LP Jr knock off?

[olddawg]

Just need to clean up the end of the neck pocket.

[olddawg]

I need to inset the neck just a tiny bit more where it meets the body. This will not be period correct. If I was to do it over I would have trimmed the end of the fretboard past the 22nd fret. Then it would have looked right. Honestly starting to regret this project. But as another reviewer of this kit said. It’s cheap enough to do a couple until you get it right. I don’t have that kind of patience. I’m sure it will play fine. That long (ish) piece of rosewood inset into the body is going to bug me. Lol. Now that I think about it I should be able to trim it after it is together with a little luck?

[John_H]

Cool project. I've been watching your progress. Juniors are my favorite to build. I've done many guitars based on them, and a few replicas. I was lucky enough to get a '59 to measure, and make accurate templates from a few years ago.

The neck join on these is correct when the end of the fingerboard lines up with the edge of the body. outside the 1/4 inch radius round over. I know, it seems odd, but that's how they are. I probably would have just shortened the tenon on the neck a little rather than routing the pocket deeper. On a real '59 the pickguard barely covers the neck tenon. From the sound of things though, your bridge wasn't properly located, and moving the neck was needed.

I've got a few pictures, and the critical data from the '59. If I can help, let me know. I would have posted on this sooner, but I don't get on the desktop PC much anymore, and posting from my phone is awkward.

Here are a couple of pictures; The Cherry colored one, I built for a friend. I chose the soapbar because of the gotoh bridge. The other is an accurate replica.

[olddawg]

Cool project. I've been watching your progress. Juniors are my favorite to build. I've done many guitars based on them, and a few replicas. I was lucky enough to get a '59 to measure, and make accurate templates from a few years ago.

The neck join on these is correct when the end of the fingerboard lines up with the edge of the body. outside the 1/4 inch radius round over. I know, it seems odd, but that's how they are. I probably would have just shortened the tenon on the neck a little rather than routing the pocket deeper. On a real '59 the pickguard barely covers the neck tenon. From the sound of things though, your bridge wasn't properly located, and moving the neck was needed.

I've got a few pictures, and the critical data from the '59. If I can help, let me know. I would have posted on this sooner, but I don't get on the desktop PC much anymore, and posting from my phone is awkward.

Here are a couple of pictures; The Cherry colored one, I built for a friend. I chose the soapbar because of the gotoh bridge. The other is an accurate replica.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]47897[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]47898[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]47899[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]47900[/ATTACH]

Thanks for the response John and for the info. I couldn’t get a decent picture of the neck joint on the web and took some other fool’s advice. I actually owned a real 59 for years as a kid. That’s me in the picture. It was stolen in a studio robbery in the early 80s. So I’m trying to replicate it. The kit was cheap. Unfortunately my luthier skills aren’t up to my others, lol. The neck tenon on this one isn’t even close to an exact copy. I didn’t shorten it because I’m not sure how it’s put together inside. If it’s a player I’ll have a custom pick guard made anyway and if I have to stretch it a bit to cover the scar or pay a little mor attention to the finish I will. Since my original was a sloppy refinish I’m going that direction anyway,
Btw.. your work looks excellent! I’m a hack!

[John_H]

Thanks for the nice words Ronnie. I loved the way your SG turned out. It inspired me to do something with the one I've got. Your work looks great, and you seem to enjoy doing it, so rock on!

[olddawg]

Bridge posts are in with bridge groundwire. Given my track record for "slightly" off neck placements I clamped it up first before gluing and checked the intonation with a fresh G string. Spot on! I need to sand the bottom of the neck tenon a tiny bit to make the top level. Then it's time for glue.... I'll completely assemble and play it before I start painting it. But I think it will be fine.

[olddawg]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]48359[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]48360[/ATTACH]
Bridge posts are in with bridge groundwire. Given my track record for "slightly" off neck placements I clamped it up first before gluing and checked the intonation with a fresh G string. Spot on! I need to sand the bottom of the neck tenon a tiny bit to make the top level. Then it's time for glue.... I'll completely assemble and play it before I start painting it. But I think it will be fine.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]48362[/ATTACH]

Test..

