Learning how to build an electric guitar

[lumberjim]

Oh, and to do the super glue finish: I sanded lightly to get the fur off the mdf, then dusted them.

{safety glasses and rubber gloves on!}

Then I poured some extra thin super glue in a spot, wiped it around with a little sponge dabber brush until the surface was wet with it, and let it set for 30 seconds, then sprayed accelerator on it. Sanded that back a bit and voila. Like a rock. It will make peeling masking tape off much cleaner, and they'll last for future builds.

[lumberjim]

Aw yisss....



This is a blend of the SG and Les Paul. The bottom of the SG always looked weird to me. Like it had put on weight in the form of saddle bags. So at the waist, I transitioned over to the Les Paul template and traced that bottom. Also incorporated the circle switch from the LP and modified the pick guard to accommodate that.

This. This is what I'm going to do. And I might do channel binding on the neck.


You see how the fret board is sunk into the neck, and there's that thin strip of maple?

Sexy as fuck.



Now I'm excited. I'm going to start over on the neck. Make the nut wider. And dad wants no inlay, which is awesome. I'll either use the bubinga piece I've already slotted and radiused, or cut a new one from my remaining cocobola, or get some ebony. I think a black channel bound finger board with no inlay would look sick. Especially with the gold Evo fret wire he wants.

[xoxoxoBruce]

You don't want shoe(base plate) of the router to bump the flat before the bit gets to the end of the pocket.

I ran across this guys instructions for building his ukulele. Wouldn't be very different from an acoustic guitar.
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-I-Made-My-Ukelele/

[lumberjim]

To do the channel binding, you have to start by using the cnc to cut the fret board area 1/4" deep into the neck blank, cut the truss rod trench, then install the truss rod and a slotted fret board. All before Radiusing the surface. I think. Then cut and shape the neck, install frets.


What I'd really like is to do the entire neck over at Pete's with the cnc. That way i can get the exact radius and neck profile I want. The close ups of the neck above are from the guitar that got stolen and recovered. The Imperium, shown in that article I linked a while back. I've played it, and the neck is great.



He just made some kind of breakthrough on the wiring for his upcoming line of guitars. 10 position switch, 5 single coil, 5 buckers... zero hum. I stopped over there yesterday to hear it. Really impressive. I wonder if I could coax a wiring rig out of him for this one. It's just hard to get and hold his attention for more than 10 minutes in a row. As with many genius types, he's a walking pile of ADD.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Have you tried taking him lunch and chatting while he eats?

[lumberjim]

Yes, I have a great wiring diagram written on a receipt over a blt sandwich.

[Gravdigr]

At least he's a cheap date.

[Griff]

I love that shape. Gonna be a pretty thing.

[lumberjim]

I think it's going to end up being mostly Les Paul. To do the pickups and pick guard of the Les Paul, the neck has to join like that one. I'm struggling a bit with the toggle switch location. Don't want it in the way of the strumming hand, and with the horns, the place that looks right... Where I've drawn the circle, it might be.

I might just have to go to a smaller circle and move it further up the horn.

[lumberjim]

This has been done before



Taking a cue from that one..

[lumberjim]

The other thing is the nut width. We want it wider than the standard Gibson nut. The standard template I have for the Les Paul is 1.71".



We want it at least 1.75". Seems like a small difference, but you'd be surprised at how you can feel it. I don't think I can count on help with this from Pete. He's not bored. So I tinkered with the idea of making my own, slightly wider template with a minutely wider nut. Then I thought, maybe I'll just widen the one I have.

I want the nut wider, but the heel still needs to fit inside the neck pocket. The template is 1/2" thick. I have 1/2" masking tape for doing frets. If I layer that tape in decreasing lengths, I'll get a taper.





I layed a piece 1" short of the heel, then 3" short. Then 6" short, then 10" short, then 15" short, and then 1 cover layer over the length.


So, at the nut, I have 6 layers on both sides and 2 in the pocket. 12 layers of the tape makes it 1.75" wide.



I added a couple more to get it to 1.785. I may have to shave the heel end a bit to fit into the pocket, but that's fine. I'd rather have excess than a loose joint.

[lumberjim]

And back to the neck angle... Laying it out on the body, the 2° wedges will have the neck line 11mm off the top at the line where the bridge will go. (12 3/8" from the 12th fret) The strings will be 5 or 6 mm above that. The bridge I want to use is 12mm tall. I've been advised that I should really use a 3° wedge here. Otherwise, I'll have limited adjustability. So I shimmed my shims.



This is what I'll use to rout the neck pocket.


It is 14mm at the bridge line, which... If my viewing angle and shitty 48yr old eyes are right, is a 3.5° drop.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Ready and waiting for Michelangelo...

[lumberjim]

That's the Tele he used for the first 2 albums. Fender is selling a special edition. It's got mirrors glued to it. Like 2" circles.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Ready and waiting for Michelangelo...

interesting... who's he giving the guitar to I wonder??