Fully hollow and carved Les Paul

PeteC · April 2020

Fantastic - this looks like its going to be a superb build thread - watching with extreme interest and as a newbie I hope to learn a few things ( to say the least ) !

WezV · April 2020

finished the outer carve on the top and got the back done too.

I also thicknessed and cut the neck and tail blocks to shape

all fits together nicely

From here i can either bend the sides to get the rims completed, or i can mark out the locations of those blocks on the inside of the top and back plates and carry on carving. I will likely give it a few days now before proceeding

TTony · April 2020

As always Wez - great to see the detail of one of your builds coming together.

Thanks for sharing.

downbytheriver · April 2020

I have a mate who built a completely hollow Les Paul! It looks indistinguishable from the solid object until you pick it up. Bloody brilliant guitar, goes by the name of Doris!

PeteC · April 2020

@WezV I think its really great that people like you are prepared to make time to share the details of how you go about builds like this - its not only inspiring to a novice like me but I think its very generous to pass on these methods to others who are less experienced and keep these skills propagating - especially in a generation when most of the population never ever fashion a single thing themselves.

Manual fabrication seems to be becoming a lost art in the younger generation. My own 20-odd year olds don't even know one end of a screwdriver from the other, let alone how to use a drill or a saw!

Guitar builds are one of those special things where a huge range of manual and mental skills comes together and its fascinating to see how different people approach these challenges in different ways and produce their art.

looking forward to seeing the next stage of this build.

WezV · April 2020

One thing I like about trying styles of builds that are new to me is it gives me other ideas.

At the moment these 4 parts hold themselves together quite nicely. I almost feel I could glue it up as is and have a structure that would hold string tension, with the addition of one or two structural braces it definitely would.

So now I want to make a minimalist open frame design. Less traditional than this I expect. I have seen some builders do similar, so it's not an original concept. Obviously it would be done my own way though.

I will out that on the list

WezV · April 2020

PeteC said:

@WezV I think its really great that people like you are prepared to make time to share the details of how you go about builds like this - its not only inspiring to a novice like me but I think its very generous to pass on these methods to others who are less experienced and keep these skills propagating - especially in a generation when most of the population never ever fashion a single thing themselves.

Manual fabrication seems to be becoming a lost art in the younger generation. My own 20-odd year olds don't even know one end of a screwdriver from the other, let alone how to use a drill or a saw!

Guitar builds are one of those special things where a huge range of manual and mental skills comes together and its fascinating to see how different people approach these challenges in different ways and produce their art.

looking forward to seeing the next stage of this build.

Thanks.

I am only 39 myself, and have been building about 17 years after a few years of bad modding. So I was a young builder once

I had failed woodwork at school, but was actually interested in guitars so it made it easier to be focused. I also started quite early to tweak the way things where supposed to be done to work with a minimal budget and tools.

The main thing for me was to learn as many approaches as I could. I might not do the same thing twice, but I do make sure I have multiple ways I could approach the same situation. It allows creativity in the process. That sometimes leads me down a dead end, but it's all for fun so I don't mind if some don't work as well as I want.

My advice is to build as many styles as possible, and then make them your own.

PhilKing · April 2020

WezV said:

My advice is to build as many styles as possible, and then make them your own.

It also helps that you build great guitars and are open to requests (no matter how bizarre - 9 String fanned fret acoustics and 12 string mando guitars come to mind).

Andyjr1515 · April 2020

Looking really good @WezV ; Nice to see a relatively unusual design too

WezV · April 2020

trying to show the carve a bit, so need some more dramatic lighting. at this point its a lot of going back and forth making sure the carve is even, which it isn't quite there yet.

top

back - a bit more subtle

i have also been doing some drawing on the top to make sure everything will work out okay

neck pickup is from Mojo, and likely will be used. Tailpiece is from china and likely wont, although it is the right style for an old Bibson. I was mainly trying to work out f-hole positioning. the middles sit on the scale length lines, but i needed to work out how to angle them, how far in they sit etc... I noticed the centre line on the old Gibson Es140 seems to point to the spot where the neck joins the body, so that's what i copied and angled them till the seemed right

WezV · May 2020

It's side bending time soon, and to be honest it's a job I have always had mixed results with... So far I have a 30% failure rate.

I'm hand bending on an ibex iron, with a metal strap to support the bend.

Mahogany can be tricky at the best of times, it's not predictable. The sides I have for this are quite hard and brittle. nice old stock, but not easy to bend. I have some test strips of it to try and get my technique sorted

First test strip, mostly dry... Snapped as soon as I applied any pressure after a few minutes on the pipe. I really wasnt forcing it!! Bugger, this is going to be difficult

Second test strip, soaked for 15 minutes. No snapping but only the most subtle of bends after 20 minutes on the iron. Too wet doesn't normally work for mahogany

It's currently at 2mm thickness, so I'm going to try slimming down even further on the next test strip tomorrow

If that doesn't work, I have some sycamore sides as backup. That should be a much easier bend.... Hopefully

TTony · May 2020

How are you cutting out the f-holes - presumably by hand rather than routing through a template now that the top is carved?

