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Lets build something that looks (kind of) like a Les Paul (Jr) - Clip Added


Freeman Keller

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As some of you have figured out, I like to build guitars and as I do, I take a few pictures to document the process. It is a pretty simple matter to upload those pictures to a hosting site (Photobucket, which I hate but use anyway) and then post them here as a build thread. Many of you have been very kind in your comments about my attempts so if its OK, I'd like to do it again.

 

As I said in another mini-thread, the ES-175 is out for paint and will probably be gone for quite a while. I finished some little projects and was totally bored so I got some pieces of wood out of storage and asked a friend if I could build him a guitar. He said yes so here we go.

 

First the usual disclaimer - I am not a professional at any of this and I don't like the term "luthier" applied to me - I have too much respect for those who truly merit that title. I consider myself an average amateur builder and have a pretty average shop - many of you who work with wood could be doing what I am doing. I've built one other electric guitar, a dozen acoustics of various shapes and sizes and a couple of other instruments - so I'm still learning and the way I learn is to make a lot of mistakes. I don't mind sharing the mistakes 'cause that's how we all learn.

 

So, what we have here is a piece of Spanish cedar (which is really related to mahogany and comes from South America) that I bought on speculation - it was just too damn pretty to pass up. Its been in my basement for maybe a year waiting for the chance to become a guitar. I've posted this picture before, but since its the start of the thread, here is the wood

 

IMG_1485_zps1e75c27a.jpg

 

 

I wiped some denatured alcohol on the wood which makes the grain stand out better – gives you an idea of what it will look like with finish on it. That effect is called “flame” and happens when the grain is not straight on the axis of the tree but instead has little undulations or waves in it. This has it going in two different directions – pretty rare and very pretty.

 

The problem with this piece of wood is that its only a quarter of an inch thick which is not thick enough to carve into a Les Paul or PRS type of top. It is just too nice to make into something like a Telecaster so my plan has been to build something along the line of a Les Paul Junior – basically a flat topped Gibson of some sort. LP Jr.s come in all kinds of flavors – both single and double cutaways, most with only one P90 but some have two or humbuckers. What seems to be the common thread is that they are pretty inexpensively built – flat top, no binding and often simple electronics.

 

Discussing this with my friend we’ve decided to make something shaped like a LP with two humbuckers (haven’t settled on the brand yet). He has given me carte blanc to do the wood, binding, inlay, finish and everything else as tho it was going to be my guitar – in other words he trusts me LOL.

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Gathering together the basic items to build a solid body guitar we have the two pieces for the top, a solid hunk of Honduras mahogany that will be the body, another at the top which will become the neck. There are a couple of pieces of maple binding laying on top - I haven't yet decided what kind of binding to use (I don't yet know if I can bend wood to fit the horn). Anyway, here is the wood

 

IMG_1499_zps57b8e49e.jpg

 

First thing to do is "shoot" the edges of the top plate perfectly straight and glue them together. I don't have a jointer so I use a big long plane and some long sanding blocks. The goal is to have the flame perfectly bookmatched and the center seam more or less invisible.

 

IMG_1922_zps95b192a3.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

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OK, I know this is controversial but I've decided to lighten this puppy up a bit. Remember that I'm an acoustic player, I'm used to playing light guitars without a strap. My Lester is darn heavy and I know that at least some factory LP's are "chambered" to reduce weight. I also know that there are some folks who feel that this cuts down the sustain and maybe has other effects on the tone - I guess we'll find out.

 

Please, lets not start that debate here - I've read the threads and I'm going to do it anyway. In fact, my customer rather likes the pups in my guitar - if I put the same kind in his we can do a little sustain comparison when this thing gets finished.

 

I have most of the templates and jigs from my build but I need to make one for the chambering. It ends up looking like the one on the right. That won't be too radical and keeps the big area of wood in the center to mount the neck, pickups and bridge. Here are the router jigs

 

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And here it is laid out on the body blank

 

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It is very important to do routing and cutting in the right sequence - whenever possible I want flat square surfaces for the router to ride on. As an aside, I own three routers, you'll get to see them all before this is done. My most used one is what is called a "laminate trimmer" - it is really a mid sized router designed for doing counter tops and similar work - it is perfect for building acoustic guitars but a little small for electrics. If I was going to do very many of these I would buy a larger router, but with sharp bits and making a series of cuts this one works OK.

 

First I route a channel that runs from the toggle switch in the upper bass bout diagonally through the two pickup cavities and to the area where the pot will be mounted. Important to miss where the pickup mounting screws will be....

 

IMG_1931_zpsebb7d80c.jpg

 

The yardstick is simply a guide.

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Now we can really get down to business. I know this is going to be messy (funny how my wife complains about the sawdust all over her little car) so I take my daughters little picnic table outside and set up my drill press. To make it easier on the router I want to take out as much waste wood as possible which I can do with big "Forstner" bits in my drill press. Set the stop and drill a lot of holes.

 

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Looks like this when I'm done

 

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Screw that jig that we made earlier onto the body blank and put my router to work. The wood shavings on the ground would make perfect filler for a hamster cage....

 

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Finally, a couple of shallow cuts to clean up the bottom of the body

 

IMG_1936_zps6b8d537a.jpg

 

 

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A few more. Once the inside of the body was hogged out it was time to cut the outside shape. First my wimpy little band saw - its a 10 inch Craftsman that I picked up in a yard sale, works fine for acoustics but its pretty under powered for cutting two inch mahogany.

 

IMG_1937_zps8facb5ab.jpg

 

A new blade and going very slowly got me

 

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Stick the template on with some double sticky carpet tape and route with the wimpy little laminate trimmer

 

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More sawdust, anyone raising hamsters?

