Time for a Les Paul Junior

[Dasher]

Hi everyone.

So far, all of my builds have been put up here only when completed. I have always been a bit worried that I might stuff something up.

I wanted to try to build my first angled headstock and so decided on a 1959 double cut junior.

So here goes with my first build thread.

First up here is where I work. I have recently acquired some new gear. The 14in Bandsaw, pillar drill and a little 6in jointer. All from Carbatec Sydney

[Dasher]

Here are the templates. This is taken from the standard 59 junior double cut template which is widely available on the net. The plan was printed A4, glued to the MDF, rough cut on the band saw and carefully robo sanded at the pillar drill to the line. Body, neck templates and the scratchplate template all completed.

You can see the weather beaten piece of mahogany I plan to use for the build as well as a roughed up three piece neck.

[Dasher]

The body blank is African Mahogany. This is a bit old and grey. It's just over 2inches thick so will need to be thinned down.

Also some pics of the body rough cut on the band saw. I'm still getting use to my new saw, I should have cut closer to the line. Better safe than sorry though.

You can see a nice piece of Australian Blackwood in the background. I'm saving that up to use as a cap on my next build.

[adirondak5]

Cool Dasher , I'll be following this :)

[Dasher]

Last post for today. Here is the body thinned down to 1 and 13/16th (bloody Yank measurements - ) and robo sanded on the drill press to the line. Looking better! Not a bad piece of Mahogany. This revealed two very small nots. One will be under the bridge. But a blind man would be delighted to see them.

Double action truss rod in the background and there's that piece of Blackwood again.

I'm planning to do Cherry Red. And yes, the Stew Mac dye will post to OZ!

[sink]

Looks good so far. I have a mild obsession with the guitar; it's on my short list to build. Glad to see someone else tackle it, too.

[Fatcat211]

I'll be watching. My first build was a LP/Tele Hybrid. If I do another, it will be a junior, althought single cut.

have fun!

[Robbied_216]

Hey Dash!
Where about's in Sydney are you? I'll keep an ear out for that bandsaw of yours.

:)

[junk mutt]

Hey Dasher, I love my lpjr dc. I was lucky enough to get hold of a one piece body blank that was sitting in the offcut pile in the timber yard.
The fella who sold it to me said it had been hanging around for years.
The price? Ten of my finest pounds!! Result!!


I'm halfway through another double cut build too, this time with 2 humbuckers.

[Dasher]

Originally Posted by Robbied_216

Hey Dash!
Where about's in Sydney are you? I'll keep an ear out for that bandsaw of yours.

:)

Hey Robbied - North West Hills district mate. I picked the bandsaw up from Carbatec in Auburn. If you haven't taken a look at that store, you should go and check those buggers out. I could spend a fortune there if the missus would let me!

[Dasher]

Originally Posted by adirondak5

Cool Dasher , I'll be following this :)

Herb - the pressure is on now man! Your builds are awesome. I love your shop as well. I need one of those Jet thickness planners that will do a whole body. Don't you have one of those puppies in your shop?

[Dasher]

Originally Posted by junk mutt

Hey Dasher, I love my lpjr dc. I was lucky enough to get hold of a one piece body blank that was sitting in the offcut pile in the timber yard.
The fella who sold it to me said it had been hanging around for years.
The price? Ten of my finest pounds!! Result!!


I'm halfway through another double cut build too, this time with 2 humbuckers.

Hey Junk Mutt - nice build mate. The Mahogany blank cost me a little more than a 10 pound Pom paid to get to Oz in the 50s . What P-90 is that? I've gone for one of the Stewmac Parson street ones. Is your next double cut build being posted here? I'd like to see some neck builds.

Also, what's the scratch plate? Looks like Bakelite???

[adirondak5]

Originally Posted by Dasher

Herb - the pressure is on now man! Your builds are awesome. I love your shop as well. I need one of those Jet thickness planners that will do a whole body. Don't you have one of those puppies in your shop?

Hey thanks Dasher , yes , I have a 16-32 Jet thickness sander , I use it quite a bit on everything from bodies to finger boards to neck blanks . A little spendy but I would not want to be without it .

[Crafty Fox]

Hi Dasher, Looking forward to seeing your progress on this one. I also get my tools from Carbatec and I'd recommend the drum sander (sanding thicknesser) too.
Thought I'd share pics of my Junior: Tasmanian oak body, sheoak top and neck, Indian RW f'brd, zebrano headstock cap. Sounds great with the Lollar P90!

[Dasher]

Originally Posted by Crafty Fox

Hi Dasher, Looking forward to seeing your progress on this one. I also get my tools from Carbatec and I'd recommend the drum sander (sanding thicknesser) too.
Thought I'd share pics of my Junior: Tasmanian oak body, sheoak top and neck, Indian RW f'brd, zebrano headstock cap. Sounds great with the Lollar P90!

@Crafty - OMG that's an awesome looking Junior!! Now I'm done for. How could I compete with that?

Do you have any build photos of the neck? Two piece top too by the looks of it? Maybe I'll just retire and get you to make one for me!

Do you like that bridge? Intonation OK?

What's the finish? What do you have under the pup cover?

[Crafty Fox]

Hi Dasher, Thanks for the kind comments, but don't stop (building guitars) now! It's not a competition. We're all here to help and encourage.
I'll have to find some pics of the neck, they're on another computer. I laminated 5 pieces of sheoak so I won't have to worry too much about neck breaks. Fitted StewMac Hot Rod.
This is the 2nd bridge. I'd originally fitted the aluminium Wilkinson one but couldn't get good intonation. Sorted now with adjustable saddles. I also used a Wilkinson on a LP sort-of- Deluxe (carved flame maple top over mahogany, Braz RW F'brd, mini-hums, wrapover bridge) but same probs; will order a Pigtail.
It's just a tapered plastic shim under the P90; I set the neck at 3deg. Probably 2.5 would've been better as the p'up was quite low under the strings and I didn't like to raise the pole-pieces too high. Again, easily sorted.
The finish is Hi Chem nitro from Carbatec. I'd finished with (U-Beaut) Hard Shellac at first but I didn't get a good finish so I stripped it off and re-finished with the nitro.
You might like to check out Sydney Tools for other good tools & machinery. I've had a few things from them. They are usually priced very competitively.
Cheers.
Just found pics of similar neck construction; I used on the Deluxe and "Greeny" Standard.

[Robbied_216]

Originally Posted by Dasher

Hey Robbied - North West Hills district mate. I picked the bandsaw up from Carbatec in Auburn. If you haven't taken a look at that store, you should go and check those buggers out. I could spend a fortune there if the missus would let me!

Wow, literally just around the corner. I'm in Kings Park, right next to Glenwood / Quakers Hill.

[emoney]

Glad you shared this, Dasher as it's just confirmed that the double cut Jr will be my next.
Of course, I'll need to finish these other 4 first.......

[Dasher]

Turned my attention to making a neck this weekend. Here are the victims.

On the left is some Tasmanian Oak (Victorian Ash), and on the right is some Meranti (Western Pacific Maple). Both 19mm.

I cut one piece of Meranti and wedge it between two pieces of Tassie Oak. OK OK I know, it should be Mahogany but I love working with Tassie Oak and as it's my first angled headstock I thought I use what I had to hand.

The Meranti was used to add some texture change to the neck but more importantly, it's lighter than the Tassie Oak!

I cut roughly on the band saw the three pieces and glued them together. Then used the robo sander in my pillar drill and the belt sander to get something that resembles a neck.

[Dasher]

I've had this piece of Ebony lying around for about 6 months I may as well use it instead of rosewood. OK this is starting to move even further away from the 1959 model. Apologies to the purists amongst you.

The Ebony is a great consistent black right the way through. Should look nice for this build. The plan is to use perloid dots which will stand out nicely. I have been thinking of using timber dots as well but perhaps I shouldn't push things too far??

This will need to be thinned to 6mm (when will we get those Yanks to move onto the metric system???) on the new jointer.