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Home made Les Paul


Freeman Keller

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Damn, that looks amazing. I love these build threads. I don't even care if the guitar isn't my style, I just love watching them slowly emerge from hunks of wood. It's like the wood is already containing the pieces of the instrument, it just takes a skilled craftsman to properly bring them out.

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SCORE!

 

I think I mentioned that I didn't own an amplifier and wasn't completely sure what I was going to do. A friend offered me a loaner to set the guitar up and play it while I figured out what I wanted. However over the holiday we visited my family in Portland and while the girls were shopping for Christmas dresses, my son (remember my son, he is the cause of all of this sillyness) said "dad, lets you and me do a little shopping too". We went to a wood working tool store so Tom could get a router bit and I was very good - drooled over a lot of cool things but resisted. We went to a nice model shop (I've been want to get back into building a model or two as soon as the shop is clear) but again, Tom picked up something he needed, my visa stayed in my pocket. We thought we'd go to GC and just look at amps - Tom said he could explain different features and models and then, right in the middle of the used section was

 

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My son said "dad, that would be perfect. In fact, if you don't buy it I probably will". We took a Les Paul off the wall, plugged it in and played around (remember the second problem is that I don't know how to play electric guitar). So here is this grey bearded old fart sitting in the middle of Guitar Center with a silver and black Les Paul playing Alices Resturant (it was Thanksgiving, after all).

 

Anyway, it sounded pretty good and the darn thing followed me home - Gibson GA20RVT. The standby switch pops a bit when turned off but othewise seems to be in pretty nice shape. What 'cha all think - will this give me the vintage bluesy sound that I think I want?

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Nice Choice Freeman. That should be a fun little amp. I use a few amps with my les paul - a Marshall Class 5 for quiet(er) natural breakup, a Fender Champ 12 for quiet cleans and a 1960 Ampeg Mercury M12 for the loud cleans and dirt (jumping the two channels together on it).

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Nice score on the amp! What kind of tubes does it take? I know, I could look it up myself . . . but I'm too lazy.
:D

The guitar is looking nice well. Keep the updates coming. I can't wait to see what the finished product looks like!

 

Five 12AX7's in the preamps stages, a pair of 6V6's in the output. 15 watts of class A. Should be good enough for what I want to do.

 

I'm getting impatient too..

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I'm really impatient. If I had any sense I would hang this up for 3 or 4 weeks and let the finish cure, but I'm having trouble waiting that long I know all of you folks would do the right thing and wait...... But I can't

 

So, lets gently buff this thing out and see what happens. First we sand it with 800, 1200 and 1500 and water - the idea is that each grit will remove the sanding scratches left by the previous.

 

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Its smooth but dull

 

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Next two levels of polishing compound - I use StewMac's since it is designed for guitar finishes.

 

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and an inexpensive Grizzley wheel.

 

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Here is the top

 

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and back, I'm going over it with a swirl remover

 

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The finish is soft and I don't want to damage it so I'm going to stop here, put it together, then in a month or so take it all apart and really buff it good.

 

Told ya I couldn't wait

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Been following this thread since the beginning and I must say, very impressive work. I love the color.. that is the icing on the cake. I only wish I could do something like that with even a fraction of the quality. Unfortunately, I was blessed with no mechanical ability whatsoever. I can barely screw a light bulb in.

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Crap! We have to wait a month?! What to do....what to do.....

 

 

No, if I was good and patient we would have to wait. But I'm not. Stay tuned.

 

I've just got to say thanks to everyone who has been so wonderful about this. I appreciate your comments and compliments very much - both the build and this thread have turned out to be more rewarding that I ever would have thought.

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No, if I was good and patient we would have to wait. But I'm not. Stay tuned.


I've just got to say thanks to everyone who has been so wonderful about this. I appreciate your comments and compliments very much - both the build and this thread have turned out to be more rewarding that I ever would have thought.

 

 

Oh, good. A month of drool is a lot to clean off my keyboard.

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No, if I was good and patient we would have to wait. But I'm not. Stay tuned.


I've just got to say thanks to everyone who has been so wonderful about this. I appreciate your comments and compliments very much - both the build and this thread have turned out to be more rewarding that I ever would have thought.

 

Does that mean that you're going to build a LP for every one of us who supported you in the process? Come on! PLEASE? :D

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Since we've decided we can't be good and wait for the paint to dry, lets screw some hardware on this thing. Ream the holes for the tuner bushings

 

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and screw 'em down. I took the hole spacing from the plans - its a little on the tight side

 

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and install the bridge and tailpiece

 

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With tuners on it I can start making the nut. Fit the unbleached bone blank to the slot and mark in 0.115 from the sides of the fretboard

 

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Strings aren't evenly spaced on centers but rather equal space between the outside diameters. You can do the math and measure but this cool spacing rule gets it right from the get go

 

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Cut some starter slots with a 0.010 saw

 

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and mark the "zero fret" line with a half round pencil. I want to approach this line as I cut the slots

 

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Next it is just a matter of cutting each slot with the correct sized file - the files are rounded at the bottom at diameter of the string and kind of vee shaped which relieves the top of the slot from binding

 

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With a set of cheap strings on the guitar (they will get trashed during the setup process) I keep check the slot depth both with feeler gauges and by fretting the string at 3 and making sure I have a hair of clearance at 1

 

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I'll leave the nut action just a bit high, it is much easier to take it down than to raise it back up. Last step is to bring the top of the nut down to near the strings and polish it

 

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