Another Ls Paul Jr

[thirdstone]

The aim of this guitar is to recreate a Gibson les Paul Jr single cut single P90.

The body shape I have concluded to be basicly a LP with out the cap. This results in a slab of Mahogany 47mm thick. The neck join will be full width tenon like the original however I have extended the teck tenon further into the body. It will still be covered by the pickguard. I did intend to recreate the original exactly but I can't help doing things a little differently.

I plan to do a sunburst but it could change to TV yellow.

I have not recorded every step as it is quite time consuming but this is the first pic

The body is a two piece brazilian mahogany.

To get the righ tone of yellow in the burst I am going to bleach the body face with rustins wood bleach. I did some trials and this is the result.bleach trial

[guitar2005]

The aim of this guitar is to recreate a Gibson les Paul Jr single cut single P90.

The body shape I have concluded to be basicly a LP with out the cap. This results in a slab of Mahogany 47mm thick. The neck join will be full width tenon like the original however I have extended the teck tenon further into the body. It will still be covered by the pickguard. I did intend to recreate the original exactly but I can't help doing things a little differently.

I plan to do a sunburst but it could change to TV yellow.

I have not recorded every step as it is quite time consuming but this is the first pic

The body is a two piece brazilian mahogany.

Nice work so far! I really like that wood. I've never seen Brazillian Mahogany before.

Will you angle the neck or have it sit proud?

Edited August 6, 2006 by guitar2005

[Maurits]

Looking good. I'm a sucker for JR's. Any idea on what P90 you'll be putting in there? Any chance of you changing the color to cherry?

[thirdstone]

The neck angle is 2 deg and sits up a few mm. The angle is on the neck tenon.

The pick up is a vintage vibe, I chose that one as P 90's are a bit noisy electricaly and these ones are shielded around the coil. It is supposed to make them quieter with out resorting to a humbucking design like the P100. As an added plus you can change the magnets as they come with alnico and ceramic mags.

vintage vibe web site

They are also a bit hotter than stock , around 10%.

[WezV]

I had some of the humbucker sized P-90's off those guys and was very impressed!!

Good to see another Jnr, there can never be enough!!

I have one just about finished i will have to get pictures of

[thirdstone]

I had some of the humbucker sized P-90's off those guys and was very impressed!!

Good to see another Jnr, there can never be enough!!

I have one just about finished i will have to get pictures of

Wez do you mean humbucker as in side by side coils?? SD make them this way in thir custom shop but they are very expensive.

I have the neck 90% finished. I have actualy cheeted a bit as I made the neck first. Its the standard fair , splice headstock mahogany wood, rosewood fretboard, 12" radius,ebony plate on the headstock.

One twist is that I bound the fretboard with ebony strips. I prefer bound necks and I was going to bind it with rosewood but I had the ebony and I thought it might look cool with the burst.

bound neck

One indulgance was that I bought (my wife bought ) a real gibson MOP inlay. I don't want to start another debate as to the morals of doing this so to anyone against this , Its done -get over it ,nobody with any sence will think this is a real Gibson. This guitar will never be sold in my lifetime. After that I don't care.

Headstock

Side view of neck showing trussrod adjustment at body end.

neck

[Mickguard]

After that I don't care.

I don't believe you.

But you can still rescue the guitar -- why not personalize the headstock --put your own inlay on there in addition to the logo. Something. Otherwise, well, it's a shame, that's all.

Cool binding though.

[WezV]

I mean a P-90 that fits into a humbucker mounting ring, they are about half way down and another set at the bottom of this page:

vintage vibe single coils

Heres the guitar i fitted them to:

[thirdstone]

After that I don't care.

-- why not personalize the headstock --put your own inlay on there in addition to the logo. Something. Otherwise, well, it's a shame, that's all.

Cool binding though.

I have made a JR MOP inlay out of gold and abolone MOP shell but the consensus here was No. I might make up a decal later. Once all the hardware is on I don't think it will matter that much. The LP Jr guitar is a pretty basic guitar and to load it up with show bits is not in the spirit.

[Daniel Sorbera]

Looks good. But your not done dressing the frets right? Because they look like they have square tops and gunk down on the sides of them.

