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Next project - a rebuild

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tv1
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I've never really bonded with the guitar.  It's not that old - the last 2-3 years probably - but it didn't turn out as well as I'd envisaged, so it's been left in a corner pretty much.

The specs should be good - decent 2-piece mahogany body, comfortable mahogany neck with a pretty bit of ebony for the fretboard.  The maple cap should have been good too, but (a) the colour is pah and (b) it's too thin, not carved at all, and just looks slab-sided.

Finishing is also a bit tatty in places (my last builds are definitely better) and the neck/body join isn't quite right.

Rather than building something else new, I'm going to go green, and do some recycling here.

 

My vague plan is to take the top off, and some of the body thickness too (from the top), and replace it with a thicker top that can be carved a little.  The neck angle is obviously set, and the action in its current state is pretty good, so the bridge has to end up in the same position, laterally (obviously!) and vertically as it is now. 

That's probably the main challenge - that, finding the time to do it, and not fecking up anything else along the way ...

 

20230205 162751sml
20230205 162803sml

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NSJ
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Carve through the top and let the body wood show? Could almost make it look a bit like a binding maybe.

 

But yeh, I was going over my early builds, it's great. Taking the experience and what I'd learnt and using to improve my early builds.


   
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tv1
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Posted by: @nsj

Carve through the top and let the body wood show? Could almost make it look a bit like a binding maybe.

 

Nice idea, and it’d certainly be simpler than what I have in mind.  

But the current cap is quite thin (6mm ish), so not a lot of thickness for carving, and I’d have to sand it back quite a bit to get to clean (unstained, unoiled) wood to be able to refinish it.

And I quite fancy setting the CNC off on another carving job - though that might depend on me finding an accurate plan of the current body, which might (or more probably might not) be a standard LP shape and size.

 

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NSJ
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@tv101 here's a free les paul template, very easy to print off. Just select the body then you can check it against yours for size.

 

https://www.electricherald.com/gibson-les-paul-guitar-templates/

 

I think the carve I did on this one is only 5 or 6mm, nothing drastic

 

20220430 122208 01

 

See the little carve on the bottom too where your leg sits? Nicked the idea off Ltd or Esp I think, makes it really comfy.

 

20220430 122233 01

 

Anyway if you do decide to remove the top do you have a mad plan? Like router it off or stick it through a thickness planer? Or are you wanting to try and save it for another build?


   
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tv1
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Posted by: @nsj
 

See the little carve on the bottom too where your leg sits? Nicked the idea off Ltd or Esp I think, makes it really comfy.

Anyway if you do decide to remove the top do you have a mad plan? Like router it off or stick it through a thickness planer? Or are you wanting to try and save it for another build?

That's a clever little carve - not seen that before @nsj.

 

My mad plan, as far as it's got, is to use my old-favourite surfacing bit to take the top off (by turning it into sawdust), and a few mm off the thickness of the body too.  I'd then fit a thicker top in its place, thicker so that it will allow for some carving.

The only partly-tricky bit is to avoid the neck whilst removing the top and few extra body mm.  But I've done similar before, so it's quite do-able, with care.

Also need to do some careful measuring to make sure that I can find the bridge post holes in the body once I've re-capped it, and to make sure that the bridge ends up at the same height as the current one once the thicker top is in place - the neck angle is right for the current top/bridge height and the plan is not to change that!

 

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tv1
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I'm having second thoughts on the recap & carve it approach.

 

Takes an hour or two to assemble a guitar, and maybe 10mins to strip it all back - and only that long because I desoldered everything rather than just snipping the wires.

20230211 170408sml

Having stripped it, I was going to attack it with the surfacing bit (original plan) to remove the cap and probably another 5mm of body thickness.  Before I did that, I took another look at the existing cap.

Next bit took a bit longer - remove the blotchy red-over-black finish.

20230211 175723sml

The cap is 6mm thick, so not really enough thickness to add any more carving to it, but still a nice enough not-quite-bookmatched piece of maple.  Pretty enough without any of the usual flame or quilt. 

My vague recap plan was to use another piece of plain-ish no-flame no-quilt maple.  

Seems a bit wasteful to like-for-like swap just for a bit of extra thickness and a bit of carve.

