slodave's Gibson SG project.

[slodave]

It's been three years to the day that I started (and subsequently finished) my Les Paul project. At the time, I had talked about a Fender project for the following year, but things happen and it has yet to materialize. Some of you had also mentioned documenting that build too and I will. But, it the mean time, I picked up a SG project to finish for another Pelican. I poked and prodded him to build this guitar, but it became a bit too much for him. I had already done a little work on the fretboard and neck a while back.

*This project will not have daily updates for a while I have other projects I am working on as well and will work on this sporadically for the next month or so.*

Here's how it looks now.


There are a few Ooops in the body that will need to be sorted. If the body is painted a solid color, it would make the fixes very easy if not, I've got my work cut out for me. More on that later when I deal with it.

Tonight, to honor the starting of guitar projects on Christmas Eve., I worked on the fretboard a bit by flushing the rough cut fret ends to the fretboard. I was going to glue the binding on, but the acrylic glue was old and had hardened and with everything closed tomorrow, I'll finish that Thursday.

[azasadny]

I can't wait to see this one!!

[Baz]

That's beautiful, Dave!

Wow......very cool.

Love to watch the progress...please keep us posted!

[Porsche-poor]

Oh so much fire wood! Good luck.

[slodave]

Here are some previous pix of the neck build from a year ago. This neck became complicated very quickly. The plans for the SG use a certain neck scale length, while the fretboards that StewMac sells, is cut for the LP scale. I had to work from two plans two make one neck.





Tools of the trade for a lot of this project.


Finding the center line on the neck. Using the easy method.


Center found and marked as well as the tenon. A few more lines and it's time to go to the bandsaw to cut the rough shape.


Now that's a straightedge!


Drawing Lines..


More lines! This SG blank should see a saw blade tomorrow.


So close! I just need the blade to come an 1/8" or so. This is going to be fun.

[slodave]

First angle cut. This is for the top of the headstock.


Now the question is... How to cut the remainder??


I think the bandsaw will work. I'd rather get a smooth cut from the table saw, but since the area in question will be cut off anyway, a little ridge should not matter.


Test cut made to check the angle and it's good! Now to trim a little more off.


Time to get dangerous! First pass to create the headstock surface.


Headstock face cut. I cut a little too close to my line, but that's okay, as there is a Holly veneer that gets glued to the face anyway. Cut is nice and smooth!


Neck is separated from the blank with a rough bandsaw cut.


Side view..


To cut the rough top shape of the neck, I need to use the scrap, but I want to send it back to David. It's not enough for another neck, but it can be used to practice the neck shaping.

[slodave]

To save the scrap, quickly cut some MDF..


Trace the scrap onto the stacked MDF (glued together) and cut on the bandsaw. Bingo! Instant base.


The headstock overlay that David won in an eBay auction and had sent to me. Nice looking and will work well for this project.


Making the cuts for the "ears". Not for the faint of heart, as you break all sorts of table saw rules.


The cuts for ears are also good for removing material so things fit in the vice.


Time for the hand held router again to cut the grooves for the maple splines that reinforce the headstock.


Grooves done.


Splines glued in place. Next will be to cut them flush to the headstock.


Trimming the splines flush.


Flush.

[slodave]

Learning to cut threads via a die.


Setup to cut the curved truss rod channel.


Channel cut.


End of truss rod that will be covered by the fretboard peened. That ain't coming off again!


Cutting the threads for the headstock end of the truss rod.


The end that will be covered by the fretboard needs to be cut flush.


Flush.


Neck clamped to the drill press to drill a partial hole for the truss rod and nut. A plastic bell cover will cover this hole.


Done. One small hole needs to be drilled to connect the truss rod route and the bell hole.

[slodave]

Truss rod test fit and cut to final length.


Neck pretty much rough cut and ready to glue the headstock ears on.


Ears glued on.


Maple spline to cover truss rod, cut and test fit. Will glue tomorrow.


