There are many, (many!) photos on this page of the process of building a custom Gibson Explorer guitar. Enjoy!

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Start date: Nov 30, 2015

This will be a custom Gibson Explorer build with the following specs:

full-size Gibson ’58 Explorer-style

body back: 1″African Mahogany, grain filled

body top: 1/2″ two-piece walnut

neck: two piece laminated walnut with scarf joint for headstock

headstock: 6 in-line tuners

fretboard: maple with walnut binding (12″ radius)

inlays: round wooden walnut fret markers

pickups: SD JB at bridge and Jazz on neck, both coil splittable with push/pull on the tone knob

knobs: 1 volume, 1 push/pull master tone, 1 three-way switch

bridge: Tune-o-matic style with tail piece

electronics cavity cover: walnut

nut: bone

finish: Tru-oil finish

The template is made from 1/2″ MDF

The back is African Mahogany

The neck will be flamed maple and the fretboard will be rosewood.

Dec 1, 2015

Extending the body by adding a piece of mahogany. I highlighted the body shape in yellow in Photoshop to better show the body perimeter. This body is huge and uses up a lot wood ! 🙁

Dec 2, 2015

Made some progress on the body today. Traced the outline of the body.

Used a washer to trace a second line 0.1″ away

rough-cutting the body shape on the outer line

The body is rough-cut

Cleaning the edges on the oscillating sander.

Collecting and saving the mahogany fine-dust, you never know when you will need it.

Nice clean edges after sanding…

Ball bearing on the router bit will follow the template.

The template is on the bottom and everything in held down with double-stick tape.

Perfect edges after routing.

The body weights 5 lbs, that’s too much so I will have to make some relief cavities in the body before the top is glued on in order to reduce the weight.

Dec 3, 2015

Figuring out the weight relief pattern for the Explorer. All cavities will be 1/2″ from the edges of the body contour. The black dashed lines represent the back body contours, I don’t want the inner cavities to be near them. The drawing was made with Inkscape (will open in new window).

Weight relief pattern printed on multiple sheets of paper.

Weight relief pattern transferred onto the mahogany body with red marker.

Mahogany shavings

Forstner bit pattern

After weight relief… 3.2 lbs (before=5 lbs), a reduction of 1.8 lbs.

This walnut will become the top of the guitar. It’s the only wood I found that is wide enough, just barely, for this body. It’s simple but beautiful. I think it’s going to look amazing on this body once I finish with it. Can’t wait!

I made this table saw jointing jig to join the two piece of walnut. You can see the building and using of the jig here (will open in new window).

Simulating how the body will fit…

Dec 4, 2015

The two piece of walnut ready to be joined

Applying glue and pressure

I must say, this is my nicest glue squeeze out ever… textbook glue squeeze out…

Dec 5, 2015

Cleaned the dry glue from the joint with a chisel

This body is very big and the walnut is not wide enough

I have to add an small extension to the body

Gluing the extension (used the table saw joining jog to make sure the joint is as good as possible)

The walnut top is now ready to be rough cut

Cough cut of the top. All joint are excellent.

A first look at the top and bottom together

The walnut top, still in rough-cut shape. I think that white strip in the middle looks great

Dec 7, 2015

using the router planing jig to thickness plane the walnut body

after thickness planing the walnut body

scratches left by the router

the scratches are easily removed with sanding

Dec. 11, 2015

Thickness planing the walnut top.

Regularly checking the thickness

Gluing the top in the press-machine using car jacks for pressure. The guitar body is in there somewhere…

Closeup view of gluing process. The glue was allowed to dry for over 24 hours

Once the body is out of the press and the glued is dry. The walnut body (the bottom piece) is over-sized at this point.

Getting ready to trim the walnut down to the same size as the mahogany

The top and bottom are now flush

Closeup of the joint between top and bottom

Put on some mineral spirit to see the grain patterns.

Dec. 13, 2015 – Starting To Work On The Neck

Jointing the edge of the neck blank with my home-made plane, in my home-made vise on my home-made bench 🙂 I guess I like to make things.

Planing and thickness routing the neck blank

After cutting the scarf joint, I routed the headstock to proper thickness

How to glue a scarf joint

Closeup of scarf joint glue setup

Design and template making of the headstock

Dec. 15, 2015

Headstock template shaped with jigsaw and sander

Angled neck, fretboard and headstock mock-up

Mock-up of guitar side view

It’s starting to look like a guitar, very “Flintstones”-like at this point.

Dec. 31, 2015

At this point, I abandoned the neck and started to build a new one made from two pieces of walnut. Why? Sometimes you instinctively know what you should do but don’t necessarily want to put in the energy to understand why… it’s like that… 🙂

This new neck will be made from two 36″ pieces of walnut

Each board was passed through the table saw in order to prepare the edges for jointing

The pieces are jointed and read for gluing

Gluing the two pieces of walnut for the neck

Thickness planing with a router and planing jig

The router scratches left behind

After a light sanding, looks pretty good.

Scarf joint cut made on the table saw

Dry testing the scarf joint

The scarf joint is glued

Jan 9, 2016

Tracing the headstock shape onto the headstock

Cutting off extra material. This piece will be glued back on the headstock to extend it.

Edge jointing. Checking for light leaks before gluing on the extensions.

Gluing on the extensions on the headstock.

