Double cut LP Special (ish) build

[ctmullins]

Hi folks! New guy here. Brief introduction: I'm a bass player, with three bass builds under my belt, and two more that are now firewood. Like most bass players, I also dabble in the skinny strings from time to time. My guitar collection consists of an Electra Phoenix X150 with a Warmoth 12-string neck, a hot-rodded Washburn Idol WI64DL, and a Gibson Explorer Pro (Heritage Cherry, GOTW 13). The pattern here is that all three are twin-humbucker guitars. Granted, the Electra and the Washburn have been fitted with coil-taps, but I recently decided I wanted to dip my toes into the P90 pool.

I absolutely LOVE the LP double cut body shape - I made my 8-string bass using that body - so this seemed like a natural to me. I'm not an originality nut by any means, so this won't be a replica of an actual Gibson, but rather an "inspired by" instrument.

So I bought some parts, and began this weekend cutting wood. The body is a two-piece 4/4 slab of sapele topped with a 2/4 slab of quilted maple. Sapele is, in my opinion, a very enjoyable wood to work with. Its workability is much like mahogany, and many pieces of sapele exhibit spectacular ribbon striping, like this one:



(Yes, that's a small knot at the top, but the neck pocket route will take care of that.)

I recently scored some bookmatched quilted maple from eBay:



Those of you doing the math will notice that this adds up to a 1.5" thick body. I'm okay with that. My approach for this instrument is a lean, no-frills rock machine, and part of that means not being too heavy. I might even go so far as to chamber part of the sapele.

Best practice in the bass-building world is to build using laminated necks, for increased stiffness, and - when the grains are oriented in opposing directions - stability. I had some flatsawn hard maple boards in my stock, so I ripped three pieces from one, flipped the center piece over, and glued them together. This makes a chunk of wood that should, if I saw carefully, yield two three-piece quartersawn neck blanks.



(God, I hate this camera. All of the wood is square, I promise...)

I made my body template based on extrapolating dimensions from an image I found online, so it's not necessarily exact. And I'm not building from any plans, just from my homemade body template and some careful measurements. This will be my first set-neck, though, all of my bass builds being bolt-ons, so this will be a new challenge for me.

Let's see, um - oh yes - the fingerboard hasn't been ordered yet, but it'll probably be Pau Ferro from LMII. Not sure if I want to do 24.75 scale length or 25; any opinions here? Paua abalone dot inlays, just because I love paua abalone. I'll probably finish using the same wine red dye that I mixed for my 8-string, topped with some Deft clear lacquer.

Chrome hardware, Wilkinson wraparound bridge, volume/tone/3-way switch, two P90s - I think that's about it.

Should be fun!

[MikeStevens]

Nice man. As a bassist and a fan of the LP special double cuts myself I have to say that I love your idea and can't wait for you to post pics of the finished product.

If I may ask Have you thought about the color and whether or not you going to slap a pickgaurd on her?

[ctmullins]

Originally Posted by MikeStevens

If I may ask Have you thought about the color and whether or not you going to slap a pickgaurd on her?

Thanks, bro. Color - probably wine red, although blue is also a possibility.

Pickguard - yech. Can't stand 'em. No pickguard.

Which means that I'm going to have to be a little clever with my neck mortise - I want the maple cap to cover the tenon, so I'm thinking I'll route out 3/4" from the sapele, and 1/4" from the bottom of the maple. Which means that I can't glue the maple to the sapele until both the mortise and the tenon are finalized. I've been going over it in my head, and I think that'll work, but we'll see!

[ctmullins]

A bit of progress today. I unclamped the neck block and surfaced the sides. Then it was time to saw it up into two blanks. I don't have a bandsaw, so I decided to use my table saw to slice the blank in half. But I wanted to leave the full depth at each end, for the neck tenon. So I checked the square on my table saw blade, and recessed it fully. Then I carefully measured, set my fence, set the block against it, and clamped it down. I turned the saw on, and slowly raised the blade to its full height. Then I shut it down, repositioned the block, and did it again.



The full width of the blade cut right through at the bottom, but obviously not the top. So I finished the cuts with my jigsaw (yech).



And this is what I ended up with - two very rough neck blanks!



Not yet sure what I'm going to do with the second one - they're long enough to be used for a bass, so that might happen later.

