New Build Day.. Spalted London Plane DC

Rabs · June 2022

Hello again.. Been a while since I did this... again

I did start a post a while back about another London Plane build I was doing but that kinda stalled.. I will still finish that one but meanwhile I had this wood begging me to do something so I started a new one today with a stunning piece of Spalted Plane..

Warning, if you have not seen one of my build threads before.. Expect lots of gratuitous pictures of wood

Heres where we start..

First I pick out the bits I want to use and how I arrange them

And glue.. Titebond of course

Then while that is setting. On to the neck

Ebony fretboard shaped

Then glue and clamp the neck pieces

Then while that was drying.. Back to the body which I have now sanded down.. This is the centre line

And done.. YUM

Rabs · June 2022

Now for the neck.. Unclamped and all squared up

Draw the neck outline to cut

One thing I am not 100% sure about.. Ebony or Rosewood? The rosewood sorta goes with the walnut more but the Ebony goes with the spalting more.. I am thinking Ebony at the moment. What do you reckon?

And that is all for today... I realised I need a trussrod and some bits so I probably wont get back to it till next week now so heres a couple more gratuitous shots

PeteC · June 2022

Wow Rabs. Love that LOndon Plane I think the Rosewood goes best with the walnut and plane myself - it’s less of a colour contrast and looks more “planned” but that’s just my opinion , go with either , That body figuring is amazing.

Rabs · June 2022

PeteC said:

Wow Rabs. Love that LOndon Plane I think the Rosewood goes best with the walnut and plane myself - it’s less of a colour contrast and looks more “planned” but that’s just my opinion , go with either , That body figuring is amazing.

Isnt it just... I worked with that stuff for almost two years, saw literally tonnes of it and I still never get bored of looking that grain.... I am still a bit torn between the rosewood and ebony. BUT remember when finish is added those black spalted lines will really pop out.

WezV · June 2022

I'd go ebony, it shows off the other woods better.

richman6100 · June 2022

Ebony gets my vote. I think it'll balance nicely with that amazing body wood when it's finished. Very much looking forward to seeing the progress pics of this project. :-)

Roland · June 2022

Ebony

Rabs · June 2022

Yes I am pretty sure thats what I will use.. Thanks for the input....

Jonathangus · June 2022

That's going to look superb. What's the wood laminated in between the walnut in the neck?

PeteC · June 2022

Rabs, just curious, whats your process for preparing your neck laminates ?

eSully · June 2022

Love the woods you have, looking forward to seeing this build develop. More pics the better. Another vote for the ebony

Fuengi · June 2022

I'm working on a London Plane build that Graham @GSPBASSES made. I've put a bit of oil on it and it comes up almost golden.

historyisjunk · June 2022

That looks beautiful. Look forward to further installments & the result. Is it safe to work with spalted wood or do you need to take a lot of extra precautions for dust extraction etc?

Rabs · June 2022

Jonathangus said:

That's going to look superb. What's the wood laminated in between the walnut in the neck?

I thought I had mentioned.. Its also London Plane... When it is quarter sawn you get lacewood like that.

Rabs · June 2022

PeteC said:

Rabs, just curious, whats your process for preparing your neck laminates ?

Well as you maybe saw in the shots, I was working in a big shared workshop. So we have all the big table tools to use.. Its pretty easy when you have access to a huge stock of wood and all the right tools. So I select the wood, bandsaw the edges (cos its mostly live edge wood they sell), through the thicknesser to get the right size.. Then once all glued I used the jointer to get it flat and square. Is that what you are talking about?

Rabs · June 2022

historyisjunk said:

That looks beautiful. Look forward to further installments & the result. Is it safe to work with spalted wood or do you need to take a lot of extra precautions for dust extraction etc?

Well whenever you are sanding, wear a proper dust filter mask which I do... The workshop also has hoovers for sanders and all the big bench tools have extraction on them. Thats about all you can do..

Also with spalted wood it can be a bit fragile... You really have to watch how you cut it and try to minimise chipping out and stuff like that.. It can be a bit if a challenge thats for sure.

Rabs · June 2022

Fuengi said:

I'm working on a London Plane build that Graham @GSPBASSES made. I've put a bit of oil on it and it comes up almost golden.

Well I worked at the wood shop for almost two years. London Plane was one of the biggest sellers and I can tell you, the one thing about London Plane is its completely varied what it looks like from tree to tree and even piece to piece..

A couple of weeks ago I went in to do a job. Which was oiling 1000 meters of plane tiles. It took four and a half days.. Heres some pics. You will see every piece is just so different, It has pinks, yellows, browns, spalting, lace.. Just everything

It also depends on exactly which finish you use.. Some make the wood go darker some dont and everything in between.

So yes.. With Plane if very much depends on the individual piece. It really is unlike any other wood I have ever worked with AND its all local wood.. All of this plane was saved from being chipped and burned too.. What a tragedy that would have been. Its from the trees that were outside Euston station.

Rabs · October 2023

Well finally I got back to one of my several ongoing builds today. There is also another London Plane one, an all walnut one and that LP Lite copy thing I am attempting.

The LP Lite body and the Walnut one have cupped a bit since I was last at it which is annoying as they are at the right thickness so I cant really take much more off them. So I decided to think on those a bit and do this beautiful spalted Plane build as it is bloody lovely. As is the 5 piece neck I have done for this.

Its odd really. Youd think that this super spalted bit of wood would be more susceptible to warping or cupping but this one has stayed perfectly flat.

Today I got some good things out the way.. I did the truss rod channel and glued the fretboard on. Even though I didnt get any pics of it all glued up.

I saw this trick online for drilling the access hole. Just clamp a bit of wood over the hole (where the nut goes) and it stops you breaking through the top which is really easy to do as its only a mm or two thick there.

Then the control cavity

Then the pickup holes

Ohh and the recess for the back plate

This really is gonna be one pretty guitar.. Also I think for this one I will use my Gibson Classic 57 and Seymour Duncan Phat Cat P90 for the neck.. So it should also sound pretty bloody good too

Anyway.. Now I am hurting all over.. One of the several reasons I have had to stop for a while. My hands and back are proper sore.

BUT hopefully more in the next few days...

guitaraj · October 2023

That is going to look phenomenal

Roland · October 2023

I like the look of spalted wood.

Rabs · October 2023

Roland said:

I like the look of spalted wood.

Me too

I have a spalted maple top somewhere also.

Neilybob · October 2023

Ooooooof this is going to be amazing once completed.

I vote ebony for the neck as I like the contrast.

Sparks · October 2023

This is looking very nice. If it was London plane felled for HS2 then I think my guitar is from the same batch...

Rabs · October 2023

Sparks said:

This is looking very nice. If it was London plane felled for HS2 then I think my guitar is from the same batch...

Ahh yes.. I think you might have actually bought that from me

Or where I used to work anyway. They were called Saunders Seasonings but have changed name now.. And there were A LOT of trees from Euston he had. Most of it has been milled and sold by now.

Sparks · October 2023

Sadly they all got chopped down for no reason, it seems.

Rabs · October 2023

Sparks said:

Sadly they all got chopped down for no reason, it seems.

Yes it is terrible what has happened. At least some of them got re-used and turned in to furniture and various other things rather than burned.. If it wernt for Bruce they would all have been burned.

Neilybob · October 2023

Sparks said:

This is looking very nice. If it was London plane felled for HS2 then I think my guitar is from the same batch...

Love the top on that.

PM’d.

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New Build Day.. Spalted London Plane DC

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