SimonB15
Active Member
I've not done a build thread before, so I'm a little bit nervous about this! A lot of my techniques and ideas I get from guys on here. For anyone interested, I've been posting videos of the build on my YouTube channel.
This is my third scratch build. There were a lot of "firsts" for me on this build, and it won't be trying to be a "traditional" LP build or anything. It will be semi-hollow, with non-traditional sound holes. Plan is to have a solid white top, white binding with a single strip of black purfling, and a natural back and neck.
I've started with slabs of american walnut and plain maple. I had the maple resawn at the mill and everything dressed all round because I don't have a thicknesser or a proper jointer.
I cut a strip of maple to make a neck stringer and 2 pieces of walnut, all together to make the neck blank. I did it this way becase I'd never done a laminated neck and wanted to try it.
The template for chambering the body:
Before the neck blank was glued I thinned the maple down to 10mm.
Dry test clamping the scarf joint:
I haven't done a proper scarf joint before, so this was something new for me.
Truss rod channel routed:
My first attempt at any inlay other than dots. Happy with how this turned out! In this photo I still hadn't filled the gaps around the pieces.
Chambering finished and started to shape the neck tenon:
Top glued on to the back, with a look at basically how the sound holes will look in the end:
This is the first time I've done a top/back style build, so this glue up was new for me. All things considered it went very smooth, no visible gaps at all around glue joint.
That's where the build is up to now. Next steps will be making control cavity templates whilst I still have a flat top to lie on, and making carve top templates.
Thanks for looking in!
This is my third scratch build. There were a lot of "firsts" for me on this build, and it won't be trying to be a "traditional" LP build or anything. It will be semi-hollow, with non-traditional sound holes. Plan is to have a solid white top, white binding with a single strip of black purfling, and a natural back and neck.
I've started with slabs of american walnut and plain maple. I had the maple resawn at the mill and everything dressed all round because I don't have a thicknesser or a proper jointer.
I cut a strip of maple to make a neck stringer and 2 pieces of walnut, all together to make the neck blank. I did it this way becase I'd never done a laminated neck and wanted to try it.
The template for chambering the body:
Before the neck blank was glued I thinned the maple down to 10mm.
Dry test clamping the scarf joint:
I haven't done a proper scarf joint before, so this was something new for me.
Truss rod channel routed:
My first attempt at any inlay other than dots. Happy with how this turned out! In this photo I still hadn't filled the gaps around the pieces.
Chambering finished and started to shape the neck tenon:
Top glued on to the back, with a look at basically how the sound holes will look in the end:
This is the first time I've done a top/back style build, so this glue up was new for me. All things considered it went very smooth, no visible gaps at all around glue joint.
That's where the build is up to now. Next steps will be making control cavity templates whilst I still have a flat top to lie on, and making carve top templates.
Thanks for looking in!
getting there, though!
