Uncapped Les Paul

Wizard

I've been mucking about trying to build a LP-ish body for a friend for a very, very long time.
It started out with excitement as he thought I'd help him.
We have now got to a "finish it or give it back in the state it's in" phase.
Messy.

So ...
Had a wild and flurried attempt yesterday.

Have successfully cut out the body and routed out the control cavity and plate recess.
Will rout out the neck pocket and humbucker bits today.

Because it isn't a "cap" design; I'm going to have to engineer a LONG hole through the body from the control cavity to the neck pickup passing the bridge pickup along the way.

I described it to the wife this morning as building the tunnels inside the Pyramid of Cheops AFTER the pyramid was finished.

Has anyone done this before?

AlanRatcliffe

Aircraft drill bits. Drill from bridge pup to control, from bridge pup to neck pup, from switch to neck pup cavity.

Wizard

Never heard of an aircraft drill bit until now.
Hope my hardware store has.
?

Manfred-Klose

this would only be valid if it had pictures ?

AlanRatcliffe

Wizard wrote: Never heard of an aircraft drill bit until now.
Hope my hardware store has.
?

Just a very long drill bit - means you can keep the drill's chuck well away from the body.

BTW: Don't forget the small earth wire hole from TP anchor hole to CC.

Wizard

Manfred Klose wrote: this would only be valid if it had pictures ?

The body is copied from a LTD Eclipse.
The control are copied from my Cort M200.

As recommended by Manny, the first part of the control cavity was to drill holes from the top.

Then orientate the back routing and cover plate from where the holes emerge:

Made routing templates in MDF.
Used a jigsaw to rough cut them; then fine tuned with a rotary sander on my drill:

Removed most of the wood using a drill press & forstner bit; then routed out the cavity using the template.
Used the other template for the cover plate.
Attached the templates to the body with double-sided tape.
Worked very well. Took quite an effort to get the glue from the tape off the body.

And with the cover on. Not a perfect fit, but not bad:

Neon-Gecko

Use lighter fluid, best stuff to get rid of that tacky residue left over from the double sided tape and it won't harm the timber either.

Wizard

Neon Gecko wrote: Use lighter fluid, best stuff to get rid of that tacky residue left over from the double sided tape and it won't harm the timber either.

Thank you!
Alan has suggested this before ... I just forgot.
See what happens when you do this sh*t over the age of 50?

singemonkey

I'm not going to be any help as usual, but I thought I might prevent your from doing any practical work by bringing your attention to this link:

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/luthiers-corner/123788-mlp-bartlett-build.html

? ?

Manfred-Klose

singe, thanks for that link ?

Wizard

I have now made about 6 templates for humbuckers with no success.
Grrrr.

May need to resort to buying one; getting one cut or cutting one of someone else's.
Or be more patient and just do it properly.

Wizard

Succeeded in routing for the humbuckers.

Made an initial humbucker template.

Used this to make the guitar template:

Used this to rout the guitar:

makepeace

Manfred Klose wrote: singe, thanks for that link ?

+1! That has to be one of the coolest workshops.

Looking good Wiz. Are you going to shape the top?

Wizard

makepeace wrote: Looking good Wiz. Are you going to shape the top?

It's the intention.
Want to get all the routing out of the way first.

Danele

Uncapped Les Paul... get them from MWeb.. haha, sorry i couldnt resist.

on a serious note tho, that LP is coming along nicely! any idea on finishes for it yet?

Wizard

Advice required !!

I have started routing out the neck pocket - have routed a few mm.
How deep do I go?

I am making this with a 0 degree angle; not the LP tilt back neck thing.
So how much of the neck needs to be sticking up above the body?
(especially to make sure the bridge still works)

Wizard

Further question:

I've realized the neck angle is intimately related to the type of bridge and bridge height.

What are the pro's and con's of:
a) bridge + tailpiece, vs.
b) bridge which terminates the strings (like a wraparound bridge)

Seems like I must make a bridge decision before I make a neck angle and neck height decision.

Gearhead

Few wraparounds have adjustable intonation. With a separate stop tailpiece you can adjust the pressure on the saddles by moving the tailpiece up and down. There are subtle tonal differences, dunno if I could pick out which is which in a blind test.
If the guitar is to be a carved top, I'd say take a separate stop and TOM. If it is a flat top, make it into a LP Special and put a wraparound and P90s. Just for tradition sake...

makepeace

This is probably not going to help your decision, but why don't you put a tailpiece terminated at the button?

I think that would be the raddest ?arty:

Wizard

makepeace wrote: This is probably not going to help your decision, but why don't you put a tailpiece terminated at the button?

Nice idea! (your picture is a little embedded there)
Where would one get such a bridge?