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Home made Les Paul


Freeman Keller

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Georgeous guitar. You have some mad skills!

 

I agree that the truss rod cover is too much. A semi-gloss black to match the headstock would be nice and understated. Also, the truss rod cover is pretty high on the headstock above the nut. When you make a replacement, just stretch it to cover the top hole and touch the top of the nut?

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One thing I notice about the burst is that the upper part, where the switch and horn are, still has a lot of the lighter color, if that makes sense. I'm not a fan of the cherrybursts where the whole upper part is the darkest red, and you can't even see the grain up there. This might not be exactly the typical pattern, but I like it.

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If a forum member is close by, it would be great to hear a third party assess the guitar.

 

 

I would love to hear others play it, if there is anyone on Central Washington let me know. I did take it to my local store last evening and three very good players played it - completely different styles - but to my ears it sounded pretty good whether rocking hard, playing blues or some funky little jazzy things. The best comment was "sounds like an old Les Paul".

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I've kept a little spreadsheet on this and added up the damage last night. Very brief summary - the entire guitar was $862, another $129 for a nice case. I bought $150 worth of tools that I couldn't do without (mostly Forstner bits and a couple of special router bits), spent $579 for the used amp and a cord, and shipping on the mail order stuff was $75.

 

The guitar cost breaks down as $389 for the wood, $147 for pickups and electronics, $240 for hardware, $36 for the lacquer, and $50 for pearl. I had scraps of wood, the stains and pore filler and other odds and ends. I did buy a new router and table but that was for the shop, not just this project. However the big Forstner bits and deep router bits I probably won't use very often so I credit them here.

 

In general, then I would say that the guitar in the case was a grand, the amp another 600. The fun factor is priceless.

 

btw - if anyone would like a copy of the spreadsheet (or to borrow the Forstner bits, plans, templates, etc) just shoot me a PM.

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I've kept a little spreadsheet on this and added up the damage last night. Very brief summary - the entire guitar was $862, another $129 for a nice case. I bought $150 worth of tools that I couldn't do without (mostly Forstner bits and a couple of special router bits), spent $579 for the used amp and a cord, and shipping on the mail order stuff was $75.


The guitar cost breaks down as $389 for the wood, $147 for pickups and electronics, $240 for hardware, $36 for the lacquer, and $50 for pearl. I had scraps of wood, the stains and pore filler and other odds and ends. I did buy a new router and table but that was for the shop, not just this project. However the big Forstner bits and deep router bits I probably won't use very often so I credit them here.


In general, then I would say that the guitar in the case was a grand, the amp another 600. The fun factor is priceless.


btw - if anyone would like a copy of the spreadsheet (or to borrow the Forstner bits, plans, templates, etc) just shoot me a PM.

 

 

 

I can see you taking orders for custom LPs soon.

 

In hindsight, can you see any ways to streamline the process, to be able to complete a guitar quicker?

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Freeman - i've also been following your post (read some of your stuff on the acoustic forum when deciding on my reso's). i cannot lurk any more. i believe you've gone way beyond what stew-mac envisioned when they started selling their kits.

what a great piece of work! what a sweetie! HNGD! :thu::thu::phil::eekphil::rawk:

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When the dude said it sounds like an old LP, I wonder what mainly created that sound? The pickups? The wiring? The whole ball of wax?


Do new LPs from Gibson not sound like old LPs?

 

 

There is so much lore here that I don't understand so I'm not sure what he meant. The important thing to me was that they thought it sounded "right" - not like a Tele or a Strat or something else. The pups are supposed to be copies of PAF's, the wiring is all new parts (no bumble bees) and it is the more modern schematic.

 

One of the guys has some sort of old one - don't even know what - and they have plenty of new ones hanging on the wall. When I get slowed down I would like to get them all together in one room, turn on my little Zoom and hit record and compare mine to whatever else we can play. If I do I'll post the clips.

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Sorry, state. Half way between Seattle and Spokane, which I visit frequently, as well as Portland Oregon.






I've given away a couple of my acoustics and actually had my first real commission earlier this year - a weissenborn lap style for a local musician and friend. I charged him the cost of materials plus one dollar. He threw in a very nice bottle of wine. Somehow I don't think I will get rich at that rate


Which brings up the question asked to a luthier "what would you do if you won the lottery?". He answered "continue to build guitars until the money ran out"


As far as speeding up the process - several things, but I don't think I would want to do them. Obviously buying a precarved neck and/or body would speed things up a lot, but there was real joy in working with the wood and seeing those shapes appear. I spent a lot of time making jigs - neck pocket, cavities, headstock, pups - now that I have those I could go directly to making sawdust. Now that I know how all the neck angles work I would be a lot faster. Possibly not taking a bottle of IPA out to the shop would help - maybe coffee would be better. The finish always takes time, might be possible to speed that up with different equipment.


But the bottom line is that I love the journey. I don't do this just because I want a guitar - I love being out in the shop with a sharp chisel and a beautiful piece of wood. So even tho I could speed it up, I don't think I want to.






There is so much lore here that I don't understand so I'm not sure what he meant. The important thing to me was that they thought it sounded "right" - not like a Tele or a Strat or something else. The pups are supposed to be copies of PAF's, the wiring is all new parts (no bumble bees) and it is the more modern schematic.


One of the guys has some sort of old one - don't even know what - and they have plenty of new ones hanging on the wall. When I get slowed down I would like to get them all together in one room, turn on my little Zoom and hit record and compare mine to whatever else we can play. If I do I'll post the clips.

 

 

I look forward to the comparo. :)

 

I'm not sure if you've yet to finish buffing it out, or whatever is done to bring a new guitar to full shine, but in the recent pics, it looks like an ancient LP. Gibson puts lots of time into aging new guitars so that they'll look how yours looks right now. I guess I'm saying that I would stop shining it now. :D

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