My '59 Les Paul Doppelganger

[treddingjr]

This is my first post so be easy on me!

I made this in a basement with basic hand tools except for a pin router. A friend did the rough carve of the top for me but I finished it by hand sanding.
Seymour Duncan double white antiquities. Pigtail Bridge, studs, and tailpiece. Gibson Historic guard, knobs, and rings. CTS pots, vintage caps, Switchcraft 3 way switch. Switch ring is from the 60's. Buzzy's inlays in a brazilian board w/jumbo frets, Kluson single line tuners. Celluloid binding, on both board and body with tortoise shell fret markers. Aniline dye burst. Some fade but no checking to date. The top material came from Northwest Timber (nwtimber.com) and the mahogany body and neck from Hartville Lumber, Hartville, OH. Holly headstock veneer raw material came from Keim Lumber, Charm, OH. Headstock logo from eBay seller in Germany. Gibson Historic Re-issue Lifton case.


Five months start to finish

[Cantu]

Welcome
Nice job
Looks like a real lester!

[george johnson]

Nice job!!!

Great lookin' guitar.

...and welcome to the forum.

[loneguitar]

Great looking lady there Tread, welcome to the forum

[Spicoli]

Nice fiddle, welcome to the forum.

[lp59aholicDon]

Welcome Tred, Damn Nice work on that Guit Fiddle ! PRetty top rate, Hmm Long Neck Tenon ?

[classic]

Welcome ... excellent job !!

[Eggy]

Nice build, looks good. What did you go for in terms of neck size?

[lifton]

Nice guitar, I would change the pickuprings to better looking ones IMO

Funny that there are several people around the world working on projects like this. What plan did you use?

Here is my work posted a few days ago YouTube - les paul

[Mr Bones]

Really nice looking! Where did you get the binding?

[treddingjr]

Thanks for all of the compliments.
Long Neck tenon. The neck size is late '58, like my 01 R8. Traced a Les Paul for the shape by laying it on white paper. The binding came from Stewart-Macdonald.
Looking at some All-Parts rings. I aged all of my metal (tuners, screws, etc.) with rock salt and muriatic acid fumes.

[lp59aholicDon]

Originally Posted by treddingjr

Thanks for all of the compliments.
Long Neck tenon. The neck size is late '58, like my 01 R8. Traced a Les Paul for the shape by laying it on white paper. The binding came from Stewart-Macdonald.
Looking at some All-Parts rings. I aged all of my metal (tuners, screws, etc.) with rock salt and muriatic acid fumes.

Definitly sounds as you did it up oustandingly inside and out, Much respect for that,

[Axeman16]

looks awesome, and welcome. now more pics!!

[ReverendJWblues]

Very sweet looking. I like it.
BTW did you build it for Slash?
Did he use it on the Appetite for Destruction record?

Welcome here brother BTW I am just kidding.

[zoso304]

Good call Rev, i like the cut of your jib! Very Beautiful guitar brother!

[Davey Rockets]

Good Golly Miss Molly, that is a sweet looking guitar!

Sooo, how's it sound and feel?

And are you taking orders? heh heh

[treddingjr]

Sorry to take so long getting back but I was out in the west for a week. I have a ton of pictures. I photographed every step of the way in building it and it's two cousins, a pair of Special inspired all mahogany P-90 guitars.

It sounds like a Les Paul, and it feels like a Les Paul. To my ears, a very warm tone. I have a Fender Blues Junior, and a Legend 60. My Blues DeVille died and I am waiting for it to come back to the living so I can see if it has that bluesbreakers tone.

I a/b'd it with a retopped historic through a Sovtek Mig 50 and it held it's own. What I hear more than anything is the labor of love and the pride I take in it. Corny maybe, but that's what I hear.

Orders? Not at this time. I think I 'm going to build a motorcycle next.

[treddingjr]

Some steps along the way:
The rough back of the body

The bookmatched rough top

A rough neck compared with the starting 3X3 piece

Let me know when this gets boring.

[single cut 54]

Keep 'em coming t.jr

[treddingjr]

Top planed; ready to be glued to the body back. Yes, I used hide glue throughout the build.


Routing the top. My friend set up the program, and carved it for me.

The rough carve. It took close to two weeks of sanding to prepare it to the point where it could be considered ready for finish. That includes routing for the binding.

[treddingjr]

The rough body from the back


Sanding the sides to remove all saw and chatter marks


Scraping the binding to the height of the body

[PAF MAN]

More!!!!

[eshuffle]

Beautiful work. Outstanding Job!!!! Hey I haven't spoke to Joel lately. I finally met Slash Wed in Detroit thru Adam he just loved the Green Snake and autographed it for me. I showed him pics of the one Joel is working on know the all black one. I really impressed him he's looking forward to seeing it done. He told me he would be getting in touch with me.

Again really great Job!!

Ken
myspace.com/meyerguitars

[eshuffle]

Here's the one Joel has know

Ken

[treddingjr]

The neck was routed for the truss rod; once inserted, a maple cap fills the rout and locks in the rod


The ears are added with scraps from the 3x3 the neck was cut from. The grain is matched.


Holly headstock veneer. I cut these from a piece of holly with a band sawand then planed them to thickness

[fam]

my gosh youre awesome...good job.

[diceman]

Yowza! Great work - can't wait to see the rest of the build pix. Very nice!

[treddingjr]

Here's the tenon traced on the neck and then cut out in the second picture. The round dot is the anchor end of the Stew-Mac vintage adjustable truss rod.




I traced the headstock shape and cut it as close as I could with a band saw. There's a lot of hand finishing after this, particularly the 'moustache'.

[tarddoggy]

man I wish I could do this

[PAF MAN]

Originally Posted by tarddoggy

man I wish I could do this

i so hear ya.