Beautiful work and very enjoyable to watch! It looks like you have the old E. A. Berg chisels in the background. E. A. Berg made really nice quality tools f. many different crafts and were world leading in some fields then. You can still find them second hand quite easily. Hard metal to sharpen but great to use!
Thanks Freddy, I'm following you from italy, and thanks to your videos next month I will try to build my first replica !! I can not wait to see your next video !!!
I can easily see why those Micro Planes are your favorite tool as they really are removing that Mahogany very well. Even the sound of the rasp working is the sound (and I imagine feel) your looking for when shaping the most intimate part of a guitar. Thank You for this content, very interesting/fascinating.
probably the best videos on building 59 bursts, starting my build in a few weeks thanks to you! Got a pre shaped old growth Honduran mahogany body, a pre shaped Honduran Mahogany neck, and a brazilian rosewood fingerboard from an old gibson employee's estate, should be interesting. I'm expecting to run into fitment issues but ill be turning to your videos for techniques. Thanks Freddy!
6:33 dinners ready? I'll have two Les Pauls with a side of gravy for my dinner please. Haha. I love all your little tricks like adding the rosewood or ebony dust to the glue when installing the inlays so it creates a tighter look. Great job. I enjoy these videos.
I really like the sound of those micro-chisel rasps hitting the wood...nothing like any ordinary rasp. Stew.Mac., Freddy? I definatly gonna buy some. Thanks for another great vid, man...
This is looking great Freddy. Like you I enjoy carving the necks most out of the whole process. I built one guitar with nibs, a 59 LP copy. Never again, nothing could make me endure what a PIA as you said this is. Can't imagine what Gibson was thinking.
I have built 3 necks from Eastern hard maple - 2 "Fender" style and 1 "Gibson" style. I like it. Being so hard, I find it less easy to screw up. If you use the right tools, it's not really more difficult to work with. Shinto saw rasp is great with maple. I have also built 2 mahogany necks, so I do have a basis for comparison.
Just subbed to your channel. Your videos are just as satisfying to watch as Ted Woodford's guitar repair videos. If you are familiar with Ted Woodford or twoodfrd, you will know that it's a good compliment.
I AGREE CARVING THE NECK IS VERY CATHARTIC TO ME, I KNOW THAT SOUNDS LIKE AN OVER STATEMENT BUT THERE IS SOMETHING MOVING ABOUT THIS PART OF THE BUILD. THERE ARE NO POWER TOOLS RUNNING JUST THE SOUNDS OF THE FILES AND WRASPS AND ENVISIONING THE FINALLY OF THE BUILD. MY FAVORITE NECK CARVING TOOLS ARE DRAGON WRASPS FROM STEWMAC AND A 4 IN HAND THAT I'VE HAD SINCE I LIVED ON MY DAD'S RANCH I USED TO USE IT WHEN SHOEING HORSES AND CUTTING PIG TEETH HAHA, ONE OF MY PRIZED TOOLS.
Brave man using the bench plane. Even w scary sharp I'd be afraid to wreck those inlay pockets I've always just sanded in the radius. BTW Freddy I've been using the Worksharp 3000 system since the first of the year- its 'scary sharp' motorized essentially. I was expecting mediocre results but I'll tell you what - it does a fantastic job. I bought a few extra glass wheels so I could set up all the grits from course all the way to a leather strop - it's as simple as sharpening a pencil to maintain incredibly sharp tools - the Sharpest I've ever been able to keep them in 45 yrs of trying every sharpening method known to man.
Great vid! Btw how do you prepare the fingerboard to a right measurment for putting binding later on? Im building my own guitar but im not sure how to set a correct fingerboard width
ive watched a bunch of les paul builds and you are the only one ive seen doing the fret nibs witch is a must in my book. so far im super impressed on your build so far, hide glue fret nibs long tenon. its spot on! if i was wealthy ide ask if you wer up to doing a copy of an early lp custom with the p90 and the alnico neck pup deep dish carve ebony finish gold hardware ext..im way to poor for my tastes tho lol
hola amigo soy de Ecuador gracias por compartir tus trabaje . yo tengo apenas 2 años estudiando la Les Paul . y recién acabe de hacer la primera para músico diestro . ahora ya casi termino la mía que es para zurdo . me gusta con trabajas . pero voy hacerte una critica constructiva. yo de ti no rebajaría el diapasón cuando tensate el alma . en mi caso yo le rebajo al mastil antes de poner el diapason . Tenso o apreto el ALMA luego de que queda convexo el mastil procedo a nivelar el mismo. y asi quedaria cargado el mastil. luego pego el diapason .
Thanks so much for these vids, by far the most informative and watchable ones I’ve found. I’m actually putting binding on a les Paul neck today, for the first time. I’m curious, was that CA glue you used, and not binding glue?
Hi Freddy, two questions: 1) neck volutes/apex as Gibson would call it; any reason why won’t one want it other than build accuracy? 2) did we miss the part about the nut slot and headstock veneer cutting angle, or you skipped filming it?
I succeeded in getting nothing done this afternoon after I started your vid series...wow! If you don't mind my asking what is your price range for one of these beauties?... oh and btw ... many people do not realize that Slash played Les Paul Custom Shop copies in the hay day of Guns and Roses....just saying.
You can add glue after they're installed. Wick in this CA from the end of the fret wire. Sometimes it's not necessary....you can judge how solid they are sticking into the fretboard.
Again, amazing work. I've played a LP that had the binding nibs over the fret ends but I've never owned one like that. When I looked at the one I played I assumed that the fret ends were in some way pressed into the binding but I guess I was wrong about that. It seems that the potential would exist for a gap to form between the fret and the binding nib that could possibly catch a string during a bend (the wrong direction, I guess). Does anyone ever have that happen?
