First Build: Korina DC Les Paul Special (inspired)

[mux164]

awesome, what type of finish are you doing? im too lazy to look back haha

 

[Tugboat]

I'm doing a two-tone sunburst. This will be my first burst so we'll see how it goes!

 

[Tugboat]

The end is nigh!!!!

I drilled the tailpiece ground wire to electronics cavity hole, the bridge pickup to electronics cavity hole, jack hole (Forster bits are all that and a bag of chips for drilling clean holes) and routed a channel from the neck p-90 to the bridge p-90. I originally was going to drill a hole but I couldn't get the right angle. I should've done it before the neck was attached. Hey...if it's good enough for the Strat it's good enough for me. It'll have a pickguard anyways. I also installed the tailpiece bushings and ground wire.

I then did the edge radius. Measured off half of the radius of a LP special (forget what it is) and beveled around the body with a file, both sides. Then I added a bevel to both sides of the first bevel and sanded it to a nice radius. Doubt it's vintage correct but this isn't vintage correct anyways.

I accidentally made the spot for the nut too wide so I had to fill the gap (got a precut bone nut from Stew-Mac). My first attempt was pathetic with gaps that bugged me so I whacked out the nut (heh) with a block and a hammer (hit the block with the hammer) and started again. I cut a piece of rosewood, trimmed it to shape, and glued it in. Then I filed it down. Had I some foresight I would've trimmed an angle to match the headstock veneer but oh well.

Then with a little hacksaw thingy I cut two grooves and trimmed the excess with a 1/4" chisel.

Then I finished sanding the nut slot to shape, glued it in, and trimmed the nut to match the fretboard.

Finally, I tweaked the neck shape a bit more and sanded the whole thing down to #400 grit.

I leave for my honeymoon on Monday (wedding was this summer) so once I get back around New Year's I'll grain fill, add sanding sealer, the Fender style two-tone sunburst, then clear coat! Weather pending I should be playing it in February!

 

[Tugboat]

Progress! After my honeymoon during the holidays (in Switzerland, which was too cool!) and some non-cooperative weather I touched up a few things, grain filled, then sanding sealed.

After it was flat with no pits. I put on a couple coats of reranch burst amber.

Then the stressful part. Doing my first burst. I got some two-tone burst amber and brown from Reranch and I'm pretty darn satisfied with my first burst attempt!

After one coat, stopping to avoid runs:

Then a second, light coat to touch up the horns (they were a bit blotchy). The first pic was during the day, second at night so the night pic looks a bit darker than it really is.

I'm calling the front done! Need to do the back, sides, and neck. I hope one can of brown is enough!

 

[marijnsloth]

Nice! Are you bursting the back as well?

 

[Tugboat]

Yes I am. Didn't have time to do it over the weekend due to weather but hope to have the back burst, as well as the neck and sides, done this week. I got a bit of blushing on my second coat so as soon as it dries up I'm gonna have to mist a coat of clear on the horns to try to lift the blush!

 

[KnightroExpress]

Hey, congrats! Your guitar is looking great

 

[Tugboat]

Thanks Knightro! Hope to be playing it by early March!!

 

[Tugboat]

So, after 3 months of fighting fisheye issues, I started painting again from scratch. I got a bunch of preval units, a quart of Behlen's lacquer, some fisheye remover, and amber and tobacco brown tints from Stew-Mac. After waiting a bit to find some time to spray and some cooperative weather, I was at it again this past weekend. Holy orange peel these Preval units are hard to use. I'm close, if not done, on the front (I may add a smidgen of "transition" on one side; the burst looks a bit lopsided to me).

On my Tele I didn't sand at all until I was done with all cans of clear but on this one I may knock some of the orange peel down after I finish a Preval unit of clear coat. These Prevals orange peel like crazy on bursts. I can't get the guns close enough to get a decent spray pattern when spraying with the guitar horizontally so it just lumps on in clumps. I eventually lay enough clumps for it to look bursty at a distance. I have a few tips I was given to help but I'm hoping that spraying vertically, and getting the gun closer to the guitar, helps it lay on without orange peeling so dang much.

Here's the front:

I started the back just now. Same atrocious orange peel issues but otherwise no fisheyes. I think. It orange peeled so bad that it's hard to tell.

 

[Tugboat]

Fast forward a year and it's done! fought fisheye issues for months and had to settle with using a preval. Didn't stop to think about asking if Reranch could add fisheye flow out to their reranch cans. Reranch sprays a sunburst SO much better than a Preval does. It's not perfect but it turned out so much better than I could've imagined. It even plays pretty well, considering it's my first ever fret install and full setup. Sounds great; perfect for greasy bluesy rock and blues like the Black Keys, White Stripes, Wood Brothers, and the Stones. Exactly what I wanted.

Only thing I'm still troubleshooting is the intonation. The tuner bushings were drilled a bit off. I'm probably going to get some offset tuner bushings to help get the compensated wraparound in the right spot. I've already pushed the bass side back as far as it can go.

 

[fatdaddypreacher]

niiicee! now, can we hear it?

 

[Tugboat]

Thanks preacher! I'm out of town right now but I'll post a video when I get home. It'll be a crappy iPad video but it should give a good idea on how it sounds.

 

[jkes01]

Nice job, looks great

 

[Tugboat]

Here's a few dittys to show generally how it sounds. I picked a few things that I think really suit the guitar. Ignore the mistakes. Amp is a homebrew 1x10 5F1 Champ clone (RCA black plates, weber Sig 10s speaker) close miked with an iPad. First 3 are clean (at least clean as a tweed champ gets with P90s). 4th clip uses a Mojo Hand Mule for mild OD and a Fulltone '69 fuzz. Last clip uses a homemade Rat clone. All guitar controls are dimed except for the last clip. Still playing around with strings; I have DR Pure Blues on it in the clip which are really warm strings. Pickups are standard output Lollars.

The guitar resonates like crazy. You can always feel it vibrating. Sometimes you hit a chord just right and the whole guitar shakes. Couldn't have been happier with how it turned out!

http://youtu.be/i8hih_0XB6E

Can't figure out how to imbed the video?

 

[Sethlover72]

great build..inspiring..

nice video, too.