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Flamed Cottonwood Les Paul.
Completed May 24,2022 |
![]() I happened to be sitting near a chunk of flamed Cottonwood I had recently purchased (because it was so spectacular, rang like a bell, as well as being a member of a well respected group of tonewoods). I picked it up and ask, "would you paint this for example"? His eyes widened as his jaw dropped. That was the fastest I ever sold anyone on a guitar top. From there the vision of this guitar came together fairly quickly. ![]() The guitar would be a totally solid, physical clone of a standard carved top Les Paul in terms of it's dimensions, but be made of different woods, with the only departure from standard being elements of the neck and headstock. The most important of these is the scarf jointed headstock construction method. This method takes more work but makes sure there is no "short grain" within the headstock, uses a double glue joint, making this arrangement much stronger that the original Gibson design (snapping the head off of a scarf joined neck is almost unheard of). I carved a volute at the headstock to neck transition for a more finished feel. The truss rod used is a dual rod double-action type, allowing for normal and even back bow correction, The head stock is the same as I have been building on almost all my 3 + 3 designs with the reversed tapper which lets the strings pass over the nut with minimal sideways stress, And finally, the heel is extended to be flush with the back of the body of the guitar, and with a slight tapper - making it feel better in the hand. Standard carved top Les Pauls usually have a Maple top, but we used the flame Cottonwood for this one. We used flame White Limba instead of African Mahogany for the back. Limba is a tree from the same family as African Mahogany, with similar tonal qualities but just a little bit lighter in weight. The neck is African Mahogany. Les Pauls will be seen with Ebony or Rosewood fret boards. We choose Wenge - which is related to the Rosewoods, but has a very distinct look, and is a fair bit harder. I then made matching wenge pickup rings, cover plates, and knobs to pull everything together visually. ![]() ![]() Finally; the tuners are the Gotoh 510 model, which are top of the line, 21:1 tuning ratio for incredible tuning adjustment, and stability. |
Specs |