# Les Paul build - update fingerboard inlays



## Ironballs (16 Oct 2008)

Okay chaps, finally taken the brave pills and have embarked on this years evening class project, a Les Paul copy, in no small part helped by the previous builds I've seen on here.

Over the summer I've been doing the research, read Melvyn Hiscock's book, bought the plans, bought some tools, bought some wood, trawled the net and stared longingly at Messrs Page, Perry and Slash in action.

So, you have to start somewhere and I started with with a length of mahogany that needed converting into a 2 piece body blank. First up I gave a good going over with a jack plane and a number 6 to remove the rough and have a look at the grain underneath. This was partly because I wanted to practice my hand planing and partly because I needed to cut the 5ft board up before introducing it to the P/T and wanted to see where best to make my cuts. See below



























Tell you what, mahogany shavings are great for starting fires in the stove

Once I had the boards roughed out I laid over the cut outs from my template for no particular reason at all. Have created some plywood templates from these to use as references for doing the body carve.

Next step would have been glueing the body together but further research revealed that my titebond 3 was heavily frowned upon for instrument making but titebond 1 was perfect. Shame I didn't have any. Ebay solved that.

Whilst I was waiting I took my neck material and started preparing that. You may have seen in another thread that I got my hands on a large piece of 4" mahogany and I need to go about converting that. This is where having access to a college workshop really is a plus, first cut was on the bandsaw, this little fella stands about 8-9ft tall and takes no prisoners. After taking one length off planed up the end to square-ish and used the fence on their TS to cut the rest of the lengths.

Not sure what I'll do with the rest of the neck blanks but you can get 2 one-piece Les Paul necks per blank so might stick them on the bay. All nice and straight and a couple show a bit of quarter sawn flecking.





















Took one of the blanks to college this week and set about it with the templates and the bandsaw, was quite pleasantly surprised to find that hidden in there was a neck shaped object and it didn't take too long to find it. A very rewarding evening





















Last job was to take a paper template and create my very own plywood Les Paul. What an axe! Step aside Angus the real deal is here






This will be a slow burner and is likely to take me the full three terms but I'll post updates as I go along. I've already bought the wood for the top and I think you'll like it......


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## Philly (17 Oct 2008)

A great start - I look forward to the next lot of photo's!
Philly


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## Anonymous (17 Oct 2008)

Looking good, keep the piccies coming


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## ByronBlack (17 Oct 2008)

I'm loving the guitar-build threads, I'll have to update mine or start a new one for a couple of the projects I have going at the moment.

Solid looking work you got there so far, should be a good-un

Do you still have the neck blanks? I might be interested in them if you are looking to sell.

What hardware/pickups are you going to use?

A little tip for any future builds - those neck blanks will probably give you more necks each if you scarf-joint the angle on the headstock. This will also make the headstock a lot stronger and less likely to snap-off which is common with LP's.


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## Pete Howlett (17 Oct 2008)

Use Stewmac's truss rod - it's more logical and easier to fit than any other out there...

Hint when doing your neck. Make sure that taper is even, carve the heel first, then the volute and use a spokeshave to connect the two curves. See my neck carving video here:


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## OPJ (17 Oct 2008)

This is looking great!  Where did you get your templates from? Or, did you draw them yourself?


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## Ironballs (18 Oct 2008)

Thanks for the replies and kind words, early days yet so plenty of time for Mr Cock Up to take up residence. Replies to questions in no particular order:

Template was from a place in the UK, can't recall who it was off the top of my head, but it cost about 15 quid and is the same as the Stewmac ones. I had a couple of copies made when they arrived so that I could cut them up for templates.

Have made plywood templates for the body carve and also for the neck at the fret positions indicated on the plan. Pete thanks for the tip, I'd already planned on taking that approach having read countless build threads already  

Hardware will be fairly traditional, Seymour Duncan SH1 pickups and I came across a great site called fake58 that does a lot of replica electronics and hardware. I'm considering getting their ready wired pot and jack loom to make life easier for a first build.

With regard to the neck I did um and ah a lot about whether to scarf or not, you certainly get a lot more necks per blank and they can be a bit stronger. But, I thought I have wood of sufficient thickness and the grain is straight so let's give it a go. I am trying to remove the mahogany in big enough chunks that will mean I can use it for something else rather than just firewood.

If all goes well then I will build another to my own design and the neck on that will be a hybrid of a Gibson and Fender to reduce wastage. Currently I'm planning to keep 2 of the neck blanks and will probably sell the remaining 4. If interested pm me for dimensions and pics. WRT species, it's definitely different from the body, the body smelled sweet when being planed, one tutor said ah yes, that's brazilian and the other said, oh no, look at the interlocking grain, that's African. What do I know!


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## Pete Howlett (18 Oct 2008)

I bought a victorian post on eBay - it's Honduran. If the wood is pink then it's South American your lump looks like the Brazilian I was buying in the early 80's. Honduran/Brazilian can have interlocking grain. African woods tends to be peppering and nasty to work - you can almost hear it abrading your cutting tools. The dimensional thickness is about right for Brazilian because it usually came in thick boards. People kill for one piece necks BTW :wink:


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## Ironballs (18 Oct 2008)

Thanks Pete, I forgot to ask, which of the Stewmac truss rods would you recommend as they have a few? Which truss rod to use is one of the questions I've been mulling over for a while, ie do I go for a traditional LP type with fillet or one of the more modern U-shaped ones that require no fillet.

I've also realised I've made mistake number one after reading an article over brekkie this morning, should have routed the truss rod slot whilst the blank was still square to make life easier. Not a major issue, just means I need to make up a little routing jig which of course costs time


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## ByronBlack (18 Oct 2008)

Damian, in-terms of truss-rod, the best one to go for is the dual-action Stew-Mac Hot Rod

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Truss_rods/ ... _Rods.html

You'll want the 18" one. No need to use a filler, just route the groove through the top and then stick on your fingerboard.

If you can get a little silicon then use this at each end of the rod where you have the brass block, this will stop the dreaded rattling tross-rod happening over-time.


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## Pete Howlett (18 Oct 2008)

Yep those hot rods are hot! But you need an imperial rather than metric cutter to cut the slot. I think it is 7/32" - I bought mine when I lived in Ohio which was a nuisance really because I got hammered for sales tax when I bought from Stewmac. At least it was less than the VAT charged here in the UK.


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## ByronBlack (18 Oct 2008)

Pete Howlett":cdq2scnh said:


> Yep those hot rods are hot! But you need an imperial rather than metric cutter to cut the slot. I think it is 7/32" - I bought mine when I lived in Ohio which was a nuisance really because I got hammered for sales tax when I bought from Stewmac. At least it was less than the VAT charged here in the UK.



I cut mine with a metric, doesn't seem to cause any problem, I just add a touch of silicon or ptfe tape to the brass blocks to stop it from rattling in the future and it's a good-un. I've got a guitar that I made about 4 years ago with one doing it this way, and it's still rock solid. OR if the metric is slightly smaller, then you just ease the slot with some 80 grit on a stick, nice tight fit.


