DC Les Paul Special Build Thread

[chuckocaster]

Me three! I'm a true But as my mentor told me; "you have to make mistakes to learn how to do stuff", & "it's not about NOT making mistakes, it's knowing how to fix them." And he was a REAL luthier!! Amazingly talented.

I think you're gonna be fine amigo.

[tugboat]

I think so too. The bridge fits, it's adjustable, and it's somewhere in between the vintage and modern wraparound angles. I think I'll be fine.

[tugboat]

The end is nigh!!!!

I drilled the tailpiece ground wire to electronics cavity hole, the bridge pickup to electronics cavity hole, jack hole (Forster bits are all that and a bag of chips for drilling clean holes) and routed a channel from the neck p-90 to the bridge p-90. I originally was going to drill a hole but I couldn't get the right angle. I should've done it before the neck was attached. Hey...if it's good enough for the Strat it's good enough for me. It'll have a pickguard anyways. I also installed the tailpiece bushings and ground wire.

I then did the edge radius. Measured off half of the radius of a LP special (forget what it is) and beveled around the body with a file, both sides. Then I added a bevel to both sides of the first bevel and sanded it to a nice radius. Doubt it's vintage correct but this isn't vintage correct anyways.







I accidentally made the spot for the nut too wide so I had to fill the gap (got a precut bone nut from Stew-Mac). My first attempt was pathetic with gaps that bugged me so I whacked out the nut (heh) with a block and a hammer (hit the block with the hammer) and started again. I cut a piece of rosewood, trimmed it to shape, and glued it in. Then I filed it down. Had I some foresight I would've trimmed an angle to match the headstock veneer but oh well.



Then with a little hacksaw thingy I cut two grooves and trimmed the excess with a 1/4" chisel.



Then I finished sanding the nut slot to shape, glued it in, and trimmed the nut to match the fretboard.





Finally, I tweaked the neck shape a bit more and sanded the whole thing down to #400 grit.

I leave for my honeymoon on Monday (wedding was this summer) so once I get back around new year's I'll grain fill, add sanding sealer, the Fender style two-tone sunburst, then clear coat! Weather pending I should be playing it in February!

[Frat Rettle]

Fantastic tugboat.
Happy holidays, happy honeymoon, happy playing,

[tugboat]

Thanks Frat! We leave tomorrow so we're busy packing. I was hoping to have it painted by the time I left but that didn't happen. Just gonna have to wait until February to play it now!

[tugboat]

Progress! After my honeymoon during the holidays (in Switzerland, which was too cool!) and some non-cooperative weather I touched up a few things, grain filled, then sanding sealed.



After it was flat with no pits. I put on a couple coats of reranch burst amber.





Hope to get the brown edge and transition this weekend, apply my headstock decal, then start the clear coats this weekend!

[chuckocaster]

[Don]

That looks great!

[chuckocaster]

By the way, congrats duder!

[tugboat]

Thanks Don and Chuck! I'll practice a bit on scrap before I start on the guitar to avoid having to strip and re-spray.

[chuckocaster]

Why would you paint naked?

[ch willie]

Why would he not?

[chuckocaster]

One word: OVERSPRAY...

[ch willie]

haha!

[tugboat]

This is getting weird fast!!

[chuckocaster]

Sorry about the derail! Just thought it was funny... Carry on, nothing to see here, other than a cool geetar.

[ch willie]

I have a way of taking the discussion to new depths.

I have really been enjoying the progression of this fine DC. I am in awe of the care and craftsmanship involved.

[tugboat]

No problem Chuck! I enjoy an entertaining thread derailment!

Willie, I'm kinda surprised that it's turned out this well for my first! I just hope it intonates well!

[chuckocaster]

I know amigo, I think we all need a good laugh once in awhile.

[tugboat]

First coat of brown sunburst is on! I need one more small coat on the top to even a few spots out. I didn't want to spray any more out of fear of getting a run. Hope to get the second small coat on tonight after the game and then do the back, sides, and neck this week. I only got one can of brown; I hope I have enough because it's mixed pretty weak.

[Don]

That's going to be great!

[chuckocaster]

Oh WOWWEE WOW WO WOWWEE!!!!

I've enjoyed all the updates, but the home stretch is where it's really taking shape. Not to tell you how to build your guitar, but if it were me I'd start clearing it. I LOVE how it looks with just the one coat of brown.

[tugboat]

Thanks Chuck! It's a bit blotchy on the horns, otherwise I'd move to the back. A couple mists and it should be OK.

[Gravity Jim]

I'm with Chucko, that looks ready to go! Very nice work.

