The Les Paul Twins

[Christine]

Hiya, I'm new to LBO  but I think I should share my latest build with you all, I have already started it on TalkBass so I'll just update all the relevant posts in one lump

They will be made entirely from quarter sawn African Mahogany (FSC sourced) painted black nitro and both using Rocklite finger boards, one in Ebano and the other in Sunadri or ebony and Indian Rosewood substitutes. Other items to be used will be Mojo Thunderbird pickups (UK make) for at least one of them, dual action truss rods, Warwick 2 piece bridge and Hipshot ultralite tuners. There will be mother of pearl inlays on the fingerboard and headstock along with Rocklite Ebano veneers.

I'm not in any great hurry to finish these so i may take a while but so far other than buy some bits I have started wood preparation. The neck laminates have been ripped and stacked and will be left for a while to relieve stresses, the body timbers have been rough planed to an oversize dimension again to allow it to settle a little before planing to size and gluing together. So they are currently sat resting on top of my bench until I'm ready to plane the neck laminates and glue them.

As that seems a very poor start let me introduce you to my tiny workshop and a basic list of what's in it
Most importantly my bench, 10" Saw bench, 14" band saw, 10" planer thicknesser, router table, drill press, 12" disc sander, oscillating bobbin sander. Beyond that there are power tools, loads of hand tools hidden away and a dedicated sharpening station tucked away in the corner behind the bench.

Being so small it's very difficult to keep clean and tidy so I apologise for the dust and the mess

[Christine]

Not a lot gone on, i worked out the neck angle etc with the bridge I'm using. I drew it out on a piece of paper (wall paper! :roflmao: ) and it worked out a 4.35 degrees which is good, I think a Les Paul is 4.5 so I'm pretty close. The Warwick bridge is quite high and will need setting into the top to bring the pickups somewhere close, the tail piece will also need setting in a bit too but I'm happy with that, it should look very nice recessed in. I'm going to have to make a couple of spacers to fit under the pickup rings to allow for the curved of the top but that should be easy enough using black acrylic (I hope)

The only issue I can see will be the edges of the bridge recesses will be unprotected during carving and might break out so Ill dry fit a Mahogany filler piece in there to support it and pull them out after sanding.

So that was today along with lots of sitting in the sun. I might start drawing the plan of the body tonight or maybe tomorrow depending on the weather, then I can make a start making the templates in readiness to start making the twins next week

[Christine]

Today I had a relaxing day, I got the plan drawn for the body, again on wallpaper (I really must invest in tome decent paper). Whatever it allows me to make a set of templates from it so it will be good enough. I drew a grid in 1" squares and plotted the shape of an OSLP onto it.

I also had an email from Mojo pickups saying my order has been made and have been shipped so with luck they'll be here by Saturday, or Monday at the latest so I can finalise the elevation but I'm probably good there already.

[Christine]

Today' thrilling updates, two of them!!

Instalment one, the jig
Well I'm in the habit of making a master jig for bass bodies from 5mm Perspex (acrylic), why? Well a couple of reasons:

1 it's very easy to transfer the pattern from paper to perspex, just copy through it
2 It's a lot easier to make an accurate jig from 5mm than 12 or even 18mm MDF
3 I like to keep a master jig to one side for when the production jig gets damaged accidentally

The pattern was drawn on the jig with a permanent marker and then bandsawed to slightly over side. I then used the disc sander and bobbin sander to get it pretty much spot on before using a file to really make those curves flow, from then it's just a matter of screwing it to some MDF cutting that oversize and routing it to dimension on the router table using a bearing guided bit, the result one accurate jig

I've also drawn some possible cavities for weight saving but I would really love some input on these. My thinking has been to keep a line between bridge and neck joint solid, as much as I can around the control cavity solid but to relive the top and bottom horn to reduce weight but also to try and keep the sound like a solid guitar but also to try and keep it balanced. The sections I was thinking of removing are marked in green; I really would like some thoughts on those before I cut them please

[Christine]

Part 2 of today's saga

Decided to sort out the back blanks of the body. So refaced those and thicknesses them down to 43.5 mm to be finished at 43mm after gluing. I edged one side on the planet to get them flat then rad a hand plane over them to get them ready for glueing. I'm not a believer than a surface straight off the planer is good enough for glueing, you may argue that but my workshop, my rules, end of argument! I also like to give an almost in perceivable hollow along the length of a glue joint, it helps keep the ends tight as the wood shrinks slightly over the years and you can't do that on a flat bet planer. Both edges planed and put on each other to make sure they're dead flat (only 0.5mm to spare) then glued and into clamps until tomorrow sometime.



Spot the join

[Christine]

They say google is your friend! Why didn't I look for les Paul weight relieving? Ah well whilst looking through another thread and came across this which answers my question above pretty well

[Christine]

I manage to throw away some more sawdust today, yey!!

