Third Project, A Paula.

[Blackdog]

Well, it is a commission because I'm building it for someone else, but the end user is my son, and he's definitely NOT a paying customer. So that relaxes the situation quite a bit and gives me more freedom with the design.

He wants a Les Paul. Obviously he's thinking Gibson Les Paul all the way (teenagers...), I already said I'm not building a clone or a copy, and we sort of reached an agreement. It's going to be my take on a singlecut with most of the LP elements in there. So the specs:

One piece mahogany body. LP-thick and 100% LP outline. I'll make a nice chamber in there, for weight relief and improved resonance.

Heavily flamed maple top, 17mm thick for a significantly more dramatic carve, more PRS-SC than LP. Will also have faux-binding.

One piece mahogany neck. No surprises here, 13° tilt back head, HotRod, CF reinforcements. LP style mortise and long tenon (my first).

Rosewood fingerboard, 22 frets, Gibson scale. Maple binding and real pearl trapezoids. unbound rosewood headplate on a Gibson-ish headstock. I still have to thing what to inlay on that, but it will definitely be something personal.

Two humbuckers, LP-style control arrangement, ABR bridge, aluminum tailpiece, Grover locking tuners.

Finishing will be traditional glossy. Either nitro or PU. Some amber/tan/maybe sunburst effect on the top to enhance the faux binding. The back and neck most likely natural or just amberish tinted.

So far I have the body cut and the basic profile of the neck blank:

The body

The maple top

[Geo]

I'll be watching this one! You've got some great wood going there.

(P.S.--P-90's instead of humbuckers! Sorry, I had to plug them...)

[Blackdog]

So I'm trying to advance these two projects in parallel.

I added the ears to the headstock to this neck too. And it is also planed and ready to receive the headplate. Ears are longer on this one as the headstock will be closer to the Gibson shape.

[Muzz]

Looking gooooood. What colour is the top going to be?

[Blackdog]

OK, so it's been a while since I posted any progress on these....

I arrived at a headstock design for this that I like. It's symmetric and has a rather classic outline without being exactly the Gibson shape.

Here it's been already cut from the thicknessed headstock.

Then I routed the body for the control and switch cavities, he wiring channel and a chamber.

I then jointed the top. I had to do a pre-cut as the top was too wide for the clamps I have... That was odd...

Ayway, I proceeded to cut the top, and ajust it to the body.

So this is when I realized that this was NOT the top intended for this guitar... Sigh.

I pulled out the proper top and did it all over again....

So here it is, now with the proper maple top:

So the other maple top will be used in a hollowbody les paul I was planning for myself. I already cut the body for that one, from a thick honduras mahogany blank. So I guess build number five has already started... Does it ever end !?!

So Now I think I'll work a little on the Korina DC for a change.

Thanks for reading.

[Blackdog]

OK. I guess it's time I add something to these long forgotten threads. I'm obviously getting much slower with the builds, and the holidays and all have kept me saw-dust free for some time.

Anyway, there has been some progress (mostly in the right direction...) that I would like to share with you guys.

After adjusting the proper top to the body I rushed into sanding the sides to erase those ugly router marks. And "rushed into" are the key words here: I oversanded.

Probably the only critical dimension in the LP body contour is the place where the cutaway meets the treble side of the neck. At that point it needs to be exactly half the width of the fingerboard to have a centered neck ending flush with the cutaway. After sanding I had lost a couple of millimiters there.

I thought of two possible solutions: either mount the neck a few mm off center (which would look quite obvious with the center seamed maple top), or adopt the more radical solution of an offset heel.

I chose the latter, which in turn makes for a more original design and a better upper-fret access overall. At this point I also abandoned the idea of a mortise-and-tenon and decided to go with the full-neck insertion PRS style. So the body was reshaped to this.

The lip around the body has been routed too. I still need to route the recurve and the angle of the top. The body now looks like this:

A lot more was done to the fretboard. Inlaid the yellow MOP markers, cut the fretboard to size, added the maple binding and the side dots.

With the finished fretboard as a template (aligned on the neck with two pins) I cut the sides of neck to the final size with the router. Error number two: the fretboard was already radiused, so it was very difficult to keep the router bit vertical in the heel areas of the neck. I removed some wood from the side of the heel and had to repair it adding some mahogany and sanding everything flush again. It left a clear patch as the wood was not exactly the same. You can see that in the next pictures. Not much of this ends up exposed anyway (on this side the body still meets the neck at the 16th fret), and I think it will blend better after the pore filling. This mistake should not happen again, as I don't plan to use anymore pre-slotted, pre-radiused fretboards. So in the future I can slot, inlay, cut to size and bind the fretboard while still flat, and radius as a last step after using it to cut the sides of the neck.

