LP Special P90 Build

[Moodivarius]

I’m working on this with a friend of mine, Rick, for his build.

I’m trying to teach him what goes on in building a guitar, & only doing the things he isn’t comfortable doing.

He is basically apprenticing under guidance.

Started April15th, putting the SouthAfrican mahogany blank together.

He purchased the wood from Windsor Plywood in Winnipeg, MB.

Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

Same day as blank glue-up, we went to the shop & started cutting out the neck.

Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

April 24th, he came over to work on it some more.

I let him play the new LP I finished.

Then we went out to the shop.

Truss rod routed, & backside of headstock thinned to proper thickness.

I thought of a different approach than cutting the thickness of the backside of the headstock.

On my LP, I used my bandsaw. It’s hard to follow a straight line with it.

I placed the front angle of the headstock, face down on the CNC table, used some blocking sideways, the 10 deg angle wedge we cut off the front, and another block further back. A strip of 1/2” plywood across to hold it down firm.

Used a 5/8” end mill in the CNC, set zero on base of CNC. Then we knew when we get close to +0.625 on the CNC, we where close. The rest can be sanded. I used my handheld dongle & ran the X,Y,Z manually.

As the saying goes, “Many ways to skin the cat”.

After a quick sand on the orbital.

Another evening, we will cut the side profile, & tenon.



Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

He came back yesterday, & we worked on the rear cavity routes.

Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

Today, we did quite a bit of work.

We flipped the body over, & routed out the pickup cavities, drilled switch & pot holes. Then routed the profile of the body from the blank.

I even showed him how to change bits on CNC router, had him “Close G-Code”, “Load G-Code” pick routing file, and “Start Cycle” to route the body.



Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

While the CNC was routing out the blank, I had him cutting the fret slots on the fingerboard, once I routed the rough radius on the router table.

A little “Opps” on one of the frets. He thought the fret jig was seated in the pin, but it wasn’t.
We will fill with CA glue, & fret sawdust.

Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

We finished up the tenon.

Then I setup the mortise routing template I had made for my LP build.

Used hot glue gun & scrap wood to hold in position, at the correct 3 deg angle for the LP Special neck angle.

Zeroed to the flat surface of the body top.

All ready for the router.

It took 5 passes, & 2 different lengths of top bearing trim router bits to complete the mortise. I showed Rick how to get the feel of the bit cutting the wood. If too fast, starts to chatter slightly. Slow finesse work.

We wore ear muffs, masks for the sawdust/chips for everything else. During this operation, we found, the mask caused glasses to fog, & couldn’t see the cut. Had to get right down to see the bit cutting the wood.

Kinda messy.

That’s all done.


Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

Next we rounded off the corners of the tenon & dry fit in the mortise. Also round-over on both sides of the body.

A happy apprentice! Almost looks like a guitar.

Scott

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Wow!

Great stuff!

Looks like a fantastic project!

Please keep us in the loop.

 

[dspelman]

It's a guitar shape!

 

[ArtWerkOrange]

I’m working on this with a friend of mine, Rick, for his build.

I’m trying to teach him what goes on in building a guitar, & only doing the things he isn’t comfortable doing.

He is basically apprenticing under guidance.

Started April15th, putting the SouthAfrican mahogany blank together.

He purchased the wood from Windsor Plywood in Winnipeg, MB.

Do you have room for another student/apprentice? I do not even have a decent repair shop in my city... and it is not a small town by any stretch. He is a lucky guy. This is a thread I will keep my eye on!

Scott

 

[Moodivarius]

Some more work done last night.
Fingerboard glued on, & body sanded.

My apprentice sanding the body.

Coming along.


Scott

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

I never knew Captain Kangaroo was a guitarist and a woodworker!

 

[Moodivarius]

This evening, flushed the fingerboard to the neck. Radius sanded the fingerboard and experimented with some marker dots.

The happy apprentice.

Experimental dots.

Might try #6 screws, that will be 1/4” dia heads.

Scott.

 

[mgdesigns]

Scott - looks like your mentorship certificate will be arriving in the mail soon. Good Job. (Engraver60)

 

[OBX351]

Sub'ed

 

[VancoD]

Kinda messy.

lol - Nice use of the "safety squint" there!

Sub'd.

 

[Joe Desperado]

This evening, flushed the fingerboard to the neck. Radius sanded the fingerboard and experimented with some marker dots.

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View attachment 607368


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The happy apprentice.
View attachment 607371


Experimental dots.
View attachment 607372

Might try #6 screws, that will be 1/4” dia heads.
View attachment 607373



Scott.

This deserves something nicer than screws, though the idea is neat

 

[rbain]

This is awesome stuff. So much more down to earth than a factory Vid. You've really personalized the process to show the heart going into a build. Can't wait to see more!

 

[ARandall]

Interesting option for the neck joint. Usually the singlecut specials/Jr's have the cutaway shelf and the full size tenon as a way to avoid potentially problematic narrow wedges under the fretboard that taper to nothing.