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## dicktimber (19 Oct 2008)

Having never built one of these can you explain what steps you take to stop moisture uptake and wood movement, which will keep putting the instrument out of tune I would have thought?
Mike


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## Ironballs (19 Oct 2008)

It's a combination of things from what I can tell, first use a stable timber like mahogany that moves very little, second use a glue like titebond one that sets solid with no flexing, third the neck is the most likely to move and this has a steel truss rod in it which is adjustable and lastly there's a good finish all over which effectively seals the wood from moisture ingress.

It's actually quite pleasant working with mahogany, with cherry and maple you're forever having to make allowances for movement and look out for cupping


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## ByronBlack (19 Oct 2008)

Ironballs":3cxsru4f said:


> It's a combination of things from what I can tell, first use a stable timber like mahogany that moves very little, second use a glue like titebond one that sets solid with no flexing, third the neck is the most likely to move and this has a steel truss rod in it which is adjustable and lastly there's a good finish all over which effectively seals the wood from moisture ingress.
> 
> It's actually quite pleasant working with mahogany, with cherry and maple you're forever having to make allowances for movement and look out for cupping



Thats pretty much it. The wood-movement won't really affect the tuning. It's the fret-spacing and scale-length that determine the tuning. The truss-rod is used to adjust the neck to keep it straight (preferably with a small amount of relief). The woods used are usually sealed with oil or a nitro style finish. Most necks are laminations and these reduces almost any chance of twisting or bowing over time, this is another reason why one-piece necks can sometime be a pain in the future as they are more likely to move, but as mentioned the truss-rod will prevent most of that and as long as they are sealed correctly, the wood-movement should be neglible, after-all its a relatively small piece of wood.

Maple is actually one of the best woods to use, take a look at fender, almost all their necks and some of their bodies are exclusively maple. It comes down to tone choice at the end of the day. I prefer the deeper tones from mahogany and walnut, but maple gives a much brighter middely tone.


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## Pete Howlett (19 Oct 2008)

Not sure about the tone debate of woods on an electric guitar - after all, the sound is a processed electronic single from an oscillating string. If it were an acoustic then it would be a different ball game but it really is all down to the pickups IMHO.

Fender used Maple because it was cheap and easy to machine and finish - remember he was an engineer, not a luthier and his early solutions are typical 'engineer's designs'. The strat was a collaborative effort that gave way to some of the design ethos of the day - even down to that famous 'red' paint finish.


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## MIGNAL (19 Oct 2008)

It's pretty easy to make a truss rod if you have the correct die. I made one from Stainless Steel - the older style that sits in a curved channel with the wood fillet covering. They obviously work because countless thousands of guitars were made using that type.


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## Ironballs (19 Oct 2008)

Absolutely Mignal, though I'm going for the easiest/most foolproof on this build  

Appreciate all the hints, tips and debate, I'm learning as I go here. Only had a little time on the guitar this weekend as I had to work on a brithday present project that is running close to one month late. All I did was glue the ash practice blank (the source of the chopping board offcuts) and the mahogany real thing.






I'm getting close to cutting the shape of the body and glueing on the top, in addition I'll be routing the pick up holes and am trying to work out the order of things. I'd like to rout the pick up holes and some wiring channels in between before glueing on the top, but am worried about alignment issues when glueing the top on - though I won't be routing the slots in the top until I have it glued to the body. Any advice appreciated.


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## ByronBlack (19 Oct 2008)

Pete Howlett":2o5hnmiv said:


> Not sure about the tone debate of woods on an electric guitar - after all, the sound is a processed electronic single from an oscillating string. If it were an acoustic then it would be a different ball game but it really is all down to the pickups IMHO.
> 
> Fender used Maple because it was cheap and easy to machine and finish - remember he was an engineer, not a luthier and his early solutions are typical 'engineer's designs'. The strat was a collaborative effort that gave way to some of the design ethos of the day - even down to that famous 'red' paint finish.



I'm sorry, but wood choice makes a massive difference on electric guitars. If you play a mahogany bodied guitar next to a maple bodied guitar, you would have to be tone-deaf not to notice the difference, this applies also to fingerboard and neck material, and even scale length. It doesn't matter that the sound is processed, the sound has characteristics before it gets to that stage.


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## ByronBlack (19 Oct 2008)

Ironballs":1yrc3r79 said:


> Absolutely Mignal, though I'm going for the easiest/most foolproof on this build
> 
> Appreciate all the hints, tips and debate, I'm learning as I go here. Only had a little time on the guitar this weekend as I had to work on a brithday present project that is running close to one month late. All I did was glue the ash practice blank (the source of the chopping board offcuts) and the mahogany real thing.
> 
> ...



Personally, I would route the cavities and pickup holes with the top on, as it reduces your routing jobs by a half, I don't see the benefit of routing the body and then the top - although it's easily done with a bearing bit, it just seems more work than is needed.

One little tip - plan where you are going to put your grounding wire now so that you can make provision for it, a popular location is one of the studs for the tailpiece or bridge of the tune-o-matic, this will require a hole drilled from the electronics cavity to the stud hole to allow the wire to run back to your ground.


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## Pete Howlett (19 Oct 2008)

Personally I have never heard an all maple les paul or all mahogany telecaster. As a luthier I am very familiar with received wisdom about tone woods and time again have seen and heard it turned on its head. I most probably am tone deaf :lol: hey whadui know?

I do want to revise my idea about this mahogany though. Whether it is your lighting or not but these latest pics almost present it as African due to the figuring and colour...


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## ByronBlack (19 Oct 2008)

Pete Howlett":m4ax1ycb said:


> Personally I have never heard an all maple les paul or all mahogany telecaster. As a luthier I am very familiar with received wisdom about tone woods and time again have seen and heard it turned on its head. I most probably am tone deaf :lol: hey whadui know?



You don't need an all maple Les Paul specifically, any maple and mahogany guitar will show the wide range of tonal difference, heck even my walnut guitar here that I have with me sounds a great deal of difference to maple guitar that I owned, and I doubt I like millions imagine this difference.

If it were the case that wood choice had no bearing on tone like you say, why aren't all guitars made with the cheapest possible option? The reason is because musicians and luthiers alike pick the woods to suit their requirements, whether it be a tight snappy middley sound from the harder woods such as maple, to the darker tones of the mahogany's and such like.

But, hey, each to their own personal beliefs and experiences, 

(sorry for taking this thread off-subject, I'll shut up about wood choices now


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## Pete Howlett (19 Oct 2008)

Here is an interesting article... I take your point Byron and maybe it is different for electric guitars but I remain to be convinced - the pickups are soooo important as is the amp. That's why I am dubious about the tonewood debate.


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## Ironballs (20 Oct 2008)

It will be interesting if the practice body gets as far as being made into a complete guitar as it's an ash body with a sycamore top. If I build it with the same electronics will it sound the same....

Any road, it's evening class tomorrow night so further butchery awaits


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## Pete Howlett (20 Oct 2008)

Do it.. finish the prototype.


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## ByronBlack (20 Oct 2008)

Pete Howlett":31nuiwof said:


> Here is an interesting article... I take your point Byron and maybe it is different for electric guitars but I remain to be convinced - the pickups are soooo important as is the amp. That's why I am dubious about the tonewood debate.