After some sessions of carving this is the neck pretty much finished:

Now I can concentrate on the body: I'm ready to route the recurve, then the angle of the top. Right after that I'll route the neck pocket and here is when I'll probably curse the day I came up with the idea of the offset heel, but we'll see.

Thanks for reading.

[Blackdog]

Progress report.

I cut the recurve on the top, again with the round nose bit, but this time slighly deeper and towards the center of the body than on my last one.

Then I cut the top angle. To make it more LP like I cut two planes, the neck angle plane and the pickups plane.

Before cutting he neck pocket I enlarged a bit the chamber on the mahogany back.

Then I cut the neck pocket at the proper angle. It took a while to get it tight and aligned:

Then I proceeded with the pickup cavities.

So this is where I stand now. Tonight I'm glueing the top to the body.

Next steps are:

Finish the back: needs roundover all around, sanding and recesses for the control covers (the control covers need to be made too).

Carve the top.

Finish the neck carving and fret.

What do you think ?? Comments ?? Suggestions ??

Thanks for reading.

[avengers63]

It's hard to get excited about another flame-top LP. That isn't to say the work isn't nice, because it is. It's just a matter of "been there, done that".

That being said, I'd be excited if I were doing it for myself.

[Blackdog]

It's hard to get excited about another flame-top LP. That isn't to say the work isn't nice, because it is. It's just a matter of "been there, done that".

That being said, I'd be excited if I were doing it for myself.

Yes, I know what you mean.

I had to push myself a little into resuming this build, as I was (am) more interested in the Korina build.

But being this for my son, and given the fact that he's visiting me for the New Year holidays, I had to push the schedule a little to try to have it finished by then.

That said, once I restarted, I'm enthusiastic again. I enjoy the building as much (probably more) than the finished product. And hopefully it's going to be one fine guitar for the kid to play.

But I agree with you, hardly GOTM material...

[WezV]

i dunno, looks different enough from a LP to me! i like your neck join

[Setch]

Well I'm exited - I look forwards to seeing it finished.

Nice headshape - different, but elegant and in keeping. Also, nice job on the heel - I have a junior underway with a near identical neck joint, and it's amazing how much access you gain by knocking away the corner of the joint.

[Geo]

I find this an exciting project! Sometimes the point isn't a brand-new flashy design, but crafstmanship... and hey, Blackdog's headstock is VERY classy. I think the basic LP design lends itself very well to subtle changes. It's almost as adaptable as the Tele.

[Blackdog]

I thought the offset heel was going to be a PITA, but is coming out nicely. It really makes a substantial improvement in upper-fret a access. And I like the hint of a heel that remains better than a full AANJ with no heel at all.

When I came up with the headstock design I was really happy, because it certainly was classy while still being different to the standard Gibson thing. Later on I discovered that it is pretty much the same as the one in the japanese Epiphone Elitist... Anyway, I still like it and I'm not going to change it now.

Today I made the cavity covers:

I am now gluing the maple top to the back.

I also finished the neck carve and fretboard final leveling and I'm now ready to fret.

Looks like next week it's going to be top carving time !!! Hopefully the top carve will make it still more different to the standard LP.

Thanks for the nice words. I'm all excited with this build again, I could advance it a lot in the past couple of days.

[Blackdog]

Time for another progress report....

The back cover plates in the previous post were made from the usual home-made Maple/mahogany laminate that I've been using since build #1.

I decided to give a try to a set of covers cut from the same wood of the body. So I put my little Metabo table-top band saw to the challenge.

Amazing what the thing can do, cutting a slice of 4mm of mahogany from a block 105mm thick. That's pretty much the limit of the machine, that's the maximum cutting height. Still, going really slow, it cut cleanly and accurately. A session with the Safe-T-Planer and I had the 3mm+ blank for cutting the covers.

This is the result:

Even though these came from the very same piece of mahogany used for the body, they still have a different color. I have no clue what could be the problem, but this is as far as I'm willing to go with the covers: they stay like this.

As can be seen in the pictures, the back edges have been rounded off. So the back is essentially ready (I have to resist the temptation of adding a belly carve to this one, there's a huge chamber in there !!)

The fingerboard is now fretted and I had the first top carving session today. This is just the start: it took me no less than 4 sessions to get to the final carve in the past. But will give you an idea of where I'm going with the carve:

Next steps will be continuing with the carve, obviously. Some minor tasks still need to be performed on the neck, like thinning the tenon a little more. And one not so minor: I already have a design for the logo I want to inlay on the headstock.

So far it's going well. Hopefully I'll finish the woodwork by the end of October, right on schedule.

