Luthier's Corner Plans / Templates Resource

[wk1957]

Scott,
Very nice job on the build prints. Question for you..are your depth dimensions given for the pickup cavities taken at absolute rearward positions in the cavities?

Thank you,
Wayne

 

[nuance97]

Scott,
Very nice job on the build prints. Question for you..are your depth dimensions given for the pickup cavities taken at absolute rearward positions in the cavities?

Thank you,
Wayne

I can answer that. The measurements listed for the main body of the route are from the bridge side of the cavity in the center. The measurements were taken by Frank of his burst 9 1152

Now, there is one thing to note: the measurements for pickup “legs/ears” whatever you call them were taken in the center from the top of the cavity. The carve is not flat here (especially on the neck cavity)

What I wish we had was the measurement below in orange. That would take the curvature out of the equation, but we had what we had... the guitar I had access to had P-90s so it was not helpful for humbucker routes

 

[Gothika777]

Was wondering if there are any plans in a vector format?
I have access to a laser cutter to cut out the carve templates

 

[Rubetel]

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum
Greetings from Colombia, I am a guitarist and Gibson sound enthusiast and for some time I have been collecting information about guitar construction techniques and information on drawings and measurements and also some CAD design. Since the Mahogany trees (Swietenia macrophylla) and Cedrella odorata are native to my area, I recently found a piece of information in the book "The beauty of the burst" about body measurements and I want to share it with all of you .. I hope it is from Some utility My bad English comes from the translator of my search engine excuse me

 

[pshupe]

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum
Greetings from Colombia, I am a guitarist and Gibson sound enthusiast and for some time I have been collecting information about guitar construction techniques and information on drawings and measurements and also some CAD design. Since the Mahogany trees (Swietenia macrophylla) and Cedrella odorata are native to my area, I recently found a piece of information in the book "The beauty of the burst" about body measurements and I want to share it with all of you .. I hope it is from Some utility My bad English comes from the translator of my search engine excuse me

Welcome to the forum. One thing of note with that snipit - Gibson did not use pearl inlays in the finger board for bursts, or any vintage LPs AFAIK. They were plastic - cellulose nitrate. Not sure to what that is referring but it's not a burst.

Regards Peter.

 

[D'tar]

Gibson did not use pearl inlays in the finger board for bursts, or any vintage LPs AFAIK. They were plastic - cellulose nitrate. Not sure to what that is referring but it's not a burst.

True however, "plastic cellulose nitrate inlay" is not attractive advertising lingo and no one cared at the time as we do now.

 

[D'tar]

And a HUGE "Thank You" to all involved in presenting this work!!!! Much appreciation!!!

 

[wk1957]

Daniel,

With looking at Frank's hand sketch of the pickup cavity dimensions, with the bass cavities front and rear @ .918 and .921 being almost identical would suggest that the neck plane continues to run the entire distance of that cavity. I see in the plans that you are putting together that it is showing the pickup plane starting in the middle of the bass pickup's cavity and runs just past the treble pickup cavity. You can see in the drawing attached that with the pickup plane starting at that point it would not yield that identical front and rear dimension. When you look at the treble pickup cavity you can see an even greater difference. I feel I am missing something here. Your thoughts?

Wayne

 

[nuance97]

Daniel,

With looking at Frank's hand sketch of the pickup cavity dimensions, with the bass cavities front and rear @ .918 and .921 being almost identical would suggest that the neck plane continues to run the entire distance of that cavity. I see in the plans that you are putting together that it is showing the pickup plane starting in the middle of the bass pickup's cavity and runs just past the treble pickup cavity. You can see in the drawing attached that with the pickup plane starting at that point it would not yield that identical front and rear dimension. When you look at the treble pickup cavity you can see an even greater difference. I feel I am missing something here. Your thoughts?

Wayne

Yes I know what you’re saying, and there is some conflicting information involved...as you say we have the numbers in Frank’s diagram, and those numbers don’t seem to add up to 4 degree routes. But at the same time Frank has assured us that the pickup cavities appear to be routed in the neck plane...I tend to believe this is the case knowing what I know about pin routers and the various steps involved. It makes sense that they would have made a jig for the pin router that would be in the neck plane. This is the reasoning for the discrepancy...

You had the opportunity to observe the 1960...did you glean any info to help sort this out?

 

[wk1957]

Yes, I still have all of my hand written and drawn info that I will pull together that have notes on how and where I took my measurements. I will get back to you on that. Just a note that I gathered most of my information back in the late 80's and there was no real desire for exact replicas back then. I was simply gathering info to build an "old" Les Paul which are now considered iconic.

 

[nuance97]

Yes, I still have all of my hand written and drawn info that I will pull together that have notes on how and where I took my measurements. I will get back to you on that. Just a note that I gathered most of my information back in the late 80's and there was no real desire for exact replicas back then. I was simply gathering info to build an "old" Les Paul which are now considered iconic.

Cool man! I’d be more than happy to see what you have! I suspect there is a lot of variation on pickup depths, but the plane they’re routed in should be consistent. Perhaps your info could shed light! This plan is definitely gonna be a “living document” to some degree. We will tweak what needs tweaking as information comes available to confirm or refute something we had previously had to make an educated guess on.

Definitely glad to have you around Wayne! I’m really looking forward to the forthcoming build thread you mentioned!

 

[shtdaprdtr]

Id like to thank all that were involved in this. This is a generous gift of time and to be honest..its one of the reasons why I like this forum better than that other les paul page. there seems to be more passionate fans and helpful people and although I havent been as active for the past few years..it seems to be a much friendlier environment than it used to be (unless im reading the wrong threads..HA!)
Once again thanks to you guys!

