Solving the neck problems

So after some time out of town, and fighting off various other disasters sent down from the Gods, I'm back in the game. It's time for some more problem solving, and getting that neck glued up.

Due to a lack of about 5mm on the opening ability of my clamps, I was forced to go high-tech again in order to get my neck glued up. It was pretty simple really - I put it under the couch, and spend the night on top of it all. (The Russian wasn't impressed.) It's not ideal to do all this in the lounge, especially with glue all over the show, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. It worked a charm, and this is what it looked like this morning, just before I took it out from under the couch.

High-tech clamps - Put the couch on it and spend the night.

Redesigning the neck joint

After spending some time over the past week or so wondering about the complicated neck joint, I took one look it the plans this morning and had a light-bulb moment. Sometimes you just have to step away for a while, and when you come back, the solution will be obvious. All those little nooks and grannies on the joint is not necessary! Cut it straight - the little nooks will come by itself when you cut the cavity for the neck pickup. Secondly, who ever heard of routing at an angle? Instead of routing the cavity for the neck at an angle, (with lots of effort and complicated jigs), take it out flat, and change the angle on the neck. Its much easier to cut the angle in the neck than to rout it out in the body. DING DING DING we have a winner.

Top: Newly redesigned neck joint for a 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard. Bingo!
Bottom: Standard neck joint according to the plans.

The only difference between the two joints is that the angle for the neck now comes from the neck, instead of the body, and therefore the cavity can be routed flat at the bottom. Although it looks like another adjustment, leaving out the little nook for the pickup cavity, this is not so. That will still be cut in, when I cut the actual cavity in the body. It's a case of "why struggle to do it now, when you can do it much easier later?", and will result in a neater cut and fit eventually. I'm also tempted to not cut the cavity for the neck joint square, but to continue the gentle taper of the neck right into the joint, resulting in a dove-tail joint for the neck. All in all, a much stronger joint, that is much easier to make. (Les Pauls are known for their complicated, yet weak necks - problem solved.)

The neck joint marked out on the neck - ready for cutting.

The headstock marked out on the neck - ready for cutting.
Note how the headstock runs over the glue joint - this is the reason for gluing it up.

This saves me a lot of time, effort, money, and swearing... and possibly my spare necks, since I would undoubtedly have fucked this up too, and started over again. I do, however, have to make a new MDF template for the neck, but that is a lot easier and cheaper than fucking up a few mahogany necks - the body was bad enough.

I was planing on taking out the neck with the router as well, but after what happened to the body, I don't want to risk it. My jigsaw can also not cut deep enough - it cuts 60mm deep, while the wood is 80mm (the width of the headstock.) To solve this problem, I marked out the cuts to be made on the wood, and I'm going to a friend to cut it out on a circular saw. This will hopefully happen tomorrow - if not tomorrow, then early next week.

Disaster!

My friend used to tell me, "Danie, you're a star... a fucking disa-star!"... and sure as hell, disaster struck yet again.

You might have noticed that I have not been posting for a while. I had an absolute few weeks from hell. First my phone got stolen... Then my laptop was unceremoniously introduced to a sledge-hammer and I lost everything on there. So I was a bit distracted by sorting all of that out. I now got my laptop back, so here we go with a new post...

To top it all off, I had a serious disagreement with my brand new router that I bought specially for this job. When I started this project I had just about no tools, not to even mention power tools. I got myself a jigsaw for cutting the rough stuff, and then went out to get a router too. I got the router brand new at a second hand shop (ironic) for R420, including a set of bits. To cut the mahogany from a template, I needed a router bit with a bearing on the top, (as opposed to having the bearing on the bottom, like the ones included with my router). After spending the entire Saturday morning looking for one, I finally tracked one down at some obscure hardware store, where I had to part with another R70!!! Just for a router bit, but I suppose if you need a bit with a bearing on the top, and they are the only people around selling them, you got no choice but to buy it... Capitalism at its best.

The new tools - a second hand jigsaw, and a brand new router/fucker-upper-machine.

The router bits. Note the yellow one has the bearing above the blades, while the red one has it below the blades.

So, daddy took the new toys home and got busy. I soon realized I brought home the spawn of the Devil himself... this R70 router bit fucked up my mahogany that I spend AGES tracking down! Somehow, the bearing that is supposed to follow the template slipped, resulting in it going all over the show. This means nothing was stopping the actual cutting edge of the router bit to feast on the forbidden fruits of my Les Paul. What can a man do? I fixed the bearing, (or thought I did), and carried on - this thing has to be routed out sooner or later. Low and behold, the fucker did it again... and again... and again. After the neighbours came around to see what I'm shouting, screaming and swearing about, (yes they could hear me a block away over all the noise of the router), I though to myself "Fuck-it... time to get a beer...", and that is what I did.

One of several chunks that went missing in action - casualties of war. The dark stuff is the paste I used to fill the gaps, and at the top you can see the damage done to the actual template as well. There is still a lot of work to be done here before I'll be able to use it again, but I'll worry about that later.

I didn't have the heart to go have another look at it for days after that, but I send off a few e-mails to fellow guitar-builders for advice... The prognosis wasn't good at all. When I finally got the guts to go look at her again, I started thinking that it can be saved after all. Option one was to fill the gaps with body putty - pass on that idea... Option two was to mix up some varnish with some sanding dust from the mahogany to make a paste and fill her up with that - bingo! (Another trick I learned in woodwork class at school... the best wood-filler is varnish and sanding dust - the stuff you buy in little tubs are useless, since it shrinks and falls out) Just as I thought I solved my problem with my cunning plan, it was dowsed in cold water... I will never be able to hide any sort of filling under the clear coats! Fuck!

I did fix her though, but I can not use this body for my 58 Standard. I will use it later for another Les Paul - something with an opaque finish, so the paint job will cover up the mess I made. This takes me back to square one though - looking for wood. I don't have mahogany for the body, and I don't have maple for the top either. Time to do some real work for a change so I can afford to buy new wood - when I eventually find it.

I'm not even going to bother putting up pictures of the mauled body here. I will put it up when I use it for the next build. When I get the new wood for the new body, I will put pictures up of the (hopefully more successful) process of routing it out. In the meantime I can at least work on the neck, and I hope to make a post on that soon.