1959 Les Paul replicas - build progress
- Thread starter shredaholic
- Start date
shredaholic
New member
Re: 1959 Les Paul replicas - build progress
^ I don't think so, I can't feel anything nerve or tendon wise so hopefully it should be as if it never happened in about a week.
More progress pics:
Sawing the fretboard to width. The offcut will be used for making the soles of some carving planes:
Brazilian Rosewood fretboard blank, ready to be thicknessed:
Removing most of the control cavity wood with a 1" forster bit:
Rear view of the (almost) finished back section:
^ I don't think so, I can't feel anything nerve or tendon wise so hopefully it should be as if it never happened in about a week.
More progress pics:
Sawing the fretboard to width. The offcut will be used for making the soles of some carving planes:
Brazilian Rosewood fretboard blank, ready to be thicknessed:
Removing most of the control cavity wood with a 1" forster bit:
Rear view of the (almost) finished back section:
Vasshu the humanoid typhoon
Unseen
Re: 1959 Les Paul replicas - build progress
Nice piece of rosewood!!
Man this project is just so cool!
Nice piece of rosewood!!
Man this project is just so cool!
BigAlTheBird
Guest
Re: 1959 Les Paul replicas - build progress
Really cool!
Really cool!
shredaholic
New member
Re: 1959 Les Paul replicas - build progress
Did some work joining the maple top for guitar #2 today (this one's a plain top), the friend I'm building it for didn't want hide glue so this one is with the more forgiving titebond. I still work to the tolerances I use for perfect invisible hide glue joints though, as it's good form and also good practice for hide glue joints.
Two of the faces were flattened, and clamped together so I could plane the join.
The shavings from this maple are whiter than white!
Before putting the pieces together and up to the light, I checked them with a straightedge too lengthways and widthways. If these show no light, then putting the pieces together shouldn't either.
The WD40 was for the clamps before I started gluing, just to get them working smoothly again after sitting in the garage.
Did some work joining the maple top for guitar #2 today (this one's a plain top), the friend I'm building it for didn't want hide glue so this one is with the more forgiving titebond. I still work to the tolerances I use for perfect invisible hide glue joints though, as it's good form and also good practice for hide glue joints.
Two of the faces were flattened, and clamped together so I could plane the join.
The shavings from this maple are whiter than white!
Before putting the pieces together and up to the light, I checked them with a straightedge too lengthways and widthways. If these show no light, then putting the pieces together shouldn't either.
The WD40 was for the clamps before I started gluing, just to get them working smoothly again after sitting in the garage.
shredaholic
New member
Re: 1959 Les Paul replicas - build progress
Now that I've thicknessed the fretboard blank on that drill press jig, I did some work cutting the fret slots today for my guitar, and routing the truss rod channel in another of the neck blanks:
I love how black this Brazilian Rosewood is - looks just like the fretboards on vintage Les Pauls. Good luck finding this on a Gibson Historic! All being well tommorrow I'll route out the cavities for the inlays.
Now that I've thicknessed the fretboard blank on that drill press jig, I did some work cutting the fret slots today for my guitar, and routing the truss rod channel in another of the neck blanks:
I love how black this Brazilian Rosewood is - looks just like the fretboards on vintage Les Pauls. Good luck finding this on a Gibson Historic! All being well tommorrow I'll route out the cavities for the inlays.
Gearjoneser
Gear Ho
Re: 1959 Les Paul replicas - build progress
Awesome work, and thanks for taking the time to document it with photos!
Once it's done, your threads will make a heck of a Vault contribution!
Awesome work, and thanks for taking the time to document it with photos!