I'm not disagreeing on your last points Pete, your absolutely 100%, the electrics and amp are obviously the main drivers of the sound, thats a given, but thats not to say that that sound isn't shaped by the wood of the guitar.

That article, interesting as it is doesn't actually prove or offer any proof at all that woods have tonally different shapes.


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## Ironballs (20 Oct 2008)

Not a great deal of progress tonight, planed up the sycamore top for the ash body and P/T'd the flame maple top for the other, that was a real heart in mouth job as I was expecting world class tearout. In the end it wasn't too bad, what was bad was having to plane off 7mm of flame maple. What a waste. I'll get a pic of the tops up soon.

Finished off my neck radius jigs and also made the pick up template. Lots of pondering and staring at tops tonight. Then when I got home there was a little package from Stewmac waiting, a binding router bit and their little jig for doing it. Also in there was an ebony fingerboard which looks ****ing awesome.

Would still like to rout the wiring channels before I put the top on but am thinking about how to maintain the accuracy/lining up


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## Pete Howlett (21 Oct 2008)

Rout channel in the body, glue on cap and then use a bottom flush trim router to rout through the cap. Carve top next. I hope you got the bearing cutter for your binding... There is another way you might want to try on your test piece - the PRS 'scrapped' binding method. Dan Erlewine shows how this is done in Stewmac's online tips section.


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## ByronBlack (21 Oct 2008)

Pete Howlett":2o5je85i said:


> There is another way you might want to try on your test piece - the PRS 'scrapped' binding method. Dan Erlewine shows how this is done in Stewmac's online tips section.



Thats an excellent article, and I believe part of a bigger one where he goes from start to end on how to finish using dyes/stains and a clear finish. I'll be doing that exact method (scraping binding) on my current Yew/Maple guitar.

here's the link: http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Finishing/Colors,_stains/a-blueguitar.html

Damian - If your ebony fingerboard isn't uniformly black, (you can somteimes get lighter streaks in them) Stew Mac and others sell a ebony stain that'll give you a nice uniform blackness.


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## newt (24 Oct 2008)

Why is Titebond 3 frowned upon, particularly as further on it is suggested that the glue should have low creep. As I understand it Titebond 3 has much less creep than titebond 1. Just interested great project.


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## ByronBlack (24 Oct 2008)

I've used titebond 3 on a body and neck, have had no problems.


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## Ironballs (13 Jan 2009)

Okay, it's with a deep sense of shame that I realise it's October since I update this and November since I laid fingers on guitar parts.

Any road, have done a little more work though I still seem to be at the stage where a lot of effort goes in for little change - so do don't go expecting Waka or Nibbo-esque levels of progress!

Can't take credit for creating this, decided that for a first time me doing the fingerboard might be a bad idea, so bought this ebony one in from StewMac. Very nice it is too.







As you will have seen earlier on I did a lot of vascillating about whether to rout the wiring conduit before glueing the top on, I finally did after realising that my ply template needed some re-shaping. Took quite a while as I had to draw out the diagram onto the body and then clamp up for the routing - twice. Why did I decide to do a practice body at the same time..........

Anyway, that was a week of great progress, two routed grooves in a piece of timber. Gibson must be sh***ing themselves






To make sure that I ended up with the routed channel in the right place when I glued the top on, I referenced the body edges on the centre line at each end so I knew what my starting points were. This meant I had to trim a bit off, this little piece was the result, only showing cause it shows I should have a nice strong glue joint in there. Need to feel smug about something






Next up and tonights progress was glueing the tops up, a job I had to get right as it's very prominent. Practice body is some slightly figured sycamore, real body is flaming expensive flame maple. Employed the planing together in the vice technique as suggested by the ever helpful Mr BB for the maple. It wasn't happening for the sycamore though, so made use of the industrial sized planer in the class shop and had a superb fit in a few minutes. Always get a sweat on with a glue up, even when straight forward like this one, made sure I got the clamping right to even out the forces. These clamps aren't too strong, but then you don't want to apply a huge force when glueing a thin top for risk of distortion.











Lastly, I picked up a few things recently, couple of pickups from a guitar shop over in Halifax, loom, pots and switch from a guy in the UK, truss rod, knobs (which don't fit!), radius sanding block, binding and truss rod routing bit from StewMac - though not sure about the colour on the binding, bit too dark maybe. Lastly there should be a tornado router bit in there which will be used to rout out various cavities.






Realised I haven't taken any pictures of the pickup and pot cavity rout templates, will get those on. Swines took quite a while to make so they best work. Should be attaching the top to the body next week so progress should start to pick up


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## ByronBlack (22 Jan 2009)

I noticed that you've gone for seymour duncans - which are they? (I'm guessing Alnico II's?)


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## Ironballs (22 Jan 2009)

SH1s, going for a reasonably authentic look, feel and sound to the 58 LP. Hopefully...

Top was glued to practice/ash body this week, other one gets glued next week and then there should be some cutting and routing


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## Ironballs (26 Jan 2009)

Just noticed when I opened this thread up there was an advert at the bottom with an Angus Young-esque SG in it, how cool was that! Forum magic

Right then, progress, still feels like it's going slowly but should be entering a period of a bit more pace. Last week I cleaned up all of the boards post top glue up and cut and planed down the tops to fit the bodies with the least overlap. Took a bit of a while but wanted to get it all right, had a trial clamp up to work out the clamp placings and shaped a couple of high pointed cross pieces to apply pressure in the middle. Pretty much used every clamp in the shop and must have really peed off the day students as it was still clamped up this week  

So, here a couple of pics of the hedgehogs I made











Had to move it out of the way before I left, could only just lift it.

This week was glue up of the mahogany and maple geetar, last week being the ash and sycamore. Picked up my boards from the store and remembered why I normally lug it all to and from home. This place must have minus humidity and an average temp of 40C, so 6 months conditioning in a warm dry part of my house yields no movement, 2 weeks in the 7th circle of hell gives me a C-shaped maple top. An expensive C shaped maple top. Not happy.






Decided it would move back under clamping so curbed the swearing and set about deciding on best grain orientation and dealing with some small pieces of tearout on the surface and how to hide. Arrived at a solution that gave good orientation and lost the tearout in the neck tenon and under the pickups.

Found some kemmsia clamps so an even more impressive hedgehog this week






Back to body number 1 and marked out the final shape using the template, found a use for the shop planes at last






The off to the bandsaw which unusually wasn't blunt, screechy and smoky. Something wrong here, maybe they haven't introduced the day students to it yet.

Pleasant few minutes cutting out the rough shape






The off to the bobbin sander to take the sides down to just above finished shape, the last bit will be done by hand. Really am spoilt with this sander, huge cast iron table, very big oscillating bobbin and a 3ft wide disc sander at the other end. First guitar shaped object produced and looking quite good too, ash is looking quite nice






Won't be much progress over the next fortnight as it's skiing next week, will do the hand sanding at home and may start the carving of the top. Actually I won't start the carving thinking about it, I want to rout the cavities first and a flat top would be preferred for this


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## Benchwayze (27 Jan 2009)

Looks as if it will be a nice guitar. I play the things, not make 'em, so I have a question IronB...

I am fully aware of the effect certain timbers have on the acoustic properties of hollow-bodied guitars. Even when the guitar is a Gibson L5, with pick-ups etc.

