Les Paul Hollow Body Copy

[gregmary]

I am interested in building a Les Paul Hollowbody copy. I am very good with CAD/CAM and can create good models and tool paths and am looking for some folks wanting to collaborate on the project.

I am looking for anything that could kick start the project--anything from a set of plans to CAD models.

Anyone interested?

You can check out my photo gallery to get a flavor of the work I have done on f-style mandolins.

[slpd]

greg
I have a lp style template and measurements??????

let me know if you want any help?????????

[gregmary]

I have plans for a les paul solid body, but I would like to make a hollow body, but can't find any plans. Are your templates for a solid or hollow body?

Thanks,

Greg

[RandMan]

Just carve the mahogany bottom to the minimum (.5" bottom and sides leave the center block for the neck joint, pickups, and bridge/TP) and also carve out the bottom of the maple top under the bottom chambering and you'll have a hollowbody.

Gibson had a flash promo of their ES-336 which is pretty much a doublecut LP hollowbody. It shows a picture of the mahogany being chambered on a Komo which is pretty much the same as they used on the Cloud 9 chambered LP's. You might have to do a search to find it.

Edit: here's the link http://www.gibsoncustom.com/cs336/menu.html

[gregmary]

I really like the idea of the chambered Les Paul. What I wanted in a hollow body was a guitar that is a little lighter than one with a solid mohagany body. Typically the hollowbody gutairs are larger bodied though. I think with your Cloud 9 approach I have a win-win. I like the look and size of the traditional Gibson Les Paul, with less weight. From what you said it seems I could simply make a standard les paul with material removed from the inside to leave a half inch around all the chanbered areas, maybe leave more meat near the neck for strength. When the top and bottom are glued and the binding is in place, it would look just like a les paul, but lighter.

Greg

[RandMan]

A Gibson Cloud-9 Les Paul is a fully chambered LP built on their historic reissue products ('59, '58, '57 black beauty etc). It was a custom run commissioned by the top 3 custom shop dealers so you won't find the usual product info on the Gibson site and Gibson recently put a gun to their dealers heads and made them stop promoting their guitars via the net. Basically think about removing every bit of mahogany that isn't structurally needed. The CR-9's weigh in the mid 7 lbs range and the tone is exceptional.

Sample chambering (pocket) for the body before the top is glued on. Gibson doesn't carve the bottom of the maple top but you'd want to do that for an archtop (hollow w/ f-holes) rendition. They made something called the LP Florentine that had those.

[gregmary]

I like the look of the LP Florentine. Do you know if the back of the guitar is also carved? The chambered LP has a flat back, but most archtop guitars have a carved back.

[RandMan]

The back of the florentine was normal flat backed mahogany. I have never seen the inside of one. The ES-336 has a carved back. They must use a vacuum fixture that holds the arched back so they can carve the top and cutouts.

[gregmary]

I think I would do it in this order of operations: first carve the insides of the maple and mohogany using square blocks. I would have holes out near the corners drilled through both for position alignment. Then I would glue the two together. At this point you would have a rectangular block. I would carve the top, but not cut out the outline. flip it over, using the tooling holes for alignmet and machine the back. I would take it off the router and do a good pass of sanding, then throw it back on the CNC tocut out the f holes. The last thing I would do would be to take it over to the scroll saw and cut out the outline. This way I would always have a flat surface to attach it to my router table.

The first thing I am going to do is capture my plans in my CAD system. I have a set of LP plans I got from Stewart MacDonalds. I will use your suggestion for making the hollow out. I need to think on the carved back. I really like the look of the f-holes. Maybe I will go with the LP florientine as a model.

[RandMan]

The stewmac plans are of a '54 or '55 black beauty. They are good plans although their neck joint bugs me. Definately not like the '54 goldtop or later LP's.

If your cad/cam can handle it the best way to do the hollow insides would be to create inside surfaces that use a copy of the top or back arch contour so that the top thickness is 1/4" following the arch and the back 1/2". That changes it from a simple pocketing operation to a surfacing operation but they can be left relatively rough.

I didn't follow why you need to cut out the body with a scroll saw. How's about a hollow form (mold) for the arched back to sit in while the CNC profiles the body.

[turmite]

gregmary,

Your process for machining the body is nearly what I have planned for my LP.
I will forgo the scroll or band saw though and let the router cut the profile of the body. by leaving three tabs in place the body will not move from our fixture position and they can then easily be trimmed off. I am trying to achive the light weight guitar but with an entirely different approach. I am using a combination of obeche, balsa and carbon fiber composite. I am doing a double cut. If I can help in any way let me know.
Mike

[gregmary]

What woods are you using where? How does the composite fit in? How light do you want the guitar--sounds like your are designing a jet wing I am going to use birds eye maple for the top plate and mohogany for the body and neck. My cad program has a "shell" command used for designing plastic parts. I will design the top contour, then "shell" it our so there is a constant thickness throughout.