Winter Project: Guitar Amplifiers

[VertigoCycles]

I snuck in a little more guitar work yesterday in between playing teacher and working on some floating shelves.

Speed holes. The mahogany body was 5lb 11oz and this dropped about 18oz. I used to own a 12lb Les Paul and as much as I loved the tone of the thing, I very much did not like wearing it...or carrying it.

A5315F08-1C53-46CD-9B1F-7FA3447D8242_1_105_c by Sean Chaney, on Flickr

This is thermally processed maple from a local place. It's much darker in color that a lot of the roasted maple I've had for making necks. This is going to be under paint, but I chose a board with a little flame to it because it was in the stack and I thought it would be a fun secret. Theoretically, it's more stable, not that it will matter much as a top. It will be glued down with hot hide glue and has the potential to be a big nightmare with this much surface area. I'm going to have to do it inside because it'll gel too quickly in my shop and will likely have to get a little help from my better half to get the clamps on before it gels too much. Seriously considering leaving the pieces in a warm oven for a while before applying the glue. Will be working out the clamp positions and sequence today so we have a plan for tomorrow.

The other option is to try to vacuum bag it...only I currently have a hand pump which will certainly not get it clamped in time. A close friend of mine designs systems for scanning electron microscopes and might be bringing home a pump for me today. He's always working on something with insanely high voltage inside a vacuum chamber and if he's able to find some surplus, I'm sure it'll be ridiculous. It's amazing to have your regular riding buddy work in such a high tech industry and I have been the beneficiary of some extremely interesting "trash"

D794276A-10CF-419B-9BD0-E93348143D2E_1_105_c by Sean Chaney, on Flickr

[defspace]

Why the choice to go with hot hide glue? You're obviously not married to vintage-correct spec. I've never used it and it sounds like a nightmare. Love the work, keep the posts coming.

You may just inspire me to get over it and post some of my guitar projects on here.

[VertigoCycles]

Why the choice to go with hot hide glue? You're obviously not married to vintage-correct spec. I've never used it and it sounds like a nightmare. Love the work, keep the posts coming.

You may just inspire me to get over it and post some of my guitar projects on here.

Mostly because the aliphatic resins creep over time and the joint lines telegraph through the finish. It seems likely that I'm going to have these guitars for a good long time and when I pick one up 20 years from now, I don't want to see or feel a joint. It happened on my old Les Paul, I see it on my '91 PRS on the top. Obviously, it's not a major problem, but I think I can avoid it so I'll try. It's worth ten minutes of stress for a lifetime of invisible gluelines. HHG also dries pretty damn hard and if there's any truth to it adding to the tonality of the guitar, why not?


Please post your guitar projects. It's always fun to see how other people get it done.

[Diablo de Acero]

I maybe would not use it a neck joint of an electric. I just got done re-setting the necks on three older vintage guitars. Two of them were solid bodies. None need any heat to get them apart. Hmm...

[VertigoCycles]

I maybe would not use it a neck joint of an electric. I just got done re-setting the necks on three older vintage guitars. Two of them were solid bodies. None need any heat to get them apart. Hmm...

so you're not a proponent of HHG in the neck joint? Out of curiosity, why do you think the joint failed? Bad joint fit, left in a hot environment, age? Do you think that if yellow glue were used, the failure would not have occurred? On the other hand, if yellow glue were used and failure had occurred, don't you have to remove all the remnants of the glue before you can reset the necks?

[Diablo de Acero]

All of the above. Mostly heat and age. I am just thinking about neck joint of electric guitar here. Most of the repairs of this type the glue has crystalized and are just really holding the pieces next to each other until something disturbs the joint. Yellow glue usually one of the pieces would break before the joint goes. I think hide glue is the exact glue you would use for a violin. Most deeper repairs require you to do some dismantling. This where I think it is at its best. The ease of repair. On the neck joints that have a lot of wiggle room the glue shrinks eventually and just the contact points are doing all the (extra) work. A lot of acoustics and electrics have air space at the bottom of the dovetail or tenon plus sloppy shimming. This is where the problem lies usually( in older mass produced guitars). Full contact of all gluing surfaces is the best assurance. Even epoxy doesn't hold up for that kind of structural work for too long. As far as glue removal goes, yes I remove it from both surfaces thoroughly to get back to wood to wood contact.