Marcel's PBG LP-1SSP

Howdy fellow builders.

Well my wonderful postie delivered my PBG kit today.

My plan is Mahogony stain on the back and neck with Tru-oil sealer and top coats.
The Maple spalt on the body and headstock is to get a dark Yellow stain with Hard Shellac clear coats. The dark Yellow is a mix of 5 parts Yellow and 2 parts Brown water based powder dyes which I have found to bring out figuring quite nicely without being to over the top nor requires much sanding.

The second pic is with the body damped down in the hunt for glue marks...lol

Daaaaamn that spalt looks like a spearhead!

Nice looking top. Good that you're doing the glue check.

I can see quite a few glue marks in that photo, certainly right round the edges at the back of the guitar, like Kick's LP had. Also possibly either side near the waist curves and on the bottom edge of the lower horn, but that may be the spalt pattern. Looks like the join line is glue-free, but as you've got to get the glue-remover out, it's worth running it over the line just be be sure.

The darker the stain, the more the glue marks will show, so you really want to get rid of all of them.

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Originally Posted by Andy40

Daaaaamn that spalt looks like a spearhead!

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Agreed, but not only that, the rest of the grain pattern makes it look like it flying through the air!
Very cool!

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Nice looking top. Good that you're doing the glue check.

I can see quite a few glue marks in that photo, certainly right round the edges at the back of the guitar, like Kick's LP had. Also possibly either side near the waist curves and on the bottom edge of the lower horn, but that may be the spalt pattern. Looks like the join line is glue-free, but as you've got to get the glue-remover out, it's worth running it over the line just be be sure.

The darker the stain, the more the glue marks will show, so you really want to get rid of all of them.

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I intend to go with a dark yellow Keda dye... 5 parts yellow + 2 parts brown, and a pro deep Red Mahogany stain for all the non-spalted bits.. both of which have given me good results for me before. Ubeaut Hard Shellac for the spalt, and True-oil for the Mahogany. Should marry well with the all Black hardware and Black P-90's.

As for the glue marks, I spent 2 hours with the damp sponge, a wire brush and some 320 grit W&D getting rid of most of it... what little remains now mostly looks like the spalt. In particular like you said Simon around the waist and horn it gets a little difficult to diferentiate. The join looks totally fine to the naked eye when damp...There is still a little glue type image around the back edge that's being stubborn but there is always tomorrow in the brighter sunshine of the new day....

Glad most of it's off. Just be careful with the brush and sanding about breaking through the veneer as it is very thin. Which is why a glue remover like Goof-Off is recommended.

The spots are remarkably the same as on my LP body. Question Marcel; is your join line exactly straight? In my case it was off-angle (and has some nasty glue spots...)

The spalt is looking beautiful!

Went to 'that' shed and found a small tin of Goof-off for about $8 so I'll soon see how I progress with the glue issue.

As for the straightness of the spalt join, I did a mock up and it would only be 1mm or so off the centre line which is too little to worry about.

I also checked the neck fit which I'm feeling is rather snug. The neck does not move when dry fitted to the point that if you didn't know you'd be almost forgiven thinking that is had been glued as it is that tight and snug. And it takes delicate effort to get the neck back out again.

The neck angle is pretty good. I estimate that once the neck is glued in I will need to raise my bridge between two and three full turns from dead bottom to achieve an action of 2mm at the 12th fret.

All the binding meets up nicely during the dry fit, and there only small gaps around the neck/body interface that I'm sure will disappear once the joint is filled with tightbond.

I have 2 other LP's, a Gibson '50's tribute and a slim design Mahogany kit that I built previously and neither has a body as thick as this kit. Interestingly despite the thickness the weight of it does not seem that great. Must have some sort of weight relief under the cap. Once it is all assembled I might have to borrow the spouses bathroom scales and come up with some factual kg numbers.

