Official Luthiers Forum!

I've been asked to build a Korina V for a friend of mine.

I have the '83 Gibson Reissue Drawing by Ian Alexander. Does anyone know if this is pretty accurate to the original? I don't know much about V's.

Thanks,
Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Not to be flippant, but how would your client know if it differed from the sacred specs?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

You should build him one of those upside down V's and say "oops".

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

+1 to that. I suspect Gibson varied a number of things over the years, so you would need an individual instrument to measure in order to do a replica. Get the client's preference(if he has any) for scale length, width at the nut and string spacing at the nut and bridge and make those adjustments to the plans you have.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I built one for my daughter. I call it the "crotch axe".
The only way to play sitting down is with half of it between your legs.
I imported some free PDF plans I found on the inner web.
I still admire your LP Kevin, and I look forward to lots of "V" pics.
Dan

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I started this thread because the drawing I have says the body is only 1-1/4" thick which seemed too thin. I went to a friends who has an Epiphone & measured it to be 1-1/2" but also made a discovery.

The neck joint on the Holy Grail originals was different.

As you can see, there is no step between the heel & body like on the newer ones (sorry, no pic). If you take away the step by making the body thinner, it goes from 1-1/2" to 1-1/4" so I think my drawing is ok.

Thanks for the replies and any other info pertinent to V's would be appreciated.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

There you go, that's a pretty significant change, and I'm sure there are others. Be sure that's thick enough for your hardware, not all 3 way switches will work at that thickness.
Personally, I'd go with the original design and figure out some way to chamber it.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Hmm, standard LP pickups may be to deep for a 1-1/4" body. Does the V have neck tenon under the neck pickup?
I believe LP and Duncan LP type pups are 1" tall.

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Pickups aren't usually a problem, the switch frequently is.
I believe that the normal thickness for SG's is about 1 1/4", maybe 1 3/8", so hardware that works with that thickness is available.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Yep, I found out the hard way after buying pickups for my 1" thick Explorer build.

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