Rabs

Ahh ok... Yeah veneers can be a bit of a pain ( usually 0.6mm thick) but like everything it just takes some technique and a bit of experience. I used veneers on my first few builds rather than pay loads of money for posh wood that I may very well ruin.. I used bags of sand and weights to stick it down lol a vacuum sealer thing is way easier.

Did we see the same video.. I didnt see any veneer?

Man this is an odd one... When he uses the circular saw for the neck pocket I was thinking WTF!! I have never seen anyone do that, ever!! But hey, if it works, it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR_ilx5Z6WQ

Yeah.. Dots for me are nothing.. Dont require any filling at all cos you get a perfect circle in the perfect size. Extra glue on the board in not really a problem as I am going to radius the whole board soon anyway. But yeah. Other shapes take some work.. If I had a smaller pointy router bit for my Dremel it would have been a bit easier. But its cleaning up the sides of the holes to make them exactly square which is fiddly.. But its done now 🙂 Of course I will have all the frets to do soon, But that doesnt bother me so much.

Stumbled across this on Youtube... I will say now. Its really weird.. They are on some odd Japanese game show which if you cant be bothered to watch skip to 6:15 in.. Now that IS worth a watch.. Both monster players.

Cool.. Cheers.. I will have a look in to the various methods and see....

Actually my first thought.. Will it react with the nitro paint? Hmmm

I will look that up.. Cheers

Hello.. Todays update. Again. Man, I dont know what it is about that place but time just disappears in to nothing. I got there at 10 and left at 5:30.... And apart from getting lunch and a couple of trips to the DIY shop I really didnt stop. I guess it was because today I mainly concentrated on the fretboard which is fiddly. But before that. I did the truss rod access hole.. Thankfully that and the truss rod channel are two things I can still do perfectly 🙂 There is a method for this cos you are drilling on an angle its not easy to go straight in without slipping, So you start off drilling down a few mm then you slowly angle the drill down till you are straight. I also finalised the position of the headstock on the veneer blank. I think I made a bit of a mistake with this fibrous board. When I ordered it I was a bit obsessed about doing this properly and apparently its what Gibson used to use and you spray some solid black nitro over the top.. I could have got this on an ebony veneer but decided to go with this. I was also told it goes blacker when you add finish so I tried that too.. I cut a piece off the bottom. So yeah. That definitely needs paint.. Which means I will have to mask the inlays which is a bit of a pain... But hey ho. I also cleaned up my control cavity a bit.. Looks ok now Cleaned up the side of the body with the drum sander. And marked out the positions of the hardware and the carve templates And now for todays main event.. INLAYS... While it was a bit easier as I had clean out most of the middle.. Man, it was real fiddly. I had forgotten how fiddly it was getting the sides perfectly straight. I think each one took like 20-30 mins.. I did start speeding up towards the end when I had remembered the little tricks you use. But I guess that was gonna happen as its the first time I have done this in several years now. Here you can see the fretboard on the neck. Theres 2mm each side for the binding and the neck is not quite to size yet. I will do that once the fretboard is on So yeah.. It takes a while to make sure each side is clean and straight.. Messy But you get there in the end And all of them done and glued. Looks messy cos it has superglue all over it. And you always put some ebony dust around the edges just to make sure any small gaps are filled. Also ran out of glue and bought this stuff which was sold to me as superglue but is not one of those types that dry in minutes so I have to leave this to cure over night or I would have sanded this down at the end of the day. This is the glue And then I also did the rosewood board for the walnut guitar Did that whole board too.. Really looking forward to getting these sanded back down and see the glory.. Which hopefully I will do tomorrow. Nice..

Cheers.. But its about time too.. I should have been at this stage a couple of weeks ago. But having the body cut out and the top and back glued has made me feel like im back on track again.... So the fun will continue tomorrow 🙂

Here you go.. On the Gibson Archive http://legacy.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/2017/USA/Les-Paul-Tribute/High-Performance.aspx

Quickie update.. Body all nicely glued and mostly cleaned up.. For those not in the know we do that with a router bit that has a bearing. In this case one that runs along the bottom. And all done... NOICEE Its quite a nice maple cap actually. Shame that I will be painting over it.. My mum really liked it and was trying to convince me to NOT paint a solid colour.. But, nope we know the plans for this. Workshop day tomorrow. I hope its not as busy there as t was last week.

I dont but they do at the workshop... And yes the quick clamps are used all the time.. Its what I use to hold the template and usually it does the job but I should have known better.... And do now again I guess 🙂

So I did another important step today. And had another F up.... Arrggg... But nothing I couldnt recover from. Basically when I was doing the control cavity the template slipped cos I tried to clamp it just for that bit rather than stick the top down. One of the issues with using double sided tape is that its really hard to get off so I tried to skip it and paid the price, Man, I guess this is what happens when you havent done this for a while. Just silly mistakes.. Small things you forget. So it seems I am having to learn a lot of those lessons again Oh well, as I said, nothing too bad today.. So I trimmed the top and back down closer to the final shape as I do know you dont want to be taking off more than a few mm when you do routing around the edges. The wood can split so easy, So here you can see where the template slipped up a bit.. But it wasnt going all the way through so on the other side it is how it should be but we do have a nice LP shape now And on the back side which is obviously the side you will see its ok.. It just means I have a bit of an untidy inside of the cavity.. Not the worst thing ever. I should have just enough of a lip to do the cavity cover. Then using the top template to show me where the bridge will be I added an extra wiring channel for the ground wire Ohh and I broke the second back template trying to get it off again... Arrgggggg.. BUT this does now mean its gluing time.. YAY So, not a perfect day but we are moving forward now.. Tomorrow I will go and see the results and Tuesday im at the workshop again so hopefully I have gotten over this little hump now.