I realise a book-matched spruce top looks good on either type of guitar, but does it really matter what timber you use to make a solid, from the point of view of acoustics?


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## Setch (27 Jan 2009)

The wood you use will make a difference, though it's pretty difficult to quantify or predict exactly how, except in pretty broad strokes.

Denser, harder woods will tend towards brightness, whilst softer, less dense timbers tend towards mid/bass tones. Obviously, pickups and amp give you massive potential to shape the sound you get, but the body still provides the anchor to which your vibrating string is attached, and as such influence the overtones and harmonics of the note, which give the instrument it's basic voice.

Iron' - good call on the maple top. That amount of movement is very common, and provided it clamps flat isn't a problem. Almost all of the guitars I have built have had some degree of cupping in the top capm and it's never caused a problem.


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## Benchwayze (27 Jan 2009)

Cheers Setch..

So I might borrow my mate's Strat then! 

God! I spend enough on woodwork. I thought I'd finished buying guitars!


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## ByronBlack (27 Jan 2009)

Welcome to the board Setch. Are you the 'Setch' from projectguitar forum? 

Nice work so far Damian. A small tip, although probably a little late. To shape the bodies, it's best to make a template out of easier to work with material, say something like 12mm ply, or mdf etc.. once you have this template completed, all you need to do is rough out your shape on the bandsaw, attach the template and use a guided bearing to flush-trim the body to the template. It's a lot quicker and more accurate than trying to get all the curves sanded by hand.

Nice work so far. I wouldn't worry about the cap. My recent maple/yew guitar had a fairly large cup in it's cap, but once glued it's been perfectly fine.


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## Setch (27 Jan 2009)

> Welcome to the board Setch. Are you the 'Setch' from projectguitar forum?



The very same. I've been lurking here for a while - great forum, and obviously a ton of talent knocking about. Nice to have a chance to weigh in on a subject I know a little about!

For the posters who don't know me from PG, I've built a few guitars, and run a blog about repairing, modding and building guitars:

http://home.asparagine.net/ant/blog/


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## Benchwayze (27 Jan 2009)

Cheers Setch..

So I could repair a broken headstock myself? 
Next time the Missus walks into my guitar stand, because she's trying to save money by not switching on the light, it won't cost me a bomb for a glue-up!


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## OPJ (27 Jan 2009)

Ironballs":3iv7ki0z said:


> Picked up my boards from the store and remembered why I normally lug it all to and from home. This place must have minus humidity and an average temp of 40C, so 6 months conditioning in a warm dry part of my house yields no movement, 2 weeks in the 7th circle of hell gives me a C-shaped maple top. An expensive C shaped maple top. Not happy.



We have a similar problem in our college workshops. The heating's on 24/7 and the radiators are often on full blast when I get in on a Thursday morning, whatever the weather! :shock: My 3" brown oak went from 17% down to 10% in a matter of weeks! Another guy bought some American Black Walnut, which was reading less than 5% not long ago! :shock: :?


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## OPJ (27 Jan 2009)

ByronBlack":3m2ttc0e said:


> To shape the bodies, it's best to make a template out of easier to work with material, say something like 12mm ply, or mdf etc.. once you have this template completed, all you need to do is rough out your shape on the bandsaw, attach the template and use a guided bearing to flush-trim the body to the template. It's a lot quicker and more accurate than trying to get all the curves sanded by hand.



The only problem I can see with this is that, unless I'm mistaken, you cannot buy bearing-guided cutters with an edge longer than about 2", maybe 2½"... That is, of course, assuming you're working with ex. 3" stock? :shock:  

Some of the radii would be too tight for the ring fence on a spindle moulder. What if you had two bearing-guided cutters; one with a top bearing, the other on the bottom and used them in turn?


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## ByronBlack (27 Jan 2009)

Olly - You can get 75mm bearing cutters, but they cost a fortune. But you only need a 25-50mm one, once you have gone round once, you just makes another cut using the freshly cut surface as you guide for the bearing, so you can use any length you like. I personally have a trend 50mm x 19mm template cutter and that works a treat.

Setch, are you still using Rustins for your finishing?


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## Setch (27 Jan 2009)

The last one I finished was done in Rustins, but it's been a loooooong time since I finished one. I had to go and get a day job, and that really knobbled my productivity


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## ByronBlack (27 Jan 2009)

It's nice to see a clear maple top for a change! That has a lovely finish on it. My next one will use rustins - did you spray or brush this one?


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## Ironballs (28 Jan 2009)

Nice work Setch and feel free to weigh in with hints, tips and advice. Never built one before so it's learn as I go.

BB seeing as I went to the trouble of making my ply template and as I do have a template bit I may try routing the next one, do you get any scorching of the timber?

Re the debate on woods and effect on tone, there was quite a bit of opinion early on in this thread. I can only offer up what I have read elsewhere and have no practical experience, but logic should dictate that a dense timber well glued together should be clearer than a lighter timber. Don't know. Obviously massively altered by your pick ups, strings and wiring/electronics.

Olly, we've been in this workshop for 3 years now and job one each week is seeing how much your timber has moved and whether you've left enough material to correct it. Doing the cherry table last year drove me nuts, I had to glue the carcass up on a warm day next to a 7ft high panel radiator, teaches you a lot about working quickly :shock:


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## ByronBlack (28 Jan 2009)

IB - wood choice most definitely has an effect on tone, it's been proving a many times, here's a good article/essay that explains the reasons why:

http://www.jetguitars.com/treatise.html

As for scorching - if you have a sharp cutter, and your not taking off a lot of a material at once, you should be ok. The only thing to be careful off is coming around the horn - as the grain is in the wrong direction, but take your time and you should have no problems. I've done 5 bodies now using this method and so far it's been pretty easy.


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## Setch (28 Jan 2009)

The trick with routing bodies is to always imagine how a crack will propogate if the cutter splits out grain rather than cutting it cleanly. If you always start at the widest points of the body, and rpute towards the narrowest, you'll be OK - but this will require doing a number of climbig cuts, so take care!

Another good tip is to clean up your work area before routing the horns - that way you'll be able to find, and reattach any bits which get torn off. DAMHIK!

That said, if I had access to a large bandsaw and bobbin sander, I think that's how I'd shape my bodies, I've had too many nasty bits of tearout with routers, especially on the endgrain of the butt, and they're a real PITA to fix.

Byron, all my guitars have been sprayed. The Rustins is very forgiving as a sprayed finish, and tolerant of extreme heat and cold which would preclude spraying nitro.


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## Ironballs (28 Jan 2009)

Think I might rout and then sand around the horn to be safe. Following the trials of Seaco in the general section who's trying to sort out a small spray booth with explosion proof fan. Haven't decided on finish yet so this may sway me - still leaning towards Behlens though


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## Ironballs (16 Feb 2009)

I am a frustrated man!

Lost a week due to the skiing (no great hardship and as it happens the class was cancelled due to snow), then was ill briefly so missed last week, this week is half term but I thought I'd catch up by routing out all my various cavities in the ash body. Went to my tool bag tonight, dug out the router bits, got the body and then realised that I'd left all my templates at the college. buttocks and buggeration.

