GregA Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Hi all, Thought I may update those who are interested on my recent progress. Apologies for the poor quality of the pics..... Well.....I am finally getting there! Since the last post, a lot has been done. The biggest and most important job was the neck. (see pic below) Extremely time consuming and important stuff! Basically, then neck was shaped using a series of files as well as a carving knife. Then, it was sanded until pefectly smooth. I am quite happy with the feel. The frets are also completed and went in smoothly. The installation of the tuners and nut was next. The nut was a bit tricky to get just right but after much toil, it is just right! The tuners were simply a matter of making sure you are drilling in the right spot and then installing. (see pic below) We then drilled all the holes for the toggle switch and knobs. A little more challenging than you may think since the holes must be perpendicular to the surface of the guitar which is somewhat difficult since it is an curved top. (a simple jig accomplished the job easily!) (see pic below) The back of the guitar is now finished also. I added a small heel cap in the same flamed maple as the control covers. I think it makes for a nice look. (see pic below) Just for kicks, we slapped the bridge and talipiece in and strung it up and started working on the setup. We have the action just about right and let me tell you, acoustically the guitar sounds amazing! It resonates like you wouldn't believe. Each cord be felt through the enitre body and seems to just hangout there for a ridiculously long time! Well.....the next update will be the finished product! I am ordering up some Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers which should be showing up soon. Then, I am going to create a very simple pearl/ebony inlay for the headstock, wire and install all the hardware and then get to work on the finish. After much debate...I have decided to go with a "heritage cherry" style sunburst. The headstock will simply be the lightest colour of the burst. Thanks for reading! GregA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregA Posted June 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 (edited) EARLIER POST Well, I thought I may update everyone on my progress. I have spent most of the time recently working on shaping the mother of peal inlays and getting them into the fingerboard. See pics below. The knobs etc....are just sitting there to give you the idea. I have also placed the perloid tuner pegs that I will be putting on the finished project. I decided to go with a "scalloped" inlay similar to the traditional les paul inlay. I added the "extra" scalloped inlay at the first fret, which makes it a little different. Not really sure why Gibson didn't put one in there on most of their Pauls. (the LP's with the standard block pattern as well as the customs all have pearl at the first fret) Anyway.....I think it looks pretty good up there! We basically started with rectangular pieces of pearl and built a jig to hold each piece at the same angle. We then sanded them down to final size. (as an aside......you need to be very careful when sanding pearl as those little pieces of shell do not come out of your lungs and throat once they are in there!) We did have a minor disaster as a tiny corner of one of the inlays cihipped a bit at the back of the piece. (see pic below) The unforutnate thing is that it creates a tiny dark spot in the corner of the inlay but that just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. I imagine it won't be quite as noticeable once the strings are on. I also have the truss rod fitted. The control cavity plates are also complete and fitted (a bit of a pain since the larger cover is actually 3 pieces of maple laminated in different directions to prevent warping. The top laminate is actually flamed maple on both plates but it is difficult to see) The next step will be to glue on the finger board and shape the the neck. Then it will be time to do the final radiusing and sanding of the fretboard and then install the frets. After that, I'll install the nut, tuners, and all the other hardware. Finally, we will finish it! The finish is going to be a bit of a tough choice for me. I was thinking about heritage cherry sunburst but that creates a problem with the headstock.....it would look ridiculous bursted so what colour do you stain it? I was thinking I could just stain it the "lightest" colour used on the body but I am not sure about how that will look. I am seriously considering doing a trans-amber finish on the whole guitar then adding the slightest darker amber around the outside edge of the body....not a burst really, just a hint of darkness around the outside edge to give it some depth. Then the headstock could be simply trans-amber and it would all look great! Lots to think about in the meantime........I would greatly appreciate any opinions on finishing this beast and how to address the issue of staining the headstock. Once again, thanks for reading! I will quote the orignal post below so you can see the earlier progress. Take it easy. GregA Edited June 8, 2005 by GregA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregA Posted June 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 (edited) ORIGINAL POST First of all, sorry for this long-winded post...but I thought some may find the info interesting. Several months ago I posted some pics of a Les Paul I had been building and I thought I may