It's been a while since I finished my last build, a white LP custom.
I've started planning the next build. It will be a slow burner as I have a lot of home projects that need doing over the summer.
The plan is a broadly:
- a 54 Les Paul, but...
- White limba / korina body and neck
- Fully chambered with the top carved internally
- Firebird pickups in mini humbucker rings (P90 route)
- Wraptail or tunomatic with Bigsby
- Yellowed shell pink top, natural back
A lot of the build will be similar to my other builds so I won't go crazy with details but will post progress pics.
Inspo for this were the Bartlett explorer and a pink LP I played at the weekend at the Gibson Garage in London. The LP was 9 grand and the relicing was not great.
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The body blank is a reasonable weight, but the neck black is suuuper light. It's only a 40mm depth blank, so I had them cut a scarf joint to get a 17 degree back angle.
I did wonder whether the neck was a different species. The grain looks a bit different with wide rings on the neck, but from the side it's quite similar. I was just quite shocked by the weight, and it sounds like a xylophone when knocked. I haven't seen any other limba to know for sure - any timber experts that would know?
Pictures of top and side of the neck vs body below, neck on the right.
Then I managed to stick a chisel through my right hand thumb and forefinger, so after getting those stitched back together my bank holiday weekend of building is ruined! Slow progress expected for a few weeks.
The neck is VERY light, 300 grams before carving, without truss rod or fretboard. I'm not sure whether this means it will be weak or bendy, or I should be happy. I'm wondering if I should add some carbon fibre rods or something. Experts please chime in!
Annoyingly after thinning the headstock, a brown mark has appeared. I think I'll either leave it, put an inlay over it or maybe fill it and do a pink stinger to match the front of the body.
After a delivery from Manchester Guitar Tech, I've sone a tester for the shell pink. One without any topcoat, and then 1, 2 and 3 coats of light amber. I'm leaning toward one coat, maybe 2.
If in doubt though, use them. I laminated my last limba neck as I wasn't sure about it
I think I'd stinger that headstock
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The usual black should work really well as the overall look will be similar to a black stinger on TV yellow. It won't look out of place
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I'm using UHU Hart, which I've used loads of times before without issue. But, this time, while scraping the binding it peeled off.
I don't know whether it has gone off, this tube is probably 2 years old so maybe beyond its shelf life. Or, is the rosewood excessively oily or something? The dried glue is all yellow where it contacted the rosewood - it normally dries clear.
Any ideas?
Suggestions of other glues would be welcome too!
My back up is always super glue. It can be messier but will work on every wopd or plastic. You have to scrape the back and dampen the wood first with most superglue, or tape it all in place and use water thin glue between the gaps with the ultra thin stuff.
It might also be worth removing the wood oils with thinners or naptha a few minutes before you start, whovuevwr glue you are using
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I used thin super glue and wicked it in with my LP custom build and that worked well, so if the new tube of Hart does the same I'll use that.
I did wipe the back of the fretboard with acetone before gluing it to the neck, but didn't before the binding so will do that too next time.
Thanks!!