Chris G

I feel great about it I think it turned out better then I have thought. Yes it may not be perfect and the next will be better.

After I got all my issues fixed its time to start staining. I used Kada dyes for the stain. They are a great value at 15.00 and get 5 colors. I was unsure on the color I wanted to do and did not want to get the premixed colors. Once I got the colors blended and did some test I was ready to apply. First layer. Sanded down. Second layer. I sanded down the second layer not as much as first but did not take a picture. Here is the third and final. You can see the fix on the holes for tail and bridge. Grain fill and stain I do need to touch up on the stain in the back. After it dried I have some splotches. Wiring time. I could have when ahead with the clear, but I could not wait until I heard it and played it. I also wanted to make sure everything was good before the clear. This was my first sodering job and you can see some burn makes, but its done and sounds great. I cant believe that it all started from this. What I have learned. 1. Have good quality tools and the correct tools for the job. I have gotten some cheaper tools and tools that I thought would work, but ended up making more work for me in the long run. 2. Fretting seem like it would be an easier task, but it was a lot harder then I thought it would. It also goes hand in hand with good tools. I may had a harder time with the frets, because of some of the issues, but was able to get it all fixed. 3. Dont get ahead of your self and stick with the plan. I had to double back and rethink some of the stages, because I got to ahead. 4. Maybe I should have picked an easier guitar to build. I know with this being the first time I ever for everything a Les Paul might not have been the best chose for my first build, but stuck with it and turned out great. I know you all told me to give up and start over and I know its not perfect, but plays just as good as my USA Strat or other guitars. 5. I got really lucky!! With the issues it does have it does not hurt the playability. Yes I would like the action to be a bit lower, but it is spec to Gibson les pauls and I can deal with it. 6. I never thought something like this would help center me and clear my head. I had a great year at work with promotions and rises and have to give credit to this project for that. It is amazing how the project clears your head and helps you focus. I have a problem with ADD and finishing tasks and this project has changed me for good. 7. I found a new talent I never expected. I know I need to hone my skills, but think this could turn out to be great future in guitar making as a hobby. 8. Creativity. I never thought I could be this creative before. Not just the process of the build, but think of ways to fix mistakes making jigs, and more. I want to thank everyone on this site, other sites, videos I have watched for the tips and advice that helped me through this. I know I stopped posting half way through and the reason for that, first was time and second I felt like some of the comments were a bit harsh. I would never tell someone to give up and start again. I am a solution seeker and do not like to give up if there is a way to fix it. My profession is in Computers and Networking and if I found an issue and could not fix it with my knowledge I would find a way to fix the problem. If I just gave up on a hard problem or issue, I would not be where I am today. That is way it has taken me this long to finish. I found the solutions to the problems in my build and found ways to fix them. I want to thank my wife for putting up with my obsession. I am not done yet, but almost there. I will keep everyone posted once it is completely finished. Thanks Guys and chears!!

First fret job out of 3 should have done it when the fretboard was glued on the neck. Binding on the fretboard Seeing how it looks. Got the pickups in. Tried to get the little nubs on the fret ends but did not work out like I wanted. I ended up not doing the nubs. Headstock inlay time. Put a small amount of glue under the inlay to get outline, but ended up braking off the G. The Wax paper melted on the epoxy. First sand. Filled again with epoxy and dust Done. Pickup Routing time. Done and did not screw it up. Neck Cave time. I really enjoyed this process. Its finished sort of. I ended sanding down the neck a few more times to get the feel I wanted. Test to see how it looks Tailpiece holes drill. I borrowed the drill press from my uncle and had to give it back before I drilled the holes and ended up screwing that up. I had to redo the holes. They are not even. Drilling to ground wire hole Side dot on the neck. I used guitar picks for that, but was unhappy how it turned out. I ended up redoing them later on. Made the control cavity plates. Gluing the neck. Fret job number 2. Removing the frets. I ended taking too much off the frets when leveling them. The binding on the left side was too thin so I I had to redo that as well. I had a backbow at the first fret, not sure way maybe to wood moved. I watched a ton of videos to fixed this and this was the first attempt. Second attempt and also had a slight twist in the neck. I used the tuners to straighten the neck and applied heat. Before I did the second attempt I had the strings on and was dealing with high action and could not get the bridge any lower or adjust the truss rod any more. I still have a slight twist in the neck but it is a positive since its on the high e but it fixed my high action issue. Here is a pic of the high action.

