First Build - DC Junior

Danielsguitars

I use a trapeze to set my wraparound up, just take into account the slop on the posts, you need to shift it over about 1mm to the bass side or the strings won't line up with the board because the strings always want to go towards the treble side as it's on an angle, line up the strings with the back of the holes 

PeteC

Anyone spot the balls up with the tuner placement ?  Should have been more flared out towards the top of the headstock !!   I may leave them as the are unless I can do a neat job of plugging with mahogany ( I still have some offcuts from the same piece the neck came from) and redrilling to the “proper” positions that the original juniors were in. That might be a good learning exercise but will hold up the build, and I am impatient to make progress.   

I could claim that I planned it this way to create a better string trajectory onto the nut, a la PRS.....but actually I didn’t.....

much to learn .....

Onwards ! 

PeteC

Thx for the trapeze tip Danielsguitars.  

MattNovak

Great progress PeteC - I've found some wrapover bridges to have slightly different radii - so the top / bottom E strings can get a little too low, depending on fretboard radius.  

PeteC

Ive decided to re-do the tuner holes into the exact vintage positions ....

4 Mahogany plugs from the neck offcut and we should be good again. 

Andyjr1515

It's coming on very well. Nicely cut plugs!  I always seem to mess up when I try to cut them. 

PeteC

cheers Andy.  9mm plug cutter and a quick throw into the drill chuck, drill running ,  smoothed and finished to size with sandpaper. 

Glued and plug, left to set then redrilled. 

More like vintage spec now. much happier with that 

headstock looked a bit grumpy half way through though....

Spend some time shaping the headstock and heel transitions 

Still quite a bit of fine shaping to do , body roundover when the 5mm bit arrives , and then gluing up the neck , ready for bridge and intonation. 

PeteC

MattNovak said:

Great progress PeteC - I've found some wrapover bridges to have slightly different radii - so the top / bottom E strings can get a little too low, depending on fretboard radius.  

Thanks -  yes just checked the action on my test jig and that’s the case on mine using the Faber Ali tailpiece , the bridge will be a little higher than I usually like but not too much 

Andyjr1515

Very nice job with the plugs

TTony

PeteC said:

More like vintage spec now. much happier with that 

Are you sure that's the "after" photo??  I can't see the filled holes! 

Incredibly neat work.



I didn't forget about taking photos of the heel/neck transitions, but after the photos from @greggreg66 of his stunning original, and bearing in mind your comment about getting an exact vintage spec, I  concluded that photos of mine would confuse rather than clarify as mine isn't intended as an exact vintage.

PeteC

Cheers TTony - no worries.   Greg’s OG pics told me what I needed to know.  And they also made me realise what a humungous (In a good way) heel there is on my 94 MCarty.   

PeteC

Hi folks, 

I'm looking for a bit of help before my glue up of the neck to the body and committing my neck break angle. 
At mo I have a shade over a 3 degree angle which I worked out using Ben Crowe's draw it out method. 

I was aiming for about 2-3mm above the frets for the strings to clear the dogear P90.  To avoid either of the E stings being too low this seems to result in the bottom of the tailpiece being somewhere between 4 and 6mm high from the body. 
Does this sound like a normal height ? 

Could anyone measure their DC tailpiece height for me ? 

cheers 
Pete 

TTony

Given the infamous variability of Gibson's QC, you'll probably find all sorts of actual heights on real DCs of the era!  There is height adjustment built into the bridges for a reason ...

If the issue is caused by the height of the dogear, could you recess that into the body slightly?  

I'd measure mine (not one that I built from scratch, but one that I took over), but I know that the base of the bridge is actually *on* the body - I even recessed the bridge posts slightly so I could get the bridge down low enough - but that was because it was deliberately set with a very shallow neck angle.

This is the best shot I could quickly find of it (you should be able to zoom in) ...

greggreg66

This is mine Pete. I don't have a tape measure to hand, but it's easily in the 4-6mm ballpark. The bridge has a bit of a lean on the bridge posts!

PeteC

perfect pics @greggreg66  - that's just the detail I needed to be sure my bridge height isn't unusual and I can go ahead and glue in the neck.  How high is the action on your junior @greggreg66 , so I can check whether mine will be roughly similar with that tailpiece height ? 
Just waiting on the Wealden rounder bit to arrive and I'm good to go.
cheers
Pete 

greggreg66

PeteC said:

perfect pics @greggreg66  - that's just the detail I needed to be sure my bridge height isn't unusual and I can go ahead and glue in the neck.  How high is the action on your junior @greggreg66 , so I can check whether mine will be roughly similar with that tailpiece height ? 
Just waiting on the Wealden rounder bit to arrive and I'm good to go.
cheers
Pete 

It’s not high, I’ll try and measure it later 

PeteC

Cheers - would appreciate that 

PeteC

PS..... @greggreg66 ;
It looks to me as though the base of the tailpiece on yours is around 6-7mm off the body on the low E side - is that about right do you reckon ? Maybe even 8mm ?   

Doug

TTony said:

Given the infamous variability of Gibson's QC, you'll probably find all sorts of actual heights on real DCs of the era!  There is height adjustment built into the bridges for a reason ...

That looks Bloody lovely!, I always wished someone would produce the LP DC Junior with a Soapbar P-90 rather than the Dogear P-90, it just looks so right!, (Sorry for thread derail @PeteC loving your detailed DC build

TTony

@Doug ;

More details on that on here ...