Les sPa(u)lted LP-1SS

[WeirdBits]

The holes were an odd size (and the size actually varied between holes), so I turned down some dowel to slightly oversize and then fine-tuned it for each hole. Cut to length, which again varied, and ready to plug.





Taped off the holes to protect the area and then opened them with a sharp craft knife.





Plugged, glued and tape removed… and set aside for a couple of days.

[WeirdBits]

On to the headstock.

I'll be doing the headstock black, but may end up trying a mini-burst on the face to match the body. Not sure yet.

Based on the centreline of the neck, the headstock was a little too asymmetrical for my tastes, and the tuner holes could be described as 'creatively positioned'. I wanted a traditional styled shaped, so once I had the centreline and shape outlined, it showed that I'd need to do side trimming too. The tuner holes themselves were pretty ragged on the back, a bit wobbly in their alignment and a slightly looser fit for my tuners than I'd like. So, I decided to plug and re-drill them too… not making much of a change, just making them a tighter fit and more symmetrical.

Centreline, alignment grid and outline marked, with plugs sitting in place.



Roughly shaped, plugs glued and new hole positions marked. Mainly the low E, G and B holes needed to move slightly.




Holes re-drilled and headstock shaped refined, ready to start the finer sanding.

[WeirdBits]

Sanded down to 180 on the face and sides ready for more work later on.

[WeirdBits]

The back of the headstock has a couple of nasty gouges in the mahogany (shown by the green arrows), and the tear-outs on the original tuner holes are still present, so I mixed up a batch of glue + mahogany sawdust as filler and applied it to the gouges (and a little on the tuner tear-outs). I'll leave that to harden for a day or so and then sand that down to 180 to match the front.

[stan]

great attention to detail weirdy!

[WeirdBits]

My plan was to re-drill the post holes in the body today, but first I wanted to double-check the position and alignment for the new holes using an accurate centreline. Setting up a centreline on a carved top with a set neck isn't the easiest thing to do, as you don't have the flat square surfaces to work with. First I ran a length of masking tape along the centre of the fretboard and then carefully measured and marked the centre of the neck every couple of frets. This gave me reference points for a fishing line centreline. I clamped the neck into the body and then set up the fishing line running over the nut and just touching the last fret.





While the neck was in-place I also took the opportunity to check the neck angle in relation to the hardware by running a steel rule from the nut to just above the last fret and over the bridge (lifted to roughly match its lowest position). It's only a rough check but it looks ok. I later measured the angle of the neck pocket in relation to the flat back of the body, and it came in at exactly 5 degrees.




But...

[WeirdBits]

Even though the neck looks to sit nicely in the neck pocket, with no lateral movement, and apparently flush with the top… it's actually not seating all the way into the pocket. The treble side binding and underside of the fretboard in the neck cutaway is sitting on the top of the body and preventing it from seating fully into the pocket. And, as the pocket is a good fit on the side walls, the seating issue translates across to the bass side too.

Treble side binding sitting flush on top of the body, yet I can slip a strip of card in under the neck heel in the pocket.



The gap under the heel extends pretty evenly through to the pickup rout, as you can see with the light showing through.




Checking with a feeler gauge shows that the gap is around 0.76-0.8mm at the front of the pocket on the treble side, with perhaps a fraction less on the bass side. I suppose the easiest solution would be to just glue a 1mm maple veneer into the base of the neck pocket and leave it at that… but, that's not really my style. So, it looks like I'll be carefully sanding just under a mm off the underside of the fretboard overhang and binding tomorrow. Not something that I want to stuff up, but my main concern is ensuring the neck heel sits squarely and flat in the pocket ready for when it get glued in at the end of the build.

Thoughts, comments, advice?

[Gavin1393]

I'd prepare a thick mixture of hide glue and simply glue the neck in place. The hide glue will be thick enough to bind the wood together without affecting the sustain and tone of the guitar.

[WeirdBits]

Thanks for the advice, Gav. Hide glue can safely fill that sort of gap, very interesting… but I'm not sure that I want to start experimenting with hide glue on this build. Seems like a certain amount of skill is required to use it successfully, so maybe I should stick with Titebond for now. Other suggestions?

I spent some time cleaning up the underside of the fretboard overhang today, and then had another look that the neck fit… and I'm now leaning towards gluing a 1mm shim into the pocket. I'd like to use a Mahogany shim to match the body and neck, but I'm not sure I could make one as accurate as I want. So, instead I cut a piece from some 1mm Maple sheet and did some tests with that sitting in place (the shim is intentionally too long for now).

[WeirdBits]

The 1mm maple shim seems to be pretty much the thickness required. The neck will probably sit a little higher with the glue beneath the shim in the pocket and glue on top of the shim to attach the neck, but that should be balanced when everything is final sanded (taking a bit of the top of the body) and then the finish is applied (which will add to the body's thickness slightly). But, I could be wrong.





I guess my concern is if this is a viable solution. Does it look like the 1mm shim is thick enough, will the maple shim compromise the neck joint strength in any way, will the maple and having essentially two layers of Titebond (above and below the shim) adversely affect the tone and/or sustain compared to a Mahogany/Mahogany join? Should I just bite the bullet and try Gav's the Hide glue option?

Opinions welcome.