Building a Guitar from Scratch - The Goldnut Variation #1
Part one of a scratch-built Les Paul-style singlecut guitar.
I’ve been loitering around the MyLesPaul.com Luthier’s Corner for a while now, soaking up all that I can about building guitars. The many talented builders who contribute to MLP have inspired me with their builds, and given me the confidence to jump in and try to build my own LP-style guitar from scratch.
This being my first try, I decided not to go crazy with mahogany and a stunning maple top. Instead, I raided my garage and started pulling out walnut and rock maple lumber that’s been sitting, waiting for a suitable project, for many, many years. This will save both save me a big chunk of change and, by deciding to use walnut, let’s me break out of the traditional LP build mentality that it has to be a perfect replica of a ‘59 burst and try some subtle variations on the theme.
I’ve done some woodwork in the past, but nothing recent and certainly nothing this exacting. I have the typical hand-held power tools as well as a drill press and table saw but nothing more elaborate and may use a nearby rental workshop for some of the build. What I don’t have is a load of spare time, maybe a few hours a week but not much more, so don’t expect this build thread to go too quickly.
As for the name, “goldnut variation #1,” it’s a silly play on words - goldtop walnut and, hopefully, the first of many builds. With apologies to J.S. Bach, here we go:
This evening, I pulled out an 1.5” x 3.5” x 29” blank of rock maple and resawed it down to 1/2” strips for the neck. The center strip is walnut, resawn down to 1/2”. The outer walnut billets were ripped from a single piece of stock, leftover from another project.
I came pretty close, especially considering the fence on my table saw is only accurate to about a yard, so I want to run them through a planer and try to get everything as close as I can. I’m going to take my time on this one and do it right, even if it takes a while.
