prost893

Hello Stew. I also have a body like this, LP with maple top and mahogany back. I had planned to first to tape off and mask natural binding around the edge. Then shoot with clear laquer. Then stain the top and headstock veneer black and sand back. Then, like you too, I was not sure to do the top or back first. I had thought I should then mask off the top and headstock veneer with some foam and plastic to protect it. Then do the back and neck at the same time in this order grain fill, sand and sealer, then clear laquer with light reddish brown tint mixed in. Since you have to grain fill mahogany I don't think a stain would look that great. I never tried so I am not sure. Anyway Once the back and neck have set up for a few weeks then I planned to tape it off and do the front by rubbing dye on the maple top and head stock veneer followed by a clear coat and set up time. Then finish the whole thing together with more clear coats. I am not sure of the best way but that is a way. Hopefully Drak, Setch or some other guys will chime in with the best methodology.

Not ugly at all! Very Beautiful! I like wood that has different character and grain patterns. Very nice. All of your work is great but I especially like your first archtop. Do you have a picture of the new sanding tool you said was so fast? Thanks for all the pictures and keep up your fantastic work!

Wow Southpa great find! That is a really wonderful piece. I can see some great bodies, tops, and backs coming from that. Good luck with it and good trade.

Rock on Wes! Wes.

Thanks javacady. I am very impressed with the figuring and the quality of the top. It is a one piece mahogany back. The only thing that surprised me a little is they routed into the underside of the maple cap in the control cavity so that the top is only 1/4" think there. I would rather they they had not done that so I could really recess the knobs but I never thought to ask about that when I ordered. I seem to think the body is about 5 1/2 pounds but I will double check when I get home.

Yup it is carverd correctly already. Warmoth do all of their LP Carve top bodies with the correct neck angle when they set it up for TOM. Thanks for that reminder since it is very important. I was thrilled that the neck attached flawlessly and lined up beautifully with the E strings. I am now waiting on a few tools and a nut from Stew Mac. I ordered a Tusq nut from Warmoth but the neck is about 1/16 wider than the nut. Not a big deal but I didn't like the look so I ordered a blank from Stewmac.

Thanks for that input Guitar Ed. I'll certainly practice on scrap with that method.

Thanks for the replies. Bump up for more applicable advice. Thanks.

No it's correct. I don't think they could stay in business without getting the scale length right on an order. Their standard is 25.5. If you want 24.75 you have to order it that way. Also that top is a cap not a veneer. It goes all the way down to the mahogany. I guess when you write things on a post they make perfect sense to you but they sure aren't that clear to the readers. The body and neck are already drilled. I guess I shouldn't have added the part about drilling. I just wanted to make sure I use the correct procedure and be careful to line everything up before I commit to screwing down. Thanks for the replies so far and keep them coming!

OK I decided for my first project that assembly would be better that full scratch so I can gain some experience. I have always wanted a Les Paul but my hands just don't fit on on a 24.75 scale. So I turned to warmoth and got a nice body with figued top and a 25.5 neck with ebony FB, inlays, binding, and quilt veneer. I have attached a pic below ( I thnk my kitten liked the LP also! ). I have read several books, hysock and others, and still had a few questions that I am hoping to clarify. 1. Cutting the nut properly. I have thought about this a great deal over the last week. It seems I need to do things in a set order to get this right. I am hoping to get approval or corrections on this procedure. These steps are all prior to applying any finish. I will disassemble after these tasks and finish. First, since the bridge studs are already installed, put the TOM and STP in place. Second align the tuning keys with a level and mount them in the head stock. Third screw the neck in place and check alignment. Fourth is sting up the E strings to verify in the neck is in straight. Fifth is place the nut and mark the outer strings. I have the stew mac string spacing template so I'll be using that to mark all the strings. Sixth if everything looks good drill the neck holes and mount the neck in place. Then cut nut slots as usual. Once I have all of that sorted out I will disassemble for finishing. 2. Body countouring by hand. I want to make a contour in the lower cut out similar to a PRS single cut. This clearly involves shaving back some of the wood on the top edge of the body in the cutout. My question is what is the best tool to start removing the wood? I am guessing a round file followed by finer files followed by hand sanding. 3. Mahogany grain filling. the pores in the body and neck woods seem to be pretty open. Do I need to ues some epoxy to fill this grain or can I just start out with something like the reranch oil based grain filler? I will be using dye on the top with natural binding and nitro finish. I will add color to the laquer when spraying the back of the body and neck. That's all the quetions for now. Thanks for reading my long quetions. All help is appreciated. Thanks Wes

Got it thanks. I guess I forgot the fact that it was a 3 part sandwich and not just a top. That's what I get for not paying close enough attention. A joke I heard yesterday. Doctor at a medical school is teaching a bunch of new students how to cut into cadaver for the first time. He says this is very important watch this. He then sticks his middle finger into the cadavers butthole and roots around. The he moves his hand to his mouth and quickly pops in a finger, a different one of course. Then pronounces it is the only way to conduct an important test and prompts the class to try. After a moment of disgusted looks and people staring at their fingers he informs them that they all failed - to pay attention - to the fact he swiched fingers.

Why not just order it from reranch? That's one of the few places I've seen oil based.

Drak I take it after reading this explanation that you used the exact same piece of wood that was on the back of the body 'under' the control cavity and you put the body on the saw table prior to mounting the figured top and cut out the control cavity cover. Did you route out the cavity from above then cut the cavity cover? Also how did you get the scroll saw blade into the cavity? It might even be worthwhile if you had the time to do a tutorial on how to do this very cool trick. Thanks.

Do a little searching. try this: search and you'll see this site that is mentioned a million times on guitar building sites: reranch

Have you tried an auto supply store or body shop?