Instead spent the evening tidying the garage and sorting out the blade on old Record ebay purchase - well, half sorted out, should have put it on the wheel first to save my thumbs and get the primary bevel in.

So frustrated at the slow progress and my Slash top hat and curly wig will have to stay in the cupboard a bit longer yet


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## Ironballs (19 Feb 2009)

Okay, nipped into the college to get my router templates and picked up body number 2. The switch template still needs finishing off, but the pickup and main wiring cavity templates are done, took quite a while to knock these up in stupid thickness ply.











Good old double sided tape from B&Q was liberally attached to the bottom of the pickup template and lined up with the markings on the body. The majority of the waste was taken out with a bigger Tornado template bit and then the finishing of the sides and corners was done with a straight flute. Still took quite a while though and now have routers hand






Did both pickup cavities before I carved the body so that I had nice flat surfaces to work on and will also rout all of the cavities on the back pre-carving so that again the body can be laid flat. A satisfying job and one that makes all the time creating the jigs worthwhile. Also pleased to see that all the cavities lined up with the pre-routed channel for the wiring I put in before the top was glued on. Will do the remainder of the routing on body 1 before moving onto cutting out the shape on body 2 - in fact may do the routing before cutting out the shape











Ordered my adhesive copper foil for shielding the cavities today, apparently the same stuff that you attach to plant pots to ward off slugs


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## stef (19 Feb 2009)

Are you sure you need to isolate/shield lps ?
i thought the point (one of the points) of the humbucker was the noise blocking differential setup.
a strat, yes, but a lp ?


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## ByronBlack (19 Feb 2009)

stef, you most definitely need to shield all electronics regardless of pickups (perhaps you can get away with it with EMG style actives), but regular humbuckers will still create a load of noise at high/mid gain if not shielded.


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## Ironballs (19 Feb 2009)

The man is right, humbuckers do cut down on the noise/interference as the name implies, but not all and a little shielding will do no harm. Plus it looks cool and that's more important :wink: 

Another evening routing in the garage, will get some pics when the camera has some charge. Decided to rout the mahogany body before cutting out the shape as it was a little easier, all went well except for the point when routing the bridge pickup and the template shifted slightly. Thankfully not much and I spotted it, but it is a little uneven compared to the other


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## Ironballs (28 Feb 2009)

Okay, finished the cavity routing on the back for the ash body, this included the lip around the edge for the cover plates, came out pretty well.






Then cut out the shape on the mahogany body, decided to go for bandsaw and bobbin sander as I had the tools at my disposal and I knew it worked. Just needs a finish/smoothing sand around the edge now. Flame maple beginning to stand out now.






Have been uhmming and ahhing about the next step for ages now, I can't decide whether to drill the control knob holes now whilst everything is flat or do the carving first, so that I don't risk tear out of the holes. I also don't know if the holes should be perpendicular to the body or the carve on the top. Have asked the luthiers on mylespaulforum and will see what advice they have, but would also appreciate any of your views.

Had an experimental carve on some waste with the Clifton spokeshave and the thumb plane, I learned 2 things. One blade position is very important to avoid tearout and two, this is going to a looong time


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## ByronBlack (28 Feb 2009)

if you want to speed the carving process - hog most of the waste using a router, carving the various depths at each step - then use your planes and sand paper to smooth out the transitions. I would drill after the carve.


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## Supernova9 (28 Feb 2009)

Drill them now, carving won't affect their position, and they don't need to be parallel to the surface after the carve. That way, if it's not carved, drill bit's less likely to skip/slip on a flat surface.

Edit: Actually, scratch that, I just checked my Epi les paul - the pots are parallel to the carved surface. Best way to do that - drill the holes perpendicular to the flat top, slightly larger than the diameter of the pot shaft, then counterbore from behind, like this:

http://home.asparagine.net/ant/blog/?page_id=30 <-- Halfway down the page.


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## Ironballs (28 Feb 2009)

Thanks chaps, had a trip into Leeds today to have a look at a few real LPs and they all have the knobs perpendicular to the carve, it's only a light angle but an angle all the same. Some of the cheaper copies didn't and a couple had clearance issues.

The advice from the mylespaul guys (with pictures!) was to drill the final angle with a forstner in the cavity and match the angle with that drilled through from the front.

It's not going to be light this guitar, 8.5lbs at the minute with some wood to be routed and carved away, but a neck and hardware to be added.

Going to make the cavity covers from wood, so bandsawed some thin slices last week in preparation. Predictable they curved straight away but they may settle and I also have enough thickness in them to straighten out. Should look better than plastic hopefully


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## Setch (1 Mar 2009)

I wouldn't use solid wood covers any less than 1/4", and even then only if it's very stiff and stable. I tend to think wooden covers look best when grain matched, otherwise I think they can look a bit amateurish. Best case, you cut them from the body blank and then tweak positioning to get a perfect match:


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## Ironballs (10 Mar 2009)

Still not carving yet, can't believe it!

Well all the back cavities are routed out and I've rounded over the edge on the back too whilst the top was flat. Before that though I had to hand sand the edges to smooth off and take out the lumps and bumps left by the bobbin sander, not a quick job when you're doing it on 2 bodies. Fair crippled me but at least they only need a finish sand now. Also planed square the heel area where the neck is to join, took a while as it does need to be square and flat.

Then marked the limit of the top carve around the edge - quite a bit of wood to be removed there, it's best not to think about wastage when making guitars :shock: 







Also started rough drafting where the various carves are going to be on the top, back is not far off but I need to redo the waist and front as the transition is much sharper in places.






Did some more jig making this week (fed up with making jigs), this one was to enable me to accurately plane the neck angle and pick up angle. Decided to make a little platform that would sit over the body, both clamped in place and then rout from above and cross fingers with tearout. Took me all of this weeks class to make this damn jig, Steve Maskery would not be proud  

Once this is done I'll make yet another template and rout out the neck pocket and after that I can put off the carving no longer...


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## Ironballs (26 Mar 2009)

Okay then, it's been a painful couple of weeks which can mean only one thing, yes, it's top carving time.

Before that though it was time to test out the new jig and rout in the neck angle, steady as she goes for this bit as it's fairly crucial to get it right. Also routed the pickup angle, made a slight cock up there but more of that later one - hopefully can rectify it.






Next job was to rout the flat portion of the top around the edge, plenty of passes and lots of care to avoid tearout on that maple, Tornado bit did a good job here. Went a little too far on the horn, but not unrecoverable






Did think about routing the bulk of the waste away for the profile on the top but decided to break out the spokeshave and luthier plane. Spokeshave good, luthier plane hot little pointy pain device. Bad. Very bad. Still, coming along though











Almost finished the carving/planing and was able to do the bulk of it in front of the telly. Ended up using all of the luthier planes I got at Bedford last weekend (very timely). Next job is to dig out Paul Chapman's thread on putting a hook on scrapers using an mdf template and sharpen the curved scraper. After that it's sanding, lots of sanding


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## Philly (27 Mar 2009)

Cool! Some fantastic looking maple!
Philly


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## ByronBlack (27 Mar 2009)

that's coming along nicely!


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## kityuser (27 Mar 2009)

wow, looking good, would give my epi a run for its money.

