Chambered Lp Build - First Build (kind Of)

[JeffD]

This is the first guitar I am building with intentions of hopefully finishing someday. I've worked on two other LP's but they were both basically tests or practice sessions for different sections of the guitar like binding, top carve, and necks. Project Guitar has been immensely helpful to me and I am hoping somebody will get something interesting out of my build.

Since this is somewhat still a first build for me it will be done with a alder base with a plain maple cap and maple neck. I have an abundance of this material in the shop since it's used on most every trim or furniture project I do. There's an option of putting a fancy maple veneer top on if I want to later in the build. I'm not particularly concerned about making an exact LP copy with this guitar.

Glued up alder blank.

Template used to route out the hollow section of the body. I didn't really have much information to go on regarding how much to take out, so I took out what I figured would keep the body structurally sound. In hindsight this was probably more then I needed. I understand the great feature of an LP is its duration of sustain and I have probably managed to hinder that here. Well... Too late to go back now.

Chambered body ready for the bandsaw. I have a really crappy JET 14" bandsaw. It does spin the blade around on both wheels but only produces a marginal cut line. Every possible tune-up or fix has been done but to no avail. Note to self - buy the best bandsaw you can afford next time!

Routing the outside cut line to shape using a bottom bearing router bit. I used a sharp 3/4" router bit, went slow, and paid attention to grain orientation. I use a large base on the router which helps keep it stable on top of the body and prevent tipping. There was zero tearout on this process.

Maple top glued on and trimmed. The alder base glue joint in centered on the body but the maple is not. I didn't have maple with enough width to do that but if it does get veneered the glue joint will disapear anyway.

[JeffD]

The jig I use to route the neck angle. The router is mounted on a sled that slides over the rails. The rails are cut to produce a 4 degree angle.

The route is taken down to show a reveal of 3/16" of maple cap. When 1/4" binding is applied the glue joint between alder and maple will be covered. I did one more cleanup pass then a quick hand sanding then this angle is done.

[JeffD]

A border route has now been done around the perimiter of the body which determines the binding height around the rest of the guitar. I used a 1/2" cove bit for this. Care was taken to not drop the bit over the 4 degree angle cut for the neck. I start this route close to where the neck angle cut begins to rise on the bass side and stop it at the tip of the horn section on the treble side. The binding rises in elevation from the horn tip to the center of the cutout then tapers back down following the neck angle.

The next step is to plane a flat between where the fret board ends and the stop bar is located. I really don't remember where I got this bit of detail, but it seemed to work pretty well on both of the other bodies I built. Note of precaution - those orage clamp pads on the Jorgenson bar clamps have left some sort of stain on any bare wood they touch. Thats why the sandpaper is between them and the body. I've always worried about fininshing problems because of this.

Next comes the mortice for the neck tenon. I did this with a 1/2" top bearing router bit and template to match the width of the tenon. The template was lined up with the centerline of the body. I'm basically guessing as to the dimensions of the neck tenon. I made it wide enough to leave 1/4" wall thickness on the treble side, and deep enough that the bottom section of the body appears strong enough to support the glued-in neck. the neck tenon extends to just short of the far edge of the neck pickup.

Jumping ahead a little bit here. I've read where the neck joint tolerance should be tight enough that the body will hold itself to the neck unassisted.

[Narcissism]

Looks like a nice clean build so far. Thanks for sharing

And welcome to the forum!

[Muzz]

I love to see precision like this.

[JeffD]

Thanks Narcissism and Muzz. A little encouragement goes a long way. Now, if I could just get encouraged to clean the shop...

The neck blank is made up of four pieces of maple laid on edge and tall enough to almost comlete the angled neck without a scarf. I had to glue a small block at the very end to make up what will be the tip of the headstock. The other two necks I've done had scarfs before the head and they turned out ok.

The head stock angle is cut at 13 degrees and cleaned up. The truss rod channel is routed. It's a two-way rod from Grizzly.

The bulk of the tenon was cut on the table saw with a dado head. It was then cleaned up with a hand saw, files and sand paper. Only the sides and bottom get cut. The top of the neck is on a flat plane with the neck angle routed into the body.

The fret board is the only item I've not made from scratch. It's a slotted rosewood blank from Stewmac. The tool budget has been pretty well maxed since this crazyness started, but I really would lke to have the stuff to do this myself. Someday. The blank has been cut down to size and white binding has been glued to three sides.

After cleaning up the binding with a hand scraper. To the right of the fretboard is a caul used when gluing the FB to the neck. The caul has an angle cut into the face of the FB side that contacts the FB about the outer 1/3rd of both sides. It follows the exact taper of the FB.

