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Les paul Junior: a new build


Bowen

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Today I started doing the dot markers. The side dots almost my least favorite thing to do. For some reason I always get one just a little off. Actually on one build I miscounted the frets somehow and put all of the side dots in the wrong place.

 

These are 7mm abalone dots. I put white side dots in after this pic was taken.

lpjr20.jpg

 

About to cut the neck pocket. I normally make through neck guitars because you don't have to worry about alignment and all the wood can come from narrower boards.

This is my first try at a set neck. I've used cloth backed carpet tape to hold the router guide boards to the body.

lpjr21.jpg

 

Neck pocket is cut and cleaned up with a chisel. The drawback to using the carpet tape and sticks to cut a neck pocket is that if you bear down with the router too much then the guide can move. This happened. I'll glue on a 1/32" shim to the bass side of the neck tongue to fix it.

lpjr22.jpg

 

Neck is test fit and the angle set. Adjusting the small neck tongue to the precise angle can be a chore. This took about 2 hours.

lpjr23.jpg

 

Well, that was my day. Tomorrow I'll carve the neck, fret it with medium stainless fretwire, and glue it to the body.

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So I got a little distracted and finished the guitar shown in this thread.

 

Yesterday I carved the neck and put on a couple coats of tru-oil. Tru-oil does not cure on cocobolo so I will wipe some shellac on the fingerboard edge before the final coats of oil.

Today I got the frets installed and the neck glued in the body.

 

About fretting: I'm using stainless frets which have a reputation for being very hard and time consuming to install. Beveling the fret ends takes 15 minutes more with SS vs nickel but everything else is about the same.

 

I start with the fretwire bent to a slightly tighter radius than the fingerboard. I'll tap then ends down, then the middle, then working back and forth drive the fret flush. With SS wire I use a small steel hammer to drive the frets, which work hardens the playing surface a bit.

lpjr24.jpg

 

Fret is fully seated.

lpjr25.jpg

 

Going all the way down the neck. Every few frets I'll stop and check for level with a straight edge. Any high frets are hammered a little more. By having the fingerboard very true and the frets evenly seated I'll not have to remove much fret material when I level, making crowning the frets unnecessary.

lpjr26.jpg

 

Fret ends are dressed with a small file then polished with micro-mesh. The micro-mesh also breaks the sharp edge of the fingerboard.

lpjr27.jpg

 

Now for the fun part, gluing the neck to the body.

lpjr28.jpg

 

Next time: Headstock overlay and pickguard. I am going to use wenge for both. I used wenge for the pickguard on this guitar and it worked out really well (and it's cheap!)

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I got a few more hours work done on this guitar today. I needed to install the tuners, then the bridge, then the pickup in that order.

 

Headstock drilled for tuners. I am planning on changing the tuner buttons to ovals.

lpjr29.jpg

 

There is no picture of installing the bridge. I first put a strip of tape on the body 25.5" from the nut, then installed the E strings and moved the bridge until the strings were even down the neck and the treble E saddle was over the tape line. I angled the bridge back a bit on the bass side and then used a transfer punch to mark the centers of the bridge post holes. I ground the flange off of the bridge post inserts so they will sit flush with the body. (I don't like the strings to be too far off of the wood)

 

To locate the pickup I used the cover aligned square with the guitars center line and the E strings even over the pole holes. I then drilled the mounting holes. Removed the cover, put the pickup there and secure with the screws to find where the pickup cavity needs to be. This is a one-off pickup install for me so I did not bother making a routing template, I made the cavity with a forstner bit and a chisel.

lpjr30.jpg

 

Fits perfectly.

lpjr31.jpg

 

Lets see how the strings line up.

lpjr32.jpg

 

The poles are not the exact spacing as the bridge, but I've seen worse.

 

I wimped out from the heat today so next items to do are the control cavity, output jack, pickguard, and headstock overlay.

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All I can say is damn... you are a TALENTED guy, and that's a gorgeous LPJ you're building!

 

I see you're in my neck-o-the-woods... I'd love to talk to you about replacing the fretboard on an old Alamo Fiesta basket case I'm working on that was kindly given to me by another forum member. The second guitar I ever had was an Alamo Fiesta, and I'd love to turn this basket case into a jumbo-fretted player...

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It's getting very close!

 

I started out today by making a pickguard from Wenge. I printed the pickguard full size from the .dxf, glue the print to a piece of wenge, and cut it out.

lpjr34.jpg

 

Next I wanted to do a headstock overlay from wenge as well. The stock that I have is .125" and I needed it .040" or so. This is where the safe-t-planer really pays it's way.

lpjr35.jpg

 

Gluing the headstock overlay on. I use a flat piece of maple with quite a few strips of weatherstripping on one surface to make sure that I get even clamping pressure if everything is not dead flat. I used CA glue for this step.

lpjr36.jpg

 

Fast forward through making a cavity template. The control cavity is routed. I only make a template sized for the inner part of the cavity then I use a .250" rabbiting bit to make the shoulder.

lpjr37.jpg

 

Another fast forward, shaping the headstock overlay, drilling the tuner holes, a quick french polish, and a truss rod cover. I have some refinish work to do, I accidentally sanded though the tru-oil when I was matching the overlay to the headstock.

lpjr38.jpg

 

I also drilled the ground and pickup wire holes, installed the output jack, and made an ebony control cavity cover.

lpjr39.jpg

 

Next up, I'll take it all apart and start fine tuning the finish.

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