Les Paul Build - Part 8

Body and Neck Become One

After the frets were in place and the ends were trimmed, I used a fret-end file to bring the fret ends flush to the binding. Once flush, I used the angled side of the fret-end file to put a 20 degree bevel on the fret ends. The bevel on the ends of the frets allows the fretting hand to glide smoothly along the length of the neck. A 20 degree angle is fairly steep, but I was concerned that a greater angle would reduce the playing surface of the fret too much. It is easier to increase the bevel angle if needed, rather than replace the frets if the angle turns out to be to much.

Before gluing the neck to the body, I fitted the tuners and drilled holes for the mounting screws. I also installed the truss rod cover. On a hunch, I ordered an extra truss-rod cover screw, and it turns out that I needed it. Even after drilling a pilot hole in the ebony headstock veneer, it was very difficult to cut threads for screw. By the time I was done with both holes, the head of the screw was mangled. Luckily, it held together for both, so I can use the 2 remaining screws for the cover.

It's a good woodworking practice to dry clamp a joint prior to applying glue. This allows you to work out any clamping or fit issues before its too late. Once completed, I disassembled the joint, applied glue to the mortise and tenon, and then assembled and clamped the joint. Generally, a good fitting joint can be difficult to assemble after applying glue. This is due to the water-based glue causing the wood to swell slightly. In this case though, the swelling was minimal and the glue acted as a lubricant to allow the joint to slide togther easily.

I removed the clamps after letting the glue cure overnight.

Neck Glued to Body

Binding Repair Revisited

Now that the neck is glued in place, I could go back and trim the body binding flush to the neck. Since there was quite a bit of binding to remove, I masked the the neck binding until I was ready for the final blending. The excess binding was removed with a half-round file and a scraper. The scraper removes the binding very quickly and smoothly, but it was difficult to use near the ends and in the tighter portion of the curve. As I got close to the fretboard, I removed the masking tape and did the final blending. Aside from a little dicoloration, the repair came out very well and nearly seamless. I may use a heat gun to remove the discoloration, but I'm nervous about ruining something else in the process, so we'll see.

Binding Repair Complete

Grounding the Bridge

Prior to installing the bushings for the bridge and tailpiece, a ground wire should be run from the tailpiece bushing hole to the control cavity, where it will be soldered to the back of a control pot. This will ground the tailpiece, and subsequently the strings, to prevent hum when playing through an amp. To drill the hole for the wire, I used a 1/8" drill bit that was 12" long.

Hole for the Bridge Ground

The proper way to connect the wire to the tailpiece bushing is to strip the isulation from the end, run the wire, and then install the bushing so it pinches the wire against the wood as it is being installed. This sounds like a good plan, but in practice it didn't work out well for me. I knew in advance that this probably wouldn't work out, so I did some research and discovered the ball point pen trick.

The trick is to solder the spring of a ball point pen onto the tailpiece end of the ground wire. The wire is then run so the spring stands vertically in the bushing. When the screw for the tailpiece in run down, it compresses against the spring and grounds the tailpiece.

After running the wire and inserting the tailpiece screw, I verified that there was continuity between the wire in the control cavity and tailpiece screw. You can just see the top spring in the lower right bushing.

Bridge Bushings Installed

That's all for now...