[olddawg]

Test

[bob p]

Test

You're going to have to turn it up louder, I can't hear it.

[olddawg]

Something weird is going on with this thread. It won’t advance to the next page.

[olddawg]

Ok all glued strung and set up. Ready for paint. Everything lined up perfectly. Plays great except for one tiny issue. I didn't recheck the bottom limit of the string height adjustment after removed wood from the bottom of the neck tendon to make the top flat and the fretboard not elevated. It turns out that these cheap Badass clones are quite a bit higher (it even said that in the online product review) than the original so the action is a just a bit higher than my liking. I have a real Badass I could put on it or I could sink the inserts a bit or even just grind the bottom lip off of the posts and screw the bridge flush to the inserts or just put an original type bridge on it. I'll play at a bit before deciding. It tunes, intonates, and plays fine. I randomly switch to slide anyway and prefer my action on the high side. For those of you considering building one of these, I have about $250 into it sans the pickup. I have several I could put in it but I'm going to put a dog eared P90 I have laying around in it when some screws and such arrive from Stewmac. I'll play it at a couple of gigs ugly. Then it's paint, a replica waterslide for the headstock, a clear coat, and a pick guard. Probably will cut my own pickguard first and get a replica later. I'm deciding if I'm going to cut off that excess rosewood into the body. Also have a Tusque nut laying around I can put on it.

[olddawg]

For anyone that's interested I ended up filling the lower lip off of an extra set of bridge posts I had. This allowed me to screw that rediculously high cheap $14 Badass clone down nearly flush to the body and brought the action down to where I wanted it. It also made a tighter mounting of the bridge and made it set flatter. Kind of like an expensive locking bridge. Also only had to do it on the low E side.

EDIT I finally did this to dial this beast in with the cheap bridge.* I filed the lower lip off of both posts and also filed a little length off of the bottom. I can fine adjust the height with the appropriate chrome plated washer if necessary. The bridge now lays perfectly flat and is tightly secured to the inserts. When I'm finally done with it I will cut short those ridiculous long flat head screws stiking out the back. An hour with a file really makes a difference. If anyone has a template for the pick guard available I would really appreciate it?

For anyone that's interested I ended up filling the lower lip off of an extra set of bridge posts I had. This allowed me to screw that rediculously high cheap $14 Badass clone down nearly flush to the body and brought the action down to where I wanted it. It also made a tighter mounting of the bridge and made it set flatter. Kind of like an expensive locking bridge. Also only had to do it on the low E side.

Since you can't seem to edit a post after a day or so... I finally did this to dial this beast in with the cheap bridge.* I filed the lower lip off of both posts and also filed a little length off of the bottom. I can fine adjust the height with the appropriate chrome plated washer if necessary. The bridge now lays perfectly flat and is tightly secured to the inserts. When I'm finally done with it I will cut short those ridiculous long flat head screws stiking out the back. An hour with a file really makes a difference. If anyone has a template for the pick guard available I would really appreciate it?





◆

Original photo before cropping and resizing to 799×599 for in-line display in this post:

[olddawg]

For anyone that's interested I ended up filling the lower lip off of an extra set of bridge posts I had. This allowed me to screw that rediculously high cheap $14 Badass clone down nearly flush to the body and brought the action down to where I wanted it. It also made a tighter mounting of the bridge and made it set flatter. Kind of like an expensive locking bridge. Also only had to do it on the low E side.

Since you can't seem to edit a post after a day or so... I finally did this to dial this beast in with the cheap bridge. I filed the lower lip off of both posts and also filed a little length off of the bottom. I can fine adjust the height with the appropriate chrome plated washer if necessary. The bridge now lays perfectly flat and is tightly secured to the inserts. When I'm finally done with it I will cut short those ridiculous long flat head screws stiking out the back. An hour with a file really makes a difference. If anyone has a template for the pick guard available I would really appreciate it?

[olddawg]

Ready for disassembly paint and a pick guard. It turned out much better than I expected.

[Daver]

Cool! Thanks for sharing the process.