Juanito Burrito
Newbie
- Messages
- 23
Hey all you W' addicts, John from Warmoth Sales here. I've been lurking here for 8 months now, so I figured it was high time to get on board and share the details of one of my builds with ya'. I was lucky enough to snag a Chambered Carved Top Les Paul body just before it hit the Showcase (working for Mr. W. has its benefits!). Being a dyed-in-the-wool Strat and Tele guy, I've always kept my distance from Lesters due to the fact that they typically weigh a ton, and that 24.75" scale length just doesn't float my boat. But, seeing as I've been Jonesin' for double 'bucker axe with a fixed bridge for a while now, and that I can have it my way (25.5" scale AND lightweight, thank you very much), it was time to take the jump into LP land. Here are the specs on the bod: Chambered Mahogany with Carved Maple top, black gloss paint, weight of about 4 & 1/2 pounds. This is about the same weight as a typical Alder Strat body. Pickups are a Duncan Pearly Gates in the bridge, and an Alnico Pro II in the neck. Here are some pic's of the work in progress:
I made a wiring jig out of a piece of scrap pickguard material. The holes are layed out exactly like the control cavity on the body. Trust me, it is much easier wiring up the pots outside of the guitar as the LP control cavity is pretty cramped. And yes, roughing up the backs of the pots makes for much easier soldering (a great tip from Gregg here at W'). Note the nifty schematic on the table courtesy of www.seymourduncan.com
Wiring up the switch. Again, much easier to do outside the body. I ran all 4 wires through a piece of shrink tubing prior to snaking them through the worm hole to the control cavity.
Here are the pots loaded inside the neatly-shielded control cavity. Some people may think that shielding a humbucker-only guitar is overkill; however, having all that copper foil makes it simple to tack on ground wires. The foam bag that the body is shipped in makes for some good protection while working on the guitar. Even with all that foam, I still managed to put a couple of scratches in her! Black guitars, like black cars, scratch very easily.
Here's the body with the pickups sitting in their routs, and the knobs installed. Note the blue masking tape holding the pickups in place. This stuff is invaluable during a build for holding parts in place prior to drilling screw holes, as well as keeping wires out of your way.
Here's the finished body, fully wired up. I installed a Strat neck that I had laying around (us Warmoth guys tend to have a few spares around the house), put on the 2 outside E strings, using them as a guide for lining up the polepieces prior to drilling the holes for the mounting rings. What you see are our Chrome Metal Humbucker Mounting Rings sitting on top of the usual plastic mounting rings. I had to shape the bottoms of the plastic rings with a rotary tool to get them to sit flush on the carved top. Note to future LP builders: our Curved Humbucker Mounting Rings are not compatible with the Metal Humbucker Mounting Rings that you see on top. That is why if you want to achieve this tricked-out look on a carved top body, you must get the flat plastic rings and radius the bottoms.
Now the wait for the neck, which should be done in a couple of weeks. No, not even us W' cats get our necks made any faster than the rest of you! Neck specs are as follows: Warmoth Pro LP, 25.5" scale, 12" straight radius, Wenge back with Jet Black Ebony fretboard, no face dots, SS6105 frets, and Ebony peghead veneer. I saw our ace neck guru radiusing the fretboard last week, so soon it will be in the fret shop for fret install and a Graphite nut. I have a Wenge neck with Ebony board on my Strat, and let me tell ya', it's a magic recipe (a couple of the other guys at the big W' have the same combo, can you guess who?). I'll add to this post when the neck is in my hands, along with plenty of Glamor Shots, of course.
Keep jammin!
J
I made a wiring jig out of a piece of scrap pickguard material. The holes are layed out exactly like the control cavity on the body. Trust me, it is much easier wiring up the pots outside of the guitar as the LP control cavity is pretty cramped. And yes, roughing up the backs of the pots makes for much easier soldering (a great tip from Gregg here at W'). Note the nifty schematic on the table courtesy of www.seymourduncan.com
Wiring up the switch. Again, much easier to do outside the body. I ran all 4 wires through a piece of shrink tubing prior to snaking them through the worm hole to the control cavity.
Here are the pots loaded inside the neatly-shielded control cavity. Some people may think that shielding a humbucker-only guitar is overkill; however, having all that copper foil makes it simple to tack on ground wires. The foam bag that the body is shipped in makes for some good protection while working on the guitar. Even with all that foam, I still managed to put a couple of scratches in her! Black guitars, like black cars, scratch very easily.
Here's the body with the pickups sitting in their routs, and the knobs installed. Note the blue masking tape holding the pickups in place. This stuff is invaluable during a build for holding parts in place prior to drilling screw holes, as well as keeping wires out of your way.
Here's the finished body, fully wired up. I installed a Strat neck that I had laying around (us Warmoth guys tend to have a few spares around the house), put on the 2 outside E strings, using them as a guide for lining up the polepieces prior to drilling the holes for the mounting rings. What you see are our Chrome Metal Humbucker Mounting Rings sitting on top of the usual plastic mounting rings. I had to shape the bottoms of the plastic rings with a rotary tool to get them to sit flush on the carved top. Note to future LP builders: our Curved Humbucker Mounting Rings are not compatible with the Metal Humbucker Mounting Rings that you see on top. That is why if you want to achieve this tricked-out look on a carved top body, you must get the flat plastic rings and radius the bottoms.
Now the wait for the neck, which should be done in a couple of weeks. No, not even us W' cats get our necks made any faster than the rest of you! Neck specs are as follows: Warmoth Pro LP, 25.5" scale, 12" straight radius, Wenge back with Jet Black Ebony fretboard, no face dots, SS6105 frets, and Ebony peghead veneer. I saw our ace neck guru radiusing the fretboard last week, so soon it will be in the fret shop for fret install and a Graphite nut. I have a Wenge neck with Ebony board on my Strat, and let me tell ya', it's a magic recipe (a couple of the other guys at the big W' have the same combo, can you guess who?). I'll add to this post when the neck is in my hands, along with plenty of Glamor Shots, of course.
Keep jammin!
J