 

[nuance97]

I stuck some neck/headstock/fretboard drawings on post #2 drawn by DoneOne...dunno if they’ll print full size. They were based 100% on the ‘56 https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/luthiers-corner-plans-templates-resource.437679/#post-9451338

 

[DoneOne]

I stuck some neck/headstock/fretboard drawings on post #2 drawn by DoneOne...

Hmm... I must've missed this earlier... these were from long ago before I went awol for a while. Memory is fuzzy as to what stage of development these were.

disclaimers <?> I'm a total LP casual ...as people care about accuracy.

Note 1 - the second file of the head stock... appears to be shown from the back in terms of the outline. See 0:55 sec mark of this vid:

If memory serves, the sides were symmetrical... unlike the juniors which had the center of the curves offset.

Note 2 - I see the neck thickness spec'd out most commonly as 1st and 12th... 1st and 11th would likely be more accurate as the transition to the heel starts between the 11th and 12th making the 12th thicker than straight line from 1st to 11th. It's a minor point when it comes to hand carving, but perhaps worth mentioning nonetheless.

I seem to remember seeing a list of 58 - 60 neck measurements... the 58 and 59s seem to group into a few somewhat distinct measurement groupings... + or - small variation in sanding. I tend to doubt that they changed the jig for the shaper, so my casual assumption was that it may have been due to how they thicknessed the rosewood in those particular batches. Using the serial numbers as a timeline, there were jumps back and forth. That's not to say how they sanded the shoulders into the binding wasn't different... just the thickness at center. Again, I'm a total LP casual... I could be wrong here.

The TR anchor was merely a place holder to remind me to address it later.

The heel / tenon... My memory seems to suggest that it was drawn in wait of seeing how it would fit into the carve.

Nut width... it's drawn assuming that it'll be sanded a touch narrower as the build progresses. The diff between 1.703 and 1.6875 is a 64th... 128th off each side (0.0078")

 

[nuance97]

Hmm... I must've missed this earlier... these were from long ago before I went awol for a while. Memory is fuzzy as to what stage of development these were.

We were far enough along that I’d use these as my final shape and not even blink

Note 1 - the second file of the head stock... appears to be shown from the back in terms of the outline.

I updated it to show the front

Note 2 - I see the neck thickness spec'd out most commonly as 1st and 12th... 1st and 11th would likely be more accurate as the transition to the heel starts between the 11th and 12th making the 12th thicker than straight line from 1st to 11th. It's a minor point when it comes to hand carving, but perhaps worth mentioning nonetheless.

Yes we accounted for that. I took measurements all down the neck at various places between the 1st and 12th

 

[Rubetel]

Hello everyone, I am very grateful for the information published about measurements and plans, in my environment it is difficult if not impossible to have access to one of these vintage guitars to obtain measurements or at least photographs. What I had been working on was trying to scale some photos, for example this is a reissue of Joe Perry's 1959 Gibson Les Paul standard guitar (serial number 9-0663) which I got by downloading the image from this website}

Gibson Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul

De todas las maravillosas Standards originales de 1959 (un cantidad de por si muy limitada), la de Joe Perry es considerada una de las mejores ’59 Standards que exiten. El caracter «road-worn…

vanzguitars.blog

In this image we can observe in detail the curves of the neck of the guitar but it must be taken into account that the neck of the guitar subjected under the tension of the strings and therefore it is somewhat curved backwards which consequently throws a false measurement 16 ° at the angle of inclination of the headstock.

Here in an old but easy 3D modeling program we try to follow as closely as possible the contour of the transition between the neck and the body by drawing an inclined ellipse as well as the transition towards the headstock.

In the image we can see the template for neck 58 in red and 59 in blue, these measurements also taken from a Les Paul Jr double cut plan that was published on this website.
As you continue to share information, I can build 3D objects with all of you.

 

[nuance97]

Hello everyone, I am very grateful for the information published about measurements and plans, in my environment it is difficult if not impossible to have access to one of these vintage guitars to obtain measurements or at least photographs. What I had been working on was trying to scale some photos, for example this is a reissue of Joe Perry's 1959 Gibson Les Paul standard guitar (serial number 9-0663) which I got by downloading the image from this website}

Gibson Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul

De todas las maravillosas Standards originales de 1959 (un cantidad de por si muy limitada), la de Joe Perry es considerada una de las mejores ’59 Standards que exiten. El caracter «road-worn…

vanzguitars.blog

View attachment 446443
In this image we can observe in detail the curves of the neck of the guitar but it must be taken into account that the neck of the guitar subjected under the tension of the strings and therefore it is somewhat curved backwards which consequently throws a false measurement 16 ° at the angle of inclination of the headstock.


View attachment 446448
Here in an old but easy 3D modeling program we try to follow as closely as possible the contour of the transition between the neck and the body by drawing an inclined ellipse as well as the transition towards the headstock.View attachment 446451
In the image we can see the template for neck 58 in red and 59 in blue, these measurements also taken from a Les Paul Jr double cut plan that was published on this website.
As you continue to share information, I can build 3D objects with all of you.
View attachment 446453

Sweet man! Did you see the neck plan on post #2? It should help you model the neck! Good work so far

 

[Rubetel]

Hi Daniel, warm regards
Of course I saw it and it will be very useful, I am happy to now have access to the information you have shared and I am waiting for more details about the neck tenon and the distance between the frets.
This was just what I was doing before this thread started.

 

[nuance97]

Maybe this will help?

The tenon is 1.5” square

 

[trovador]

Anybody tested the new plan? I'm making templates for the carve now. I have to take advantage of the quarantine to advance my guitar build