rradams Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 I am building an LP style guitar using maple capped ash. I would like to carve the top keeping with Gibson styling, but want to go a little deeper kinda like a PRS. Can you give me the steps, hints, tools, cautions etc. that I need to be aware of. All is going well to this point... the wood I am using has sentimenal value so I don't want to have to start the body all over again as I have the neck. Thanks, Rubin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar_ed Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Hi Rubin, The only suggestions that I can make are: 1) Pickup the book "Make Your Own Electric Guitar", by Melvin Hiscock. The man has done it and shows you how. 2) Find some kind of blank wood that you can practice on and won't make you cry if you make a mistake. 3) Take lots of pictures and show us what you do. Guitar Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 Welcome to the forum You also might want to have a look at this web site. Like Guitar Ed said though since it is your first attemp and the wood your using has sentimental value you should practice on a few scrap piece's first just to get the hang of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhoads56 Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 OMG Brian, what a difficult way of doing things!! Buy yourself a sanding attachment for your grinder, mine cost $45 Aussie dollars ($30 US??). Rout around the edge of the guitar, mark your inner carve contour with a pencil, and start sanding away. Take a look at my current project at Ormsby Guitars. The carved back on that guitar took 1 hour finished, and the front took 2.5 hours (i spent one hour of that trying to get the edge straight, as i decided to not router the depth on the edge first). 2/3 of the time is spent hand sanding, 1/3 with the grinder attachment. The back is slightly deeper than the front of a Les Paul, and the front is deeper than a PRS (plus the horns are carved). Some more progress shots (stained and lacquered) are temporarily located here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 Whilst the Perry's method is an unquestionable success (looks fantastic BTW) there is also the potential to mess up much fatser, and much more thoroughly! I carved my LP style doublecut using a router to cut the deepest carved depth around the perimeter of the body (as Perry mentions, this is difficult to achieve if you decide to skip this step) then followed up with a spokeshave for all convex surfaces, and a goosenecked scraper for all the concavities and the recurve. It isn't a quick process, and it's tough on the fingers, but slow steady removal of material minimises the possibility of a horrible cock up. I estimate I put maybe 3 - 4 hours into the carving, then lots of handsanding. I really honestly planned to practice on scrap first, but ended up diving in headfirst, and I'm very happy with the result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 you gotta be real light on the grinder.i did that on a basswood body and i was happy with it but be careful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhoads56 Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 Setch, that looks magnificent, have you got a website?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 Setch, even though you dove head in your patience in taking the time where it counts definately paid off that looks awesome Oh and welcome to the forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rradams Posted March 18, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 I am building an LP style guitar using maple capped ash. I would like to carve the top keeping with Gibson styling, but want to go a little deeper kinda like a PRS. Can you give me the steps, hints, tools, cautions etc. that I need to be aware of. All is going well to this point... the wood I am using has sentimenal value so I don't want to have to start the body all over again as I have the neck. Thanks, Rubin A heartfelt tThanks everyone for your response and help... I really appreciate it. Rubin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackstrat86 Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 The way we do it on mandolins is you take a pencil and trace around the body the inside line of where the binding is goning to be(or the about very edge of the body body if ur not going to bind it) an the go in 1/2 inch form that line twards the center of the body and trace around the body so you have a channel isolated from the body drawn out 1/2 inch wide. Then we take chisels and plains and use those to make a soft even "recurve" into the body so its a soft U shape in between those two lines with the deepest part being the center. You wanna keep the depht about the same all the way around...Then you take your chisel and just graduate that inside line to around center just enough to get it to where the sander can do its job well and then sand it smooth...It really takes a while but is simple and with a depht guage is really easy if you take your time and dont get too ahead of yourself and check what your are doing frequently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AlexVDL Posted March 20, 2003 Report Share Posted March 20, 2003 This is how a friend of mine makes them: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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