HOMEMADE
LES PAUL
This is one of, if not the most challenging project I have taken on to date. I did not have much woodworking experience when when I started this, so every step was a new challenge with new obstacles. The end result is a completely custom guitar tailored to my playing style and sound, based on the iconic Gibson Les Paul.
MATERIALS
AAAAA Flamed Spalted Maple, Peruvian Walnut, Rosewood, Wiring and Hardware
I’m quite passionate about music -- and decided to design and build my own electric guitar with a unique look and sound..
Working with wood is always exciting and a pleasure. It is a joy working with natural grains and colours, and playing with the unique characteristics of each species of wood. For this project, I wanted exotic woods with distinctive textures and a natural finish to celebrate the wood as a piece of art.
For the top of the guitar, I settled on a piece of very rare, AAAAA grade flamed spalted maple. The spalting offers lots of texture and beautiful naturally occurring colours, caused by fungal infestation of the maple tree, which are further highlighted by the deeper ripples of the flame.
The back is a Peruvian Walnut, Nogal, which is a beautifully rich chocolate brown. Paired with a AAA flamed maple neck and buffed to a semi-gloss sheen, there is a wonderful contrast between the front and back.
THE
BUILD
Although there were several setbacks, this was probably the largest learning experience of any of the woodworking projects I’ve done.
I started with the design of the headstock inlays. Most homemade guitars lack any form of personality on the headstock, so I wanted mine to be different – and personalized. The top is an artistically cursive form of my initials “CJC”, and the centre is an art deco inspired torch. The torch was made to symbolize my fire and passion for music, but to also spark creativity in the process of it.
I had to route the carved top with the aid of homemade templates, then sand down the wood until all lines were gone. Since maple is quite dense, it took about 6-8 hours of rough and finish sanding.
Although it is the least visible aspect, the pickups, wiring, and internal hardware were the most complex. Each pickup was carefully chosen for its sound and paired with 4 “push/pull pots”.
It took me almost 8 straight hours of soldering it all together, but the result gives 22 individual sounds contained entirely within the guitar.
FINAL
THOUGHTS
Although there were many snags in the whole process, the largest one was the back-plates for the rear cavities. I couldn’t get any pieces to fit properly. I had to take a break and re-think some of the planned elements. The biggest realization was that it didn’t have to be perfect and that some of the things that I was getting caught up on would be barely noticeable in the end.
In the end, I made custom plates out of resin that I cast in molds and covered in leatherette. They still don’t fit perfectly, but they have an artistic look which complements the organic feel of the guitar.
Looking at it now, all the imperfections that I was so concerned about during the build are now the points that I love most, and make the guitar what it is; a handmade, non-mass produced piece of art. It’s still incredibly stunning thanks to the wood, but it has a few imperfections that make it stand out. It shows that it wasn’t built in some big factory to perfection, but in a basement with my own two hands.
