59' LP Build- "Vokey Burst" Build Thread

BGood said:
Will we eventually get to hear it ?
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Yes- I’m working on a video I took with my Dad of him playing it and sharing some of his thoughts on the guitar. I’ll have a few audio samples built into that video and he’s working on building a few more too. He’s very happy. Until then here is a video from the first day I strung it up:

 
vokeyz said:
I have had my best fret jobs levelling individual string "lies" vs making a perfect cylinder. Thanks Dan Erlewine.
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Could you expand on this and explain what it means? I'm amazed at the level of craftsmanship here. Incredible work!

I had a pretty long post here but it got quite off-topic and sad so I decided not to post it. Short version being I wish I still had all of my dad's woodworking tools and machinery. I'd be building guitars for myself at this point. Unfortunately he lost pretty much all of it years ago when the barn it was all in collapsed and destroyed most of it.
 
Wound_Up said:
Could you expand on this and explain what it means? I'm amazed at the level of craftsmanship here. Incredible work!

I had a pretty long post here but it got quite off-topic and sad so I decided not to post it. Short version being I wish I still had all of my dad's woodworking tools and machinery. I'd be building guitars for myself at this point. Unfortunately he lost pretty much all of it years ago when the barn it was all in collapsed and destroyed most of it.
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Hey man, happy to explain this further.

First, sorry to hear about the post and your dad’s woodworking tools. Having lots of great tools makes the job faster, and often the end product is going to be of a higher quality, but for me, learning with smaller and cheaper tools was a sweet season that I don’t regret, it’s never too late to pick a few things up and make sawdust fly.

In one of Dan Erlewine’s books on set ups, specifically about fretting he discusses this topic- it’s a very subtle shift but for me has made a difference for the better.

Generally speaking, when you’re levelling frets we often use a radius block. It makes sense, you radius/level the tops of the frets after install to match the radius of the neck. You would think round fretboard, round frets!

However, while a neck is indeed sanded to be the top of a cylinder (the radius of the neck) the strings themselves flair on a subtle angle from the nut to the bridge of a guitar (99% of the time) and so this means that each string is actually on a slightly different travel path than the “true” cylinder formed by the radius block. Physically speaking a radius block can’t accommodate the flare that strings travel because it’s a gradual shift.

This means that where strings actually contact with the frets is still the same radius you set them to at the bridge, but extrapolated to be larger and larger as it progresses down the neck because the neck widens with the strings. A perfect cylinder wouldn’t account for that (which is what a radius block is).

If you use narrow levelling beam (in my case I just use a 2foot level) and level the frets specifically on the individual angles that each string follows, you will have a “lie” that the string follows more truly to the curvature of the radius that increases with the flare of the strings.
This is very subtle when you compare the two fret job styles, and most don’t necessarily notice. On shorter scale instruments it’s less and less noticeable.

I’ll see if I can find the images that Dan uses to explain this in the book. Again, it’s subtle, but for me has made my fret jobs just that much better and o fully credit those guys over at stewmac for helping me understand how this works. My Dad says it’s the best playing Les Paul he’s ever played.

I hope this helps!
 
vokeyz said:
Hey man, happy to explain this further.

First, sorry to hear about the post and your dad’s woodworking tools. Having lots of great tools makes the job faster, and often the end product is going to be of a higher quality, but for me, learning with smaller and cheaper tools was a sweet season that I don’t regret, it’s never too late to pick a few things up and make sawdust fly.

In one of Dan Erlewine’s books on set ups, specifically about fretting he discusses this topic- it’s a very subtle shift but for me has made a difference for the better.

Generally speaking, when you’re levelling frets we often use a radius block. It makes sense, you radius/level the tops of the frets after install to match the radius of the neck. You would think round fretboard, round frets!

However, while a neck is indeed sanded to be the top of a cylinder (the radius of the neck) the strings themselves flair on a subtle angle from the nut to the bridge of a guitar (99% of the time) and so this means that each string is actually on a slightly different travel path than the “true” cylinder formed by the radius block. Physically speaking a radius block can’t accommodate the flare that strings travel because it’s a gradual shift.

This means that where strings actually contact with the frets is still the same radius you set them to at the bridge, but extrapolated to be larger and larger as it progresses down the neck because the neck widens with the strings. A perfect cylinder wouldn’t account for that (which is what a radius block is).

If you use narrow levelling beam (in my case I just use a 2foot level) and level the frets specifically on the individual angles that each string follows, you will have a “lie” that the string follows more truly to the curvature of the radius that increases with the flare of the strings.
This is very subtle when you compare the two fret job styles, and most don’t necessarily notice. On shorter scale instruments it’s less and less noticeable.

I’ll see if I can find the images that Dan uses to explain this in the book. Again, it’s subtle, but for me has made my fret jobs just that much better and o fully credit those guys over at stewmac for helping me understand how this works. My Dad says it’s the best playing Les Paul he’s ever played.

I hope this helps!
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I'm fairly certain I know exactly what you're talking about. I've also heard it described as more of a cone with the point chopped off vs a cylinder. I thought that might be what you were talking about. Thank you!
 
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