post a few updated “work in progress” pics. (Much of the info below is a repeat of what was in the original post...so feel free to skip it!) Just to inform those who didn’t catch the earlier info, I started working on this project off and on over 2 ½ years ago. I am fortunate enough to have two friends who are expert luthiers and were nice enough to guide me through this process. (I could not have done it without them) The surface of the guitar has been lightly moistened to show the flame in all of these pictures. The nice thing about taking such a ridiculously long time to build this guitar was that every single piece of wood was left to stablize after any major cut was made. Any twisting that resulted because of a cut was then corrected and recorrected. The neck alone sat for close to two months after it was initially roughed out. It will be continually corrected as the build process continues. The result should be a very “stable” instrument as any twisting should be taken care of. (Of course I will need to keep it at a relatively similar humidity as what we have here in Calgary, Alberta. So I guess no trips to Costa Rica for this one!) The body and neck is British Honduras mahogany (each are one piece) and the top is a hand picked chunk of maple from British Columbia. The arch top was shaped entirely with chisels and a scraper and is slightly over an inch in depth at the deepest part. (so yeah...it is probably going to be a back breaker!) The neck joint is a little different than the traditional Gibson neck joint. (see pics below) The angled dovetale was a major task to get right but my buddies swear by it. It definitely seems to me to be a much more solid connection than a basic mortise-tenon joint. CONTINUED BELOW...... Edited June 8, 2005 by GregA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum5545 Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 What more is there to say, besides, as always, the binding is AMAZING! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregA Posted June 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 (edited) The fretboard was one of the more challenging parts that has slowed me down and we are a long way from attaching it yet. (see pic below) Hand planing it down to the right taper, making the back perfectly flat, radiusing the top, cutting the frets, binding the edge, inserting the fret markers into the binding...and still a lot of work to do. Add the fact that ebony is extremely fragile and you have one of the biggest jobs in the entire process! We did nail the binding job on the fret board as the mitres on the corners of the board are invisible. (see the pic on the right) The next step wil be to do the perl inlay and finally, install the frets. We went with the traditional Gibson Les Paul shape headstock (**cough**copy infringement**cough**) but decided to go with a bookmatched piece of flamed maple cut from the same piece of wood as the body. (see pic below) Binding the headstock........that was a challenge. Anyone who has tried binding a guitar knows how involved it can be. Compared to the headstock, binding the body and fret board was a walk in the park. The binding and perfling needs to be cut into six pieces and mitred to fit into the routed grove perfectly. Nothing shows up more that a bad mitre on a binding job and this head stock is far from perfect. We did nail most of them really well (see the first pic below..dead on) but we were a tiny bit off on the "dimple" at the top and the bottom right corner (see the second and third pics below). Still, they are not "blatantly" obvious errors so, on the whole, I am really pleased with the results. It really helps to pull the guitar together since it matches the binding on the body. What's next? After the perl inlay and frets are done, we will be shaping the neck then installing the fret board and making wood covers for the back of the guitar. These covers will be made with a veneer of flame maple cut from the same piece of maple that was used for the top. (the toggle switch cover is already done as shown in the pic below) As far as the finish, I am leaning toward a sunburst of some variety. (heritage cherry perhaps?) We will then install the electronics, tuning pegs, pickups etc. (I am thinking about Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers) What else is cool is that there are seven of us each working on our own Les Paul. All are being built using identical methods to mine. The tops all look great and they are all unique in their own way. I will try to get a shot of all seven together when they are done. Anyway, thanks for reading! Greg Edited June 8, 2005 by GregA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 wasn't this already posted once? I don't see anything new :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregA Posted June 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 wasn't this already posted once? I don't see anything new :-/ Hmm....well there are a few small things that are new since my last post.. Frets finished.... Neck carved and shaped..... Bridge and Tailpiece Installed..... Tuners Installed.... Nut carved and installed..... Heel Cap on back fitted.... Holes drilled for knobs and switches..... So yeah...other than that.....nothing has changed. I just figured that since this was a forum for people building guitars, some may be interested in those small changes..... Perhaps I am incorrect in this assumption, but I hope that by posting step-by-step photos, it may help someone else out who is also doing some type of build project..