A 1952 goldtop Les Paul!
Acoustically, this model sounds
spectacular and, thanks to its P-90
soapbar pickups, it projects an
iconic amplified sound. But it’s not
perfect: In last month’s column, we
discussed how the 1952 and early
’53 goldtops aren’t really playable as
a professional instrument because
of their shallow neck set.
When one arrived at my shop
recently, we could immediately
see it had problems. Its bridge
was bottomed out, yet even with
very little relief, there was a 1/4"
gap between the top of the 12th
fret and the underside of the
low E string. This guitar was no
longer 100-percent original, as
it had been converted from its
trapeze tailpiece to an ABR-1
bridge and stop tailpiece years
before it reached us. Clearly, by
correcting the neck angle on this
goldtop, we’d turn it into a more
playable and usable instrument.
Because of its previous alterations,
we wouldn’t be devaluing the
guitar in terms of collectability,
but rather giving it the life it was
originally intended to have.
As I described in
last month’s column, removing the neck took
a great deal of preparation and
patience. We pulled three of the
upper frets and drilled six holes in
the fret slots. To separate the neck
from the body, we had to inject
boiling water into these holes for
five days, and then apply steam
to the sides and underside of the
neck heel with StewMac’s Neck
Joint Steamer Needle.
The neck came off fairly cleanly,
but before I could refit it, I
needed to remove some hide-glue
residue with a moist cloth and
chisel. Then I carefully trimmed
the inside lower heel using a
chisel, flat file, and a small sanding
block that I cut from a sheet
of Corian.
To finalize the angle, I used
220-grit sandpaper stuck to the
Corian. This made for a very
clean and flush heel-to-body
joint. During the trimming, I
clamped the neck in my StewMac
Guitar Repair Vise. Available from
stewmac.com (item #1813), this
vise features rotating hardwood
jaws and a forgiving urethane
surface to hold instruments of any
shape and size. It’s a must-have
for our shop.
LEFT: Resetting the neck angle requires careful measurements.
RIGHT: The Honduran mahogany shim that will determine
the neck angle.
LEFT: The finished neck tenon and fretboard wing shims
glued in place.
RIGHT: Using a .002” feeler gauge to ensure there’s no
space between the reset neck and body.
I referenced the neck-joint fit
and angle by going back and forth
with the body, using thin mahogany
strips as spacers/shims under
the end of the tenon as I adjusted
for the correct neck angle. After I
achieved a quality fit, I held the
neck and body together using two
grip clamps and a custom-made
fretboard-clamping caul. Made
of hard-rock maple, my fretboard
caul has a 12"-radius bottom surface
that’s slotted with channels to
accommodate the frets and covered
with a 1/16" cork surface.
Next, I tensioned up the
outer two strings, checking for
neck pitch, vertical alignment,
and downward adjustment of
the ABR-1 bridge. Once I’d
established the neck angle, I cut
a Honduran mahogany shim
(measuring 1/8" thick x 1 15/32"
wide x 4 1/4" long), and sanded it
to a minus 2-degree pitch. Then
I glued it to the bottom surface
of the extended neck tenon
using #20 medium Super Glue. I
chose Super Glue as the adhesive
because the mahogany shim is a
permanent addition.
I refer to the section of the
fretboard that protrudes out from
the side of the mahogany neck
tenon as “wings.” My next step
was to make support shims to fit
between the gluing surface of the
fretboard wings and the maple
top. I cut and sanded two maple
shims (1/16" thick x 3/8" wide x
3 1/8" long) with a 2-degree taper
to tuck between the underside of
the fretboard and top, and then
used Super Glue to attach them
to the underside of the fretboard.
To ensure that this stage of the
restoration was complete, I used
a .002" precision feeler gauge to
check that there was a tight seal
between the neck and body while
under clamping pressure. I didn’t
want any open space.
Next month, I’ll show you
how I blended in the maple shims
and upper surface tenon lip by
airbrushing gold to match the
top. We’ll also cover what was
involved when I finally glued the
neck and body together.
If you’re coming to the 2011
Winter NAMM show (held
January 13-16 in Anaheim,
California), please come say hello
to us at booth #3383 in Hall D.
This will be a good opportunity
to talk shop and answer your
Restoring an Original questions.
Hope to see you there!
John Brown is the
inventor of the Fretted/Less
bass. He owns and operates
Brown’s Guitar Factory,
a guitar manufacturing,
repair, and restoration facility
staffed by a team of talented
luthiers. His guitar-tool and accessory designs
are used by builders all over the world. Visit
brownsguitarfactory.com or email John at
info@brownsguitarfactory.com.