nice, warm sounding necks. Maple and ebony tend to resonate a little "brighter", so you'll often see rosewood fretboards on maple necks, or ebony fretboards on mahogany necks. It just helps balance things out. Alder, ash, and maple are also good body woods for solid-body electrics. Much brighter than mahogany and much less expensive. If you want an old violin/marimba maker's trick to show your students, borrow a tuning fork from the band/orchestra director at your school. Tap the fork and hold it against a few planks of each wood and see how they all resonate. It's good fun, and it's a good way to see if you've got "furniture grade" wood or "musical grade" wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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