I LOVE the top

Steve


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## OPJ (27 Mar 2009)

Coming along nicely, Damien.  

Sometimes, you've just got to take a deep breath and crack on with those parts of a project you're not looking forward to. Even if you balls it up, you'll feel more relaxed and it's usually plain sailing from then on! :wink:


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## Neilster (9 Apr 2009)

Loving the LP.. What sort of finish you going for.. Goldtop?


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## Ironballs (10 Apr 2009)

Goldtop, on flame maple, you cheeky git  

Goldtop will be last resort if I cock up the finish (so not ruled out yet...), I'm planning to go for something like a honeyburst


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## Ironballs (20 Apr 2009)

Okay, bit of a hiatus due to Easter Hols and not been able to work on it at home for various reasons, like painting the bloody garage roof :x 

So, put the body to one side for a little bit, anything to put off the sanding of the top. Time to get the neck out.

Now I've been putting off doing further neck work since I roughed out the basic shape and then realised a little while after that I should have marked out my neck blank and routed the truss rod slot whilst I had a square piece to work with. I eventually settled on making another mdf template, this one with a slot down the middle just the right size to fit the guide bushing on the router.

A fairly simple job but made more complicated by having to do at class, which goes something like: find a piece of mdf, cut it to size and ensure square, mark up the mdf for the routing, get a router, get another router that doesn't have rattley bearings, find a spanner, find a guide bushing, find some screws for the guide bushing, find a screwdriver, set up the router, rout the slot, fit the guide bushing, make a heath robinson arrangement for holding and clamping the neck and holding the template in place. Then finally, 20 minutes before the class ends, hurriedly rout the truss rod slot...

So here we are in mid rout, had to re-position the template and clamps part way which wasn't ideal but only had a mild deviation from the previous line.











That was pre-Easter, this week I had to plane the headstock flat and at the right angle, fairly simple job, just had to ensure I didn't plane the flat where the nut will sit.






Then it was time to mark out the shape of the headstock again and off to the trusty bobbin sander to get the curves in. Had to be careful around the transition area but again a simple and rewarding job. Then it was back to the bench to plane down the sides of the neck nice and straight. Also straightforward but has to be accurate. Next job will be to sort out the angles and cuts on the tenon end before shaping the radius into the neck


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## Neilster (23 Apr 2009)

Ironballs":1nidu3th said:


> Goldtop, on flame maple, you cheeky git
> 
> Goldtop will be last resort if I cock up the finish (so not ruled out yet...), I'm planning to go for something like a honeyburst




Hehe.. sorry.. I mean like this 

http://media.photobucket.com/image/mapple gold top/JERMDADDY/LP CUSTOMS/summerjam29007.jpg


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## Philly (23 Apr 2009)

Ooh! Like that, Neil!
Iron - you'll be pleased to know you've inspired me to make a Les Paul/Weissy crossover. Just planed up the mahogany for the blank.
Philly


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## woodbloke (23 Apr 2009)

I know nuffink about guitars 'cept that my son has a Gary Moore Les Paul (I changed the finger plate for him to a plain one) which he plays through a big Orange amp (same as the ones that Travis use, or used to use?) - Rob


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## kityuser (23 Apr 2009)

woodbloke":fn59cayw said:


> I know nuffink about guitars 'cept that my son has a Gary Moore Les Paul (I changed the finger plate for him to a plain one) which he plays through a big Orange amp (same as the ones that Travis use, or used to use?) - Rob



gary moore les paul, yum.....

orange amp to boot.

a man with taste!

This thread is looking very nice indeed, I`m eagerly awaiting the result.
of course with a guitar build, sound samples WILL be a requirement as well as final pics 

Steve :lol:


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## Ironballs (23 Apr 2009)

Neilster, not seen a finish like that before and it looks pretty good.

Philly glad I've inspired you to do a Les Paul crossover, however if you finish it before I do then you're dead :wink:


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## Ironballs (6 May 2009)

Okay, more neck work, this time I had to thin down the headstock to the right dimension, so over to the bandsaw and then a bit of planing and sanding. I'd got used to the thickness of the neck as it was and was a bit shocked when I realised how much had to come off. Must take better care of it now, ie not bang it into doorframes...






Now it's the real brave pill time, I've marked up 2 points on the neck for which I have made radius templates, I thickness the neck at those two points, ensure a flat line between the two and then carve out the two sections. Those surforms remove a lot of material very quickly :shock: 





















As long as I keep the pencil mark on the centre line then I know I've not strayed over and altered the thickness. Now that I have the two ends radiused I can just joint the dots between the two and smooth it out. Then it's the headstock volute and heel section.

Nice to be working with handtools only at the minute, nice pace and I can hear the radio too


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## ByronBlack (7 May 2009)

Nice job so far Damian - Shaping the neck was/is my favourite part of the process, it's very satisfying.

A tip if you have not already thought of it: If you wish to have an authentic les paul profile, you can buy or make a template out of card that matches the profile - you can then lay this over the back of your neck as you go to make sure you are on profile.

Personally, for my last neck on the explorer build, I just took a small amount of at a time until it felt right, which was quite surprising when I compared it to an off the shelf guitar, my neck was more like a baseball bat, but was much easier to play!


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## Setch (7 May 2009)

For neck shaping, I really like my shinto saw rasp for coarse stock removal, it's very quick, but leaves a vastly superior finish to a surform. It always surprises me how quick the fine side cuts *and* how smooth a cut the coarse side produces.

Looks like you have a nice spokeshave, that's a joy to use for shaping mahogany with nice cooperative grain, though you have to be careful on figured woods, I've had a few close calls with curly maple and pau ferro leading the shave astray.

For final shaping, especially in the transitions to head and heel, you'll find a decent fine cut rasp invaluable, and a curved scraper.


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## Ironballs (7 May 2009)

Already there Colin, on my plan they had a neck section at two points which showed depth and shape, so I made myself 2 plywood templates for checking. Once I have those two done I then just join the rest of the neck up. Going to see if I can get that part of the neck shaped tonight.

Setch nice tip with the Shinto saw rasp, might get one for the future. They have them at Workshop Heaven plus a number of normal rasps, which thinking about it I may need to acquire to help me with the heel. The surform is just a bit too vicious for that and my half round file is just that, a file, not a rasp.

Do have a curved scraper too but am finding it a real ballache to turn a hook on. Any tips for gooseneck hooks would be appreciated.

Setch do you have a guitar building site/blog? I'm sure I've studied an Ant Setchell site when researching


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## Ironballs (7 May 2009)

Luthier than thou, was that it?

Had a productive little session in the shop tonight, shaped the 2 sections and then joined them up along the length, I'm sure it isn't perfect but for my first neck it looks alright. Well, I think so  






Then had time to start shaping the transition at the headstock, shouldn't take too long and quite a rewarding job too. Starting to get used to working without faces and edges and marked straight lines, it's all curves and 3D


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## Mikey R (8 May 2009)

Ironballs":3ur2vlj1 said:


> Then had time to start shaping the transition at the headstock, shouldn't take too long and quite a rewarding job too. Starting to get used to working without faces and edges and marked straight lines, it's all curves and 3D



Hey IB, Thats looking great! I almost cant wait to start another guitar so I can carve another neck. 