Hey Everyone hope you all had a good holiday. Back to my build it is now about 90% done. I have had a great journey this past year and learned a lot. I have put countless hours, blood, sweat and tears in this build. Its again I will say its not perfect and I have had to redo the frets 3 times. I was not expecting the fret job to be that hard. I could have been done by the summer/fall if I did not have to redo and fix a lot of my mistakes. I think I could have been done by summer if started my build routine at the start. After I was half way through, I started to wake up really early like 4am to get work done. With my wife in school doing a Masters Degree and 2 small kids I was having problems finding time during the day and weekends to work on the guitar. I started to have trouble sleeping, because I could not get it out of my head. That is when I started to wake up early before work and on the weekends. It worked out well, I would get what I wanted done before the family wakes up and then can focus my time with them not the guitar. What is left on the guitar is clean the binding, some touch up jobs and clear coat. I am going to use True Oil for the clear. This guitar with all the issues it has still sounds and plays great. I like to call myself a guitar player, but my friend is amazing and he thought it played great. So lets get on with it and show the 6 months of progress. Head stock veneer Bandsaw time! There is the inlay I got from Shark Inlay. Binding Some gaps Gaps filled Made my own radius blocks Sanding down fretboard Inlay time I did not want to spend 50 on stewmac dermal base and the new dermal router base sucks, so I found an older on on Ebay for 10 and had to modify it to fit my dermal. Filling the small gaps Done I think i did god on my first inlay job!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have not given up yet. Here is a couple pictures of progress. Will post full progress soon.

Ok I have fixed my tenon. I ended up cutting some veneer from the left over pieces of the neck. I did not take any pics of the veneer or gluing, but after sanding, measuring, sanding some more this what I got. Here is the first stage of sanding. You can see the veneer on both sides. Here it is after sanding. You can hardly see the fix. The tenon is a tad too tight, but I will take a little mover off the sides. It also is butting up to the body better. A little more work and it will be done.

Thanks for the advice. I do agree, I have made a lot of mistakes and learned from them. There is no way gong to scrap this project, but I will get cheaper hardware to start with and if I get lucky and the guitar turns out better then I thought I will upgrade the hardware. I am going to read up on repairing lose neck tenon. I should be able to add some veneer to it and get the tightness back. I have come up with a simple sanding jig that will straighten it up. If there are gaps no big deal, I just wanted to be as close as I can. Thanks Guys! This build will get finished and I will have learned a great deal!

I know with Pickups and wiring kit it beets stewmac by 70 bucks. Even the shipping from the UK is cheaper then stewmacs. I have been looking at the GFS Slick pickups also. Here is a link. http://www.guitarfetish.com/Slick-Aged-PIckups_c_494.html The only problem with these is they dont have the old school style. I put my name in to notify me when they are available. They do have the ones that are hotter but dont know if I want to go that hot. OK Guys, Before I screw this up I need some help. I cannot get my neck flush with the body. Before I take to much off and screw the scale up I thought I would ask you. Here are some pics.

Thanks Scott!!! I think I found my pickups. For the pickups wiring kit and shipping is 100.00 I can deal with that! I listened to the sound clips and sound great!! I going to go with the Tesla Shark. Here is the link. http://www.irongear.co.uk/irongear_pickups_031.htm Still contemplating the Nickel cover or Zebras. I will order them in a few weeks.

