Anyone want any LP info?

[Jason Rodgers]

Ok, go... http://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3287

[Jason Rodgers]

And then, back to your regularly scheduled program: any more interesting tidbits discovered on this LP, Mark?

[Mark Wybierala]

This discussion is so very polite I'm laughing.

The end of my pay period was yesterday so I now have the time to mess around a bit. I came across this website while looking into making the replacement neck:
http://theaccidentalluthier.blogspot.co ... s-rod.html
I like the simplicity of the guy's jig and I'm looking into acquiring a suitable router bit. I've done a number of curved trussrod slot jigs but these were all sleds or sled beds. No matter how precise I built them, there was always a bit of sideways deflection --- hmm. We really ought to start another post on this. I'll get to doing some photos today and weight some parts. I've acquired 3 Honduran mahogany neck blanks from a local supplier -- very nice and the price was a dozen donuts and coffee. I need to find a way to really address the balance sheet with this supplier. Its a local large mill works and things like a neck blank are usually considered scrap. They've been good to me.

On another note, I've acquired a very nice headstock overlay reproduction of the traditional bound and pearl inlayed Gibson headstock from ebay. The problem is that its overkill. I'm sure I'll use it some time but it is inappropriate for this model LP. If anyone knows of a source for the lower end LP overlay with the gold Gibson logo and the "Les Paul Model" script, please send me a PM or an email.

[Jason Rodgers]

We really ought to start another post on this.

Dude, that's what I did!

[Mark Wybierala]

First photo showing the break. Understand that this is the third break of this headstock. This one occurred three years after the last one. The previous breaks were repaired in a straight forward manner using Titebond and without any reinforcement dowels or pins. The client is typically a live performer but really should learn to be more careful with this guitar considering that it is apparently valuable enough to him to pay to get it repaired and in this case worth the hours its going to take to build a new neck.

[Mark Wybierala]

Understand that these measurements are without the fretboard.
Width at the nut:1 19/32"
Width at the 12th fret: 2"
Thickness at the 1st fret: 9/16"
Thickness at the 12th fret: 23/32"
The transition to the heel slope just begins subtly at the 12th fret.
The trussrod is 3/16 and the treads are cut 10-32 not rolled
The total length of the trussrod is 14 1/4"

[Mark Wybierala]

Top view of the tenon. The measurements are accurate. The tenon length is 3 17/32 at this viewing angle. The length measurement is from the top and established by the neck pickup route which was performed after the neck was installed. On the bottom side of the tenon it is slightly longer -- this will become clearer in additional photos but its clear that the neck pickup route is done after the neck is attached to the body.

[Mark Wybierala]

Side view of the tenon. I don't have an accurate means to measure the angle. The photo was taken straight on so if anyone can open the photo with a drafting program and measure the angle, the parallax error should be minimal.

[David King]

Thanks Mark.

I had a chance last week to look into a 66 Gibson LP neck that had been sliced along the truss rod to expose the slot depth. It had a modest amount of curve and was quite a bit further from the back of the neck (6mm) than the typical Fender neck of that era.

[Mark Wybierala]

I have seen both old an SG and a LP with the trussrod exposed at the back of the neck at about the fourth fret location. This was the result of wear and damage to the back of the neck. My conclusion is that there was a lot of inconsistancy in Gibson construction in the 50s and 60s -- some of the best Gibson electric guitars ever made. An X-ray that I did of a late 50's Telecaster neck showed a measured 3mm thick skunk stripe at the thinnest point (midpoint of the length of the trussrod). I did a lot of Fender neck X-rays. The curvature was always a linear curve but the depth and distance from the back was not always consistent. An X-ray of a neck from vintage construction Warmoth neck showed it was made exactly like an original Fender.

[David King]

I keep seeing mentions of the Fender blueprints of the strat indicating that the rod radius was 255" between the heel and the 9th fret and 115" from the 9th to the nut.
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/jwells3 ... t.jpg.html

[Mark Wybierala]

An awesome document! Even in the blueprint, it looks like a linear curve to me but I stand corrected. Way cool!

[Gilbert Fredrickson]

Yes. Where's my 68 Goldtop?

[Bill Hicklin]

Historically, Gibson's truss rods from their introduction in the early Twenties until World War II were curved "backwards" from what one would expect, or what statics tells us would be effective. Maybe the idea was to plant the anchor deeply in the heel; I don't know.

Anyway, from WWII through the Fifties, the truss rod channel was dead straight. The modern "correctly" curved channel was introduced in 1960 out of necessity, because of the new slim neck profile.

[Bob Francis]

This is a great thread thanks All!

[Bill Hicklin]

On another note, I've acquired a very nice headstock overlay reproduction of the traditional bound and pearl inlayed Gibson headstock from ebay. The problem is that its overkill. I'm sure I'll use it some time but it is inappropriate for this model LP. If anyone knows of a source for the lower end LP overlay with the gold Gibson logo and the "Les Paul Model" script, please send me a PM or an email.

Well, if by the "lower end" you mean a headstock with a silkscreened Gibson logo (LP Juniors, Specials etc), there was no overlay: just black paint. The overlay was used with the inlaid logo, and vice-versa.

But if you mean the LP Standard headstock (as opposed to the bound and diamond-inlaid LP Custom), then that *was* inlaid - the "gold" you see is white MOP under yellowed old nitro.

The headplates used to be holly dyed black; sometime in the Norlin era this was changed to a black fiber material. In either case the inlay "mortise" was stamped out on a press before it was glued to the guitar. (In the bottom of the Norlin abyss, they just inlaid a rectangular block of MOP and silkscreened black paint over it to form the logo).

[Jordan Miller]

Hi,

I'm in the process of home building a Les Paul, and some I would appreciate some info and pics.

First off, the neck angle. What is the neck angle on yours? I heard it could be anywhere from 3.5 to 5 degrees depending on the year of the model.

Also, the truss rod. People have been asking this throughout the thread, and I'm wondering if its a straight, flat channel, or if theres a dip. How do you calculate this dip anyway?

Pictures apreciated!

[David King]

Truss rod has a dip in the middle of about .2", 5mm. There is no "dip calculation" that I can think of. More dip gives you a better mechanical advantage but it's more important to have the rod close to the back of the neck. You want the neck to stay flat from the 12th fret up regardless of the truss rod's tension.