Finishing Up My Electric Guitar
Ive been building this flat top Les Paul style guitar for the last few months. A recent injury kept me out of work for a while so I’ve had some time to finish it up. So here it is, Its wired up and sounds good! The hollow body is very similar to a Gibson, though its not based on any plans. Its a little narrower and deeper then a real LP I think. it would be interesting to compare the two side by side but I don’t have one. My giant, exaggerated F-holes and string-through-body tailpiece help it stand out as well. The back and sides are made from Poplar and the top is an Engleman Spruce acoustic guitar soundboard.
I applied a clear shellac finish to the body to protect it for now. At some point I’m planning on sanding this back and staining it with a semi transparent dye, then spraying a hard clear coat. I’ll probably wait until the weather heats up and dries out. (its been raining this week).
It took me three tries to get it all wired properly. The wiring instructions that came with the pickups didn’t work. Thanks to the internet I found a better wiring diagram and its all good!
I still need to make a couple of panels to cover the control cavities. If you look close one of the string ferrules placement is a bit off. Its good on the front of the guitar so I didn’t bother to fill and re-drill it.
So there it is. It was a really fun and interesting build. The guitar plays beautifully. The intonation up the neck is much better then my mexican tele. I’ve been working on some other guitar projects too like this cigar box slide guitar, but more about that in the next post.
Tags: electric, F-Holes, Guitars, hollow body, soundboard