[Maurits]

Those pickups look cool. You could even go Lennon on that thing with pickups from that site. With a Charlie Christian pup in the neck position.

[thirdstone]

Looks good. But your not done dressing the frets right? Because they look like they have square tops and gunk down on the sides of them.

No not yet dressed just pressed in. I'll waint untill the neck is glued in before I dress them. By the way they aren't flat its just the way the photo looks.

[Hydrogeoman]

Thirdstone,

I am a big fan of LP Jrs myself. (I will post some progress pics on the double cutaway that I have been progressing on slowly).

What did you use for your template? I want to start a single cutaway but have not been able to find any templates here at PG or on the web. Would a standard LP work if you simply made the cutaway portion stickout from the neck join about a 1/4 of an inch? (Hope that made sense)

Thanks - HG

[thirdstone]

Thirdstone,

I am a big fan of LP Jrs myself. (I will post some progress pics on the double cutaway that I have been progressing on slowly).

What did you use for your template? I want to start a single cutaway but have not been able to find any templates here at PG or on the web. Would a standard LP work if you simply made the cutaway portion stickout from the neck join about a 1/4 of an inch? (Hope that made sense)

Thanks - HG

HG I had the same problem tracking down LP Jr single cut plans but I came to the conclusion asyou. ie same outline as LP but with 1/4 inch added to the treble side neck cutout . This is to enable the full width tenon. Its interesting to note that PRS single cut does away with this feature. To my way of thinking they did this to enable mass production. That part is a bit vulnarable with out the neck fitted. They may also think that it aids neck access but I expect it would be a weaker neck join.

There is a LP Jr doublecut plan on the internet which I suspect might be useful , I havn`t checked but it might be simply a matter of filling in the upper bout.

Another observation is that the controls are the same position to the upper two of a LP.

So to summerise I think that when Gibson designed the Jr they just took a LP 55 blank ,left off the maple cap and only drilled the two upper control holes, then they fitted the full width tenon as its less complicated than the LP join and didn`t require the big angle. The P90 got fitted as the humbucker was not yet designed.

Why they fitted a dogear and not a soapbar I don't know but I am glad they did.

Kev

[Hydrogeoman]

Thirdstone,

I am a big fan of LP Jrs myself. (I will post some progress pics on the double cutaway that I have been progressing on slowly).

What did you use for your template? I want to start a single cutaway but have not been able to find any templates here at PG or on the web. Would a standard LP work if you simply made the cutaway portion stickout from the neck join about a 1/4 of an inch? (Hope that made sense)

Thanks - HG

HG I had the same problem tracking down LP Jr single cut plans but I came to the conclusion asyou. ie same outline as LP but with 1/4 inch added to the treble side neck cutout . This is to enable the full width tenon. Its interesting to note that PRS single cut does away with this feature. To my way of thinking they did this to enable mass production. That part is a bit vulnarable with out the neck fitted. They may also think that it aids neck access but I expect it would be a weaker neck join.

There is a LP Jr doublecut plan on the internet which I suspect might be useful , I havn`t checked but it might be simply a matter of filling in the upper bout.

Another observation is that the controls are the same position to the upper two of a LP.

So to summerise I think that when Gibson designed the Jr they just took a LP 55 blank ,left off the maple cap and only drilled the two upper control holes, then they fitted the full width tenon as its less complicated than the LP join and didn`t require the big angle. The P90 got fitted as the humbucker was not yet designed.

Why they fitted a dogear and not a soapbar I don't know but I am glad they did.

Kev

Kev - I have the doublecut plan you mentioned. That is what I used for this:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j140/hyd...VR/teaser-1.jpg

I may just borrow a friend's LP Standard to trace the outline and then add in the additional wood on the treble cutout.

Keep us posted on your progress!

Edited August 18, 2006 by Maiden69

[Hydrogeoman]

Oops - sorry about the giant pic

HG

[thirdstone]

Thats the one HG,any pics of it finished?? I contemplated extending the neck tenon through to the pup as well but decided against it as it (I thought ) would have caused finishing problems getting the neck to match the body. is that a maple fretboard on top of a mahogany neck??

