Gonna build one of them thar pointy Gibby thangs.

[Ironwolf]

In a fit of madness (trans.: after a couple of tall bourbons), I decided it was time I took a shot at building a set neck guitar. That means it's time to try my hand at a Gibson design.

The goal is to keep it fairly simple, but, in all honesty, I have never cared for the Les Paul Specials or Juniors. That pretty much leaves the SG design as a subject for reproduction (sort of). The first step was to acquire the wood for the project. And here it is - black walnut for a two piece body and black walnut and maple for the neck.




I did the initial glue up and clamping while doing other projects through the day.



Tomorrow I'll hopefully finish sizing the neck block between other jobs in the yard. I'm looking forward to stretching my skills and ingenuity on this one. Hope it goes well.

[GtrMan]

awesome man! Keep us posted!

[Nick JD]

Sweet ... all this Gibson madness?!

I've been looking seriously at some Explorer blueprints ... and a Floyd Rose!

When will it end? This madness.

That walnut and maple neck will look awesome on an SG. Ebony fretboard?

[Ironwolf]

Originally Posted by Nick JD

Sweet ... all this Gibson madness?!

I've been looking seriously at some Explorer blueprints ... and a Floyd Rose!

When will it end? This madness.

That walnut and maple neck will look awesome on an SG. Ebony fretboard?

An ebony fretboard with white binding is what I have in mind at this point.

[guitarbuilder]

I've been working on Gibson set neck type necks for a couple of months now. I'm finding it easier for my design to make a flat mortise in the body and taper the bottom of the neck tenon to the neccessary 2 degree angle. I'm doing that on my edge sander. The nice part of this is that you can make the depth of the tenon whatever you want. Thinner for a thinner body too. I used a trig calculator on the net to determine the length of the lines for layout and just went at it.

Sears sold this 48" edge sander for a while and then discontinued it. I searched for a while for one that short and bought it because it was half the size of a regular one for my already cramped space. I really didn't use it all that often until I started this style neck.

The tenons I'm using my router table with a good size bit too. I'd love to have one of those crank height adjusters for accuracy about now.

For mortises, I bought a 1.5D straight router bit for about 30 dollars. That's a chunk of metal. I think I got that from Eagle America as nobody like Woodcraft or Grizzly carried one that large.

I've done 4 bodies this way already with a 1.5 x 1.5 long tenon but made the mortises with a wooden pattern. I think the router bit shall be a tad more accurate it the long run. I expect to hog out waste with a forstner and make one clean up pass with the router in the router table.

[mgdesigns]

Guitarbuilder: Don't you have a CNC router setup? If so, you could do all of the angled bottom of neck pocket routes easier and do all from the top-side cutting. Just a thought.

[kyle1167]

I'm lovin these Gibson builds.

[guitarbuilder]

Guitarbuilder: Don't you have a CNC router setup? If so, you could do all of the angled bottom of neck pocket routes easier and do all from the top-side cutting. Just a thought.

Yes, but this machine has sloppiness in the linear guides prompting replacement sometime. For something like a tapered heel it would probably be OK though. It carves the neck fine enough. This issue usually comes about when plunging into the material, that is where the flex is. This first batch of necks that I made were all straight tenon, as they would go onto a '59 LP build. All the models were drawn and converted. I'll need to go back and add the taper which is no big deal to do. I should be doing another batch soon as I'm wrapping these up. The first batch of 6 were the learning curve. Some turned up a hair thin, some thick, 2 had deep dings, 2 came out nice. I'm gonna use all 6 and give 4 guitars away to friends who won't care if they aren't perfect. I made the necessary repairs to fix all the blems. I can't see wasting good quartersawn tropical american mahogany. Here are 4 of them:

[Ironwolf]

I pulled the clamps and planed the neck block and replaned then sanded the body blank. Everything is nice and smooth. The body is a bit thin, at just over an inch and a quarter, but it should work well for an SG type. Next project is to start the templates.

[mgdesigns]

Originally Posted by guitarbuilder

Guitarbuilder: Don't you have a CNC router setup? If so, you could do all of the angled bottom of neck pocket routes easier and do all from the top-side cutting. Just a thought.

Yes, but this machine has sloppiness in the linear guides prompting replacement sometime. For something like a tapered heel it would probably be OK though. It carves the neck fine enough. This issue usually comes about when plunging into the material, that is where the flex is. This first batch of necks that I made were all straight tenon, as they would go onto a '59 LP build. .... [/IMG]

When you are doing a plunge cut, such as a neck pocket or pickup route, how deep do you go for each pass? i.e, 1x bit diameter plunge, then next pass 2x bit diameter, etc. Just curious, because someday I am going to build a cnc router and want to know some of the logistics.
And since all I've ever cnc'd was jewelry masters of master pattern wax, and have no wood or fibrous material cnc experience, this is of interest to me. Sorry - I don't mean to hijack this thread.

[guitarbuilder]

I usually plunge down to .25 each pass with an occasional .375 on pine and a new bit. The last pass tends to be less with a cleanup pass to final depth. On the necks, I think my plunge was .20 and step over was about .040. The final clean up pass on the necks were .1 deep if I recall.

[guitarbuilder]

The walnut SG will be nice looking. I like walnut alot.

[rcole_sooner]

Day-um! I give. No more, please. So many cool builds (you too, guitarbuilder). This is the cats a55 man!

[guitarbuilder]

Back to your regularly scheduled show with Ironwolf!

[Ironwolf]

Started the template process.

[Scatter Lee]

[dickjonesify]

Originally Posted by Scatter Lee

+1
I'm getting ready for one of these. I'll be taking notes.

[Ironwolf]

I ordered a batch of stuff from StewMac; a HotRod truss rod, an ebony fret board, fret wire, 12" radius fret press insert, binding and abalone fret markers. Next I'll have to make a new router sled to cut the truss rod slot.

[mgdesigns]

Originally Posted by Ironwolf

Started the template process.

Ironwolf:

A couple of questions:
1) Which file did you use to get the plot of the 60's SG Standard? *The one I have is for 70's).

2) That seems to be a pretty lomg drilled hole from neck pocet to controls pocket. is that 1/2" diameter, and if so how thick is the body? (1.25"?)

Thanks.

I'd love to build one someday. My first good guitar was a '65 Cherry SG Std. w/vibrola, and it got stolen from my bedroom at a wild and crazy party in '69. The old bird. Very cool fast fretless wonder neck, and thin. Easy to play.

[Ironwolf]

I don't know which version of the SG these plans are for; I really don't care, as I'm not building an exact copy. The plans can be had here:

GibsonSGPlans