 

So second thoughts plan is just to do a plain or faint white refinish, with my new-favourite easy French polish to give it some shine.

 

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NSJ
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@tv101 6mm carve? Or, 5mm carve and leave a little edge all the way round lol


   
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NSJ
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@tv101 had an idea last night, you could do a shallow carve so there's like 1mm of top around the egde then add binding, that would hide the fact the top was thin!


   
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tv1
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Posted by: @nsj

you could do a shallow carve so there's like 1mm of top around the egde then add binding, that would hide the fact the top was thin!

 

I like that idea @nsj 

👍

 

But I’m a binding virgin, and although the binding doesn't worry me particularly, managing to cut a neat channel - with the neck in place - is possibly not the best place to start.

This one is going to be simple, at least as the first step.  If I’m not happy with how it turns out, then maybe I’ll try the binding trick and do some carving.

 

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NSJ
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@tv101 oh yeh, pesky neck, who put that there?

 

Didn't think that in the small hours lying in the dark lol


   
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Posted by: @nsj

 oh yeh, pesky neck, who put that there?

I can say, with some confidence, that it would have been some amateur.

😆

 

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tv1
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Not being one to rush things ... here's a bit of an update on the re-fin

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20230227 122640sml

 

*Much* happier with the way that this is looking now.

I sanded the body back to bare wood, then used Osmo Raw on the back (to stop it changing colour when finishing applied) and an Osmo White to the front.  Naturally, when the white went on, it highlighted a couple of sanding marks that I'd missed, so I then sanded off a lot of the Osmo White and decided that I quite liked the "Washed White" effect that I was left with.  So, rather than adding another coat of white, I left it as is.

I've found before that the white builds up as you add more coats.  It starts out as almost transparent, but 3-4 coats later, it's almost opaque.  I wanted to leave the maple grain pattern visible, so was only ever intending one coat, but I've ended up with probably half a coat!

After the White, I've then used my new-favourite Liberon Easy French polish on both front & back.

Next up - the wax and re-assembly.

I've also spent time on the frets - levelled a high spot or three, re-crowned and then polished them all. The original hardware is going back on when I've done.

And I've recut the cavity cover recess.  I think the template slipped on the original one, so it was a bit wonky, and the cover never fitted neatly.  So, new template cut (just oversized slightly to smooth out the wonky) and the new cover will fit perfectly (because I've outsourced that bit to Mr CNC).

It should feel, as well as look, like a different guitar.  If I still don't love it after all this effort, it's a goner.

 

This post was modified 2 years ago by tv1

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tv1
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Done*

 

20230304 174423sml
20230304 174429sml
20230304 174433sml

 

Which is, to my eyes, a whole lot better than

20230205 162751sml

 

*done, except I'm not completely happy with the rear cavity cover.  Need to find a better-matching piece of wood, and I can cut it tighter too.

20230304 174455sml

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@tv101 

Very nice, I like the natural finish. I don't think that wood of the cavity cover necessarily has to match the body but I do prefer the grain in the same direction.


   
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@tv101 An absolute improvement over the old finish!

I agree that the cavity cover should look better with same grain direction as the body. But is it possible to throw away the old one? It's shaped like a boomerang. 😉 


   
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Boo
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@tv101 I keep meaning to try that Osmo stuff. 

Your guitar looks great T, nice work. 

Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸


   
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Thanks @robin @swepri @boo

Agree - I need to find a better matched piece of wood.  I used up some "spare" bits making this one, working out how to get the shape out of the spare piece of wood rather than thinking about the grain pattern matching.

But I also cut it "on the line" rather than "outside the line" which means I've got a ~1.6mm gap between the cavity cover and the body, so I'd want to re-do it just to get a tighter fit.

That's for another day in the workshop ...

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NSJ
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@tv101 Worst case you could maybe use random wood then add a veneer to match the top?


   
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tv1
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@NSJ - don't really see that as a worst case option TBH - I've got a load of veneers here waiting for a use!

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NSJ
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@tv101 Not saying it's terrible, just maybe not as good as having an actual piece of the wood lol. Worst case in this context 🤣 🤣


   
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