| I started by making full size templates for the major components then choosing some timber. I'm using some Sapele (an African mahogany) for the body, Goncalo Alves for the neck (a Brazilian timber very similar to Mahogany) and curly maple for the top. |
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| The body blank is glued up from two pieces of Sapele. I put them through the thicknesser and then hand planed the edge joints. Some of my favourite "5 minute PU" glue and on with the clamps. |
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| With the glue set I scrape off any glue that has foamed out and lay out the body outline. |
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| I cut out the body on the band saw staying about 2mm away from the line. |
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| Then at the drill press I remove the majority of the waste from the control cavity with a 40mm fortsner bit - I drill straight through the body as a maple cap will be glued over later. |
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| I also drill the cavity for the
pickup selector switch with the same bit. The Sapele I am using a a strong and dense timber - an excellent material but very heavy for a guitar. When doing my research I found that since the early eighties Gibson have been drilling out excess material from inside some of their Les Pauls to lighten them in weight - the wonderful Honduras Mahogany I used for my SG and that was used in early Gibsons is very much lighter than Sapele. I have marked out an area outside of the important area where the bridge will be fitted to remove some weight. |
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| And there it is! I left at
least an inch of material around the perimeter to ensure plenty of
glue surface area when fitting the top. I also routed out a slot from the control cavity through to the switch cavity - this also goes through the area the pickups will be fitted later. This slot, which will be covered over with the maple top, becomes a hole for the wiring to be fed through - much more accurate than trying to drill through with a long drill bit! |
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| The maple for the top cap is
gorgeous with a lovely curly figure. The down side is that it is not
wide enough to do a two piece bookmatch. I jointed the edges with a hand plane and glued the first two pieces together. |
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| Then I added two extra wings
each side to make up the width. I intend to finish this guitar with a "blackburst". This will be black around the perimeter and become translucent as it gets closer to the centre of the guitar, showing off the figure but hopefully hiding the "wings". |
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| I screwed the body template in place and used a router with a bearing guided bit to trim the body perfectly to size - the screw holes were placed in areas that will later be removed. |
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| After planing both the maple top and the body perfectly flat with a hand plane I get out the glue and plenty of clamps. |
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| With the glue dry I planed the top down to its finished thickness and then trimmed it to the mahogany body with the router. The figure looks good! |
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| I had a piece of Goncalo Alves
big enough to get most of the neck out of in one piece - I will need
to add tiny wings to the headstock to make up the width later. Using the plans I drew the neck onto the blank. |
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| I cut the headstock on the band saw and then planed it flat and square with a plane. |
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| Then the neck was roughly cut to size. |
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