At this point I was dripping with sweat, and covered in maple dust. So it seemed a good time for a shower and some dinner. Homemade pizza time!

[Barnaby]

Very, very nice! Looking forward to seeing your solution to the tenon as well.

[ctmullins]

Headstock scarfed (yes, that's a lot of headstock - i'm thinking of making it a 36-string - just kidding):



The lines match up pretty well:



End-grain - looks nice and quartersawn!

[ctmullins]

I love Saturdays!

Made a lot of progress on the neck today. I rough-thicknessed the headstock, then sawed off the excess headstock length, then ripped that piece in half, to be used as headstock ears.

Then I routed for the trussrod. I'm using a double-action rod from LMII, which requires a 3/8" deep by 1/4" wide slot. Here's my routing "jig" - nothing fancy; just clamped the neck flush in the Workmate, then clamped down some aluminum angle stock for the router to run in.



Several shallow passes later, and it's done!



Next it was time to rough-taper the neck - I used the table saw to do this - very carefully:







(The item on the right is a GRR-Ripper, made by the Micro-Jig company. It's a much safer way of feeding your table saw than using a push-stick - highly recommended for those of you who value your fingers!)

I stopped short of the headstock since the table saw blade is circular; I finished the cuts up with my jigsaw.

Afterward, I glued on the headstock ears - I used the aluminum surface of my table saw to keep everything square, since the Titebond won't stick to the aluminum (too much).



The fingerboard will be a Pau Ferro from LMII, pre-slotted to 24.75". It should be here mid-week next week; when it arrives, I can taper it, glue it on, and use it to finalize the neck taper.

[Barnaby]

Clean-looking work, dude.

This is really going to be a beautiful instrument. 24.75 was a good choice, too. I forgot to comment on that when reading before.

[ctmullins]

Originally Posted by Barnaby

Clean-looking work, dude.

This is really going to be a beautiful instrument. 24.75 was a good choice, too. I forgot to comment on that when reading before.

Thanks, bro! I'm still learning a lot, and I'll be really happy if this one turns out half as beautiful as most of the work here, but with each build my skills improve!

I decided to do curly maple binding for the fretboard, which is a first for me, so that'll be fun!

[Barnaby]

Originally Posted by ctmullins

Thanks, bro! I'm still learning a lot, and I'll be really happy if this one turns out half as beautiful as most of the work here, but with each build my skills improve!

I decided to do curly maple binding for the fretboard, which is a first for me, so that'll be fun!

Nice! Binding the headstock too? That's a bit more complex but doable...there's a PRS video about it somewhere that a friend once sent me...

...ah...here it is!

Custom Neck - Headstock Binding with Curly Maple - Private Stock - YouTube

Custom Neck - Headstock Binding with Curly Maple - Private Stock - YouTube

[ctmullins]

Just the fingerboard this time, though I'll bookmark that video for future builds. Trying to stay fairly close to the LP Special recipe, which means not too many frills...

[fatdaddypreacher]

my first view to this thread. i love your basic, lets set a plan and go to the saw approach. your style, like your build, appears to be no-nonsense. good work. am looking forward to following this.

[ctmullins]

Thanks, preacher-man! Say a prayer for me...

No pics, but I also got the sapele glued up, and the bookmatched maple too. I had hoped to at least rough-cut the body, but, alas, other things intervened, and now it's Monday again.

[VictOr358]

Great paulcraft!
And laminating is mighty fun, I must say!
Subscribed, watching closely. Your tech is impressive!

I'm vice versa, I know (some) guitar playing
But I want a bass as well. And a doublecut too.

[ctmullins]

Thanks, Victor! Bass is a whole lot of fun, I must admit. It's a different, yet related, instrument, with its own critical role in a band context.

Big brown Santa dropped by today!



Truss rod, Pau Ferro fingerboard, fret wire, paua abalone dots, and a set of scrapers - I just read through Barnaby's Tele build, and I'm ready to get my Zen thing on now!

This will be my third Pau Ferro fingerboard from LMII - it's a really nice fingerboard wood; very dense and hard, and takes an oil finish very nicely. The first one is on my 8-string bass (in my avatar and sig); the second one is on my fretless bass build, just visible in the background of the photo above (in the finishing stages now). I'm looking forward to this one!

