Les Paul done and dusted!

[Martin Taylor]

This is my version of the classic Les paul. Australian Re Cedar top (hand shaped), Mahogany body and neck, Rosewood fretboard, Maple bindings (body, neck and headstock), Ebony pickguard, and covers, Golden Age PAF pickups. I love carving the necks on my guitars and now that I am making a few carved instruments (violin, cello, archtops etc) I think I have finally worked out my "sweet spot"

[Brian Evans]

Lovely guitar. I had to look up Australian Red Cedar, AKA Toona Ciliata, member of the mahogany family, according to the interweb. Stunning grain revealed on your instrument.

[Christ Kacoyannakis]

Fantastic job! It looks awesome. Love the top.

[Bryan Bear]

That looks great! I too had never heard of Australian Red Cedar. what is the finish?

[Jim McConkey]

Gorgeous!

[Beate Ritzert]

Beautiful.
But please give it metal poti knobs. It would be even more beautiful.

[Martin Taylor]

Lovely guitar. I had to look up Australian Red Cedar, AKA Toona Ciliata, member of the mahogany family, according to the interweb. Stunning grain revealed on your instrument.

That looks great! I too had never heard of Australian Red Cedar. what is the finish?

Thanks, It's actually Toona Australis. Toona Ciliata is another version thats very similar. The finish is Nitro with just clear on the top with a light transparent burst on the edges and upper bout. The colour in the middle is the natural colour of the timber. The back and neck I've added some colour of course to give that "red-wine" look.

[Barry Daniels]

The sunburst came out great!

[Gordon Bellerose]

Very nice!
How did you bend your maple bindings? Especially around the lower horn?

[Bob Francis]

Really nice Martin!

[Christ Kacoyannakis]

I can't speak for how Martin bent his binding, but I am working on a carved top, set neck guitar, and I used curly maple binding. I saw some videos where people where bending wood by soaking it in ammonia. So, I ran a few tests, and it seemed to work. I should have run some control tests, and soaked some binding in water too, but I didn't want to waste the binding. I soaked the binding overnight in ammonia, and then taped it to the body, to let it dry. When I got to the horn on the cutaway side, I also used a bending iron. I just held the whole body up to the bending iron, pressing the binding into the binding channel with the bending iron. If you work slowly and keep the wood moving, it will not scorch. The body and binding channel support the binding and pressing it between the bending iron and body supports the fibers and helps prevent cracking (which is pretty easy with curly wood). Hope that helps.

[Martin Taylor]

Thanks everyone.

Very nice!
How did you bend your maple bindings? Especially around the lower horn?

I use a technique shown to me by Wyatt Wilkie, an amazing guitar maker on Vancouver Island. I have a soldering iron with a temperature control. I set it to the lowest temp (which is plenty hot) and the use as normal. I also use 2 layers of a coke can cut into strips as mini metal straps to help keep it from splitting. I have tried the ammonia technique but didn't get consistent results and I have found with maple (especially the curly variety) that I get less breaks when I bend it dry.

Hope that helps