A Les Paul Reborn

singemonkey · 2011-01-20T12:16:36+00:00

So I finally got my 27 year old Les Paul over to Foster v.d. Merwe this morning to have the Bigsby put on and get the resultant set up. It looked so small and vulnerable on his table. It was like taking a favourite cat to the vet for a major operation. I recently finally sorted out the nightmare I've had getting the right tuners since one broke off nearly 2 years ago now. Jeez. You simply cannot believe how poor the information out there is and how difficult it is to do such an obvious thing. I got Grover self-lockers just before this only to find that, yes, they did fit the holes in the headstock. But the screw holes were about a mm off and the capstans were ludicrously high - seriously reducing the break angle over the nut. I'll be putting these essentially unused tuners up for sale soon. Great pieces: 18:1 ratio for fine tuning. Self locking. Just needs to go to the person with the right guitar. So I got Grover Rotogrips - finally a perfect fit. They lock with the thumb-wheel at the back for easy, quick string changes, and rock-steady tuning; just like the Sperzels on my Pacifica. Foster's going to install the Bigsby, and wire the middle, both-pickups-on, position to be out of phase for a bit 'o quack. Also he'll get the strap lock installed (on one side the screw was loose so that hole will probably need filling). And then sometime next week, I'll have my favourite inanimate object in the world back and rearin' to go (although I'll still need to get a good strap to carry the weight of the monster. Especially if I ever plan to use it for more than 1 set). And I'll post some delightful pics ? Despite my being unconscionably late, Foster is very pleasant and exudes an air of calm confidence. Glad the forum helped me find him instead of some of the bums that I've let touch that guitar over the years.

domhatch

Ooooooooweeee. 'Nuff said.

shaunf

The Hawtness! Nice work!

Reinhard

Damn, that looks really fine!!

singemonkey

Thanks folks. She's been pretty hotrodded now. Quite a lot of differences from when I first took it home back in '95. And I keep getting happier with it.

Still need to figure out whether these weird volume fluctuations I'm getting are my signal chain or the guitar's wiring. Might need to go back in for a tweak if it's the latter.

And definitely I'm going to upgrade the pots and caps sometime. My Tokai's made me aware of how much more control you have over your tone on a Les Paul with high quality components stuck in the back.

Not 100% sure about the knobs. They're relatively cheap knobs and I might go for some nicely aged gold bell-knobs or possibly black reflectors like you get on early '60s SGs and 335s:

Might look the business.

shaunf

No man! The gold knobs and aged looking binding make it!

aubs1

Hey Singy, that guit upgrade looks positively potent man ........... congrats........

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