[Barnaby]

Fantastic! If I can ask, what oil finish do you use on your fingerboard? I have been wondering about applying an oil finish to some fingerboards, but am not sure about how it would turn out. I just use lemon oil and leave the wood bare otherwise.

[ctmullins]

Formby's Tung Oil, widely and easily available around here. It's actually an oil/varnish blend, and I've used it on every single fingerboard I own, and quite a few necks as well. Stupid easy to apply, does really nice things with wood grain, and adds a moderate layer of protection. No downsides that I can see!

[ctmullins]

Sometimes weekends get completely monopolized by non-sawdust-generating activities. I just had one of those weekends.

So, to make up for it, I took off work early today, and spent some time on the neck. First I final-tapered the neck with a straightedge and my router, then I took some careful measurements and tapered my fingerboard to match. I'm going to bind the fingerboard with curly maple binding from Stew-Mac, which means I needed to allow 2mm on each side of the fingerboard. So, after some careful measurements and markings, I rough-tapered on the table saw, and fine-tapered with the straightedge and router (going slow and steady, to prevent chip-out - lesson learned from my earlier builds!). I then cut some pieces of binding (a little long) and glued them to the sides of the fingerboard.



Next I traced the headstock using my template, rough-cut it out with the jigsaw (yech), then screwed the template on and trimmed to the template with the router.



It made me nervous as hell doing the curves next to the nut - one slip of the router, and I could have had a huge gouge in the side of my neck! I actually took most of the bulk away with a curved rasp, and used the router to finalize it. Remember - several shallow passes, in the direction opposite the bit rotation!

So here's where we are right now - this is with the fingerboard just resting on top of the neck:





You can see that the fingerboard is a fair bit taller than the binding. Once I radius the fingerboard, they should come out right about the same level.

Next step is doing the bottom piece of fingerboard binding, then I'll glue the fingerboard to the neck, install the dots, and radius.

[ctmullins]

Slight change of plans - since I want to stain the neck, but not the fingerboard binding, I'm going to depart from my prior practice, and complete the neck and fingerboard separately.

This weekend I'm dotting the fingerboard, using 7mm paua abalone dots from LMII. First we mark the locations using X's - saw this in another thread here somewhere, so thanks to whomever that was (Edit - it was rockdog, in his fabulous build thread)! Then I use an awl to start the pilot holes for the drill bit - brad-point is your friend! I'm doing something a little different for the twelfth fret.



I use my crappy hand-held drill press, mainly for the depth stop.



Always test on scrap first!



Mix up the epoxy and set in the dots.



After curing for 24 hours, it's sanding time. I'm using a 16/20 radius block from LMII; I use the 20 for my basses, and I'm using the 16 for this guitar - we'll see how I like it.

As we sand, the X's and epoxy begin to disappear.



Two very tired arms later (glad I'm ambidextrous), we're finished! Here it is wetted with water. The smaller dots at the twelfth fret are leftover 3mm paua abalone dots from my fretless bass project.



Alas, the 21st fret dot, the last one that I drilled, wound up a little off-center. Oh well - the hallmark of a hand-crafted instrument is little imperfections, right?

And it's not even 1000 in the morning yet! Lots more time to make more sawdust!

[szlash280z]

Dude, that fingerboard looks great!

How did you cut your headstock joint? To me it looks like its butt joined and not an angled scarf joint like I see most of the time. If that's the case, have you done it that way before and did it hold up?

[ctmullins]

Thanks, bro!

Here's a closeup of the scarf joint - pretty traditional; definitely not a butt joint!

[ctmullins]

Got the body cut out and partially edge-sanded. I'm to the point now where I need to measure and mark the locations for the neck mortise, pickup cavities, and bridge placement.

I've done a bunch of Gresearch (Google searching), and I've noticed that there is a lot of variety in the neck/body joints in DC Specials over the years - most of them join the neck to the body at the 22nd fret, quite a few join at the 21st fret, and a few join at the 20th fret. Additionally, the relationship of the neck pickup to the neck changes too - some of them have the pickup butted up right against the neck, others leave a small gap (maybe 5mm), and others a much larger gap (15mm or so).