Great looking kit Marcel, look forward to seeing it under the stain

Did some sanding with 320 W&D, scraped a little with the wire brush, rubbed in some Goof-off, and repeated many times..... and then after a few hours of repeats came the thought 'why not?'... first coat of stain (Keda dye mix) applied...

nice one Marcel that top looks really nice

Unfortunately does look like some glue marks along the veneer join line - unless you think it's just the spalt markings?

Awesome spalt!

Yeah Simon,

Just along the veneer join line there are patches that simply refused to take the dye, but on the bright side most are where there is darker Maple or what appear to be knots in the spalt. Thankfully they don't look like drips or finger marks, just semi-random patches of lighter colour... I will probably have another go at them over the coming days and then hopefully a second coat of dye will help dull them down.

I'm just very wary of the wire brush as there has already be a few times where the Maple has been softer than elsewhere and the brush has subsequently left little trenches in its wake. All too many times my thoughts every time I saw another trench would go all Monty Python repeating the words "Wire brush and Dettol Sir!!!"... like if that was going to be of any help...

Nobody needs to remind me of how thin the veneer is... I can see it plain as day every time I look at the body right next to the neck join... luckily that bit of supplied and delivered carnage will hide under the fret board once the neck is installed...

Great looking kit and nice job, oh if only they didnt spill glue everywhere... nice save, probably as good as anyone could have done here

I've set the SSP aside for a few days so I can mull over how I will proceed with it. I was getting agro at every damn glue spot that I was finding and that is not a good frame of mind to be in... I want to at least get one coat of Shellac seal on the colour in before I stain the neck and body, then set the neck, then finish coat the entire guitar. Aussie post advised me that my hard Shellac won't arrive until next Friday so I have a whole week to stew over what I can and can't do with the LP-1SSP top...

So in the interim I moved on past the Strat that is in bits getting resprayed and lying all over my workshop on to my DrParts Alder Tele body that will form the basis of a partscaster of sorts. Have a Kmise Tele neck, a multitude of pickup options and a kit bag of Tele bits/parts from PBG, so the only thing missing is a pick guard... Fitted the neck which was very snug and went about doing centre lines and layouts and stuff on it. Both the Strat and the Tele should keep me busy for a few days until the Shellac arrives.

Just updated my signature... for what it's worth...lol

Every time I damp rag it the top looks better and better... Not sure if I should continue hacking at what look like but may not be glue spots...

I got bored. Decisions on what to do with my Strat re-build, and what colour for the body of my Tele build, and waiting for new tint colours and my Shellac to arrive had me twiddling my thumbs and staring at my wanting LP-1SSP body and the inevitable result that I knew would soon arrive.

So yesterday morning I broke out the Jarrah stain and hit all the Mahogany of the LP-1SSP.... and then in the afternoon after watching a few vids on you-tube sorted out a metho dispenser thingy for the Shellac stage to come.

This morning I go into the shed an see my metho bottle has left a interesting ring mark on the scrap piece of stained wood that it had sat on overnight... Wow!! What a cool effect, and what a perfect way to adjust the tone of the stain that I had used on the Mahogany.... 3hrs later I was satisfied and set the LP-1SSP aside for the Metho to dry off it...

After a late lunch I returned to my Man-shed/luthery workshop with the intention of doing something with the Strat body or sorting PU's or something when I picked up the tiny bottle of Birchwood Casey 'Sealer/filler' that I intended to use on the LP-1SSP Mahogany when I noticed it didn't make sloshy noises that it should. I opened it. It had gone rubbery which I could see when I squeezed the plastic bottle. I squeezed again, and again.... and SPATT! Clear sealer/filler over half my face, my glasses, and my shirt... Bugger... Dots of it on my naked Tele body, dots on my Strat and Tele necks... Buggar!, buggar, buggar...

After cleaning for nearly an hour I figured the seal on the sealer/filler jar wasn't doing its job so I had best use the sealer filler as soon as possible....

Will post photo of sealed and filled LP-1SSP over denatured Jarrah stain tomorrow... that's after the 2nd or 3rd coat has gone on...