Thats a good tip raising the neck above the bench top, more clearance for the spokeshave handles and closer to eye level.


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## wizer (8 May 2009)

Looking good IB. How do you get away with going into the workshop at night? Every night on the train I think about what I'm going to do in the shop that night. Then I get in, make the dinner, water the garden, put the bambino to bed and any trace of motivation as seeped out.


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## Ironballs (8 May 2009)

Motivation can be a problem after a hard day but Mrs IB is currently working in Luxembourg during the week, so it's either sit on here and talk about woodworking with you guys or actually do some woodworking in the garage!

Mike that block served a dual purpose, it did as you say raise everything off the bench to give me room, but it also gave a reference edge to work to, ie once I got close to the neck edge I would slide the base proud of the neck so I couldn't plane or sand off width. Only came to me as I was doing it.

My inner magpie came out today though and a set of rasps are now on their way to me  Plus a waterstone flattening stone, realised my 800 grit stone is looking decidedly U shaped and was making sharpening a challenge


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## OPJ (8 May 2009)

Ironballs":3tjihh0e said:


> My inner magpie came out today though and a set of rasps are now on their way to me



So, which ones did you go for?


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## Ironballs (8 May 2009)

Dakota from Rutlands, should do the job I need, not necessary to shell out large amounts of cash. If I find them inadequate and/or I do more shaping then I can always upgrade. Can't argue with a set of 5 for half the price of an Auriou


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## Ironballs (2 Jun 2009)

Another update, I've missed out the tedious week of scraping and sanding the top - part of which involved putting a hook on a gooseneck scraper, even more tedious.

Finished off shaping the headstock transition, looks a little weird in this photo but it came out fine







Then it was onto shaping the heel, broke out the Dakota rasps to remove the waste but they were just a little too aggressive and as mentioned elsewhere one of the rasps confirmed it's banishment to a dark corner of the garage when it popped out of its handle and landed on the neck :x There are about 5 or 6 little indents which I think will be hidden by location, grain filler and lacquer. But still...











Bit of careful marking up and sawing to get a good square tenon made and an 85.5 degree slope on the shoulders.

Next up was making yet another jig, this one was for the neck pocket, fairly simple u shape slot made slightly undersize to allow for some fettling. Was able to sit it on the slope of the top as planned but had to be careful as there wasn't a great deal of area for the double sided to stick onto. Made the job a little easier for myself by forstner-ing out the bulk of the waste first






Spent most of last nights class fitting the neck, initial fit once I managed to get it partly in showed a significant skew off to the right, ie 0.5cm at the headstock. Not sure how that happened but that's why I'd left a little fat in, lots of toing and froing but it fits and is striaght now, though a touch looser than I'd like - more room for the glue  

Neck shown here, big moment, so that I can mark out the final bit of body to be sanded away to merge into the neck






Sanding done here and a cloe up of the neck. You can see here that the fit is not quite as tight as I'd like, I'll have another look to see if there are any high spots to remove but to be honest it lines up straight and I could keep removing little bits here and there and make a right pigs ear of it, so may just allow a thicker glue line. Could always make some mahogany dust to mix with the glue at the surface






I've not drilled any holes in the top for the bridge yet, was waiting to finish this and a couple of other jobs first. Any inaccuracies in scale length that have crept in here can be compensated for with the bridge placement. Fairly confident I should be within 0.5 mm though.

Next job is routing the binding channel on the body and routing the inlay holes in the fingerboard. Plenty more scope for Mr Cock Up to enter stage left


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## Philly (3 Jun 2009)

Nice one - looking good!
Guess I should make an effort on mine now you're back in the game..:wink: 
Philly


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## Setch (3 Jun 2009)

IB, glue a piece of veneer to your tenon, then reshape it to get a nice tight fit. Glue and sawdust is bad mojo


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## Ironballs (10 Jun 2009)

Setch, don't think that will be needed, when I went back to it the fit was much tighter (think the parts had been baking in the car all day the week before  ). So that did allow me to fine tune the fit around the shoulders, which I've done and is now a closer fit.

That meant that this week was another brown trousers job, routing out the binding channel. Used a Dremel and small bearing guide gizmo from Stewmac, generally worked okay but a bit wobbly on a couple of points and was difficult round the horn and cut away. Will need some touching up/filling in those spots which is a pain but not major.

That done and it was on to another stressful job, supergluing on the binding. Thankfully I'd had the foresight to order 2 lots of binding and as one was snapped in transit I got the impression that it was a little brittle. A trial bend later and that was confirmed. Knew the horn was going to be difficult anyway so had a practice with the spare and a heat gun. Then found there isn't much between solid and runny and that it's also difficult to bend hot plastic with your fingers :shock: 

Taped up the binding in the channel and then moulded it around the horn in situ, this would make the glueing easier. It isn't a 100% perfect fit but close enough, any more and I risked getting a pool of plastic and/or no fingertips.

Untaped it and then got onto the gluing, which was part fun part stressful, it worked pretty quickly and more than once I got a good covering of glue on me when I was taping the binding down. In fact all went well (apart from getting part stuck to the glue tube) until I got to the horn and ran out of glue. Thankfully the ladies in jewellery had some and I could finish the job, leaving me to bask in a warm fug of cyanoacrylate with no fingerprints.






Came back tonight and peeled off all the tape and set about scraping off the excess height and width in the binding and the various bits of gunk. Got the majority off and will now finish with sandpaper.






Decided to go with an ebony headstock veneer as I liked the look of it. Sorted the rough shape and then glued on, will finish to size once set. It's mad panic for the show time at the college, so finding these clamps was no mean feat.











Next jobs are drilling a few more holes in the guitar and sorting out the inlay in the fingerboard


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## Ironballs (10 Jun 2009)

Forgot to add/ask, if anyone knows of a binding supplier that is better than that brittle rubbish from Stewmac I'd be glad to hear of it. A rare rubbish product for them


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## Mikey R (10 Jun 2009)

Ironballs":2qk6kkcn said:


> Forgot to add/ask, if anyone knows of a binding supplier that is better than that brittle rubbish from Stewmac I'd be glad to hear of it. A rare rubbish product for them



Have you tried Dave Dykes? Ive bought things like truss rods and fingerboard blanks from him and always been pleased


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## Ironballs (10 Jun 2009)

He's on the list, that's where I got the ebony from. Got some binding from Smallwonder Music and that looks as brittle as the Stewmac and is a whiter cream too


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## Philly (11 Jun 2009)

I've just had some delivered from UK Allparts - let you know how I get on.
I've been searching the UK for a source that doesn't rip you off for the postage - and have the items in stock.
Cheers
Philly


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## Mikey R (11 Jun 2009)

A friend uses the binding from Touchstone Tonewoods - seemed to get a sucessful result as his Ricky copy is very nice!


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## Ironballs (15 Jun 2009)

Okay time to move onto the fingerboard, rosewood and bought pre-slotted from Stewmac as the price difference was negligible and it saves me a very fiddly and time consuming job with lots of scope for cock up.

Made up a simple jig that will hold the board and allow the dremel to sit squarely on top. Whipped out the mother of pearl crown inlays and sprinkled them on the board to see what they looked like.






