The Les Paul Twins

[Basvarken]

Very cool Rob.did the decade control do much on the bass?

Rather subtle differences. But audible. My favorite is the second position on the rotary switch.

[Christine]

Rather subtle differences. But audible. My favorite is the second position on the rotary switch.

What is a decade control?

[Christine]

Wow it's been hot today. Didn't get in the workshop yesterday, I think I slept most of the day.
Started the day by planing the scarf joint flat, I checked the necks for flat and they were both still good. The next step was routing the truss rod slot then making the template for the headstock then drew it onto the wood and bandsawed the shape out then used the offcuts to add on the missing bits on the wings. While the glue was drying I played around with the placement for the tuners as my initial drawings didn't look right. I made a test piece from some MDF just to be sure.

Once the glue had dried I again bandsawed the rest to shape and marked out the plan view of the neck and cut that slightly oversize. Now it looks more like a bass.

Tomorrow I will I think scribe in the neck joint to fit the body then make a start on the fret board, actually more accurately I'll make fret template for my home made mitre box.

Moving on from there, I'll leave the necks be until the fretboards are fully finished then I'll have a last check for flat, glue on the headstock veneer, cut the truss rod access slot and drill through before gluing on the fretboards. That I think will be the ongoing plan

[Basvarken]

What is a decade control?

That is the rotary switch with eleven positions (from 0-10).

[Christine]

That is the rotary switch with eleven positions (from 0-10).

Gotcha 

[clankenstein]

Progressively larger shunt capacitance in the tone circuit that changes the midrange character somewhat.

[Grog]

It's a Lester Polfus sorta thang.............

[Christine]

As you may have guessed I've been away for a few days but this is what I've been doing since the last update.

Being a natural skinflint I made a fret template and started building a new mitre box as I treated myself to a new saw last week, a Pax instead of my old E.T. Roberts and Lee. The fret template is made from 5mm x 70mm aluminium bar, I used the method shown by Susie Gardner in this video



The mitre box is unambitious for now, I'm considering buying a decent one or possibly using the idea Susie also posted:



For now it is accurate enough and I can adjust the height by using shims

and this is it:

[Rob]

Thanks for those links!

[Basvarken]

Wow, that's a lot of work! Impressive.
I think i'd rather buy one at StewMac 

[Christine]

Wow, that's a lot of work! Impressive.
I think i'd rather buy one at StewMac 

And miss the challenge? I love making my own things when I'm able, I want a 34 1/2" scale too and StewMac don't sell one as far as I know but I think my hands need a rest before I consider making another

[Christine]

Not got a real update today but just a look at my newest piece of technology which I really like. A Dremel 4000 which seems OK, I bought it to make inlaying a little easier than a big router and a chisel. The bit I really like is the base, it's the Veritas Dremel base, plunging like a real router and with a precision depth stop which is rather cool and very easy to set up. The base itself is made from Aluminium and is a delight to use, quite weighty for stability and dead flat. Cost me the grand total of £49 from Ebay in the UK; highly recommended as a base

I also got some downward spiral cutters, 3 x 3mm, 3 x 1mm and 3 x 0.5mm, tried them all and they are great so I'm looking forward to getting on with the fretboard and headstock inlays now

[Christine]

cut the fret slots into the fretboards and scribed one of the neck joints to the body.

I also played around with the Rocklite to see how it worked compared to real wood, in short, easier but I'll update the Rocklite thread with that

The fretslots look as if they don't line up in this photo but they do (honest )

[Christine]

Marked out one of the fretboards for the Mother of Pearl markers. Here's what I did:

Stuck a bit of masking tape over each fret gap to be inlayed. Marked the centre line of the board, marked the centre line of each fret gap. Marked the fret number on each inlay and the centre lines of each. Stuck masking tape to the bottom of each inlay and cut off the waste with a scalpel. Marked the position with a pencil of each inlay on the fretboard. Put a blob of superglue on the masking tape and put the inlay masking tape down on the fretboard and squared it off with a set square. Marked the fretboard with a scalpel very carefully. Peeled off the masking tape, the inlay and removed the masking tape from the bottom and put them carefully to one side.







Due to a muck up ordering the Mother of Pearl inlays I'm still short a set so I can't proceed with the Rosewood board until they come but I did a bit of routing on the Ebony one.

For my inlays I routed close to the line and then pared to the line with a sharp chisel, apart from one little bit shown below where I made a slight wonder over the line with the router. My excuse is there was too much dust around the cutter LOL. After that I put a bit of masking tape on the cutter to blow it away and it never happened again. Chiselling was the first time I really found a difference to real wood, I don't really know how to describe it but paring Ebony, it's a clean forceful sort of cut, the Ebano felt more like paring balsa but harder, that said it cut very cleanly, certainly good enough for me.

Anyway, the inlays fitted a treat with no stress at all other than that one little incident of my own doing. It cut so cleanly I'm thinking I may get away with no real need for edge filling with glue and dust (apart from that one bit shown again with the inlay).









The good news of the day was I got my sander back from being repaired at Festool, the switch broke and it needed a new set of gears but bare in mind it is 25 years old and has had a very hard life and this is it's first repair

[exiledarchangel]

Old tools refuse to die, my father was in the metalworking business and most of his old stuff are still alive and kicking. I can't say the same for some new stuff he bought to "upgrade"...