 

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And here we are

 

IMG_1941_zps4d2cb0e1.jpg

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Thanks for the reinforcement guys. Didn't know if I had put you all totally to sleep or if you were just more interested in talking about coax cables and your favorite bridges.

 

So, with the glue dried I ran the router around the edge of the top to true everything up

 

IMG_1950_zpsa8a98cf7.jpg

 

and then I stared at this thing for most of the day. Its decision time, some major forks in the road. First, lets talk about "themes". I get to go to a lot of custom guitar shows and I hang out at a couple of cool lutherie forums. Sometimes I see guitars that just stand out - everything fits and is just perfect. Sometimes I see guitars where something (or things) is just wrong. There are lots of hand made guitars out there with one kind of body wood, something else on the headstock, one kind of binding on the body, something else on the head and something entirely different for a rosette or pickup rings or whatever. Each part is beautiful but they just don't work together. It looks like the builder is trying to show off all of her talents, but doesn't have the artistic sense of how to put it together.

 

I like simple themes that get carried through the entire guitar. On this one I have kind of decided that the neck and body will be mahogany, the top and (hopefully) headstock will be the Spanish cedar, which as I've said, is a type of mahogany. I've got a great piece of rosewood for the fretboard with lots of nice grain that will go well with the top, so I want to use rosewood for the body and headstock binding and all the other little trim pieces (as your remember with the ES-175 it was all ebony with a few skulls thrown in). White mother of pearl for all the inlay and all gold hardware. I think these will work well together, just one little problem.

 

I don't know if I can bend a piece of rosewood binding to fit that horn on the treble bout. I've bent lots of wood binding, but always gentle curves on acoustics. If I can't bend it then the whole rosewood theme goes out the window - I'll probably end up with cream plastic. Well, only one way to find out (and I need to know now because one of the next steps is to rout the binding channel).

 

I made a little jig out of some MDF in the shape of the treble side of the guitar and routed a channel the same size as the binding. There actually is an innie and an outie, you'll see them in a minute. I fired up my trusty hot pipe - its a piece of 2 inch galvanized water pipe with a cap and a way to clamp it to my bench. Put a propane torch in it and heat it to 250 or so. Throw a wet towel over it and we're ready to bend some binding

 

IMG_1943_zpsecdb263c.jpg

 

Kind of hard to take pictures when you are holding a piece of rosewood against a 250 degree pipe, but the idea is that as I move it back and forth on the wet towel it will suddenly soften and become pliable. I can start working it into the shape of the little jig. Long story short, here it is when it was all fit into place

 

IMG_1944_zps424a6f13.jpg

 

And finally, I clamped the outie part of the jig on and put it away

 

IMG_1945_zps9c06c080.jpg

 

So, the bend was successful, the theme will be rosewood trim on mahogany and I'm going to get a nice cold IPA and relax....

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hmmm i'm asking myself since the early pics, will the top be carved? currently it doesn't look so...

so for me the body does look a little bit too thick for a lp(jr), more like the es175.

is this the intention?

or is it just the angle of the pictures which does make the body look thick?

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hmmm i'm asking myself since the early pics, will the top be carved? currently it doesn't look so...

so for me the body does look a little bit too thick for a lp(jr), more like the es175.

is this the intention?

or is it just the angle of the pictures which does make the body look thick?

 

t_e_l_e asks a very good question here - the answer is yes, sort of. Most Lesters have a 1-3/4 thick body with a 3/4 inch top plate which gets carved down to 1/8 or so at the rim. I'm starting with a 2 inch hunk of mahogany for the body and I don't have a good way to reduce the thickness (I could take it to a cabinet shop but decided not too). However my top plate is only a hair over 1/4 which creates a bit of a dilemma - if I leave it perfectly flat the seam will be a bit below my 1/4 binding. Also, I really don't happen to like flat guitars - I think curves are far sexier and a little more elegant.

 

So lets carve it a little bit and see what happens. The top is actually 5/16 thick - lets cut a shelf 3/16 down all the way around as a reference point

 

IMG_1951_zps1e176bbf.jpg

 

My idea is that that will be the edge of the recurve, it isn't much but its all I've got to work with. I'm using my binding router bit with the smallest bearing on it - I would like to make that cut deeper into the top but its all I've got.

 

Next I cut the binding channel a hair less than 1/4 inch down from the recurve - test fit a piece of the rosewood

 

IMG_1952_zpsa35415bb.jpg

 

And, yes, looking at this picture I probably should have thinned the body more but its too late now - it is what it is.

 

From here I just start free hand shaping the top to gently curve down to the recurve, then flatten out

 

IMG_1953_zps3f9d15bb.jpg

 

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For a luthier this is about the most fun you can have with clothes on

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Well, since I will probably spend the next few days stroking that sexy body (with 120 grit sand paper) and that isn't very thrilling for you folks (for me, however....). Lets start on the neck.

 

Actually, I started on the neck back when I was building the ES-175, I roughed out another neck at that time. Didn't know if it would be a 14 or 16 fretter so I didn't glue on the heel, but here are a couple of photos from back then.

 

IMG_1474_zpsbb2521a9.jpg

 

Basically it involves cutting a 1 inch thick by 3 inch wide piece of mahogany at the proper angle (16 degrees), flipping the cut off over and gluing it back on. Its called a scarf joint and its very strong, much stronger than the way Gibson does it by cutting the neck out of one piece of wood.

 

IMG_1476_zps4baaf1e8.jpg

 

The piece that will become the headstock gets thinned to approximately a half inch

 

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and glued on

 

IMG_1479_zps9f8dbb16.jpg

 

(ignore the feet in the picture, they have nothing to do with the neck)

 

 

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