Onto the fiddly stuff, had to get them centred in their positions so marked up the board and the inlays. Took ages, very dull...






Then double sided taped them into place and marked round with a scalpel and then over with a white pencil to aid routing






Then onto the routing, took a shallow cut using a little spiral cutter and went just inside the lines. This was the first pass and will go down to final depth with the next one. Half expected the cutter to break as I moved it around but it was faultless - don't know what I'll do with the 2 spares :roll: 

Thinking ahead I kept the rosewood dust in a little bag in case I need something to mix with the glue and fill any gaps around the inlays :wink:


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## kityuser (16 Jun 2009)

forgive my ignorance but is the fingerboard flat on a les paul or does it have a radius? (D cross section), I don;t have mine to hand and honestly can't remember? if it does then wouldn't you be routing out too much at the centre and too little at the sides (depth)?

I`ve just had a quick look on wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Finge ... scheme.svg

apparently for a les paul r = 12"

Steve


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## ByronBlack (16 Jun 2009)

It's very rare to have completely flat fingerboards, almost all have a radius of between 7" and 16"

12" being the most popular for gibsons.


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## Ironballs (16 Jun 2009)

A Les Paul is indeed 12", the board is pre-radiused but not final finished. My plan is to have the wood a little proud in the centre and the inlay a little proud at the edges, then it's out with the radiused sanding block to take it down to the correct dimension and the final finish


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## Chems (17 Jun 2009)

I can't even imagine working to these kinds of level of detail you are. I'm in awe!


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## kityuser (17 Jun 2009)

Ironballs":1n6r44ry said:


> A Les Paul is indeed 12", the board is pre-radiused but not final finished. My plan is to have the wood a little proud in the centre and the inlay a little proud at the edges, then it's out with the radiused sanding block to take it down to the correct dimension and the final finish



Ah! I see such a simple solution!
Steve


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## Ironballs (17 Jun 2009)

Hold your horses Chems, we've not arrived at the finished product yet! You'll have to see how many "imperfections" I'm prepared to live with


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## Mikey R (18 Jun 2009)

Was the mother of pearl from Stewmac too? How thick is it? In the photos it looks quite thick.

Im really impressed with that marking up! What are your plans for the side dots?


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## Ironballs (18 Jun 2009)

The MoP was from a place called Smallwonder Music here in the UK, they've got a nice website and offer a great range of pre-cut and sheet inlay, ranging from plastic to MoP to thin rock/agate. Can't recall the thickness but I can measure it if you're interested.

Side dots are also from Smallwonder. Did try and make them from tortoiseshell picks but couldn't get them to punch out to a decent finish/shape


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## Ironballs (6 Jun 2012)

Now then, here's an old project that anyone with a long memory will have thought would never see the light of day again (me included...). I finally decided to MTFU and tackle the fiddly jobs and take this to a finish. So, where were we 2 years ago, ah yes I'd glued on the binding and needed to clean up the body and remove the excess superglue.

Quick picture of that







The headstock has been shaped and I now needed to excavate the access point for the trussrod adjustment






Out with the carving chisels and we had this






Then moved on and drilled the holes for the tuners











Now, back to the fingerboard which after making a couple of minor breakout repairs looked like this






I needed to lay the fingerboard on the right place on the neck to get the profile marked up accurately, to do so I needed to put the nut on (not glued at this point). I'd bought several nuts as each one didn't quite cut it for me, eventually went for the big one made out of cow bone






A bit of careful planing yielded a good fit






The fingerboard is also bound so I set the gauge to the thickness of the binding and marked up the board for more planing











Et voila!






Fingerboard and inlay are ready to meet each other for the final time






So out with the superglue again and some tape to hold the inlay in place











Shown there with some trimmed fret wire too. Here's what it looked like once the tape had come off






First pass with the radius sanding block






My inlay hole trimming wasn't perfect, there were some very thin gaps, so I sanded and filled the gap with sawdust and then dribbled on some superglue to fix it






Going up through the grades and we had quite a nice finish






Just double checking how much of the fingerboard to cut off, don't want to get that wrong...






Now ready to start binding the fingerboard with that horrible pastic rubbish again











Quick test fretting with the hammer, Philly fans make recognise the hammer






Yet another of the rather tedius jobs, trimming the fret wire closer to length and removing exactly the right amount of tang - and not getting the frets out of order






Getting ready to do the long binding on the fretboard, using binding that insists it wants to be curly











There's a couple of jobs I haven't shown (drilling the jack plug hole and pickup selector switch hole) but you'll see those on the finished body. Next up is fretting and then glueing the nut and fingerboard to the neck, then I have to drill the most important holes of the entire project, the bridge and saddle


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## Kalimna (6 Jun 2012)

I have just discovered this thread, and it makes for a fascinating read - your guitar is looking quite spectacular. I have collected the bits n bobs to make a couple of electrics ( my version of an EVH and an all Scottish timber beastie) and acoustics (the rosewood and spruce plates sitting upstairs thicknessed right now). I just need the proverbial kick up the rear to get going!
The maple top you have is stunning - and the carving subtley done. I look forward to future updates 
One question regarding your fingerboard markers - what is the purpose of the drilled bits on each crown inlay recess? (apologies if I have missed it in the text)
And how do you plan to finish the guitar, now it is nearing completion?

Cheers,
Adam


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## Setch (7 Jun 2012)

My guess would be vents for glue, to stop the inlay popping up under hydraulic pressure. I opt for sloppy routes to stops this happening... 

I also have enough top and back material for 6 acoustics, and at least that many electrics, plus 2 electrics which are ready fro lacquer, and have been for about 6 years - I could do with that kick up the buttocks too!


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## Ironballs (7 Jun 2012)

The holes on the fingerboard were a bit of forward planning, I knew the inlays wouldn't fit perfectly first time and that some fitting and fettling would be required so I'd need to pop them out. As the fit is supposed to be snug I felt the easiest way to do this without damaging the routs was to drill some holes in the back so I could push the inlays back out. Worked very well.

Finish is old school nitrocellulose and will be a burst, precise one is still to be decided. I've decided that I'm going to farm that job out to a pro, me doing it for the first time with cans is not a good idea


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## Kalimna (8 Jun 2012)

Ok, that makes sense about the holes, though unless they were wedged in and needed fettling, then a blob of blu-tack should provide enough grab to lift the inlay out without the need for holes in the fretboard.
Im going for Tru-Oil on my electric and going to attempt rattle cans for the acoustic.....

Cheers,
Adam


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## Ironballs (11 Jun 2012)

Trust me, they were a tight fit some of them, the holes were needed!


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## Teckel (11 Jun 2012)

Ironballs. That is a fantastic job your doing. I made an electric guitar when I was 17 for my leaving certificate. So I have a fair idea what it takes to make one. I will keep a close eye on this to see how you get on. 
Keep up the good work


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## whiskywill (27 Jun 2012)

Very nice work. 

If you ever make another, try CleanFit for shaping the neck. It's an abrasive mesh strip used by plumbers but it's great for curves and lasts a long time on wood without blocking.

http://www.pipekit.co.uk/shop/1900_CleanFit_Roll


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