The ebony has been glued and truss rod access cut. Headstock template is on ready to cut. Pilot holes drilled for tuners. Headstock logo. that will be a fun process to inlay. Binding Time!! I started out getting the binding shaped to the body before I started the gluing process. I wanted to make sure all the curves were molded to the binding. I let that sit for a few days. Got everything ready for the gluing process. I made the glue out of melted binding and acetone. I used some clamps to make sure the binding had enough presser on some of the curves Halfway done! Getting the horn. And done! took about 2 hours. Binding is done drying. Had a few gaps but it came out better then I thought! The recuve was a little tricky. I made sure there was enough glue behind and had some squeeze out. Scrapping and sanding. That was very time consuming. All the binding is flush with the body. I still need to do a little clean up but not much. Here is the neck on the body. I am going have time this weekend to get some more done. I going to try and have the headstock finished, binding, control cavity and covers, and get the neck to match up with the body perfect. I have not gotten my pickups yet. I am on a tight budget and wanted to know from you all a good pickup set for under a 100, but would like to stay around 60? I want a PAF style, but want them a little hotter. I will probably do the StewMac pickups, but wanted to here what you all had to say.

I googled the plains. You see on is a stewmac and they do not offer then anymore, but if you google it, go to images you can find the full scale plans that others have posted on there forms. If the admins allow I can post them here. I have 4 plans. When printing them you will want to use a plotter printer. Printing services stores will be able to print the full scale out. Luckily we have a plotter here at my work. I am unable to access the attachment also. Tonight I will post my progress. Head stock almost done and got the binding almost finished.

First off the question about mounting the pickups was a real stupid question. After reading some more and looking at pickups to get, I realized that I was overlooking that the pickups mount to the rings and not the body. I will understand if you all throw me off the site. I am so happy about my self right now. I was able to do a very crucial task and not F it up. I routed my tenon pocket tonight. This stage I have been thinking about the most. When the neck is connected to the body. I still have some more work on my tenon, but should have it done in a few days. Here is some pictures. Almost done. Now I was scared that the front end measurement was going to be different from the back end and that it would be off. Here is the back end and its the same. The last thing I did tonight was glue the ebony veneer together.

Thanks again Scott!! I will wait to get the pups before I route. I will look over that posting and you are correct on the wood grain direction. I knew I was going to redo that part, but wanted to get the route fixed first.

Thanks Scott!! I have not gotten the pups or rings yet. It will be a few weeks, since my car is in the shop and will cost 700. I am gong to get the StewMac Golden Age Parsons Street Humbuckers. The price on them is reasonable and got great reviews. Should I wait and do the routing when I get the pups in? After doing some more reading and looking closely at the pups, I know now that the mounting/adjustment screws will not be on the wire channel route. Here is a pic. As you can see I have a little dip from the router on the bottom. What is the best way to straighten that it up and re-cut a cover?

What is the best way to clean up the control cover route and matching/cutting the cover? Also I am getting ready to cut my neck pocket and pickup ears. I know I route the pocket 1 1/2 deep on the same angle as the neck angle. With the ears trying to find some good info on other LP builds, but they do not go in much detail. Do I route the same depth as the neck? The ears are going to be deeper then the pickup route correct? Last question. On the bridge pickup the right pickup ear is going to be over the wire channel. This kinda confuses me with setup of the pickups. Will i just have a longer screw? I know these are noob questions I just need to know before I route. I have read some forums online but cannot find any ones that go into detail on the LP pickup routes. Any help explaining this or any online articles/forums that will help with the LP pickup routes would be great.