Truss rod spline glued in place and upside-down to let gravity work for me and prevent any glue from getting around the truss rod. I coated the rod with wax as well, to prevent glue from sticking.


Headstock overlay glued.


Overlay on and dry. My part of this project is done.


At this point, the neck had been sent back to Washington...

[slodave]

I had actually done some work to fix the fretboard as well. I had brought the fretboard beck to Washington this past September when I went for a visit.

Looking through a jewelers loop, we can see that the filler is pitting and has a lot of "white" in it.


The inlays for frets 17, 19, and 21 need to come out and be replaced. This thing is as sharp as a razor's edge.


One out, two to go. Pocket is a tad to shallow as well. I will deepen the pockets for the 3 inlays, before setting the new ones.


Knife is pointing to a bit of a high spot that was contributing to the thin inlays.


Who says CA (super glue) is forever! Super solvent for a super glue.

Fretboard may looked warped and is, but a minor thing. The stress of the grain and sudden switch from a very humid environment, to a dry one is to blame. The fret grooves contribute as well.


Refilling the gaps around the inlays that will remain in the fretboard.


Needs a bit more work, but will be just fine in the end.


Another inlay partially filled.


This is from the first inlay (3rd fret). Much better than before. It'll need one more coat and sanding, but will look great.


As the filler seeps into the gaps and shrinks from the water evaporating, a nice valley is left. This started as a "hill". Two more applications of filler should level it out.

[slodave]

Back to the inlay repair. MOP blanks arrived and templates made.


New inlays cut and shaped.


Time to finish this up. Made a quick holder for the FB. The two pieces of wood will act as guides for the Dremel.


The pockets for the inlays needed to be deeper. This one is almost flush with no sanding. One down, three more to go.


I decided to replace one more inlay. Tedious. Trace the pattern and cut with a jewelers saw, then finesse the edges with files. The short sides are not straight, but have a slight curve. Mother of Pearl also smells like burned finger nails or hair.


New inlays glued in place. Time to sand the new ones flush to the FB, then fill the gaps between the inlay and rosewood. After that, one final sanding and the FB gets set back to Washington.


Inlays flush. Just need to go through the finer grit sandpaper after filling the areas around the inlays.


Fretboard finally done. Time to box it up and send it back to Washington. (Though I ended up hand carrying it up there.)

[livi]

Hey Dave! What an enormous job you take on. Very impressive. Merry Christmas!!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Excellent craftsmanship Dave. Did that start life as a kit?

[VaSteve]

Wow. This is really cool. The guys on the guitar forum I frequent don't take as many photos.

I have an idea for a neck with custom inlays. Is that something you'd be interested in taking on someday? Nothing near as involved as this build.

[9dreizig]

Dave you're amazing !!! I might as well be watching brain surgery,, as I know I could never do this stuff,, Very cool!!

[Baz]

Really nice work and excellent photos and narrative.

Thanks for sharing Dave!

[VaSteve]

Originally Posted by 9dreizig

Dave you're amazing !!! I might as well be watching brain surgery,, as I know I could never do this stuff,, Very cool!!

I saw a quote somewhere that a luthier is a "just a woodworker that works in 1/64th increments...." Um yeah, I have no patience for that.

[pete3799]

Most excellent Dave.

[Jim Richards]

Wow, Dave! You rock!

[slodave]

Thank you. all!!

Matt, no kit. Scratch build that was started by Porsche-poor.

Steve, all the pix but the first three were updates for the other Dave as I was doing the work. But, I do like documenting the work. Makes it easier to go back and see how certain things were done.

Yes, with instruments, you have to get past the traditional 1/16-1/8" rulers and go for the really tiny stuff. It was hard to get my dad to wrap his head around the idea that things needed to be measured in 64's. "Why? It's okay that things are off a 1/16" when building a chair". This isn't a chair, dad!

Patience is a virtue with these projects, no doubt! If you want to send me a PM with your idea, please do. I'll see if it's something I can do.