My '59 Les Paul Doppelganger

[treddingjr]

It wasn't easy, and I hope the pictures show that. However, as a labor of love so to speak, it was very rewarding. Time consuming, too. I worked on it as time allowed until school was out for the summer. (I am an English teacher) I worked on it five days a week once summer started.
Growing up, we took wood shop in junior high. Most of my wood knowledge came from my dad, who made me hold the light for him. Eventually, I got to use the tools. In junior high I built a Heathkit TA-16 guitar amp, my own slot car track and cars, so I knew how to solder and use a router. I've built bookshelves and the like and a couple of years ago, a strat from Warmoth parts to learn how to transfer painting model cars with a spray can to a guitar. Heck of a lot of sanding goes into a finish, and nitro is very forgiving.
Once the idea hit me to build this guitar, I asked a lot of questions of a lot of people like the shop teacher where I teach, and my guitar techs. The wood shop teacher split my top so I could bookmatch it. My guitar tech answered a lot of questions and shared his repair knowledge. Measuring my Les Pauls helped too. Gibson never used any special tools, other than their steam powered top carver. All of the holes and routs are standard dimensions from normal bit sizes. Stew-Mac has fretboard templates, and humbucker templates, and on and on. If you watch the making historics video narrated by Duane Eddy then you know how I made this guitar. It just wasn't in a factory the size of Kalamazoo. My tools weren't as incredible as theirs but they did the job.
In that respect, most members of this forum could make a guitar. It was something I wanted to do, one of my Mt. Everests so to speak.

[single cut 54]

t.jr, great thread, I loved it.

[treddingjr]

I used a Dremel tool to rout around the headstock logo shape.


Black epoxy holds the logo in place and fills the gaps. The logo came from an eBay seller. The excess epoxy is sanded off with a block and 150 grit paper.


I shaped the neck with a rasp first, then a block and various sandpapers.

[PAF MAN]

awesome t-shirt ^

[treddingjr]

Captain America is the man. And only Steve Rogers is Captain America!

[vegasjunkie2004]

please post some more pics.....this thread is so interesting

[treddingjr]

I used a pin router to rout for the inlays. I used Buzzy's inlays; an excellent eBay seller. With a pin router, the pin on the bottom plate matches the diameter of the router bit so the cuts match. I saved all of the sawdust from this stage and the radiusing stage to use to fill any gaps by mixing the dust with slow setting super glue. (On many 50s Les Pauls , the inlays have shrunk over time and gaps are visible on the edges.) In this picture I am using the router to plane the Brazilian Rosewood board. I got three pieces of 1960s Brazilian, again from eBay. I used one for this guitar, one for a special, and have one for the next project.


I used a modified circular saw blade and a Stew-Mac fretboard template to cut the fret slots. The blade was cut down to the width of the tanged portion of the fret wire. The slots will have to be redressed after the board is radiused.


The board is ready for the Stew-Mac fretboard radius tool.

[Mr. Fuzzy]

Nice Work!

Great thread.

[treddingjr]

Radiusing the fret board. This is Stew-Macs radiusing tool on the board. A long way to go, even with 50 grit paper.


Hard at it. I caught a couple of fingertips in the inlay cut out with the tool. Instant blood blister.


Done and ready for the inlays.

[mapleflame]

Can you say I smell Black licorice

[treddingjr]

The inlays were super-glued into the cutouts.


The board was re-sanded to the final radius.


The board is marked for the taper from body to headstock. A band saw was used to make the cut and a belt sander to true the edges.

[treddingjr]

Trimmed and ready for the next step; frets. The fret slots are being dressed after final radiusing.


A closer view.


Frets installed but not seated. An arbor will used for that.

[treddingjr]

Using a drill press as an arbor to seat the frets.


Binding on. I made two of these fretboards. The darkest one is from a '55 Special. I bound all three and put the side markers in them using tortoise shell punched out with an upside down drill bit of the proper diameter.


From the side and ready for the markers.

[LJGriggs]

Wow... You sir, are a true artist. I've seen some pretty nice looking LP replicas, but what you have produced far exceeds the "real thing" in my opinion.

[Droog]

Just beautiful. Keep the pics coming.

[treddingjr]

The markers are glued in. The excess will be sanded off.


Final shaping of the binding will be done before the finish is applied. Notice that I put the binding over the fret ends and will finish shaping that later as well.


Gluing the fretboard to the neck. The clamps are put on from opposite sides in alternating order to keep the board from 'walking' as it dries.

[single cut 54]

IT just keeps gettin' better t.jr Keep 'em comin'.

[treddingjr]

Before and after. The unshaped neck for one of the other guitars and the almost finished neck for the '59 replica. Yes, it is a long tenon.


Between this picture and the next one, a LOT of sanding and shaping went into preparing the neck to be joined to the body. I used a hard sanding block, varying grits, scrapers, and occasionally a quick shot with the rasp to shape the contour. A light and a straight edge were used to keep the contour consistent. I made marks where there were high spots and worked them to shape. Rolling the neck with a light behind it revealed high spots as well. Also, just like the top of the body, I had to feel it with my eyes closed as the eye can play tricks. Once everything was true, the neck went into the body.

[captain tightpants]

Very very cool!! Nice work!

[treddingjr]

These are the last two bare wood shots.

These lines are for the bridge and tailpiece. The intonation line is critical. Some adjustments can be made obviously with the ABR-1 but to screw up at this point would not be good. This is where measure twice or more, drill once comes into play.


Pickup spacing is determined at this point as well. The cutouts will be traced on the top even though the template is not mounted there for the router.
The pickups were routed using a template mounted beneath the guitar. The body is placed in the template at an angle to account for neck pitch. Any mistakes at this point and there are two options: a) re-top and start over or b) Gold Top. Please note it is a sunburst so no mistakes or slips occurred at this critical point although I do have a second top, the twin to this one.

[Sinmastah]

Wow, just amazing looking. To be honest, I just looked at the '59 les paul and entered this topic. Looked at the guitar and thought it was an actual gibson produced LP. Very nicely done!!!

BTW, keep the pics coming. Its especially interesting, considering I was thinking about making a crude electric guitar for a physics project.

[Paul]

Can we give this guy a freaking medal allready?



seriously great job cant wit untill it's finished hope it turns out well.

bloody brilliant work.

[treddingjr]

A LOT of sanding took place between the last shots and the next two. Once I thought it was smooth, I sprayed it lightly with water and then sanded again. The mist raised the grain and allowed even an even smoother finish. I used 150, 320, and 400 grit paper.

Color: Yellow stain wiped on the top. This is the basis for the sunburst.


Bleeding cherry wood pore filler rubbed into the back and neck. EVERY imperfection shows at this point if the sanding job isn't done well.

[treddingjr]

First light clear coat over the yellow.


Clear goes over the yellow before any red goes into the burst.


Another view.

[808]

Looks amazing!

[treddingjr]

Clear.


Red aniline dye sunburst stage one.


Stage two; a hint of brown.

[treddingjr]

Burst and clear. Making progress at this point.


A view of the headstock. Piano black and clear. The logo was scraped with a utility knife blade between black and clear.


A view of the back.


At this point, I have just over a week to go. I have moved out of the basement and into the paint booth at a friend's.

[pinefd]

Great job, TJr!

[brettk7]

Wow is all I can say.

That is amazing.

[single cut 54]

t.jr, this is gonna be a hard act to follow with your next thread.Great stuff.