Les Paul Custom Build 2011

[Vistoluk]

Hey guys I'm building a double capped les paul carved top in school. I'm about 2 weeks in, and I'll get some pictures posted so far and will keeps ya up to date!

Any comments would be appreciated!

[captcoolaid]

Cool waiting for the pics.

[Fez Bear]

picss

[GreaseBox]

Sorry for my ignorance but what is "double capped"?

[Vistoluk]

So here's some pictures I took starting this week. I didn't have my camera w/ me for the jointing/gluing of caps/body. Maybe i'll be able to get those pictures from my phone but the quality would suck...

Here are some pictures of the body w/ the maple back cap glued on. I've also routed out the f-hole cavities as well as the control cavities.

btw--I am aware the my routs are not clean atm......but the walls of the cavity will not be visible through the f-hole. Really didn't want to risk getting to close the edge w/ the router and blowing out a wall. =o

[Vistoluk]

Here are a few snaps of what I got done tonight. My original plan was to rout steps into the cap to rough out the shape and then do final shaping w/ finger planes and scrapers.

....After 6 hours of routing the previous day I figured I'd rather spend a bunch of time using a gouge and scrub plane than more time w/ a router. (not to mention trying to balance a router on 1" of a template all teh way around a guitar for 3 hours doesn't sound like the most fun...)

SO here is how far I got in 3 hours w/ a gouge and scrub plane. Kind of fun. Definately a cool thing to be able to HAND carve your top, and seeing the process.

[Vistoluk]

Here's a couple more shots.

Next step will be to rout a ledge around the perimeter of the cap with a thickness of 7/32". From there i'll use my arching templates and fingerplanes to give the contour to it.


MOre to come!

[Vistoluk]

Figured I'd post the progress a friend has made on an sg he is building. He's 2 1/2 weeks in.

[Vistoluk]

"Sorry for my ignorance but what is "double capped"?"



Basically I'm putting a flat maple cap on the back along w/ a carved cap on top. Both will be sunburst(ed?)

[Pennstate913]

you should slightly thin the mahogany and then carve the back maple, kinda like on the les paul supremes

[Vistoluk]

I thought about it but,

1) The billet I bought didn't have enough to get 2 carved caps out of it. And the front and the back have to match, ya know.

2) It's a bitch to have to wire up the guitar w/o having any control cavities. I'd have to shove everything through an oversized jack plate....gah.

Just too many problems but yea they look sick.

[Reverend D]

Looks good, yeah arched front and back would be cool, but I see what your talking about. I wonder with a heat gun if you can bend plastic for a access panel? Probably could, but they're be that trial and error until it was figured out. Anyway thats looking pretty sick, nice job!

Regards,

Don

[GreaseBox]

Originally Posted by Vistoluk

"Sorry for my ignorance but what is "double capped"?"



Basically I'm putting a flat maple cap on the back along w/ a carved cap on top. Both will be sunburst(ed?)

Oh duh... I get it. Cool, Looking Good!

[Vistoluk]

Thanks guys!

[Vistoluk]

"Looks good, yeah arched front and back would be cool, but I see what your talking about. I wonder with a heat gun if you can bend plastic for a access panel? Probably could, but they're be that trial and error until it was figured out. Anyway thats looking pretty sick, nice job"


Yea and that is how gibson does it I believe, but your right, trying to bend plastic to the curve of the edge would be less than stellar. I sense some melting would occur lool. A good thought for future les pauls. thanks

[Vistoluk]

I've got a question for everyone. As far as binding goes, has anyone had experience putting white and/or cream plastic binding on an instrument.
I've only delt w/ wood up until this point.

In the long run, I want to have the binding LOOK cream after the lacquer is on.

I've heard that cream binding "yellows" when lacquer is sprayed over it, and I've seen this in person too. I suppose white is my safe bet, but I really would rather have the binding a cream color than white. Any advice on what to chose?

Any help would be awesome.

[Vistoluk]

Here's a few new pictures of when I routed a ledge around my les paul cap.

[Vistoluk]

Heres after the rout.Then I go ahead and keep gouging


I'm waiting to put the neck angle into the cap when I have it glued onto the body. I can't glueon the body yet until I have finished my f-holes tho.

[Vistoluk]

I finished arching the lower bout on the top and have rough cut out the f-hole. I'll get the pictures up when I get the chance!

[Vistoluk]

here I have the f-holes rough cut

[Vistoluk]

here i am gouging out the inside of the cap around the f-hole to give it an even thinkness.



Here is a picture of the f-holes finished. I like the "thin" look of them on les pauls.

[Vistoluk]

In these I decided to use a gouch and chisel to cut the wire channel from toggle switch cavity to the lower control cavity. Figured whynot use this rather than set up a router etc.

[Vistoluk]

So here i have the channels taped off ready to glue the top cap to the body



And after I used my neck angle routing jig to rout 4.5 degrees into the cap.



I'll get a pictrue of the jig. It's a variation to others from other builds on Mlpforum, basically just with added rails on the side to keep the base tight.

[HRC]

Very nice work so far...

[Vistoluk]

I start carving around the neck angle, by the toggle switch.



here's an inlay I might use. This is out of maple but the real deal would be in gold pearl



Here is the mortise getting close.



I did the truss rod channel before the mortise, btw.

[Vistoluk]

Let me know what you think of my carve!



Think I might add a bit more recurve around the f-holes

[Sleator]

This is looking very VERY nice....
What age are are you btw, you mentioned schoool?

[fortwinnie]

Awesome guitar coming together here !

[Akahito]

Kudos for chiseling the top carve by hand. Great build, can't wait to see the rest!

[Cpt_Gonzo]

Man, that looks very, VERY clean! I already liked your Mockingbird, but this is simply top notch.