[tugboat]

Thanks Don and Jim! I ended up hitting it once more, lightly, to even up the horns. Night picture from inside my carport so it looks darker than it really is. Doesn't look a whole lot different in pictures but in person the horns are a lot more even. Before they were kinda blotchy.



I'm calling the front done!

[Don]

That's better.

[tugboat]

I think so too. It's a bit off on the LH lower bout but I'm not going to try to fix it out of fear of really screwing it up.

Bugger is that my second coat last night on the horns blushed. Hope a quick mist of clear will melt the lacquer long enough to gas out the blush. It did last time on my Tele so my fingers are crossed! If not I'll have to get some blush remover.

[CoyotesGator]

Hey Tug, that is beautiful! Darn fine work. I can't wait to see (and hear) it when it is finished.

[melody]

Awesome job with the guitar and tutorial!

[ch willie]

Man it's really looking great.

This has been like watching the ultrasound pics of a developing baby.

[tugboat]

Thanks melody and willie! It'll be a trip when it's finally done! Can't wait to plug it in. Sound clips will have to come from my uber fancy iPad mic as I don't have any recording equipment. Unless there is something decent and inexpensive that I can plug into my M-Audio Fast Track and record to Garageband?

First a good picture. A daylight picture of the front. I still can't believe the front turned out so well!



I hit a snag on the back though. Dreaded fisheye. I'm not sure if the surface was contaminated or if the nozzle on my spray can is. I'll either use one of the other two nozzles on the back or clean the one I've been using with lacquer thinner just in case before I shoot the brown again. Here's the fisheye:



I tried lightly sanding it back, misted it with a coat of clear, then tried the brown again. Didn't work, still fisheyed. So I decided to sand back completely and to my surprise I didn't go through the sanding sealer. So I wiped down with naphtha and hit it with amber. There's still some brown in the grain (don't know how it got there as the sealer is completely flat with no pits) but it's at the very edge where it'll be covered by the burst so I'm just going to leave it as is. It'll be too much trouble to sand down to the wood. If the humidity stays down I'll hit it with one more coat of amber tonight and redo the burst tomorrow.

Here's where it sits right now:

[ch willie]

Have you decided on pickups yet?

[chuckocaster]

You can pick up a Shure SM57 (the defacto live guitar mic) for under $100. I use them a ton, live and in the studio, you can use them on TONS of stuff. I have stashed away in my live bag, "just in case".

[tugboat]

You can pick up a Shure SM57 (the defacto live guitar mic) for under $100. I use them a ton, live and in the studio, you can use them on TONS of stuff. I have stashed away in my live bag, "just in case".

I just might have to do that. $100 is very doable for a bedroom hack like me. One day when I finally join a band I'll have one already.

Have you decided on pickups yet?

I've had a set of Lollar P-90's stashed in my desk for the past year and a half just begging to be plugged in. It'll have a w/b/w pick guard, late 50's DC LPS shape and white P-90 covers that I soaked in coffee for a week to take the edge off of the white. It hope the Gibson/Fender mashup ends up looking OK.

[tugboat]

A couple mock-up pictures:





It's very different than what I'm used to seeing with Gibsons, much less DC Les Paul Specials. I can't think of anything else to do with the pickguard and pickup covers that I'd like though. Black is too dark, I'm not sure if cream would be too much cream, and I don't like tort on any electric. I had to do a burst too, not only because they look cool, but to hide my repair to the neck pocket. It'll look more complete with the pickups, bridge, and knobs.

[Don]

I like it a lot! If you had told me that you were going with a white guard and pickups covers I would've thought you were nuts but it looks great!

[chuckocaster]

Chrome covers might be nice too, you'd get a quasi "Casino" look going. I like it this way too tho! How about a clear guard with a single black pinstripe, offset by 1/4" or so from the edge and running the entire outline? Sorta like a Gretsch, but you could put your name or some made up one in the design?

Just throwing some ideas out there.

[tugboat]

I actually dig the chrome idea! I didn't my think about that. I'll look around and see if I can't find some. I don't want to do clear because of the wiring channel route from the neck to bridge pickup. I didn't drill the hole before I joined the body to the neck so I had to route the channel.

[Don]

I agree about the chrome pu covers!

[chuckocaster]

Just a head's up, the chrome covers can sometimes ground out your pup. Put them on and check that before you mount them and wire it up. I went thru a couple hours of pulling everything out, including my hair, when I changed covers on my DeArmond. Took several hours to figure out what the problem was... If you do run into this problem it's easily fixed. Either shorten the cases with a belt sander, you can also scrape off the paint on the interior and inside of the cover. Basically whatever you need to do in order to disrupt continuity.

I used, and am refering to plastic covers that are painted or chrome dipped. I wouldn't reccommend doing that to actual metal covers!