PGK Les Paul Build

[fatdaddypreacher]

i'm not sure of the chemical makeup of wood conditioner, but its basically a clear water-thin liquid that is used to neutralize the wood that enables it to take stain more evenly. as noted, maple can be prone to appear splotchy if not treated. I believe cherry is also known to do this. i would think any professional grade paint store would carry it. the only one i've ever used is named Bix, but i'm sure there would be other brands as well.

 

[Aaronoutside]

Did you mask the top of the body where the fret board is going to make contact? You definitely want to before you tru oil the top, wood glue needs to penetrate the wood to glue and tru oil will prevent that.

Whoops… I only did one coat, but it did get sealed. I will have to try and tape it off and sand a little.

 

[emoney]

Whoops… I only did one coat, but it did get sealed. I will have to try and tape it off and sand a little.

Definitely sand back where the fretboard will get glued. You don't want that popping up next summer as the wood starts to move. In a perfect world, you finish the building, mock it up including strings, and then apply your finish after you know it doesn't need any other tweaking.

Yeah, grain filler is not the glamorous part of building a guitar, but necessary for a smooth finish.

 

[Aaronoutside]

Alright, after a minor delay due to not having my hide glue ready, and needing to sand down the top of the body where the fingerboard will glue on, I just glued in the neck, and damn does it make me nervous. Here's to hoping that I didn't screw it up.

I mixed up a batch of glue yesterday with 2-1 water to granules and let it sit overnight. Melted it back down today and got it to 145 degrees. I had to take over the kitchen, so made sure that I had plenty of time to air out the smell before my lady comes home.

Tested our my clamp and glue setup and then put glue on the inside of the joint. Someone on here gave that tip as opposed to putting glue on the neck and it worked like a charm with minimal glue flowing out onto the body. Honestly, it doesn’t seem like a ton of glue to hold that thing in place, but I am trusting that it will work. Guess we won’t know for sure till I take the clamps off tomorrow.

starting to really look like a guitar though!

 

[Aaronoutside]

Well the neck didn’t fall of… yet

starting finishing with tru oil. Plan is to do 3 coats a day and then sand on the first couple of coats with 1000 or 2000 before switching over to 00 steel wool for the last 20+ coats.

 

[Aaronoutside]

Well the finish is coming along. This is after about 10 coats of thinned down tru oil. Letting it dry overnight after two coats. Looking pretty good, but steel wool is causing issues. Leaves a nice finish, but imbeds in the finish some. Seems to work better to just do a wet sand with mineral oil and wipe it off after. Sure it will be hard to get all of it back our, but you live and you learn.

 

[moreles]

A lot of people use Tru-Oil for ease of finishing, and like it, so I hope you're satisfied. Oil finishes, and oil as a material, never please me over the long term because I don't like how they age, particularly in contrast with French Polish or Nitro. Some of the new ultra-thin catalyzed finishes may prove excellent long-term -- I don't think they'll actually age at all, but I don't think they'll degrade, either. I like to spray finishes and save my rubbing for the final polishing, though I do French Polish sometimes. What's important is that you get the appearance and feel you want, and if you do, that's success. I'm curious about the neck angle and bridge/saddle height once you string it up. If I were buying a kit, that's one aspect of the build that I would hope would be precisely done. (Some kits deliver parts with big gaps that builders just fill with glue!) I started building (after much repairing) with a banjo, making the neck from a board of mahogany and doing the whole thing, including the neck-rim join (a banjo rim is circular!), by hand -- as in hand tools and a Dremel -- and it was a real education. I think most of us gained experience with different types of projects focusing on different aspects of building, before we feel capable of doing a whole instrument from scratch. It was when I finally built a really fine acoustic guitar from scratch that I came to consider myself fundamentally capable as a builder. Funny enough, the olny kit instrument I've ever made was the easiest darned thing of all -- a uke! But I did go nuts with the inlay. Congratulations on seeing your project forward.

 

[OldBenKenobi]

Wow, last I'd seen PGK had switched to some truly awful proprietary, lawyer-friendly designs. This looks fantastic!

 

[Aaronoutside]

Well, lots of progress since the last post. Did a ton more coats of oil, and on the last ones, used 2000 grit between each one.

putting in the bridge and tailpiece was tricky, but rather they were tight than loose.

Got the electronics all put in and wired up. @Tone Man Guitar made it easy to figure it out for my first time. Had a short in there to begin with, but I think it was just one of the poles of the switch bent putting it in and was shorting.

still setting setting up intonation and general setup, but plugged it in and it sounds killer. Have the Wolfetone Dr V in the neck and Marshallhead A2 in the bridge, and they sound fantastic even with not having a full setup. Will post some more final pics once I get it all setup.

 

[fatdaddypreacher]

very nice

 

[Tone Man Guitar]

Great looking guitar!

 

[ARandall]

One of the quickest concluded build threads we've had....

Good pickup choice too.

 

[Aaronoutside]

One of the quickest concluded build threads we've had....

Good pickup choice too.

Haha, well I was excited to play the damn thing. And it helps that I started with such a good kit. Sure sounds fantastic. Better sustain than any other guitar I own, and the marshallhead bridge pup sounds incredible. Seriously has the best tone. Maybe all that fancy wiring and pickups do matter…