So I have some choices to make. I'm leaning towards joining at the 21st fret, with the pickup butted against the neck, but does anybody else have any advice?

Thanks!

[VictOr358]

Originally Posted by ctmullins

Alas, the 21st fret dot, the last one that I drilled, wound up a little off-center. Oh well - the hallmark of a hand-crafted instrument is little imperfections, right?

No, it's NOT. (Joke of humor, as us Russians say )

But I will use the very same excuse. So, carry on, my brave Sir!
Note to self. Floral art-deco motifs fight that damn symmetry quite effectively.
Imperfections?.. Meh! First hand eperience.

[ctmullins]

Been a little while since I updated this thread. Been busy finishing up a couple of basses, and living life in general, but I did find some time to work on this a bit.

I bookmatched a small piece of quilted maple to use as a headstock veneer, but like a doofus, I cut it too small. So I ordered a headplate from LMII instead. Their headplates are thicker than veneer, about 3mm, so that's cool. I glued it on and trimmed it to shape. Then, while releasing it from the clamps, it fell, and put a small nick in one side of the new headplate. *grrrr* So, as Zappa is the mother of invention, I decided to sand the edges of the headplate again, this time at a 45-degree angle, to give it a bit of a bevel.



I also carved out and sanded the truss rod access.

I also made a decision - the neck will join the body at the 21st fret, and the neck pup will sit flush against the end of the fretboard. I made a neck mortise template, but haven't had time to test it yet.

The basses are nearly done, so this one is going to get some more quality time in the coming weeks!

[HOT-BRIT]

great job!
keep it up!

[ctmullins]

.... aaaaaand we're back.

Where were we? Um....

Oh yeah.

The neck pocket.

I've screwed up my share of neck pockets, which is why all of my builds have been bolt-ons. I really wanted to take my time and get this one right, especially since it also incorporates a 2-degree angle for the neck. That's part of the reason for the delay - I was anxious about it, since you really only have one chance, and I needed some time to mentally prepare myself.

So first I made some 2-degree router rails from scrap cherry:



Then I used the "clamp the rails to the neck, position the neck, clamp the rails to the body" technique. I also added two layers of painter's tape, to narrow it up just a little, since it's impossible (well, impractical) to add wood to a too-wide pocket. Double- and triple- (and quadruple-) checked everything, then carefully routed, many shallow passes.



I free-handed the end of the pocket, since it'll be under the maple cap. Turned out really good, and just a tiny bit too small:



So I gently sanded the tenon down to fit. I like that technique. Still, it's small enough that the neck will now meet the body at the 20th fret, instead of the 21st. That's probably good, because it means just a little more tenon area glued to the body.

Then I notched out the maple cap to match using the jigsaw, and finalized it with the Shinto:



The P-90 will go right up to the end of the fretboard, so I didn't worry about that end of the notch.

Also got the side dots done on the neck - 3mm paua abalone (no pic yet).

I've decided this will be a blueburst, done with water-borne dye (I've been going over Gator's tutorial). Can't decide whether to leave the back natural, or do it dark blue to match....

[dickjonesify]

Thanks for the tip on the Grr-Ripper! Pretty sweet.
But, how are you cutting these angled cuts on the table saw? Surely not freehand?!

Great job so far

[ctmullins]

Moving right along....

Sanded the fretboard to 220. Lightly chamfered the tops of the fret slots. Gathered my tools.

Fretting time!

Nibs, schmibs. Don't need 'em. Instead, I'm going to snip away the fretwire tang at each end of each fret, and let the fretwire overhang the binding.



I love strawberry season!



Cut, snip, file, hammer, repeat 22^H^H21 times, and finally it's time to bevel the ends, a task made easy with the Fret-Bevel-Inator:



A most satisfying task. Yum!

[ctmullins]

Originally Posted by dickjonesify

Thanks for the tip on the Grr-Ripper! Pretty sweet.
But, how are you cutting these angled cuts on the table saw? Surely not freehand?!

Great job so far

Thanks! Freehand, yes. For roughing out the neck taper, it's okay. But I had to be pretty accurate for the router rails. I used the fence to guide the upper corner, and sighted down the line before I cut. Worked out pretty good.

[ctmullins]

Rough neck shaping with the fearsome Shinto saw rasp: