Les Paul Prototype Build

Rabs

Very awesome stuff man....  Real smart looking...

WezV

Just sanded the board radius.  It's come up really nice and dark purple.  Shows it's a nice oil rich piece that will stay nice and dark without much help.

i do the PRS method, or at least the way the used to do it.  I have a massive radius block a lot longer and wider than the neck.  It gets clamped to the bench. I hold the neck fretboard facing down and push it along the block.  I only ever push it, not back and forth, but I flip the direction every few swipes so I am either pushing head first or heel first.  

oh, I cover the board in white pencil first so progress is easy to see.

it takes about 2 minutes to do a 12" radius on rosewood. I inlay and repeat on the big block.  I then fine sand with a hand held block 

i got as far as putting the pearloid dots and normal white plastic side dots in tonight.  I did consider making pearloid side dots but life's too short.

TTony

WezV said:

it takes about 2 minutes to do a 12" radius on rosewood.

That's just boasting.

WezV

Give me a big enough block and a good quality abrasive and I will make this flat earth round!

Rabs

WezV said:

Give me a big enough block and a good quality abrasive and I will make this flat earth round!

Lol..

I have heard that somewhere theres an ancient stone tablet with those words inscribed on it 

WezV

PIckups arrived, and I just happen to be working from home  today..  Marc and I had discussed him making the covers as I don't think he liked selling pickups without covers. But he is very busy at the moment, so I was more than willing to do it

 here are the coils



and since i am working from home today I decided to have a play with drilling the neck cover.   I need to re-do as i slightly misdrilled the G& B, and i think the small holes can be neater.  I will redo later on another blank cover before removing that weird lip and lightly relicing




but here is an idea of how they will look

Danielsguitars

Not keen on the gretsch style bridge but everything else looks great

It's probably because I'm not used to it on a Lp 

Love Marcs pickups btw

WezV

customkits said:

Not keen on the gretsch style bridge but everything else looks great

the best thing about the bigsby bridge is it doesn't rule out adding a TOM later  

Danielsguitars

WezV said:u

customkits said:

Not keen on the gretsch style bridge but everything else looks great

the best thing about the bigsby bridge is it doesn't rule out adding a TOM later  

are they just a floating bridge, I've never used them, a smaller acoustic or arch top type might look better, I think it's the width for me, very interesting, what's the difference in tone from that bridge to a tom

WezV

yeah they are just floating, although if i did use it permanently i would drill and slot the base for a couple of mounting screws under the saddle section

there is the bowtie/dogbone version of the same thing but i am not sure about that either




I may just make something totally different

paulnb57

I vote make something, it fits the prototyping vibe....

WezV

Who gave you a vote?  

paulnb57

WezV said:

Who gave you a vote?  

Me! ;-)

Danielsguitars

It'll be interesting either way 

I think the gretsch bridge looks better with the bigsby because of the size of it, the tailpiece is quite small in comparison

I'm with you on the dog bone too, I wouldn't be sure either

If I'm honest I'd probably go tom, not unless you make something that looks right proportionally to the tailpiece

I take it you definitely don't want a wraparound, I know it's not a 52 vibe but they do look good to me

WezV

definitely no wraparound on this.   I like them, its just not what I am after here.

Look back at the pics and vids on the first couple of pages - its not clear what Les and Mary on using on some of the guitars, but it looks to be a very simple design bridge on some of them

Danielsguitars

I was just looking again at the gretsch style one in your pic, is that the actual width or can it be made so it's only as wide as the thumbwheels, that would look much better to my eyes with the trapeze

Again it's just what I'm used to seeing and only suggestions

Funny how you just get used to seeing something one way and anything else looks wrong

WezV

sometimes  you have to just go with it.   I could reshape the bridge plate, doesn't follow the carve yet anyway. consider it a placeholder for the time being as i probably wont want to keep the wound 3rd saddle and it would be a shame to separate the nicely aged bits.   Although these used to come free with every bigsby and i am fairly sure  most just threw them away.


anyway, on with the show.   Fretboard has been levelled off post inlay.  The neck pickup cover has been reshaped and lightly aged.





after those pics i went back and to the workshop and bound the body with a nice vintage white binding.   currently its wrapped up in tape whilst it fully sets and I am peeling weld-on off my fingers

GSPBASSES

Acetone is good for removing weld-on from your fingers or nail varnish remover.

TTony

From this month's Guitarist ...

guitargeek62

Beautiful! The left one looks like it's got one of those Mojoaxe tailepieces on there too