Q4 22 Challenge: LP Senior (Finished!)

paulnb57

Superb project

PeteC

Great work - cant beat a good junior / senior.    One little piece of advice having been through the same learning curve on a couple of juniors - take your time to get the neck angle right - and importantly not too shallow , so that you can get the bridge low enough for a really nice string action.   

PeteC

Maybe you could shorten the tenon and make up any difference in the width of the pocket with matching veneers on both sides? 

That scale length and bridge position needs to be as accurate as you can get it ( as me how I know ! )  

The more experienced builders will chime in I expect , and with better ideas 

Its looking great. 

davros

Normally, the end of the fretboard should align with the body joint, although I've seen many, including some gibsons where the fretboard overlaps the body a bit. Perhaps your body was designed like that. Did you make it?

gretschthumper

@PeteC @davros - I think it’ll be ok, I was just concerned that the pickup was closer to the bridge than I wanted it to be … but it’s only 5mm closer, so not really a problem. This is with the bridge laid on at 24.75”


I can always move the pickup forward if I need to, but as I say, I think it’ll be ok.

As you can see from the pic, I’ve profiled the fingerboard and carved the neck since my last post - I think the neck still needs more work, as it’s a bit chubby at the nut end … really enjoyed doing that though - tried a spokeshave first, but didn’t feel quite in control of that, so swapped to a shinto rasp … what a wonderful tool that is.

I think it’s going well, all good learning experience

PeteC

Looking  good   Yep the shinto is great isnt it ?  Its funny - ive lived with the neck on my DC junior that I did about 2 years ago but its always felt a bit too full on the shoulders , so i recently stripped the guitar and reshaped it using a shinto , cabinet scraper and lots of sanding - i love it now.  Point being - it doesnt have to be perfect first time round when its your own build.   Pickup position will be fine if youre not being too picky about being vintage correct. I am sure a few originals varied quite a bit.  The neck pickup location certainly did! 

What P90 are you using ? 

gretschthumper

PeteC said:

Looking  good   Yep the shinto is great isnt it ?  Its funny - ive lived with the neck on my DC junior that I did about 2 years ago but its always felt a bit too full on the shoulders , so i recently stripped the guitar and reshaped it using a shinto , cabinet scraper and lots of sanding - i love it now.  Point being - it doesnt have to be perfect first time round when its your own build.   Pickup position will be fine if youre not being too picky about being vintage correct. I am sure a few originals varied quite a bit.  The neck pickup location certainly did! 

What P90 are you using ? 

It’s a Mojo P90, I heard he does really good ones and if I’m going to all this trouble I sorta want the best I can get

gretschthumper

Sorry, when was this supposed to be finished? In 3 weeks you say? 

Well anyway, after 2 months inactivity, I put me thermals on and braved the cold of the garage to get on with it…
We now have dots and frets, along with tuner holes, and I’ve got to the stage of checking neck angle to get the right string height for the bridge:

The bit of hardboard represents the 3mm taken up by top of the insert that goes in the body, and the flange on the bridge post itself. A straight edge on the frets gives 3mm clearance above the bridge:

I’m wondering if this is enough, about right, or too much? I’m sure the neck will pull back under string tension, thus reducing this clearance a little.
But I’d like to get it right if I can, even though there’s adjustment in the bridge posts.

Anyone with more experience who can give advice please? 

davros

Looks good to me. 3mm will give you sufficient leeway without having the posts and bridge too high.

gretschthumper

Thanks Davros, I’ll go with that then 
Next thing is to drill the wiring hole, as that’ll be easier before the necks glued.
Then glue neck and start doing finishing … having read TTony’s thread I might try that Liberon easy french polish.

davros

Don't forget to drill a ground for the bridge before putting the studs in!

gretschthumper

Yup, I had forgotten that

PeteC

Looking great.  Take you time with the grain filling stage to get it really level and then a french polish finish will look really good. 

gretschthumper

Thanks PeteC, plan is to use black grain filler, then Crimson (water based) vintage cherry stain & the french polish on that.

Today I’ve been drilling the wiring holes - decided to go from pickup side to get to the control hole, this worked fine except for nicking the edge of the pickup cavity with the drill shaft … daft, as I could have angled it down more with no problem, but anyway I think it’ll be covered by the dogear cover - also drilled for the jack socket …

… then enlarged the hole to be big enough to fit it in - I’ll make a jack plate out of steel for this … finally glued the neck in place, hopefully at the right angle
I’ll drill for bridge posts, and the earth wire (thanks davros!) thru from the pickup cavity tomorrow

Danielsguitars

WezV said:

12 is good.   10 can be a bit low for gibson styles.

I use 12 Funnily enough, works well for me

gretschthumper

Block planed the raised bit on the neck joint yesterday, finishing off with a scraper-


Then today I got on with the scratchplate, taping paper to the guitar and drawing until it looked right, then cut it out & stuck it to the plastic & cut round with a coping saw … followed by lots of filing and sanding -

 
Checking the fit, it looks pretty close, but I’ll finish adjusting a couple of the curves tomorrow … 


Ignore the knob that slid away … 

And then a little mock up - still not drilled for the bridge, very confusing as everywhere I look it says different distances … I might build a jig out of steel with posts in, that I can move around to get it right.

Winny_Pooh

Fit a tailpiece that uses the end strap button, string it up and then move till it all intonates nicely while leaving back and forward range.

davros

This is how I did it, a diy tailpiece made with a bit of angle aluminium, screwed into the strap button hole

gretschthumper

Winny_Pooh said:

Fit a tailpiece that uses the end strap button, string it up and then move till it all intonates nicely while leaving back and forward range.

That’s a very good idea, so that’s what I did -


Easy to overcomplicate these things, isn’t it? I was thinking of something involving steel posts on a plate that clamped to the body … but this works fine.
Need to search out a top E string now.

andy_k

Just a word of caution about using that method to check bridge position, a wrap around bridge does some strange things to the string when the posts are offset ( as they probably will be )
The string will tend to take its own path over the bridge- not necessarily the same path you get from using a tailpice anchored at the strap button.
It will be most frustrating if you only find this out after drilling bridge posts, if you haven't got there yet.