On another note, Someone in one of the Facebook forums on guitars that I belong to asked the question "What got you started in building guitars?" and my response is/was ...
"When I was about 10yo I pestered my parents to buy me a good guitar that was at least better that the junk thing that I was mucking about on with 1/2 inch action that my uncle left behind. They bought me a Fender F25 Auditorium acoustic on the condition that I took and followed through with lessons. Life and wife and family got in the way and 45 years latter that guitar was gathering dust beside a 12 string and a Strat that had seen better days before the 20 something me took to it with wild modifications. Late last year I suffered a stint in hospital and the doctors said I had to do something but not something that would stress my condition. Wiping the dust off my guitars has been the best thing for me during this period of convalescence, and re-constructing my 30 year old plywood Strat sowed the seed of which today has me on my 7th build in 6 months."

Photos as promised.
#1 First coat of Birchwood-Casey sealer/filler after sanding back with 400 & 600.
#2 One hour after second coat of BC sealer/filler applied ...

Considering a third coat

Neck looks very similar to the body...

A few coats of BC Tru-oil to go on next.... then a coat or two of BC wax...

that is looking delicious!

Stunning! I think you did a wonderful job on that!

The back of the guitar looks very nice indeed.

The top's looking good too apart from those probable/possible glue areas down the join. If it's not glue on the top, then it should take the stain a bit better. It's only the bit between the pickups that really stands out. If it were me, I'd get a small brush and try and stain just that section a bit more. If that doesn't take, an oil-based stain might work better on the glue areas.

So I got the first coat of hard Shellac down today... did it French polish style purely to see how it would turn out. Seems some parts of the top were thirstier that the rest as the shellac truly disappeared in some places particularly on either side of the neck picup hole. There are a few imperfections from the wire brush and a few more grain holes than I realized, but overall I'm pretty happy with the result so far....

I think I'll leave it for a day or two to harden/cure/dry before I set in the neck...

looking very nice Marcel, will you continue with more coats of shellac after the neck is set ?

I intend to. Hopefully somewhere between 5 and 10 coats depending on how the finish comes up, and how well the imperfections disappear...

I already love how it is looking so far. Great work man!

Had a look today to see how well the Shellac had set and it seems to have gone reasonably hard, so considering that tomorrow will be a busy day for me at the Wowan car rally I decided to set the neck this afternoon once temps get below 25C.

The actual process was pretty simple. Goo up, press in, clamp up, wipe away the excess with a damp cloth....Then the worry set in....Is it all the way home? Do I have enough pressure on the joint in the right places? Will it move overnight to some weird angle or drift while I'm away all day tomorrow? Is the neck angle correct? Will the joint look okay once the Titebond dries? So many other stupid questions that can't practically be changed now.

I think watching Pro & semi pro rally cars doing their 'wild thing' in the hills 100km South West of Rockhampton will be a good mind clearer...

Hanging to 'dry after first coat of Tru-oil. A few 'coats' of Shellac added in too for good measure...

Three coats of Tru-oil and I've lost count on how many Shellac on the LP-1SSP...

And a family shot of its kin in the same birthing room who isn't exactly a kit.... DR Parts Alder body, Kmise neck and PBG hardware kit

that is an exceptional finish Marcel. oh....and nice birthing room dude!;)

looking nice and shiny Marcel, well done. The tele in one of the pics did you put the switch at the bottom on purpose ?

Yes Wokka,

Yeah..... The Tele.....
The reversed control plate on the Tele is intentional, and the tone and volume controls have been swapped... So it is 3 way Switch then tone then the volume all out on its lonesome...
The pick guard is only a template as I have a leather worker person making a hard leather piece exactly that size in a Tan colour to replace it... He said he might put some embossing on it so it will be a true one-of...
And the pseudo Denim will get covered by real denim once my daughter finds the right piece of Cowgirl embroidered used jeans at the thrift shop where she works...

Just have to wait until it all comes in...

Okay....

I spent a considerable portion of yesterday and today putting everything together, bolting on hardware, soldering and stringing up.. and then a few minutes (seriously, it was probably less than 15 minutes) intonating and checking for that elusive fret buzz....