Yeah it was an experiment of mine cos I thought it looked cool.. But wont be doing that again.. The thing is I did that on another build which I sold the day after I finished it.. It was a harder wood (black korina) and I have never heard back from him.. Maybe the wood was strong enough in that case... I really hope so. And damn.. I was at my mums today and forgot to look that that guitar... Oh well.

As far as I know that one above and this were about their only big hits

Really.. You never heard this one?? It was everywhere when it came out

Yeah.. But I am refering to the fact that I havent seen anything from them in about 20 years... I also look more wrinkly than I did 20 years ago 🙂

Man they are looking wrinkly 😄 Whats to say.. Basic tune, good solo... Just about what you expect from them I guess... Nuno is damn good.. Same again

Yeah maybe... I cant actually find it lol. I thought it was with my other builds but I must have taken it to my workshop to dismantle and forgotten about it.. Well either that or I have somehow lost a guitar 😄

Finally.. Thank you... And yes.. Now imagine you had no one to talk to about it or help you out.... Which is a position a lot of younger people find themselves in especially these days. Imagine if you were 17 years old and looking at your future... All we see around us is doom and gloom these days.. Pandemics (because there will be more), economic issues, environmental issues, housing issues, corrupt governments etc etc etc... Its a bleak future for a lot of people. So that voice in theirs heads is saying, whats the point, why bother, you arent special anyway so who even cares about you. This song, and its not even a song as much as a spoken word piece with guitar and rapping thrown in.... A lot of people connect to it. Maybe listening to it, some people may realise they are not alone and other people feel the same way. They realise maybe there is some hope and they can pull themselves out of it, if this guy who suffered from physical issues (Lyme disease) which lead to metal issues after a decade of being sick, if he can overcome it.. Maybe they can too... Its a message of hope. Thats literally the whole point of the video.. Hes not a crying baby. Hes shouting at himself and that video is him working on his inner issues with him putting on an irritating voice to show the negative side of himself that is annoying and brat like... A conversation between the negative and positive side of himself. And as I said, I know from experience that the things he says are totally real and effect A LOT of people. And the way he does it, I think is just amazing. So yeah.. I do think that takes a hell of a lot of talent. Maybe watch it again with this in mind? It may change how you see it (but probably not 🙂 )

Yes that edge bit, doing the re-curve is going to be the hardest bit.. But I do have a lot of experience handling my sanders so I will just take it easy and do it step by step.... Also today was a good day for deliveries. Got the carving templates and the new free back template .. Nice And got my new snowflake inlays for that other build. And best of all, the spray cans arrived too. So I have all that now.. And how cool is this.. Personalised labels.. Love that 😄 So we are getting there.. One of the last things I now need to order is the bridge and stoptail... May go for the Gotoh ones... I think I have everything else I need as I will be taking this guitar apart for its hardware.. This is one I am glad I didnt sell.. You see the way I have the grain orentation so that the grain is going vertically.. Well it turns out that wasnt a good thing. The body has warped as the string tension has cupped the guitar in the middle and its now no longer playable.

Nope.. This will be my first time doing a proper LP carve... I posted an example of one I did myself but unless you do it with those steps its impossible to get a proper LP type.. So this time I have bitten the bullet and am gonna do it proper like 🙂 I have plenty of spare wood and will do a test before I go at the body I have for this build... The bit that worries me the most is getting the neck and pickup planes right... And thats a DAMN important part of this process.

Cheers... The thing with me and the first piece I posted is that the subject matter is one that is close to me. One of my best friends and musical partner died in 2018 at 43 years old.. He was a musician, studied it for 10 years at Uni.. Was in three bands at once when he was up there. He played at open mic nights and festivals, made his own music etc etc.. And even though he was a really clever guy all he ever wanted to do was music.. And like Ren, he had both mental and physical issues to deal with.. I had conversations with him about the voices he heard in his head and how much it effected him. He also thought about suicide and a lot of the things that the "bad" Ren says.. It really is a real thing. I had my own doubts about it at first but after years of dealing with my friend I got to understand his mind set. I have listened to that piece now several times and when I put it in to context of my friend I have actually cried.. I cant tell you how accurate the things that he says in that video are... And many many thousands if not millions of people suffer with this sort of thing. Its no joke.. So yeah.. I get the style is not to everyones taste. But I think that video is just incredible. To put yourself out there and tell your story knowing you will be ridiculed by people like WF takes some serious guts. As for Ren... I believe he is playing and singing/rapping live in that video.. So hes actually playing guitar, singing and acting all at the same time (and thats a LOT of lyrics to remember)... Thats talent in my books even if you dont like the style you must admit that. Oh.. And he really doesnt sound anything like Japanese.....

I actually have all those tools above... But no I wont be doing with that... The traditional method would be to use whats called a thumb plane.. Tiny little planners.. BUT I will be using an orbital sander for most of it.