Les Paul Build
This page is to document my Les Paul replica build. It is the first time I've ever built a guitar, but I am a professional furniture maker so wood working is nothing new to me. I started by selecting the wood from a local lumber supplier. I chose a one piece Honduran mahogany body blank and a nice piece of curly hard maple. The figure in the maple is not overly strong because I've always found Les Paul’s with a lot of figure to look a bit over the top and gaudy. I wanted something with a subtle figure and found the perfect piece for the job.
I did not decide to document this build until after I had carved the top, so I’ll have to explain the steps I took up until that point.
After selecting the wood I re sawed the top piece, and jointed the edges of the two book matched pieces. I decided to use hide glue to build this guitar for a variety of reasons and heated up a batch for the top glue up. After the book match was dried I planed it nice and smooth on one side then glued it to the mahogany body blank and let it dry over night.
The next morning I used a jig saw to cut out the body profile being very careful to center the shape on the book matched centerline. I then planed the whole body to thickness.
I routed the binding channel all the way around the body except for in the cutaway and set up the duplicator.
After carving the top I realized the guitar was not thick enough and decide that I could either make the guitar slightly thinner than a standard Les Paul, or start with a new top. Well, after carving the top I had revealed a few minor flaws in the wood and also deciding that I would not be happy with the finished product knowing that it was thinner than it was supposed to be, I planed down the top right back to the mahogany.
I went back to my lumber supplier and chose another piece of maple that was far better looking than the first one and went back to shop to try to catch up.
I book matched the top and glued it onto the body and let that dry over night again.
The next day I set up the duplicator again and carved the top of the body.
The picture above shows the guitar body after going through the duplicator and having the initial profile carved into it. The binding channel was routed before going into the duplicator. The binding channel around the cutaway was not routed yet. After the body was carved I sanded it with 80 grit paper on my random orbital sander being very careful to not let any flat spots develop. The picture above was taken after only about 5 to 10 minutes of sanding.
I then made a jig to rout the neck pocket at the correct angle.
The neck pocket fresh from the jig.
You can see the steps in the pocket caused by the collar in my router. My bit was not deep enough to remove all the wood so I had to take it out of the jig for the final few passes. I will clean it up with a chisel when it comes time to fit the neck
Here is a close up of the binding channel
This is the set up I used to rout for the binding.
I've laid out the location of the knobs and pickups
Test fitting a humbucker.
My shop quickly gets messy when I'm focused on getting some work done, so I frequently have to stop, clean up and get organized.
I made some jigs for the control cavities cover plates and routed them out.
At each step I have been making jigs as I go in an effort to be able to duplicate the work at a later date should I decide to one day to build another Les Paul. Doing things this way slow things down significantly but make the work more accurate and will speed up any subsequent guitar builds.
Once the control cavities were completed I drilled for the switch and knobs. This is where I made a really dumb mistake. after chucking a 1/2" bit into my drill I turned around and without thinking (obviously) drilled a hole in one of the knob locations instead of the switch location (the knob holes are supposed to be 3/8"). Anyway, I was pretty pissed off about it but life goes on. I plugged the 1/2" hole with a scrap of maple left over from the top wood and will re drill with a 3/8" bit once it’s dry. No one will be the wiser because it will not be seen unless the volume knob and pot are removed from the guitar.
I then freehand routed the remaining binding channel in the cutaway (I do not recommend doing it freehand but I've got a very good feel for routers and was not worried about it too much).
Installing the binding went smoothly until I got to the cutaway, where I stopped to decide how I was going to tackle it.
I decided after some trial runs that the best way to do it was to make a caul to clamp the binding around the horn.
The rest of the cutaway was pretty easy and only required some tape to hold things in place.
I spent the next day scraping the binding flush to the body. I used a razor blade and a block plane blade, and found it to be really easy and enjoyable to watch it all come together.
After scraping the binding I cut out the neck blank from a block of mahogany. The block was perfectly quarter sawn and very light weight.
This is what I had by the end of the weekend.
I spent some time fine tuning the tenon and got it fitting just right.
The first look after the first fitting.
I taped a piece of sandpaper to the flat surface of my cabinet saw and flattened the face of the headstock. Later I will glue on the holly face.
I marked the face with pencil marks so I could see the progress I was making
I then cut the truss rod slot and carved out the nut cavity in the headstock
Then I turned my attention to the holly veneer. I carefully shaped the blank using templates. I've always felt that the Gibson headstock has perfect dimensions and feel it’s important to take your time at this stage or the whole guitar ends up looking like a cheap knock off.
I used a coping saw to rough it out, and then fine tuned it on a belt sander. The final tweaking was done by hand with sandpaper.
Then I needed to cut out the nut cavity access hole in the holly.
I drilled a hole and fed the coping saw blade through the hole...
And carefully cut out the waste material.
I touched it up with some sandpaper.
I then turned my attention to the neck. After laying out all the dimensions on the blank I started to remove material with a belt sander, and a spoke shave.
