One piece guitar with an angled neck?

[ShatnersBassoon]

I've been thinking about the possibilities offered from working from one piece of wood. I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be a one piece Les Paul design... One piece body yes, but one piece guitar no. Ofcourse making a Tele or Strat would be a lot simpler, given the lack of neck angle. Thoughts? Does such a beastie exist?

[ADFinlayson]

There is a video of someone building one on youtube somewhere, @mistermikev shared a link some time ago though I can't remember the channel.

Rare though because the piece of wood would need to be about 3" thick, 14" wide and 40" long, that's a big piece of wood. Also worth considering that the body wood would be sawn in the same as the neck wood and you probably wouldn't end up with a quarter sawn neck because quarter sawn would be even harder to get in those dimensions. I imagine there would be a lot of movement when you're removing that much material from a big slab of wood. 

Edit: I found the video

 

[ScottR]

We have a member that builds one piece guitars, or at least used to.

SR

[mistermikev]

 

I guess they are $60,000 guitars so... one could save a lot of money buying a $1000 piece of wood!

 

 

 

[ShatnersBassoon]

1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said:

There is a video of someone building one on youtube somewhere, @mistermikev shared a link some time ago though I can't remember the channel.

Rare though because the piece of wood would need to be about 3" thick, 14" wide and 40" long, that's a big piece of wood. Also worth considering that the body wood would be sawn in the same as the neck wood and you probably wouldn't end up with a quarter sawn neck because quarter sawn would be even harder to get in those dimensions. I imagine there would be a lot of movement when you're removing that much material from a big slab of wood. 

Edit: I found the video

 

Yes, it's hard enough getting a piece that's large enough for a Telecaster.  That's one of the things I like about Headless designs, generally a lot smaller. 

[pauliemc]

On 2/25/2020 at 4:20 PM, ScottR said:

We have a member that builds one piece guitars, or at least used to.

SR

Hi Scott. I do still build them as it happens. Just have not been very active online for a long while is all. Thanks for the mention by the way.

[pauliemc]

On 2/25/2020 at 3:12 PM, ShatnersBassoon said:

I've been thinking about the possibilities offered from working from one piece of wood. I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be a one piece Les Paul design... One piece body yes, but one piece guitar no. Ofcourse making a Tele or Strat would be a lot simpler, given the lack of neck angle. Thoughts? Does such a beastie exist?

Iv done this before. Its very involved to get the type of grain you want in the neck for stability. You need to work from the fret board surface as a level. That way the neck grain is running the length of the neck. You carve the head stock just like the Gibson factory would, so you get a typical les paul neck joint. But carving the body is the tricky part. you need to carve the whole body at an angle, using the fret board face as your level starting point.

Best thing to do is get hold of a les paul & make a few templates along its neck & body. this will give you an ides of the shape you need.

The biggest issue I had was finding a billet of timber big enough that had no issues with grain. Also, when you cut away that much wood, the remainder of the billet starts to move about a lot. So you need to give yourself a lot of extra material to work with.

It took me 3 attempts to get 1 guitar. Using Sepelle that was close to 600 euro in just timber.

Hope that helps

[ScottR]

3 hours ago, pauliemc said:

Hi Scott. I do still build them as it happens. Just have not been very active online for a long while is all. Thanks for the mention by the way.

Cheers Paulie!

Glad to hear you are still churning them out.

How is Ma and the little one?

Damn, he ought to be bid enough to start pulling his weight in the shop now!

SR

[pauliemc]

Hey Scott.

Well, Ma is gone (wont get into that here) And the little one, well hes not so little anymore. Hes starting to get a bit of an interest in guitars, especially Les Paul's, Big gary moore fan.

I see you won guitar of the year, well done.

[ScottR]

36 minutes ago, pauliemc said:

Big gary moore fan

Me too! Can't go wrong there.

Thanks for the well done, good stuff coming from you.

And I'm on my third Ma myself......this one's been around over thirty years though, so I reckon she's a keeper.

Stay safe Brother.

SR

[pauliemc]

On 5/12/2020 at 5:01 PM, ScottR said:

Thanks for the well done, good stuff coming from you.

I was looking at your work, you have gotten better with those gouges, which is hard to fathom since you were so damned good with them already.

Im wondering if there is going to be an attempt at a one piece les paul now. Id like to see someone else have a go. see how they approach it.

[ScottR]

2 hours ago, pauliemc said:

I was looking at your work, you have gotten better with those gouges, which is hard to fathom since you were so damned good with them already.

Im wondering if there is going to be an attempt at a one piece les paul now. Id like to see someone else have a go. see how they approach it.

Kind of you to say so sir.

And yes, it would be fun to see someone give that a go. It would take a large chunk of timber and probably end up weighing as much as medium sized dog.....but certainly interesting to watch.

SR