A Les Paul build like no other - jawdropping

equalsql · September 2013

Just found this on the tube. Some of you may have seen it but I've never seen a guitar built like this example. The chap even builds his own wooden pickup and surrounds. The body and neck are single piece of wood.

WezV · September 2013

its very impressive

also very wasteful and unless the wood is absolutely perfect all through the whole piece you do risk structural issues - a lot of extra effort for something that might not be as good as the more traditional way... and some real danger moments in there too

monquixote · September 2013

It's hugely impressive.

Bit of a disappointment at the end when it doesn't sound all that great.

WezV · September 2013

just finished the 3rd vid. there are some genius jigs throughout. and teh vid answers most of the "how do I" questions we get around here

still think the one piece thing is a bad idea though and some of his methods are incredibly wastefull

Ageinggroover · September 2013

This guy is an astonishingly good craftsman. The planning involved to avoid all the usual work-holding and machining problems is impressive. What's most worthy of respect is his ability to turn his hand to all aspects of the build - it was only a little disappointing that he didn't machine or hand-fettle his own bridge, tailpiece and machine heads! I'm pretty sure that if he'd had a mill and lathe to hand he would have! The french polishing was an interesting choice of finish, but probably appropriate if not very durable.

It was a little disappointing sound-wise. I'd love to build a guitar from scratch but after all the effort it would be pretty shattering to find that the finished product just didn't do it for you (:| (Christ, the emoticon choice here is a bit bewildering!).

Oh, and the other thing worthy of comment is the fact that he went to the trouble of filming the whole thing. He's even made a pretty good fist of that too.

Maximum respect due.

Thanks for sharing.

ICBM · September 2013

Interesting. I thought I was going to hate it - I'm really not a fan of wood trim, tune-o-matic+string-through, or furniture-finish guitars at all... but the whole thing somehow works and it's pretty nice.

It does look very wasteful, but possibly not more so than building the conventional way - the wastage at each stage of the process in making standard pieces is frightening too - at least by starting with a single piece of wood he cuts out a lot of the intermediate steps, and it might work out no worse.

How it sounds on the clip is irrelevant, it's clearly not recorded properly.

ftumch · September 2013

Here's a better demo of it. I think its bloody lovely, maybe not the wood pickups but otherwise stunning. And yeah actually does sound good too.

ThePrettyDamned · September 2013

Bloody hell. Very nice! Bit of an effort, but I suppose that's the point.

equalsql · September 2013

WezV said:
still think the one piece thing is a bad idea though and some of his methods are incredibly wastefull

I agree it's a hell of risk building from a single piece of wood, and I winced when I saw how much appears to be wasted..he must have deep pockets. There's some outstanding craftsmanship on display though.

WezV · September 2013

thing is, one piece will work if you choose a perfect piece of wood - but for me that just makes it more of a waste to do it this way.

RedRabbit · September 2013

monquixote said:

It's hugely impressive.

Bit of a disappointment at the end when it doesn't sound all that great.

Agreed but I think the fact that it isn't played well contributes to the fact that it doesn't sound great. The later demos sound okay. Sure some of the construction choices aren't what I'd have opted for but the craftsmanship is hard to deny.

monquixote · September 2013

I don't think you can actually tell anything about the sound of the guitar from the clip he put up at the end, I just thought it was a bit disappointing he put so much effort into the guitar and the making of and then put a rubbish demo at the end.

The other demo vid is much better.

RedRabbit · September 2013

Definitely, but how much more disappointing would it have been to get through 30 minutes of awesome build videos without a quick demo at the end. I think it's more to show that it worked than to show how good it was. Disappointing? Yes, but what are the chances of a gifted luthier being a gifted player.

monquixote · September 2013

I don't want to seem picky, it was a great vid.

octatonic · September 2013

Very wasteful but quite amazing to have done it.

For some reason it reminded me of someone on an Ibanez forum moaning about how Gibson should stop using ebony in their guitars and how they should 'THINK OF THE ELEPHANTS!!!!'.

Misterg · September 2013

I liked that, thanks

Evilmags · September 2013

RedRabbit;39705" said:
Definitely, but how much more disappointing would it have been to get through 30 minutes of awesome build videos without a quick demo at the end. I think it's more to show that it worked than to show how good it was. Disappointing? Yes, but what are the chances of a gifted luthier being a gifted player.

Paul Reed Smith is .sn excellent player funnily enough.

Antique_Guitars · September 2013

As per what Wez said as crazy waste of wood

ChrisMusic · September 2013

Astonshing

I am always enthralled by watching a craftsman at work and how easy they make everything look. It never is, and that is true craftsmanship.

A man truly in love with wood (even if a bit wasteful to our eyes)

The raw skill in wielding a hand saw like that, wow.

So many places it could all go terribly wrong, but somehow I just knew he wouldn't make any mistake.

Definitely not for commercial production though @WezV. I had palpitations just watching.

What an astounding labour of love.

I was mesmerised the whole way through, thanks for posting this for us, what a great use of 30 mins. I wish the rest of my day were that inspirational.

Rocker · September 2013

The posts who said it is 'a waste of wood' might have missed the point. The guy built a lovely guitar and, to his credit, he used very few bought in parts. And it sounds pretty good too.

I go along with what ChrisMusic said above.

streethawk · September 2013

Wonderful.

Also saw a thread on a guy who made a maple top tele in his appt, using hand tools!

dean2371 · September 2013

Have you got a link streethawk? I really enjoy watching these videos; gives me hope that my build might turn out after all

WezV · September 2013

Rocker said:

The posts who said it is 'a waste of wood' might have missed the point.

well that was mainly me... I don't think I did miss the point. If you hang around on guitar building forums you will see the 1-piece guitar question come up from time to time. and you will see the occasionally poor example from someone who is saying "see, you were all wrong"... so I will admit I am biassed against the idea from the start

now this is a very good example but the idea is still flawed and still wasteful. The videos are great because they show he is a master of hand tool use and clever jig making and everybody can learn from that. but look at the amount of wood and complexity of jig he needs to veneer a headstock??? its about 7 mins into the first video. at what point does it stop being good workmanship?

I do understand why someone would wan't to challenge themselves like this. I am not known for avoiding challenging builds myself. Also, if I ever come across a perfect slab of wood I think will work for a 1-piece guitar I reserve the right to be a complete hypocrite and give it a go

But it is a massive waste of wood and if i ever do give it a go I hope someone will point that out to me. also point me to the bit where he is book matching the top and discovers a massive flaw. I have sliced open enough innocent looking blank to know you can never be sure what you will find. Imagine if that fatal flaw had been in the massive slab near the neck

bluenose · October 2013

Great watch!, the guy has some amazing technical skills.

Maybe now that the guitar is finished, he can get back to learning Sweet child o mine :-)

GuitarHive · October 2013

As an example of brilliant craftsmanship, this is terrific. I agree to an extent about the wastage - you wouldn't want to run a business making guitars like that. But I'm in awe of the process and the thought, planning, and work that went into it.

rockmonster · October 2013

Well impressed by his use of a handsaw!

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A Les Paul build like no other - jawdropping

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