Every mistake i made or going to make, I have been learning from them. I know on my next build, the mistakes have made on this one will hopefully not happen, but there is always room for new challenges. Here is the progress going to re-wide a bit. I was having problems finding a 3/16 straight bit for the truss rod channel and got a little head of myself. I glued the ears on the head stock. Once I got the bit for the channel, I setup my process with to fences on the router table so my neck can follow the fences and get a straight route. Since I got a little head of myself with the ears I was not able to do that. I looked at some truss rod routing jigs and found a guy who used to long clamps, so the router could be guided by the clamps. It worked out really good. Here is a pic. Once I got my channel routed it was time for the headstock access. I did not have a spotter face bit like everyone else has, so I went back to google and found another way. I flipped my table on the drill press vertical, clamped the neck to in and it worked out really well. I was scared to go to deep with the drill press, so I finished with a file and rasps once I got my shape from the drill press. Its not perfect but I can get a tool in there to adjust the nut. Here is the first order for the guitar. Cut the truss rod anchor, and rod. One of my friends at work threaded the rod and pinned it. I did not take a pic of it. The maple strip being glued into the neck. A little left to take off the maple strip Here is the first attempt on the control covers. Not to bad, but needs work. I am going to re-cut and shape another one. I also need to clean up route. Question for you all what is the best way to clean the control cover route? And last but not least. Here is the custom head stock logo. This will go great with the black ebony veneer I got.

Thanks Guys with your all advice and few beers and a shot of some very nice whiskey, I sat down and thought it out. This is what I came up with and it is fixed. I reshaped the curve and re-routed the channel. Here is a few pics. I marked the neck pocket, fretboard, and where I would need to sand down. Need some more sanding. Ran it through my overhead router jig. Here is a top shot. I hope this meets your all's approval, because I am happier then a pig in mud!! I will post my progress tomorrow. Thanks again Guys you are all the best!!! Cheers!!

Its not too deep. its about 1/16 of an inch past the binding channel. I am going to start looking at possible fixes now.

Thanks!! I may look into changing the colors now. I am planning on building more!!! I want to start on another one once I finish this. The only problem is the wife. She is doing her Masters Degree and dont think she will go for another one so soon.

I would like to do a Slash/vintage style finish. I will need to do some kind of shaping alone the rounded part too. Thanks for the tip ScottR you are always there for advice.

Alright Guys, I need some help. I have a lot of progress to post, but would like some advice first on this. I routed my binding channel and had so tier out. Here is the pic. I think I can hide it with the binding and binding paste. What would you all do?

Yes I know. I tend to go faster then I should. Once I see and feel myself going to fast I slow it down. I made sure it was flat maybe it was the picture. I was going to build that jig out of the L beams, but I had all this scrap. It may not look the best, but works. My next build I will make that jig. I want to follow as close as I can, but if I stray its ok. I just want to make sure the critical specs are the same. I have fixed the angels. Thanks Guys!! My next angel is now 4.2-4.4. I am using an app on my phone for the level and one app is 4.2 and the other 4.4. I need to get a real digital level.

Thanks ScottR!! I thought it came out nice myself and better then I expected.

Hey Guys its been a while since I posted. I am like that little engine that could. Here is my progress. On to the carved top. I have spent some time on researching the process. I made the step templates. On the third pass the router bit slipped before I realized and this happened. I was a bit worried about that so I ask some of my woodworking friends and ScottR. ScottR pointed me in the right direction and gave some good advice to save the top. After I got all the steps routed here is what it looks like. Its not very clean due to my router experience. I started the long process of sanding the steps. Almost done! And I was able to save the top!! I made a hinge jig for the neck and put plan angles. Its very pretty and used scrap pieces of flooring. I made sure each pass I did on the router I had 4.2 angle for the neck and 1.8 for the pickups. Once I thought I was done I checked the angle guitar and only at 3.5 and 1.3. I need some help from you pros. Should I have the 4.2 and 1.8 angle? I have looked up many forums and only been able to find was them saying route at the 4.2-4.4 and 1.8, but not showing the finished product. I still have a good amount of wood I still can take off, but wanted to ask you all first. Here is the route. Cheers Guys!!

Looks amazing!! I told you from the start that it would he a stunner.