What do you think ?? Is it departing enough from the classic LP already ??

Thanks for the comments.

[Maiden69]

I like it, I'm glad that you went with the PRS style neck pocket, I did this on mine and it feels so much better than a LP. I also like this pic of the carve, it looks a lot like the carve on the PRS Santana Double Cut! That one is one of my favorites!

[carousel182]

God that is a good looking guitar! I love It! Very clean work.

[Blackdog]

@Maiden69: I was hoping that it would be significantly more comfortable to play. It's good to know you can confirm that. I grew up (as a guitarrist) with the Les Paul shape, it was my first love since when I was 14. But the neck joint is indeed too bulky. The neck joint I attempted is indeed what PRS do with the singlecut, but more extreme. Let's see how well it plays in the end.

I still need to work a lot more on the top carve, but what is seen in the pictures is the general idea. I will have to adjust the neck angle a little, I have a little too much angle so the bridge will sit too tall on the top. At this stage (with the maple top already glued in place) I cannot touch the neck pocket, so any adjustment will have to be on the neck heel. This will be really minor, but I will have to adjust the top accordingly to make it all look right.

I was also thinking about getting rid of the center flat section (typical of the PRS carve) in favor of a gentle curve from side to side, and flowing into the belly behind the bridge. What it all means is more sanding.

Thanks for the feedback.

[superfly]

Hey Blackdog

Good to see you back on the job. Nice looking pauly.

Regards

Wim

[Maiden69]

@Maiden69: I was hoping that it would be significantly more comfortable to play. It's good to know you can confirm that. I grew up (as a guitarrist) with the Les Paul shape, it was my first love since when I was 14. But the neck joint is indeed too bulky.The neck joint I attempted is indeed what PRS do with the singlecut, but more extreme . Let's see how well it plays in the end.

I still need to work a lot more on the top carve, but what is seen in the pictures is the general idea. I will have to adjust the neck angle a little, I have a little too much angle so the bridge will sit too tall on the top. At this stage (with the maple top already glued in place) I cannot touch the neck pocket, so any adjustment will have to be on the neck heel. This will be really minor, but I will have to adjust the top accordingly to make it all look right.

I was also thinking about getting rid of the center flat section (typical of the PRS carve) in favor of a gentle curve from side to side, and flowing into the belly behind the bridge. What it all means is more sanding.

Thanks for the feedback.

Thant is what I wanted, I did the PRS style but took it one step further. I smoothed the area entirely, like Myka does on his guitars.

[westhemann]

Man you are totally making me to want to build a les paul neck through 24 fret with a kahler.......and much thinner...grewaty work...Maybe I will get the tools out tomorrow..

I imagine it with a thin bubinga body with a sabre style contour...

[Maiden69]

Man you are totally making me to want to build a les paul neck through 24 fret with a kahler.......and much thinner...grewaty work...Maybe I will get the tools out tomorrow..

I imagine it with a thin bubinga body with a sabre style contour...

That is what I did Wes , I can't wait to see this one finished! Great job so far! More updates please!!!

[Blackdog]

That is what I did Wes , I can't wait to see this one finished! Great job so far! More updates please!!!

Wow !!! That is a nice SC !!! What a beautiful quilted top you've got there. Did you have to bleach it in anyway to be able to stain it blue ??

If it plays and sounds as look as it looks, it's got to be a killer guitar !!

In the end I decided to keep a small heel in mine, I don't quite like the no-heel approach. It's a matter of taste in the end, yours looks very well done though.

[Blackdog]

Hey Blackdog

Good to see you back on the job. Nice looking pauly.

Regards

Wim

Hey, Hello Wim !!

Thanks for the compliment. What are you up to these days ??

[Blackdog]

OK, time for an update.

IT'S MOCKUP TIME ALREADY !!!!!

The carving of the top is basically finished. Of course we're far from having finished the sanding, but it's already sanded down to 240 grit.

Pots and switch are in place, to check that the cavities are OK. Pickups in their sockets, everything fits quite well so far.

I should be receiving he bridge in a couple of days (a Nashville TOM), hen I'll drill the holes for the bridge and tailpiece and test-fit a couple of strings to check the alignment.

I'm loving this guitar more and more... It's going to be difficult to see it going, but I guess I love the customer much more.

[jmrentis]

Holy Mother Of Pearl! That is one beautiful looking carve!!! Looking excellent especially for a mock up, can't wait to see it finished. Very well done and great choices on everything.

Yeah if I were you I would find some quality picture of fire and tell the customer your shop burnt down along with their guitar and you will be starting a fresh one for them, that way you can keep this one, seriously!