Full fat Les Paul build

davros

Repair is in progress, routed a squared up chunk out and cut a piece of mahogany from the offcuts of the same area. Strange shape is to help with clamping. Glued with titebond. I'll bandsaw and bobbin sand it smooth tomorrow.

Hopeful it will be a neat repair. I didn't line up the grain properly in the photo, but did before clamping.

Had the same issue with superglue in the past. It's fine for fretboards but white glue is supposedly better for lighter woods. Hopefully shouldn't need any filling as it's a good fit.

PeteC

looking good - nice clean cut so it should blend in very well. 

regarding the maple cap question earlier. If you don't mind using "plain" non-figured maple, I've found that some timber merchants will supply you planed hard maple boards in 1/2" to 1" thick dimensions.  I bought about 5m of 3/4 inch maple board 9" wide for less than £70. A good option if you don't need book matched caps. 

davros

Good call on the timber merchant, Pete, my local do maple boards the right size and nice and cheap!.

Repair's looking pretty good, might get away with a natural finish after all!

SteveRobinson

That's a great job!

NPP

well saved!

PeteC

Beautiful work - bodes well for the rest of the build !! 

Don’t you feel a sense of additional satisfaction recovering from a set back ? 

Ref the maple boards.   I’ve gone down this route myself so that I can learn to do some carve tops properly before shelling out on more esoteric caps. I also love plain caps on old LPs.   

I have been really pleased with the American hard maple boards I’ve got so far.  Would recommend Clive Walker timber in Leeds for anyone up this neck of the woods.  

Making your own maple caps doesn’t have to be really expensive.  Obviously really nicely figured woods will fetch a premium.  

Looking forward to the rest of the build - when I finish my carved DCs a LP is next on my to do list so I will watch and learn as you go along 

cheers 

MattNovak

Great recovery! Looking forward to seeing this build, the mockups look great.

Jez6345789

That’s a really good repair 
good call on the epoxy I never seem to have any around which is the preferred one.  Totally right about super glue sends mahogany black but it was a solid colour back so mattered little but should be more organised for when this guitar stuff goes wrong

Kalimna

As others have said - an excellent repair, the grain matches up well indeed. If it was me, I would have used a roundover cutter with a greater radius on the back and accepted a 'mid-construction design adjustment'

A proper carve top is on my list for next year. So will also be watching this with interest.

Adam

davros

Cheers all. Giving my local timber merchant (Birmingham) a call tomorrow to try and source some plain maple. I'm thinking of a Dakota red top and natural back at the moment, a bit like Jared James Nichols's resprayed goldtop.

A bit more progress routing out the cavities. Really need a pillar drill and forstner bits as this took ages with just a router.

Jez6345789

Nice neat job though 
I just have done a similar thing on a Little Sister style and have to say need to up my game more like ugly sister at this point lol

Slash'N'burn

davros said:

Cheers all. Giving my local timber merchant (Birmingham) a call tomorrow to try and source some plain maple. I'm thinking of a Dakota red top and natural back at the moment, a bit like Jared James Nichols's resprayed goldtop.

A bit more progress routing out the cavities. Really need a pillar drill and forstner bits as this took ages with just a router.

Nice work. Is that how a modern chambered Les Paul is done?

Kalimna

Very clean work indeed - looking great. And I like the plain back/coloured top aesthetic too.
The chambered body is very similar to a hollowbody I did a couple of years ago, and a suggestion for next time would be to use a cove cutter for the edge cut of your chamber - this way the sides don't meet the rear at a right angle and is therefore a little stronger. This is something I only thought of after my build though!

davros

The chambering layout is based on Gibson's chambered reissues which are supposedly pretty amazing. My #1 is a 2008 LP Standard, which is chambered, but the pattern is slightly different - if you look in the control cavities it looks like a normal LP.

I'm a big fan of chambered guitars, partly because of the weight but they have a more 335-ish tone and resonance to them.

Hadn't thought of using a cove cutter, although there's still 1/2 inch of wood all the way around and at on the back so strength shouldn't be an issue.

Here's some more info if you're interested. https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/cloud-9s-or-chambered-reissue-thread.326993/

WezV

its nice neat chambering.   Are you also hollowing out he inside of the maple top like shown in your link?


What bridge are you going for here?  wondering why you have gone wider at the bridge location rather than the tailpiece  one 

SteveRobinson

Wow, that's super clean! What bit did you use?

davros

I'm going to leave the inside of the top flat, I'm not sure I want it too lively - planning to use this for gigging (if and when that starts up again), so a thicker top should reduce the propensity to feed back.

I'm using a Faber wraparound bridge (exactly the same as my Jr build), so I moved the lumps to the bridge location, as that'll be where the 'tailpiece' studs go. I kept the centre block the same size as it would have been with a separate bridge/tailpiece - no particular reason other than keeping it to the chambered reissue formula that supposedly worked well.

davros

Steve - I have 2 half-inch trend bearing cutters with 1/4 inch shafts. One is about 10mm deep to get it started and the other is about 30mm deep.

The shorter bit is getting a little blunt so have a trend diamond card sharpener on the way, so will see if that helps.

The key for me is getting the templates right beforehand and I added a bigger base plate on the router with some scrap 9mm mdf, which made a huge difference for this job and stopped the router teetering on the thin edges.

PeteC

Lovely neat work.   Interested to see how the chambering affects the tine when its done.  

davros

Some progress today, built a jig to help with routing the top carve and binding. Basically 2 right angle sections, one clamped to the worksurface, the other with the router fixed on it. 2 ball bearing drawer runners provide height adjustment while keeping it all square.

Idea stolen from somewhere, I can't remember where, but will give it a whirl tomorrow to thickness the maple cap down to 15mm.

Not worked out how I'll lock the height, thinking I might drill through the back pieces and use a drill bit as a pin.