The Les Paul Twins

[Basvarken]

Me too! Most impressive.

[slinkp]

Will there be video demos of these when done?   

[gearHed289]

I haven't chimed in yet, but WOW, this is some cool work.  I mean just the woodworking alone. Now inlay work? Looking forward to finished product.

[Christine]

Thank you everyone, you are very kind, I'm lucky I have the time to waste doing a little extra

Will there be video demos of these when done?   

Videos?? No chance, then you'll see straight through me, I am the worlds worst player, period! I never got past palying in punk bands even at my age  I will put some sound clips up though, at least I can practice for those LOL

[Christine]

Did the second dragon today, I left a little more space between the pieces, I think it works slightly better. Will inlay it tomorrow, got a bit of a headache tonight after too much sun despite wearing an huge old floppy hat I found

[slinkp]

Thank you everyone, you are very kind, I'm lucky I have the time to waste doing a little extra

Videos?? No chance, then you'll see straight through me, I am the worlds worst player, period! I never got past palying in punk bands even at my age  I will put some sound clips up though, at least I can practice for those LOL

Ah, too bad.  Never be embarrassed about playing, especially as we get older, I say!  But I understand.  Surely there is at least one bassist in your part of Wales who'd consent to be filmed playing a beautiful custom bass?

[amptech]

Surely there is at least one bassist in your part of Wales who'd consent to be filmed playing a beautiful custom bass?

Call Roger Glover. I met him on the street in Oslo mid 90's, if I ever bump into him again I'll ask him for you

[Christine]

I set the last inlays in the other headstock today, looks good I think

Well that will be it now for a couple of weeks, we're off on holiday to the distant land of England, I will take a crucifix and plenty of garlic with me obviously :roflmao: When I'm back it will be bind the headstock, cut the trussrod access slot and drill it's hole, Finish the neck tenon, fret the fingerboad fit the side dots and stick it on before carving the neck.

[Christine]

We're back off holiday so I had a few hours in the workshop today.

I routed the headstock for the truss rod access slot and then drilled the hole for the nut to fit into.The truss rods were fitted and a strip of masking tape put over then to stop glue getting in the slot and fouling the rods.

I rolled the frets to about an 8" radius, cut the wire into lengths and started trimming the ends with a grinding wheel in a Dremel, fiddly but it worked OK. I fitted the frets using a press and nipped off the ends. That was about it other than to make a clamping caul to protect the fretboard when I do eventually glue it to the neck which should be later this week daily life permitting

[Christine]

Well today I screwed up a little, not a disaster just a set back:

I started off this morning by finishing off the tenons for the neck joints, so they're ready to glue now.

After that I turned to the head stocks for the binding, my first attempt at 3 ply binding, ah so you can see this coming :roflmao: First job was to create a form to bend and glue the 3 x 0.5mm binding strips together, so that was made from some MDF with foam double sided tape as a gasket sort of thing to keep an even pressure while the glue set (acetone actually). Next I cut the binding strips to size and warmed them and clamped them up in the jig and warmed them again, then I loosened the clamps one at a time and with a syringe applied some acetone to the bindings which welds them together and tightened them up while making sure they were bedded down properly and left them to set for an hour before finally taking them out, so far so good.

I measured the thickness of the finished laminate and it was 1.48mm, ideal I thought and routed the rebate in the headstock at 1.5mm and thankfully only at 4.5mm deep for the 6.25 binding strip. Next bit was to clean the bottom edge of the laminated strips, I did this by glueing a piece of 150 grit sandpaper onto a strip of plywood and sanded the bottom of the strip on that before cleaning off the inner corners. Finally it was glueing time so I put the strip in place and got some masking tape to hold it in place vertically with a bit left on top to flip over to hold it horizontally. I applied some thin CA and flipped the tape over and made sure the strip was well in and properly fitted.

So far so good and all looked well, after another hour I removed the masking tape and started to scrape the tops of the strip, it looked great, next was the turn of the sides, ah now here it is: What was pretty much dead flush was now sticking out proud by a fair bit, well spherical objects! I scraped away to get it flush and the entire cream outer laminate was removed, I wasn't happy, I may even have sworn but I can't really remember if I did or not LOL. All I could do was remove the glued in bindings but as they were reasonably consistent at 0.5mm proud I used a 2mm rebate 5mm deep to remove the. I didn't have any more binding so that's now on order and fingers crossed will be here Friday so at least I can get it done by the weekend.

Well that's something learnt, at least it only cost a little time and money not the whole neck (s). I'm not 100% sure what exactly happened yet, I'll measure up on Friday morning when I'm back in the workshop but I suspect it was the process of glueing with CA that has caused some sort of swelling. I didn't photograph the damaged sides, I was too cross so I'll leave that to you're imagination but just think a very tidy looking black banding instead of cream

[Christine]

Sort of back in the workshop today, mostly waiting for the replacement binding to arrive but out postman was late as usual and didn't arrive until nearly 4pm so at least I can get that redone tomorrow.

What I did do was rout the recesses for the control cavity covers and made a former for the body bindings so I should get those done tomorrow too

[Christine]

Morning campers

For today's thrilling instalment hold on to your seats First job was to glue together one of the headstock bindings and the body binding. After that I set them aside and routed the binding rebate on the bodies, this time I left an extra half a millimetre, better to need to scrape a bit of wood and go through that again. I ran into a small problem while routing the rebate in the bodies: When I made the routing jig some years ago the base I was routing didn't have such a dramatic carved top as the twins but this time the base of the router carriage fouled on the top of the body so I had to cut a bot away to give it some clearance, after that all went well, so if you ever need to make one, bare that in mind

Then after some time I took the bindings out of the formers and glued up the next lot before glueing in the new bindings, then once dry I cleaned them up and prepared the headstock for the second lot of bindings which were formed once the former was free again. I cut the mitre joints freehand with a sharp chisel then welded them to the existing with acetone before finishing off by glueing them in with CA. So at the end of the day we have two sets of binding ready to be cleaned up before I can trim the neck before fitting the fretboards and carving the back of the neck

[Christine]

Not much of an update today, I have a sore foot, not quite sure what I've done but probably a pulled tendon, I had to give up working today because it was hurting too much to stand on. I'll get it sorted at the hospital tomorrow, going to a gig tonight and I don't want to risk missing that LOL

So I cleaned up and scraped the binding and sided of one of the bodies and that's looking good. I had hoped to get both done as well as the holes for the jack sockets drilled and the jack plates rebated flush but that is going to have to wait until I can get back on my feet. No pics today, I forgot my phone and it hurt too much to walk back into the house to get it, so next time.

[Christine]

It was a lovely day here so I hobbled out into the garden and decided to do what I could with bits on my knee, which wasn't much but still it all helps.

I finish sanded the faces of both headstocks and sprayed them with nitro sanding sealer from a rattle can, I couldn't have got my spray gear out to save my life but that is fine. After a couple of coats I glued the fret boards on. Finally I pulled the tape off the second body and scraped the top of the bindings flush. I have already fully scrapped the first but I couldn't do the second as I would need to have the body secured in a vice and that means standing and I can't do that.,

That's me now until after the weekend I suspect, we're off out on Friday until Saturday so maybe Sunday depending on how I feel

[Barklessdog]

I am sorry I am late to the game, but this is an amazing old school build.

I watched a Carvin or what ever their new name is where they CNC everything.

What you are doing is an art.

How do you plan on finishing them?