Preparation...

Got a few things ready today...

Using the CNC, we cut out a guide template to router out for the control and switch cavity covers. Also managed to get hold of a nice piece of walnut which I'm going to use for the fingerboard. 

Cavity guide templates

Fingerboard block

Headstock work

This last week I have been concentrating on reducing the thickness of the headstock down to suit the machine heads. I marked out the finished depth of the headstock (15mm) and also the curved cut on the back of the neck. I then used a thin coping saw to cut back the headstock. I tried to leave around a 1mm to sand down as I knew that my sawing would be pretty wobbly. The coping saw was the best choice as you can angle the blade while cutting.

Marking out

Cutting in the vice...

Almost there...

Success!

For 'Phase 2'  I handed over to one of my colleagues from work who used a belt sander to take back the hand cut to a clean curve with a smooth finish - Cheers Slash!

Driller Killer...

Okay, after marking out my hole positions yesterday, today I got down to drilling.

Bridge Studs

Vernier calipers on the bridge stud collars showed that I needed a 11.5mm diameter drill bit. After carefully lining everything up on the pillar drill and setting the correct depth I drilled the holes. Success, everything lined up nicely! Next I drilled the holes for the volume and tone knobs, all the way through so that I could set out the control cavity on the back of the guitar.

Machine Heads

I carefully laid out the machine heads to find the correct positions, to make sure the machine head bodies didn't clash and that they didn't fall of the edge of the headstock. Using the vernier again, I used an 8mm bit and started drilling.

Once I'd drilled the holes, I did another quick check to make sure all was well - phew, no problems!

I drilled these holes all the way through so that if any wood broke out the back during drilling it would get lost when I cut the rear of the headstock away to make it the correct thickness, which is my next task...

Marking Out & Control Positions.

Well, I think I've just about completed the majority of the sanding. I'm leaving rounding off the edges until all of the drilling etc is complete, just so I don't bump it and dent the body before it's ready to be spray finished. Today I marked out the nut and bridge positions, using the Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches (628.65mm). Taking into account that I'm using a wraparound bridge the final dimension from edge of nut to centre of mounting studs comes to 630.191mm according to www.stewmac.com fret calculator. Once I marked this on in pencil I could gauge where to install the knobs and where to router for the control cavity - looks like it could be quite tight!

Marking out using a long steel rule.

Control positions.

Once the position of the bridge was established, I could begin checking the control positions.

Machine head positions.

I need to work out the position of these so that they don't clash or sit badly when I cut back the headstock to 15mm thick.

More sanding...

These images were taken around the end of April, unfortunately I've been busy with work and stuff and so the lapsteel has taken a bit of a back seat. I received the control and switch cavity covers, so took some shots of them while checking the positions on the front...

Sanding the internal curves using a specialised custom-made 'cardboard tube' tool.

Control cavity cover plates...

... just checking the positions!

List of parts.

Whilst the sanding is progressing at a slow and steady pace, I thought I'd stick up a few photos of the components....

Flying V truss rod cover.

As an explorer headstock looked a bit oversize on the small lapsteel body, I went with an Flying V headstock instead and so to keep with the 50's look I got a white and gold V truss rod cover.

Nut

A 15 x 15 x 3 aluminium angle. This has yet to be drilled and will have the slots cut near the end of the project, when everything is complete. I might change this for a brass angle to match the gold hardware...

Pick-Up

I bought a second hand Gibson 'Signature Series' bridge humbucker of of Ebay, not sure whose signature it is though?! This humbucker has the old style single wire. It was a good deal for a nice pick-up but it was in a chrome cover, so I bought a matching gold one and will swap it over.

Pick-Up Surround.

Flat base pick-up surround.

Bridge

An adjustable gold finish wrap-around bridge. This was a better choice than the normal Explorer abr type bridge as it would take up less space as I want to keep the size of the lapsteel to a minimum.

Knobs & Pots

Standard Gibson style gold knobs. I originally bought standard 500k pots but I bought some miniature ones too, so I can keep the control cavity as small as possible. The mini pots are 250k, but I'm not sure what difference this would make to the sound?

More hardware...