And when I got down close to the layout lines I hand sanded. I took a full sheet of sandpaper and covered the back with duct tape and held the sand paper in both hands. By drawing the paper over the curve of the back of the neck a lot of material is removed very evenly and the job goes quite quickly. After several minutes I was left with this.
I cut some strips of mahogany for the "wings" of the headstock and glued them on with more hide glue. I let them set up over night
The next morning I sanded them flush to the face of the headstock and prepared the holly face plate for glue up. I made a plywood clamping caul using tiny drill bits to keep the face plate lined up exactly where I want it
I heated both mating surfaces with a clothes iron to give myself a bit more time to get everything lined up before the glue gelled, then I clamped the whole thing together with a bunch of spring clamps.
In retrospect I should have laid a layer of waxed paper between the faceplate and the clamping caul to keep them from being glued together by the squeeze out, but I got the whole thing apart without too much trouble.
I carefully sanded the mahogany down to the face plate using a belt sander and hand sanding.
I also dry fitted the truss rod and its maple filler strip.
I used hide glue as usual.
I then turned my attention to the fret board. I carefully measured and laid out the fret slots using a razor blade to mark their locations. I then traced around each of the fret marker inlays.
I used a small router bit to remove the bulk of the material then cleaned up with a sharp chisel. I used real shell for the inlays instead of plastic.
Once I had all the inlays ready to go I began cutting the fret slots.
It was finally time to glue in the fret markers. I mixed up some epoxy with some rosewood dust to fill any imperfections in the inlays.
I tapered the fretboard with a simple jig on the cabinet saw.
I glued the fretboard down with 2 tiny drops of crazy glue to begin to radius the fingerboard.
Then it was sanding, and sanding, and sanding....
Finally I started to make some real progress.
Once I was finished sanding I had gone up to 800 grit and the board was very shiny and polished looking.
I re-cut the fret slots making them deep enough for the fret wire tang.
It was finally time to begin installing the fret wire. I bent it by hand to a 12" radius and used a wooden block to seat it firmly in the fret board.
I ground off the excess fret wire with a bench top grinder being careful not to overheat the wire.
Then I used a hand file to clean up the fret ends.
Next was binding. I had plenty of tape on hand and pre cut.
Attaching the binding went very smoothly.
I used a little block to file the ends of the binding to a 45 degree angle where they meet at the end of the fretboard.
once the glue had a chance to dry I removed the tape. I also switched from a point-and-shoot digital camera to a digital SLR.
I used a single edged razor to scrape the binding down.
And a file to fine tune.
I put a bevel on the edge and rolled the edges for a bit of a worn in feel. I used thin strips of 320 grit sand paper to roll the edges.
It was then time for the side dots. I used a tortoise guitar pick to punch out the circles. I use the back end of a correctly sized drill bit as a punch.
I taped a piece of sandpaper on the flat surface of the table saw to sand down the face of the headstock.
I tightened the truss rod just a touch before sanding the neck's fret board surface so that I can be sure I’ll have a neck with slight relief once the truss rod is relaxed.
I heated up some hide glue on my makeshift glue pot. Works very well!
I checked one last time for a proper fit and good alignment.
Once I was satisfied with the fit I glued it up and clamped it.
While the glue was drying on the neck I measured and drilled for the bridge.
Once the neck came out of the clamps I inlayed the logo. I mixed up some epoxy with black pigment and pressed the inlay into place.
Once it dried I sanded the headstock down to its final thickness. You can see just how much pigment got sucked up into the wood fibres.
I mixed up some lacquer with powder pigment in it, but I did not mill it to blend it, just to see what would happen because I knew I would be spraying many coats of clear and wet sanding. Once the lacquer dried I scraped the logo.
After clear coating and sanding..
I then fit the nut to the neck using the sharp edge of the bone to scrape the neck and seat it well.
I then marked for the radius of the frets with a flattened pencil leaving a little left for when it’s time for the guitars first set up.
I then formed the radius on the belt sander down to the line.
I was finally ready to start the finishing process. I masked off the binding to start.
Then started by applying the grain filler. I used this dark brown because I like the way it works when a red toner is sprayed over it.
I removed the excess once it set up for a few minutes with some burlap working across the grain.
Some of the concentrated dye I will be using for the finishing.
I masked off the neck, sides and back to get ready for the top finish.
I started with a couple of coats of clear to seal it.
I added a drop or two of amber to the clear lacquer to give it a slightly aged look.
Once the burst pattern was formed I tinted the back and neck with red and scraped the bindings one final time. At this point the remainder of the spraying will be clear only, so if anything needs work, now is the time.
After playing the guitar for some time I decided I just couldn't get used to the burst colour, so I refinished the top to a colour and pattern that I find to be much more vintage looking (which is what I was going for). I have also installed some sheptone pickups and finished of the headstock with the correct silkscreen.
Here are some recent photo's:
