Brotherhood ‘23 - First Build - a gnarly LP Junior DC from scraps

[Phaedros]

Hi all,

does long time lurking account for a degree in theoretical luthery? If so you can safely call me an expert!

- tldr cut here -

Being an ex expo booth builder who kind of fell out of the trade due to numerous pandemic and non-pandemic related issues, I recently found myself with spare amounts of time and my pretty extensive set of tools wondering how to connect the dots...
It didn´t take too long for me to realise that I could pursue a long time dream of mine to build my own guitar. My first thought was of course to browse for the finest wood and hardware to piece together my dream guitar - that came to a screeching halt when the fact hit me that this might as well bust my narrow budget just as much as my limited skillset and impatience might make me screw up on the first try anyway.

So - here goes nothing (a little bit, maybe).


A Les Paul Junior DC in "barncaster" style seemed fitting...

Time to gather the materials:

I have a gnarly old plank of wood sitting around that will propably be an ample replacement for tone wood (body)
Theres an old and pretty hot (8,25kΩ) P90 I had sloppily mounted into my old Korean ES335 Copy
I have a set of heavily aged Kluson Style Tuners that are 6 in line (no book style headstock then), a pair of Tophat Knobs and two Alpha pots, some 6150 fret wire and a way short block of indian rosewood (I make knives as a hobby for about fifteen years so there´s heaps of interesting wood in my storage - all lacking the size for fretboards).

- tldr start reading here -


(SOLVED see below) A first question for the more experienced builders:

Has anyone ever built a neck with a two part fretboard? I was considering taking two bookmatched slices of my 15" long block of rosewood and piece them together length wise. I´d love to hide the (lap) joint under a fret or maybe an inlay and, if I have to, stabilize it from the back by inlaying thin carbon rods I have in my shop. Does this sound too crazy to work?

I do know, I could just buy a preslotted ebony fretboard and propably cut down the overall build time by half... but where´s the fun in that?

As you can see above I have already joined two pieces of the plank, as well as printed a body template, glued it to cipboard and cut it out.

It´s not crooked, the paper just came up a bit along the center seam after glueing.


Thank you for reading!


All the best...

 

[guitarbuilder]

I'd avoid a cobbed together fretboard myself. That's the most important part of the guitar. But you can do what you want. I'd sleep better at night if it were quartersawn rosewood pieces, as the dimensional stability would be better. Rosewood fretboards are still pretty inexpensive though..... The link below is assuming you are in THE Heidelberg...LOL

Ostinder Palisander Griffbrett | Ind. Rosewood Fingerboard | Tonholz | Tonewood | eBay

Entdecken Sie Ostinder Palisander Griffbrett | Ind. Rosewood Fingerboard | Tonholz | Tonewood in der großen Auswahl bei eBay. Kostenlose Lieferung für viele Artikel!

www.ebay.de

 

[Phaedros]

I totally get you... I´d certainly introduce a stress riser there. It´s just that I really want to use what I have at hand.

I do have a huge plank of black walnut in my shed - might be a bit soft though.


edit: I just looked up the prices of rosewood blanks - they´re around 15$ - forget my question above, I´ll totally buy one. Thank you very much, I could have done the research in the first place

 

[RiversQC]

Nice! That plank does look awesome for this build.

 

[Peegoo]

@Phaedros

Holy shmoly, you are off to a good start already.

Making a butt joint in rosewood at the location of a fret slot is the ideal way to do it. It won't structurally detract from the build so long as your joint is square and tight with no gaps that are filled with glue.

Your idea of installing CF rods is a standard practice among quite a few big-name builders--especially basses. But many also install them into guitar necks. Remember that you don't want the neck too stiff; this will allow the strings to pull the neck into relief.

A few brands have made their necks without truss rods and extremely stiff, e.g., Modulus (graphite construction), Travis Bean/Kramer/Vaccaro (aluminum), etc., but these are engineered with a relief in the neck which is there whether or not the guitar is strung up. This kind of construction is difficult to get right when the neck is made primarily of wood--being an inconsistent material.

 

[Phaedros]

@Peegoo thank you for the insight!

I guess the joint should be placed as far from the center of the arch as possible?
I‘m going to use hide glue to stick the board to the neck, so replacement in case of failure would be an option…
I still have a couple of days to ponder until I get to the neck.

 

[pipthepilot]

That's a great bit of wood. I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

 

[Peegoo]

I guess the joint should be placed as far from the center of the arch as possible

Yeah, down near the heel would be ideal because the back wood is thicker there too.

 

[Phaedros]

Alright! The piece of rosewood is just shy of 14“ this would get me up to the 13th fret... Guess I´ll just go for it and take the lesson.

 

[crazydave911]

I have made MANY laminated fretboards. Just do a small 45° and glue it up with Titebond. Sand a bit to get a fine line, lay your fretscale down to get the fret it will be on and wala! You have a fretboard.
Also, walnut makes GREAT fretboards

 

[Phaedros]

Perfect, thank you - that‘s as much of a boost in confidence as I could ask for! I‘ll definitely go for it now.

 

[mjr428]

I love builds using scrap and materials on hand... plus it's a great way to learn without sacrificing too much. Looking forward to your build.

 

[old wrench]

Fellow knifemaker here

I've also got a vast collection of beautiful exotic hardwoods of the type we might use on guitars, but many of the pieces are just big enough to serve as handle material for knives

Other stuff as well - Mastodon ivory and even some pre-ban Elephant ivory - I even have some stunning pieces of Coprolite (fossilized dinosaur poop) that has an amazing color to it

All of those skills we use in knifemaking transfer very well to guitar building

Ex expo booth builder? - that's carpentry (retired carpenter here) - so you should already have many of the skills and tools you need

Good Luck with your build!

We have the annual Brotherhood Build going on right now, you might want to join in!

.

 

[Phaedros]

@old wrench knifemaking IS fascinating - and there really are a lot of skills that can be applied here as well. I was planning on making fossile ivory dots for the fretboard... never heard of coprolite though (does it smell while grinding? )
The tools I have - but Expo building is mostly hacking away at chipboard and making things work in the least possible time to hold up for three days until you tear down and bin everything. There´s just time, pressure and cost. No real comparison to carpentry unless you do it on an industrial scale.
Resulting in this, my weakest skill now is to commit to the process and not try to cut corners all the time to be as fast as I can get. I find myself stepping back every now and then and breathe deeply to tell me to slow down.


What did I get done today?

I wanted to route the body contour but realised that my bit was too short for the bearing to ride on the template. So back to the bandsaw I went and shaved off a couple more chips and did the rest on my beltsander and with hand tools.

Next I prepared the template for the P90 - having to calculate from imperial to metric and then account for the guide ring on my router to match the radius of my cutter had my head turning for a while but I think I did it OK. I´ll use the location of the bridge posts to fix the template.

Now my drawing shows the P90 routing to be angled according to the neck angle but the dogear cover to sit flat on the top - any advice there? I could easily shim the back of the template to get it but does it make sense?

Anyway I´ll make another template for the control cavity and one for the neck pocket.
I guess I´ll try to get the neck together next, before I commit to any routing on the body. This way I can make sure not to misalign anything

I even found a nice rod of stainless in my shop to make up the truss rod - there´ll be a lot of jig building to be done... let´s see how it goes.

 

[guitarbuilder]

I think the dog ear covers might be tapered. I've never seen a body routed at an angle at the bridge pickup on a junior, but maybe I didn't look close enough.

Lindy Fralin Black P90 Dogear Short/Low Neck Pickup Cover, #DESB

Fits '50s-'60s Gibson, '60s Gibson made Epiphone, Lindy Fralin and many other reissue P90 dogear pickups exactly. Manufactured in USA on Lindy's proprietary molds. Corner rounding and other features are as close to a '50s Gibson as I've ever seen. Overall height approx. .335" on the high side...

angelainstruments.com

 

[Phaedros]

@guitarbuilder Thank you! - guess I‘ll ignore the slant then and route flat.
I don’t think it will make a big difference.
PS: yes, Heidelberg, castle and all - thanks again for the link!

Also in my plans the neck angle is introduced in the neck instead of the body. The body route ist flat and the neck‘s heel is angled.

 

[guitarbuilder]

This is a good one too:

Schablonen und Zeichnungen - GitarreBassBau.de

www.gitarrebassbau.de

Maybe something in here will be useful too:

Using an X carve to create a 1960 Melody Maker Tribute guitar

I like the Melody Maker. I have a 2007 reissue MM-D model. That got played a lot when I was playing in a garage band. I also have a rehabbed 1962 to 1965 MM which was turned into a travel guitar. Bought off Ebay, somebody busted the peghead off and drilled holes at the end of the body...

www.tdpri.com

 

[crazydave911]

I don't find a P90 sitting at an angle all that important. The magnetic field is very wide and forgiving

 

[SammyC]

It might be that it looks slanted because a toneamatic bridge is usually dropped back a little bit (2-3mm) on the bass side.

 

[Phaedros]

I managed to scrape some time off my schedule today to start on the neck.

I‘ll use walnut for the main part and my piece of rosewood for the fretboard.

My plank of walnut is 1,5“ thick so I have to laminate it. A two piece laminate would be sufficient but then the trussrod channel would be exactly in the middle of the glueline.

Should I be concerned?