Inside the Luthier's Shop with BigDGuitars.com. Here is part three, where I fret and bind this sucker up. I have about 4 hours into this work here. Tried to cut this video down as much as I could. Up next is putting this back together.
Man, you are a great craftsman! My gosh that guitar looks so look good BigD! All of your vids are so very informative. It seems like I say the same thing in all my comments, but it true, you are an excellent Luthier! Thanks so much, Pam
great video how all is done you do amazing beautiful work thank you for posting Im no Luthier but it sure helps if I ever need to do some repairs on my guitars but ill never give up on my Luthier lol again thank you.
I know nothing about repair, but I was surprised to see frets being added to a board that’s not attached to the neck. I thought this might be more likely to cause the fret board to not be flat than adding frets to a board that’s been glued to the neck and flattened before adding frets.
I love it when you make a special note where something is difficult or prone to error. It is nice that you try to inform folks without talking down to us but just once I would enjoy it if you said it like it probably should be said: Note to the non luthier peasants do not try to this at home just give (pay) someone who has undergone the very painful process of learning how to do this properly and you will thank me later. You're welcome. Amazing to me how much work actually (or should ) go in to making a guitar. I can appreciate it that much more because just about every guitar I own is deficient of this kind of attention.
BigD I've seen where some guys use a tapped 1/8" drill bit to go over the binding to create the nibs.. Great Video BTW I would mind doing this to my avatar M-III Gibson Les Paul & put a Trans Amber finish on it. Thanks Again D Gary/Hk
I paused halfway through to add a tip. The best way to clamp binding, and this is done by Gibson among many others, is to use either rope or rubber bands.
Why do the Rail Road Track Binding Nibs Mistake that Gibson did. I had it on my 1978 Les Paul and it was terrible . My 75 Les Paul has regular binding it feels way Better. The only Reason Gibson does this is to Save Time=$ by using a Router to cut binding down instead of Shaping Fret Ends Correctly . No one would order this on their 1957 Reissue.
I like the sanding tool you used at 8:45. Have you ever tried filing the bristles off an electric toothbrush and then gluing a emery board or sanding tool to the brush head? I use to do this when fabricating with Styrene for scratch built models.
Since there is going to be binding next to the fretboard, why don't you pour some superglue down the side of the frets? That's the way PRS does it I believe.
Just thought Id say something about using a sanding radius beam. Do NOT do it like this. As BigD was sanding he allowed to beam to rotate during the pass. This will create a very washy fretboard. What you should actually do is locate the beam between a pair of parallel supports the full length of the work piece. Locate everything on a centreline and Then pass the beam. This way you will create a very accurate board correctly radiused. Not trying to be clever but this is definitely the proper way to do this job. Andy
So you have seen a Les Paul right? I don’t know how you could line up and shape the binding nibs without the frets in place. You could overlap the the binding with the fret wire but that’s not how these guitars were built, it wouldn’t be original in a very obvious way. It looks cool but just isn’t fun to do (unless you’re an S&M kind of person😉). Two hours wasn’t bad on this job but roughing it in with a very sharp/narrow set of nippers would make for less material to remove when shaping with the files. Final shape of the nibs comes in perfect when you dress the frets.
hahaha. I looked at the fretted neck this morning and was like I need to finish sanding and leveling... Its winter here in Chicago and I want to spray it when its spring. I will have parts 4 and 5 done before summer I promise. I really do need a spray booth, hard to swing that one right now.
Hi on a les Paul special how was the tenon join different to the junior and how was it rectified??.. I'm asking this because I've been looking at your videos and your knowledge is outstanding and also a first time build on a hot rod les Paul Jr so any advice you could give would be appreciated greatly Alex Barrowman
Question... Would it not be more advantageous to start at the point on the horn as your first glue spot, if you have pre molded your binding and then glue the rest of the cut-away towards the neck.
if you dont mind me asking,how much time did you spend on this fret board,removal,refinish,refret and binding ballpark? your saying it was only about 4 hours,wow you are amazing at what you do,i would love one of your guitars,your a master.
Would it be easier to install the bindings before you fret? this way you can sand in down and saw the frets out then install frets to a finished fret board.
Hello on the previous video where you use the paint stripper and after wash. How well do you think that would work on a guitar with a veneer? Im planning to refinish a guitar that has a veneer top and want to best preserve the top as much as possible. Im really only worried about the glue that holds the top on. will the stripper affect that? thank you.
IMO, if you wanted to get into guitar repair, doing a complete disassemble of an old (but not so old that it could be worth a whole bunch of cash) Les Paul would be great experience, but based on the work being done in these videos, that guitar might just be considered totaled compared to the price of a brand new one...and I don't mean a LP Studio (I don't consider them real Les Paul guitars), I mean at least a Traditional, because they are bound around the body and up the neck...they, IMO, are the starting point of what I would consider being a real Les Paul, and they start new at $2629 at GC, Musician's Friend, etc., and if you go during one of their 15% off deal times, you can pick one up for close to 2.3k...now if someone gave me a beat up Les Paul Standard, and I wanted to get it redone, it might be worth it then...now if he was like "that'll be $500 dollars", that would be great, but pretty sure it's way above that...
why did you not line up the fret board binding with the top edge..plus a few thou. .. then 99 % of the clean up wouod have been underneath , which could have been done with a plane.
Clearly you are very skilled, but the effort here is ridiculous. I felt exhausted just watching you work. You certainly realise why Gibson Les Paul guitars are so expensive.
I was watching the previous video where you pop the neck from its body but on this video the fret board is already removed from the neck, do you have a video of that? If not, how did you remove the fretboard? thanks
I cant believe how bad the workmanship was on that body. Gibson should be ashamed to let something like that out of their factory! Good work making good of it though :)