It now boasts the following....
French polished Shellac on all spalted Maple that has been coloured with my own mix of Yellow & Brown Keda dye, then U-Beaut wax buffed to shine.
FW Jarrah stain on all Mahogany then covered with 2 coats of BC sealer filler and then 4 coats of BC Tru-oil.
Push back cloth wiring (A.k.a .'50's style wiring) on all signal paths.
Brown drop 0.047uF caps.
PBG neck P90
Yibuy bridge P90

Work still to be done....
Adjustment of the nut... could come down just a touch...
Issue with the neck tone control... not performing as expected/intended

I plugged her into my home made stack for some real volume (better than the Vox VX1 I use for setting up) and got purely and simply blown away by the sweet CLEAN tones that this girl sings.... On nearly every fret and every string you can pluck out crisp clear pinch harmonics.... Well.. you could have pushed me over with a feather..!!!
So you all know, the amp behind my sweet little P90's loaded lady is a home brew job I built based on my own mix of JTM45 and 2204 circuits I found on the net. The 50W from the EL34 output of the amp feeds out at 8 ohms into a 16ohm Celestion Vintage 30 and a Celestion 16 ohm G12H75 Creamback wired in parallel and mounted in a bass reflex cabinet.

I only stopped playing this evening because my wife was yelling at me that dinner was ready (and going cold...lol)

Lol.... Birthing room.... my son-in-law said "It's on a trailer, but it ain't trailer trash...."....

Can someone advise the process to upload or link sound files? I'm looking to make a mp3 or two on how she sounds to share with you guys...

I'm a hopeless guitarist, but I know you guys will set that aside when you are listening for tone....

Hi Marcel,
create a free account at soundcloud and upload to the website and you should get a link to post on the forum

here's the link

https://soundcloud.com/

The whoel guitar looks fantastic, and I really love the colour on the back. Seriously just FW Jarrah > Tru oil? Looks killer!

The amp looks cool too. Can't wait to hear it all together - soundcloud works great for this stuff. I'm trying to get my electronics knowledge up to the point where I can tackle a simple tube amp, but it's slow going.

Just for you H,

Some history on the Amp... Over 30 years ago it was a 'Playmaster' tube amp with 6L6's, but I gutted it some time in the mid '80's and kept the chassis with the transformers and its case all this time to rebuild it this last Summer just passed.

Whole amp is wired point to point on tag strips - nil strip board.
Most caps and resistors sourced from RS components,
High voltage caps, HV choke, pots and knobs from a guy in Victoria via Ebay
EL34's the cheapest I could find on Ebay
currently running the worn and tired original 12AX7's, NOS replacements should arrive soon.
HT is 390VDC(@300mA) on the EL34 plate (A wee bit less voltage than a Marshall, but still up there)
Home made bass reflex speaker cabinet loaded with Celestions (V30 & Creamback G12H75)

I went with a bass reflex cabinet as back in the day a few mates had done it and it seemed to work well regardless of the cones fitted. Some cones prefer sealed cabs and others open back. A bass reflex is 50% of both, is not as bright as open back and not as contained as a sealed. With the Celestions it truly works for me.

I'll upload a photo when I can resize one down to the limits set on this forum... Else check my Facebook page where I've been active in the 'kit guitar builders' group.

Identified the tone control issue which turned out to be two issues.

I had put copper foil under the pots and the pots have tags on them that hang down... Well, I had a short to ground on the unused tag... first problem sorted.

Second problem - Wasn't happy with the range of both the tone controls. In addition to rolling off the highs on both knobs it almost became a pseudo volume control at maximum high cut, and I knew I didn't have any short circuits, so I concluded that the installed caps must be the wrong value... Replaced the 473 brown drops (kit was supplied with 473 green caps) with 223 orange drops and both the tone controls now work as expected.... All the general chatter that I'd seen elsewhere about what size caps that typically go with single coils and with humbuckers must have sunk in.

Had a play with the action.... High E is 1.5mm and low E is 2mm @ the 12th fret & still nil buzz... Sweeet!!!