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Mating a les paul neck to a SG body.
http://w-ww.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10123&t=28737		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  steve wilson [ Mon Aug 23, 2010 4:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Mating a les paul neck to a SG body.
Hi All, I am a new member of this forum and new to guitar building too. I got interrested in building a cigar box guitar and started buying parts and supplies on ebay. After seeing and hearing a lot of cbg I have changed my mind. I have parts and hardware for several guitars both epi and fender. Now I have a SG body that is loaded and in near mint condition. I also have a Les Paul neck (custom) which is brand new also. I bet you know the question allready. Can you install a lp neck on a sg body? The neck pocket on the sg is 2 3/16" x 2 1/2". The lp neck is also 2 3/16" but the heel is squared and so it does not go all the way into the pocket which is rounded from the routing of the pocket. So there is about a 1/2" gap at the back of the pocket between the neck and the body. I could grind off the sharp corners of the heel so that it would fit and the distance from the 12th fret to the bridge would be right. But would there be a big difference in string height since sg is a flat top?
I don't mind modifing the neck if it will work but I hate to chew it up when I can get another body so easily. I also have strat neck that fits but the fingerboard projects out to the humbucker and would have to be shortened. It could be made to fit but I doubt that the set up would ever be right.
Steve
Author:  peters instruments [ Mon Aug 23, 2010 4:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mating a les paul neck to a SG body.
i think you could do it but before you do anything you need to check and see what the scale lengths are on your necks. the fender i dont think would work becuase they use a 25.5 inch scale length. i believe gibson mostly uses a 24.75 inch scale length but there have been numerous variations of that over the years and you will need to check the neck to find out what the scale is and then figure out if the body is set up for that scale. im not real familiar with gibsons, so i'm not sure but you may want to check and see if the different neck will have any affect on your action once it installed, you might need to modify it. rounding the corners wouldn't be hard i dont think, theres a number of ways to go about it, but you have a router and can make a template that would be the easiest and cleanest i would think.
Author:  Ti-Roux [ Mon Aug 23, 2010 10:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mating a les paul neck to a SG body.
Check out if the bridge would be well positioned... cause the SG neck is jointed at the last fret, that is not the case on the LP. So i'm pretty sure you'll have to move the bridge, that will be bad defenitivly affect the guitar look.

And, you don't want to ear this but, i'll say it anyway. SG is probably the worst guitar ever produced. Just check a SG plan, and you KNOW that it will break, warp, twist, move and become unplayable. My 2 cents..

Francis
Author:  steve wilson [ Tue Aug 24, 2010 12:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mating a les paul neck to a SG body.
peters instruments wrote:
i think you could do it but before you do anything you need to check and see what the scale lengths are on your necks. the fender i dont think would work becuase they use a 25.5 inch scale length. i believe gibson mostly uses a 24.75 inch scale length but there have been numerous variations of that over the years and you will need to check the neck to find out what the scale is and then figure out if the body is set up for that scale. im not real familiar with gibsons, so i'm not sure but you may want to check and see if the different neck will have any affect on your action once it installed, you might need to modify it. rounding the corners wouldn't be hard i dont think, theres a number of ways to go about it, but you have a router and can make a template that would be the easiest and cleanest i would think.
Author:  steve wilson [ Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mating a les paul neck to a SG body.
Thanks Shad, Is this where I post my response to your reply?
You're right, the string height would be too high if I married the lp to the sg. I clamped the neck to the body and put on a string and the action would be too high. The TOM just runs out of adjustment before the strings are anywhere near low enough. Of course I could shim it up, but you gotta draw the line somewhere. Grind it down here, shim it up there, I might as well go back to building a cigar box guitar. But no, with the fender parts and all I have enough firewood as it is. I hear it gets cold up in canada though.
Author:  steve wilson [ Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mating a les paul neck to a SG body.
Thanks Francis, do you need any firewood?
Author:  peters instruments [ Wed Aug 25, 2010 10:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mating a les paul neck to a SG body.
steve wilson wrote:
Thanks Shad, Is this where I post my response to your reply?
You're right, the string height would be too high if I married the lp to the sg. I clamped the neck to the body and put on a string and the action would be too high. The TOM just runs out of adjustment before the strings are anywhere near low enough. Of course I could shim it up, but you gotta draw the line somewhere. Grind it down here, shim it up there, I might as well go back to building a cigar box guitar. But no, with the fender parts and all I have enough firewood as it is. I hear it gets cold up in canada though.


thats probably due to the fact that the lp has an angled neck and im not sure the sg does.. although i could be totally wrong on that im really not sure
Author:  steve wilson [ Fri Aug 27, 2010 12:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mating a les paul neck to a SG body.
Well I went ahead and completed the project. I only rounded off the lowest 10 mm of the heel. The upper part as well as the fretboard are higher than the body so you can't tell the neck has been modified by looking at it. After measuring the distance from the 12th fret to the bridge I knew that I would never be able to intonate because it is nearly 1/2" longer than the distance from the nut to the 12th fret. I didn't want to cut on the neck any more than I had to as I can always get a lp body to go with it. So after close examination of the neck pocket I decided that sanding down the irregularities and lacquer would solve the problem and prolly help with the overall sound of the guitar. I don't know why no one back at Epiphone has thought of that. [headinwall] So I made some mahogany shims for the neck height problem, rounded the right angles on the heel and cleaned up the back end of the neck pocket. She's a player now. String height is perfect for me, intonation was no problem at all. And the sustain does not seem to be affected at all by the shims. Of course the neck makes better contact with the body now due to the snug fit and all. [:Y:]
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