Bag full of bits - Bridge studs, jack plate and screws - all gold!

Pick-up bits

Connection wire and some new gold pole-piece screws to match the new gold pick-up cover.

Plus some dot inlays for the fret board.

Switch
A nice Les Paul type switch with an aged plastic tip. Although this guitar only has 1 pick-up, I want to keep the switch so that the guitar looks a bit more authentic and so that I can coil tap the humbucker. I want to wire up the switch to give SERIES / PARALLEL / SINGLE coil options. Unfortunately, I think this switch is too long to fit inside the cavity I've made, so I might have to get a replacement...

Machine Heads

Gold Kluson with aged snot colour heads + tiny gold screws!

...And so begins the sanding...

If you look close enough you can see the helpful hints pencilled all over by the professionals in the workshop! Once again, thanks for all the constructive criticism lads!

Laptsteel HQ...

And so it begins...

CNC pics...

Cheers Ryan!

Time to CNC!

Got wood, got plans... Now it's time to CNC!

Using the CNC machine at work and the expertise of one of my colleagues, we began CNC'ing the guitar. The machine routed out for the pick-up aswell as putting a wiring channel in for the pick-up switch (this will be hidden by the scratch-plate). Next the machine followed the guitars outline, taking several passes to reach almost the full depth of the timber blank. Once complete, we ran a Stanley blade around the outline to free the guitar from the timber blank...

Timber!

After looking over quite a few lengths of left-over wood in the timber stores where I work, we planed down several lengths until we found some Ash that had a good pattern and didn't have any ugly knots or streaks. Cut to a manageable size and planed down to 44mm thick.

Cheers Slash!

Plans...

After checking out plenty of downloaded explorer plans, I resized and shuffled around the original layout to produce my lapsteel design.

The hardest part to work out was the control location: I wanted the volume and tone knobs to remain in a position that looked as similar to the full sized explorer design as possible. The problem was arranging them to fit nicely whilst allowing enough room for the control cavity on the rear.

You can also see that I've exchanged the Explorer headstock for a Flying V style. I think it's worked out pretty well!

Post No.1

So here it is, my first post of a blog documenting the making of my first guitar...

a Gibson Explorer shaped lapsteel!

After seeing a website explaining how to make a lapsteel, I thought it would be a good intro into building my own guitars. The lapsteel on the website was a pretty standard 'plank' shape guitar, but as I work at a company that has a timber workshop an a CNC machine, I thought I'd go for building something a bit more adventurous.

I like the idea of making a guitar in a shape that personified 'rock' - a '58 Gibson Explorer, but also mixing it with a lapsteel, which I see as a quite laid back, country and western instrument. I also like the way that a guitar that was designed in the 50's still looks modern and futuristic today.

I searched the web and downloaded a few sets of explorer plans. I work as a draughtsman, so it was simple for me to knock out a CAD drawing of the shape I was looking for, printed out some 1:1 scale drawings to check over.

Whilst doing this I was checking the internet to find out what hardware early Explorer's and Flying V's used. I checked out a lot of forums for images (links, links, links!)

I scoured Ebay and a few online guitar hardware shops and managed to get some good deals on gold hardware and a bargain second-hand Gibson humbucker. I'll post a list of my purchases in a future post.

When drawing the guitar up, I wanted a Gibson scale length (24 3/4"), but I also wanted a small body as it was a lapsteel. Before I could produce my CNC drawing file I really needed to get all of the hardware dimensions, so that I could make sure that all pieces would fit together without clashing, making sure that control cavity would work and that the bridge would work out.

I decided to follow the instructions on the 'Build your own Lapsteel' website and go for a 'wrap-around' bridge, the type used on early Les Paul & SG Juniors. I wanted to make the body as small as possible, and I think this bridge reduced the overall length of the guitar, whilst remaining 'Gibson'-like. Of course, I had to get a gold one to keep in-line with the hardware look!

Another change I made from the original Explorer silhouette was to change the headstock shape. Instead of going for the original six-a-side headstock, which I didn't think would work with the lapsteel construction, I opted to use a Flying V style. Both guitars were launched at the same time, so I think it stays in keeping with the design.

More soon...