Kev

[Hydrogeoman]

Thats the one HG,any pics of it finished?? I contemplated extending the neck tenon through to the pup as well but decided against it as it (I thought ) would have caused finishing problems getting the neck to match the body. is that a maple fretboard on top of a mahogany neck??

Kev

It is still in progress. I just finished the neck pocket route. It will be painted a solid color so there will not be a problem with the extended tenon. The fretboard is birdseye maple and the neck is mahog with a purpleheart center strip and ebony veneers on the front and back of the peghead.

I know a lot of folks do not care for maple fretboards but I have always liked the way they look, so the 5 guitars I have in progress right now all have them

[erikbojerik]

Nice!

Brazilian mahogany is I think about as close to Honduran as you're gonna get, pretty light and nice ring tone.

[GUITARmole]

That looks great! I also don't think you can go wrong with the Vintage Vibe P90's. I have them in 2 different guitars and really like them for their fat but not overly muddy (like fullsized HBs) tone. I'm sure I'm in the minority here too...but I don't think it's THAT evil to put the "G" logo on your headstock as it kind of detracts from a vintage replica's looks to have some other strange name or logo there IMO. I'm just curious as to why you went with pearloid instead of a gold silkscreen (decal) since that's what an 'original' would have had? I'm looking forward to seeing more pics of the progress!

[thirdstone]

That looks great! I also don't think you can go wrong with the Vintage Vibe P90's. I have them in 2 different guitars and really like them for their fat but not overly muddy (like fullsized HBs) tone. I'm sure I'm in the minority here too...but I don't think it's THAT evil to put the "G" logo on your headstock as it kind of detracts from a vintage replica's looks to have some other strange name or logo there IMO. I'm just curious as to why you went with pearloid instead of a gold silkscreen (decal) since that's what an 'original' would have had? I'm looking forward to seeing more pics of the progress!

Yeah I know but the inlay was staring at me from my computer and it was too easy to hit the buy button.

and it was Easier than silkscreaning. I don`t think it detracts too much,it was never going to be an exact replica.

Having lots of problems with getting the yellow bit of the burst bright enougth. One burst already sanded back and on to the next one. The non availability of the correct stains in Australia is stressing me out. You guys in the USA have it too easy . Any other Aussi people out there chime in with where I can get some dyes that can be disolved into lacquor (nitro)

I have discovered that Feast Watson stains can be disolved into their sealer so I will give that a go.

[~john~]

Any news?

The one before this turned out great by the way.

[thirdstone]

Yep its still going. The burst has been giving me hell though. last count was 3 times back to wood after not getting the right tone of yellow. I have tried to do this with out resorting to lacquor by using wood stains and sealers but I have been unable to get the yellow bright enough. This is dispite bleaching the mahogany.

This is pic of the burst with just the black; Body bleached and black stainWhen th yellow was applied it was a bit too dark ,I almost left it as it looked a bit like those 70 sg's that had a burst on them, any Wolfmother fans will know what I mean as stockdale uses one.

The next thing I tried was also to put a coat of white lime on the top .Its oil based and so I sealed it in with schallac , I think it would have produced a good yellow but ultimately I lost my nerve as I thought of the long term consequenses. i did find a sealer that would carry the stain and maybe I will try it again on some other project.

white lime

So I managed to track down a supplier of Nitro and compatible stains in Australia ; Durobond

and now I have resorted to a nitro finish. To start with I bleached the body "again" and grain filled with a yellow grain filler then i sprayed the yellow on the front and brown on the back , then clear over. This allows me to rub any bad overspray off if it hapened. Unlikely as when I did the parimeter black I had a teardrop template covering the body. It was about 10mm above the body.I know the usual practice is to do the yellow last but that is the colour I was having prblems with and I wanted to get that sorted first.

The two dark lines between the neck and pup will rub off, Just an unusual overspray.

I still have the transition brown to do but at the moment I am happy with the result so far dispite having to use lacquor.

[Marzocchi705]

That looks realy nice! Great work!

[thirdstone]

Well it was good, back to bare wood again after some bizarre flakes of dryed paint came off the template and embeded themselves down to the base coat.