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 I just figured that since this was a forum for people building guitars, some may be interested in those small changes..... Perhaps I am incorrect in this assumption, but I hope that by posting step-by-step photos, it may help someone else out who is also doing some type of build project..... i for one find it much more interesting than some of the spewing of misinformation in the solid body section right now...but that is just a personal opinion. i like it alot...keep up the good work and post more pics anytime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcamp67 Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 I just figured that since this was a forum for people building guitars, some may be interested in those small changes..... Perhaps I am incorrect in this assumption, but I hope that by posting step-by-step photos, i for one find it much more interesting than some of the spewing of misinformation in the solid body section right now...but that is just a personal opinion. i like it alot...keep up the good work and post more pics anytime Me too, it's a big help in future projects, if not the one's I'm working on now. Plus, I TRUST the Mods to put up the "bad advice" thread notifications if something you're doing is wrong. Unlike some people around here....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truerussian558 Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 i wonder if you have any pictures of the binding procces and explanation, how did you bind that mother... especially the neck and headstock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Looking good. I appreciate the photos, even the ones I've already seen, or am under the illusion that I've already seen. Keeps it nice'n'cohesive. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregA Posted June 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Looking good. I appreciate the photos, even the ones I've already seen, or am under the illusion that I've already seen. Keeps it nice'n'cohesive. Greg Thanks for the nice words everyone! GregP: Just the very first pics are the new ones so you have probably seen the others. I just quote the previous post after it so that people can see the progression without digging through the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darren wilson Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 Wow. That is a stunning piece of maple. Nice work on the guitar, too! Your neck joint in particular looks really nice and precise, and i bet that dovetail will be super-solid when it's glued up. If it were mine, i'd probably put a nice tiger eye stain on it, with may be a very slight honey burst, and that'd be it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulNeeds Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 If it were mine, i'd probably put a nice tiger eye stain on it, with may be a very slight honey burst, and that'd be it. Hmmmm... Black stain on the quilt... tru-oil on top Would this combination work? Not tried tru-oil before... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsl602000 Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 I've never been much of a LP fan, but your pics make me wanna build one. Very very nice.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted June 22, 2004 Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 wasn't this already posted once? I don't see anything new :-/ Hmm....well there are a few small things that are new since my last post.. Frets finished.... Neck carved and shaped..... Bridge and Tailpiece Installed..... Tuners Installed.... Nut carved and installed..... Heel Cap on back fitted.... Holes drilled for knobs and switches..... So yeah...other than that.....nothing has changed. I just figured that since this was a forum for people building guitars, some may be interested in those small changes..... Perhaps I am incorrect in this assumption, but I hope that by posting step-by-step photos, it may help someone else out who is also doing some type of build project..... I really enjoy looking at that thing, don't get me wrong, I just didn't realize there was anything new. That's seriously one of my favorite guitars posted on here to date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregA Posted June 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2004 wasn't this already posted once? I don't see anything new :-/ Hmm....well there are a few small things that are new since my last post.. Frets finished.... Neck carved and shaped..... Bridge and Tailpiece Installed..... Tuners Installed.... Nut carved and installed..... Heel Cap on back fitted.... Holes drilled for knobs and switches..... So yeah...other than that.....nothing has changed. I just figured that since this was a forum for people building guitars, some may be interested in those small changes..... Perhaps I am incorrect in this assumption, but I hope that by posting step-by-step photos, it may help someone else out who is also doing some type of build project..... I really enjoy looking at that thing, don't get me wrong, I just didn't realize there was anything new. That's seriously one of my favorite guitars posted on here to date. Ahh...no problem Stonescreed. I realize the main pics do look a lot similar especialy since you cant really see any of the neck work initially. Later! Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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