After glue has dried, not very pretty…

After cleaning up the glue with a random orbit sander, much better… 🙂

Making the headstock veneer

Cutting the headstock veneer on the band saw from the same piece of walnut that was used for the guitar body.

Thickness planing the headstock veneer with a router on the router planing jig.

The veneer has a square edge that will not sit properly with the eventual nut.

The top of the headstock veneer is not aligned with the eventual nut because the headstock is tilted by 13 degrees with respect to the neck. Therefore a bevel is needed on the veneer.

A bevel is made on the oscillating sander.

A close up side view of the bevel created on the veneer.

The veneer now sits perfectly flush with the eventual nut (side view).

The veneer now sits perfectly flush with the eventual nut (top view).

Gluing up the veneer to the headstock.

Shaping the back of the guitar with a rasp. Adding two body reliefs.

The shaping of the back is nearly completed, just needs some more fine-tuning. The body feels much more comfortable now…

Jan 17, 2016

Headstock veneer cut to rough shape.

Planing the neck surface flat, this is where the fingerboard will sit.

Scraping it clean

Truss rod channel routed

Close up view of truss rod and channel

Ready to route the final headstock shape with the headstock template taped on

Using a laser to check for accuracy and to find the real centerline on the headstock.

Final headstock shape… me likes 🙂

Bringing the neck dimensions closer to final, on the band saw.

Closer look.

Slopping the heel to give the neck a 2 degree angle.

Gluing on the heel.

Planing the back of the fretboard.

About to insert the truss rod.

Some silicon caulking at the ends to remove any potential rattling. Notice the small metal pin? That will allow the fretboard to be glued on without moving.

About to glue the fretboard on the neck. It’s the last time the truss rod sees the light of day. There’s a thin masking tape over the truss rod channel to prevent glue from entering it.

Clamping the fretboard to the neck. Allowing the glue to cure for 24 hours.

The neck with fretboard, truss rod and heel.

Close up of the neck with fretboard and truss rod.

Feb 1, 2016

Fretboard transplant

Something went wrong with this fretboard so I decided to remove it and put a new one in 🙁

The rosewood fretboard is off. The process was not too painful 🙂

This will be the new fretboard. It’s maple with walnut inlay fret markers (you can see a video of how I made them here)

Maple fretboard cut to rough dimensions on the band saw

The maple fretboard is installed on the neck and here I’m adding walnut binding.

Maple fretboard with walnut fret markers and binding

A closer look.

It’s starting to pop, I sanded the fretboard to 320 grit followed by steel wool. No water, mineral spirit or oil applied. I thin it’s going to look awesome with some Tru-oil.

Filing off some of the tang from the edges of the frets.

The fret are cut to size, tangs are being nipped.

Here’s a first look at what the finished guitar will look like.

Feb. 3, 2016

Installing the frets. I use a bit of glue in the slot.

Fret installation completed.

The fretboard with frets installed

View of the whole neck.

Feb. 12, 2016

Starting to shape the back of the neck with a spokeshave.

Progress shaping the back of the guitar neck.

Shaping of the neck about 80% completed.

Tuner holes are drilled.

Testing the tuning machines.

Aligning the neck with the body centerline with a laser.

Using a laser to align the neck with the body.

Carving the majority of the neck pocket with a Forstner bit before using a router.

Neck pocket hole carved.

The neck in the neck pocket. A 2 degree tilt in incorporated in the heel of the neck.

Very tight fit, too tight actually…

Tracing pickups rings on maple.

Making wooden humbucker pickups rings .

Aligning the pickup router template.

Neck pickup cavity routed.

Both pickup cavities routed.

Neck, body and pickup cavities routed.

Cutting the upper part of the heel.

Routing the upper part of the heel.

The upper part of the heel in final shape.

The neck heel in the neck pocket with humbucker cavity.

Feb. 21, 2016

Making the electronics cavity and cover.

Designed the control knobs, switch and shape of cavity in software and then printed it.

Making the electronics cavity template.

Removing the bulk of the wood with a Forstner bit.

Electronics cavity finished.

Electronics cavity cover plate.

Drilling the jack hole.

The jack hole.

Drilling the Tune-o-matic bridge post holes.

Finish sanding started. Starting with 80 grit and going to 240.

Preparing for grain filling.

The mahogany back is grain filled.

Grain filler applied on walnut top.

Grain filler is drying.

March 6, 2016

Applied 10 coats of Tru-oil to the mahogany.

Applied 10 coats of Tru-oil to the walnut top.

The whole guitar body was coated with Tru-oil.

The neck, electronics cavity cover and truss rod cover.

The whole guitar body is finished in Tru-oil and beeswax.

Checking the straightness of the neck with my homemade notched straight edge and adjusting the truss rod.

Protecting the fretboard with painter’s tape.

Filing the edges flat and adding a bevel.

Closeup view of the newly filed 45 degree bevel.

March 10, 2016

Fret dressing mostly completed

Tuners installed

Bridge and tail piece posts installed

Making the nut

Nut files

Filing the nut to rough shape

Strings installed to fine tune nut slots

March 18, 2016

Starting to work on the electronics

My friend Tom doing the soldering for me

March 22, 2016

Installing the pickups.

Explorer nearly completed… a few more thing left to do…

April 3, 2016

The construction is finished !

I made a demo video, but please don’t judge the guitar based on the amp (crappy little amp), the audio recording quality (recorded with my smartphone) and especially my playing… I’m not really a guitar player, I’m a builder.