Gluing the fretboard on. I like to drill a small hole centered on the highest fret slot with a 1/16th drill bit through the FB and into the neck. The drill bit is then left in place which holds the FB exactly where I want it while clamping. Clearly credit for this technique needs to go to PG contributors here, I just don't remember who. But thanks!

The fretboard is cut to very close to final dimension. The neck is slightly oversized so that when neck shaping, the neck is brought down to the fretboard width. The fretboard marker holes have now been drilled with a 1/4" forstner bit which makes very clean holes with a mostly flat bottom.

The neck has now been marked for rough shape on the bandsaw. The side markers are also in place. The second picture was taken after the cut.

This is what I like to use for tough-to-carve materials. With a 4" diameter 60 grit drum, it's a hog! Dust collection is really nice to. Just pay real close attention to loose clothing, jewellery, etc just like they tell us in the manual. At least I would hope it says that. Like I would really know?

[JeffD]

The neck has now been rough shaped and is close to final thickness. The remaining work on it will be done using hand tools.

Ears glued on to make up correct width.

On the practice bodies I used chisels to hog out most of the top carve material. This time I used an angle grinder with an abrasive flap wheel. This method is certainly alot faster, but there is much more likelyhood of error. Also pretty messy with no real ability for dust collection, so I did it outside.

[JeffD]

I've had to work on other projects to support this crazy build habit, but had time to put a maple veneer on the body. The carve is done and the whole body has been rough sanded. The picture below was taken to show the contour of the face.

The veneer is lighly flamed maple I got off ebay for a cost of about $0.85 per square foot. When I get much better at this I'll use real maple caps, but for now the veneered tops will do and they are fun to build. The veneer has been jointed, taped, and cut over-size and is ready to be glued.

The veneer press I use is a vacuum bag setup that came as a kit from the website Joewoodworker.com. There is a vast amount of information on vacuum pressing there which has been very helpful. The pictue below is the press I put together.

It uses compressed air to create the vacuum and works really well. It automatically turns on at 18 inches vac. and shuts off at 22 inches vac. Hooked up to a 5 hp compressor with a 60 gallon tank the press takes no time to evacuate the bag, and in the course of a 45 minute press cycle the air compressor may turn on four times.

The veneer is taped into place to keep from shifting when placed into the bag. I also put spacers around in inside cuts of the body to prevent the bag from bunching up in these areas. When the bag does that it's not pressing flat on the veneer. The glue being used is job specific for veneer and is meant to have no creep over time.

The next picture shows the body after coming out of the bag.

It looks a little rough now but cleans up well. I use a utility knife to cut off excess veneer being carefull about grain direction. This is the third time I've pressed veneer on bodies and this one tuned out as consistently good as the others. It surprises me how well the veneer conforms to the face without cracking or breacking apart, especially at the tail end of the body where the veneer has to bend both perpendicular and parallel to the grain direction.

Ready for binding! This will cover glue lines between the alder body and maple cap, and the maple cap and veneer.

[WAK Guitars]

Really cool man, nicely done!

[verhoevenc]

I do the veneering tops too for tonal/aesthetic mismatch purposes. I'm curious though. Is your veneer joint a straight joint, or did you modify it to make it adhere to the curve properly? Also, if straight, what is your carve depth?

Chris

[JeffD]

I do the veneering tops too for tonal/aesthetic mismatch purposes. I'm curious though. Is your veneer joint a straight joint, or did you modify it to make it adhere to the curve properly? Also, if straight, what is your carve depth?

Chris

It's a straight joint. I have not had issues (yet) with the joint coming apart, but then I have not ever actually finished one either. I did use the veneer flattening product that Veneer Supplies (Joewoodworker) sells, and it does make the veneer quite alot more flexible. I don't recall the carve depth but it's at least 5/16" to 3/8". As noted earlier, I am a little surprised that nothing has split or cracked on the three bodies I've done this to.

[verhoevenc]

Hmmm... I usually have to manipulate the joint to a non-linear arrangement for it to close correctly. However, I'm not using any veneer softener and I'm doing 3/4" carves. But it's fun to hear that on lower arches this may not be necessary. When you try a deeper carve, I suspect you'll see it wanting to pull apart in the center, and push together at the neck and tail areas.

Mmmm.... spruce! lol

Chris

[JeffD]

Hmmm... I usually have to manipulate the joint to a non-linear arrangement for it to close correctly. However, I'm not using any veneer softener and I'm doing 3/4" carves. But it's fun to hear that on lower arches this may not be necessary. When you try a deeper carve, I suspect you'll see it wanting to pull apart in the center, and push together at the neck and tail areas.

Mmmm.... spruce! lol

Chris

Chris, that is a gorgeous looking guitar! Is there a build site on it?

[verhoevenc]

PM sent. (long answer depending on what exactly you're asking for hahah... a site of my own, or a site about this build).

Chris

[Muzz]

This just gets better and better.