I'd have probably routed the holes before carving ... and then probably had to deal with a load of tear out of the edges of the holes when I started carving!!

WezV · May 2020

I haven't decided yet but may end up drilling holes at the round bits and points, then connecting the dots with a hand saw.

I don't think the carve would have gone well with them already cut, but part of me is tempted to do them from underneath with a router and template before I carve the inside

WezV · May 2020

First side down.... Going very slowly

https://i.imgur.com/VmGZmdL.jpg

Andyjr1515 · May 2020

That's a much better design mould than the ones I make for my acoustics. Better clamping...

WezV · May 2020

It's only thrown together from scrap, but working quite well for me.

I might cut a hole in the middle so I can work from either side at the various stages to come

WezV · May 2020

This second side is being difficult at the waist.

Too wet, nothing happens, too dry, nothing happens. Getting there but it's slow going

WezV · May 2020

And done

https://imgur.com/a/VcjbPzX

MattNovak · May 2020

Top skills and patience!

markblack · May 2020

Nice work.

PhilKing · May 2020

It's going to be very interesting when you get it together

Danielsguitars · May 2020

I remember using a bending iron well, they're tricky to use when you first use them but the more you do the better the results, I don't build enough with them so next time it's a fox bender for me

WezV · May 2020

Danielsguitars said:

I remember using a bending iron well, they're tricky to use when you first use them but the more you do the better the results, I don't build enough with them so next time it's a fox bender for me

I was really struggling so tried a bit of sycamore too... That bent really easily, so I know it's the wood.

Anyway, I made some strips from the offcuts on the neck blank. Half got made into kerfing, half got made into vertical supports for the sides.

That means all the mahogany internal wood has come from the same plank as the neck. I'm happy with that.

Sides have also been trimmed, so give it a day or two to settle and I can get all this into a complete rim

https://imgur.com/a/UHYbno7

PeteC · May 2020

Amazing work...how are you cutting the wood for the sides to keep the thickness so uniform ?

Roland · May 2020

To save anyone else looking at imgur:

WezV · May 2020

PeteC said:

Amazing work...how are you cutting the wood for the sides to keep the thickness so uniform ?

These came from a pre brought set I had already, so I cheated a bit here for speed.

Normally side sets come in 4&5 mm thickness and you have to plane them down to 1.8-2mm. or you need a thickness sander I don't have yet.

Roland said:

To save anyone else looking at imgur:

Sorry, can't do it from the phone... Normally I edit next time I am on a laptop

WezV · May 2020

I did do the last bit of thicknessing on the sides with a scraper, but this set was mostly there

Jez6345789 · May 2020

Another WezV proejct will be tagging along and as always being impressed nice work.

WezV · May 2020

Busy day, the nice thing about lock down!

I got the neck and tail block, side supports and top row of kerfing all glued into the rims today... That's now one solid piece, should be able to flip it over and do the kerfing on the other side tomorrow. I actually found some ready made kerfing which was a bit nicer than my version, so I'm using that instead

I also got a lot done on the neck, fretboard had been slotted and tapered. I cleaned up the neck blank, routed the truss rod and headstock and levelled off the heel section. Fretboard is now being glued up.

I decided on a tenon design. I like doing full width tenons and contouring the heel, but I don't really want to do it here. I was considering going for the normal Les Paul tenon but have compromised and gone for a 7/8 width tenon. It's notched on the treble side so I can keep the normal Les Paul look whilst still getting most of the big glue surface I like

WezV · May 2020

I will try and take pics on the coffee breaks today.

the last lot of kerfing is being glued into the rim, so not much to show there. I am mainly working on the neck, which all got glued up yesterday.

I have carved it this morning. Started by doign the head and headstock transition on a spindle sander, then carved out the profile in between. Going for 23mm at the nut end and a full 25mm by the 12th fret - big round profile

more detail on the 7/8 width long tenon i am using on this... although I think I am going to make it a bit less deep, with a step for the heel.

The fretboard will sit 5mm above the body on this, with a 3 degree neck angle... which should get me to a good height at the for an archtop style bridge, which will likely be carved from one solid piece of wood

I have not radiused the board yet, so that's the next job. I know we all do this differently, but i add the radius as the last structural job i do for a few reasons.

Firstly i have a fretboard shaped piece of 5mm steel that make a great clampng caul for a flat fretboard, i much prefer it to using radiused cauls. I also mainly use titebond original, which is waterbased and can cause wood movement. Also, wood can move when its cut,... the neck in particular has a lot of wood removed as its cut and carved to shape, and is most likely to move during or shortly after the carving process. Basically, i level and radius the board once all the things that can make it move or warp are out the way

Both the fretboard and neck are pretty perfectly quartered and straight grained for the whole length of the neck shaft

I have decided I'm going to keep the aesthetics really simple and junior inspired on this one. No binding, dot neck. dark burst top, tobacco brown back....might do faux binding on the sycamore top, but thats it

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Fully hollow and carved Les Paul

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