Once it's done, your threads will make a heck of a Vault contribution!
metallicaxlxl
New member
Re: 1959 Les Paul replicas - build progress
^^ +1
this is just amazing, this is the most excited over a thread that ive ever been. I can't believe i havnt seen this before, its just amazing, i applaud you
anyways, cant wait till the next set of pictures come in :eyecrazy:
makes me want to make my own guitar now. ... and probably fail miserably
^^ +1
this is just amazing, this is the most excited over a thread that ive ever been. I can't believe i havnt seen this before, its just amazing, i applaud you
anyways, cant wait till the next set of pictures come in :eyecrazy:
makes me want to make my own guitar now. ... and probably fail miserably
shredaholic
New member
Re: 1959 Les Paul replicas - build progress
Thanks guys, BloodRose to answer your questions:
1) The wood for guitars with neck angles isn't tilted back or warped in any way. The angle is put into the guitar by cutting the mortise hole in the body to accept the neck at a 4.4 degree angle for this particular guitar, and then the neck tenon is cut flat, but the part of the heel that connects to the body is also cut at a 4.4 degree angle. It'll become pretty obvious when I document this part of the build.
2) I just couldn't find any 1 piece backs for a reasonable price, timber yards don't usually stock wood larger than 10" wide and I'd need 13" for a Les Paul back. One piece Korina usually retails for about £90 here, whereas I paid the equivalent of about £10 for each 2 piece back for these. They're joined up with hot hide glue, which as well as making a pretty much invisible seam, is the only glue which sort of dissolves into the wood as opposed to being a rubbery layer of glue. If anything is different tonewise, the guitar should be a bit more resonant joined like this.
Thanks guys, BloodRose to answer your questions:
1) The wood for guitars with neck angles isn't tilted back or warped in any way. The angle is put into the guitar by cutting the mortise hole in the body to accept the neck at a 4.4 degree angle for this particular guitar, and then the neck tenon is cut flat, but the part of the heel that connects to the body is also cut at a 4.4 degree angle. It'll become pretty obvious when I document this part of the build.
2) I just couldn't find any 1 piece backs for a reasonable price, timber yards don't usually stock wood larger than 10" wide and I'd need 13" for a Les Paul back. One piece Korina usually retails for about £90 here, whereas I paid the equivalent of about £10 for each 2 piece back for these. They're joined up with hot hide glue, which as well as making a pretty much invisible seam, is the only glue which sort of dissolves into the wood as opposed to being a rubbery layer of glue. If anything is different tonewise, the guitar should be a bit more resonant joined like this.
I bet that guitar will be amazing. How's it going?
shredaholic
New member
Re: 1959 Les Paul replicas - build progress
I forgot to take some when installing them this weekend, but it's probably better I didn't as since then I've found a better method of doing it - so on the next fretboard I do I'll take pics of that. I've found using an X-ACTO knife with a #11 blade is much better than using a scribe to trace round the inlays since it doesn't crush the grain of the wood, and I'll be using chalk instead of pencil next time to show the scribed line - hopefully this should result in a much closer fit. The markers were from an ebay seller, I haven't seen him list any more recently which is a shame as I want some more, they're celluloid just like the old ones and look quite good.
Gonna radius the fretboard today, will take some pics and upload them afterwards.
I forgot to take some when installing them this weekend, but it's probably better I didn't as since then I've found a better method of doing it - so on the next fretboard I do I'll take pics of that. I've found using an X-ACTO knife with a #11 blade is much better than using a scribe to trace round the inlays since it doesn't crush the grain of the wood, and I'll be using chalk instead of pencil next time to show the scribed line - hopefully this should result in a much closer fit. The markers were from an ebay seller, I haven't seen him list any more recently which is a shame as I want some more, they're celluloid just like the old ones and look quite good.
Gonna radius the fretboard today, will take some pics and upload them afterwards.
sosomething
Seymour Duncan Customer Support
Re: 1959 Les Paul replicas - build progress
Thanks for documenting this and posting it here. I love a good build thread, and the fact that you're using a ton of WWII-era hand tools makes it even more interesting.
Thanks for documenting this and posting it here. I love a good build thread, and the fact that you're using a ton of WWII-era hand tools makes it even more interesting.