First job this morning was to finish off the jig to enable routing the shape and the cavities. Doesn't look like much but it took ages Ah well done now!

After that I took the body Mahogany out of clamps and cut it in half. Then I planed both sides diagonally both ways to flatten them, 2 passes in each direction was all it took, then with a sharp iron planed along the grain to smooth them, again a couple of passes wad all it took both blanks finished off at about 43.1 / 43.2mm so that's going to plan. too

Next was to draw around the template and bandsaw the blank to shape. next I drew the cavity positions and rough drilled them out, I removed a bit of the waste with a chisel and that was me for the day, cream crackered!

Routing tomorrow perhaps, maybe a day off weather permitting

[Christine]

Pickups arrived

[Christine]

Done a little bit this morning, just routed out the cavities. I'm leaving the outer edge for now, I've ordered a new cutter from Radian tools in the UK 4 Flute Dual Bearing Router Bit 19mm x 51mm seeing as it looks like we'll be leaving the wood showing.

Not sure if I'm going to do any more today, see how I feel after some coffee

Some of you might recognise the router, if you do that's the Mk1 model, to give you an idea of how old it is, still on it's original motor whereas the Mk2 I have has had about 5. Funny seeing as they brought out to Mk2 replace the old unreliable motor!

[Christine]

Coffee doesn't half revive you Yup I went back out to the workshop, you knew I would didn't you? :roflmao:

Routed in a channel between the switch and control cavity and stuck some shielding in.

Planes the neck laminates and glued them together, well I glued two together, I had enough usable bits to make four necks so I'll glue up the other two in the morning and they can wait for the next job ( a pair of deluxe Thunderbirds ). I'd thought I'l lose more bits than I did but they all stayed pretty flat this time; I just lost three to winding.

Oh, just a note, when I glued the body up I mentioned that I didn't think that a surface from the planer was good enough for glueing so I planed them by hand with a slight hollow along their length if you remember. If I did that here I would have a total of eight curved surfaces stuck together which would leave a noticeable curve along the neck. What I did in this case was to use a cabinet scraper with two passes diagonally opposed which left a nice clean glueing surface and dead straight necks

Also in case any of you were wondering what the bench dogs were for there's a picture of one in use






You can see the laminate that have wound here

[Christine]

My new cutters arrived today, so tomorrow morning I shall have a go at the shaping of the outside of the twins and get the the tops prepared for gluing on, yey!

[Christine]

This morning I opened the new bearing cutter, a very impressive looking thing it is, it has a split bearing at the shank end, I suppose it can be used in a restricted space? Who knows but it worked well enough.

I also re planed the wood for the top down to 21.25mm (I need 20mm eventually) and jointed it and glued it up. It is sat there now until the morning when I'll plane it flat on one side and glue them to the backs ready for the final bits of shaping etc.

[Christine]

Not in the most enthusiastic mood today but got a bit done. Flattened the board for the top with the try plane and cut the shape out a fair bit oversize. Marked the position of the back on it and then pinned in some panel pins outside of the perimeter to prevent major slippage when clamping the glued surfaces together. I marked the position of the cable rout and applied some shielding tape to that, the rout on the back has a shallow recess to allow for the thickness of this tape if you noticed the other day when i taped that up.. Spread some glue and clamped them both up. Ho Hum, wait until tomorrow now





This afternoon I'm going to work out the jig for the neck joint and the pickup routs or at least I hope to; I'm expecting a delivery from StewMac with some springs and some pickup foam, I'll decide which to use when they get here. I'm going to rout the neck pocket and the pickup sockets at the same angle as the neck angle.

Then there's the bridge, I'm not sure what to do there, either rout them flat or to rout at the approximate angle of the body carve, I'm thinking flat as it allows a little bit of extra clearance to access the adjusting screws and to put strings in. What would you do?

[4stringer77]

First of all, welcome to the Last Bass Outpost. We're glad to have you join us. Secondly, it's way cool you've decided to build these Les Paul basses. I'm no builder, but I'd imagine you'd want to position the bridge flat instead of on an angle so the saddles, when adjusted for height, will move on a vertical axis perpendicular to the strings. Good luck and I'm excited to see how the builds progress.

[Christine]

First of all, welcome to the Last Bass Outpost. We're glad to have you join us. Secondly, it's way cool you've decided to build these Les Paul basses. I'm no builder, but I'd imagine you'd want to position the bridge flat instead of on an angle so the saddles, when adjusted for height, will move on a vertical axis perpendicular to the strings. Good luck and I'm excited to see how the builds progress.

Thank you I'm thinking flat too but that will actually set the bridge at an angle of 4.5degrees to the strings or the neck angle anyway. I don't see that being a problem if the height is sorted before the strings are intonated. Ideally I suppose it should be sat at the same angle as the strings but that would look daft on the carved top