Attempt to get close to a '59 burst replica

lapdawg · 2014-01-20T22:38:01+00:00

Over the past few years I have built a few amplifiers and made even more cabinets, mostly repro's of Fender & Marshall amps. I done a reasonable amount o...

Attempt to get close to a '59 burst replica

singemonkey

Wizard wrote:
I would have made at least one mistake; and it appears there is very little scope for error recovery in the LP design.

Yeah, there's not much you can do wrong on these suckers without having to discard huge chunks of it.

lapdawg

singemonkey wrote:
Wizard wrote:
I would have made at least one mistake; and it appears there is very little scope for error recovery in the LP design.

Yeah, there's not much you can do wrong on these suckers without having to discard huge chunks of it.

I have a neck or 2 lying around to prove it...

I have mixed up a filler to pore fill the mahogany. Its a sticky mix of red/brown/blue aniline dye (pts: 90/8/2), nitro lacquer; 4f (extra fine) pumice powder and a little boiled linseed oil. It will be wiped onto mahogany left for 10-15min and then wiped off. The pumice fills up & darkens the streaky mahogany grains. The mahogany turns to a warm reddish brown and even develops a bit of a sheen. I am not 100% sure how the 50's bursts were done, but this method is very close to how it was done, if not the same. The use of pumice is a violin makers method. I have done a few test strips on off-cuts to get my mix & method right. The result is quite exciting. The final sanding and cleanup should be done in a day or2, so hopefully I'll complete this over the weekend.

lapdawg

I taped up & painted on the pore filler. I thought I'd try one first. This is really messy stuff.

After drying I polished off the remaining residue with a piece of muslin. The finish is a lot redder than recent pics of most of the bursts. Unfortunately the old pics from 50's / 60's / 70's of these guitars are degraded and cannot be used for colour reference. With 30- 50 years fading on the guitars, the more recent images are also unreliable. A photograph is a bad colour reference anyway. I'm left speculating as to the original colour, and its not an exact science - especially as they weren't all the same tone. There are a few clues...

On a few pics I've seen with the control covers removed the red is very evident where the plastic cover has shielded the wood from light. This is in contrast to the exposed mahogany where the brown has a honey-orange tint - the tell tale colour of faded cherry aniline dye.

G-Man

This thread is the reason I check gfsa every day ?

That stain looks great, I can't wait to hear one of these things!

lapdawg

2nd one is pore filled. I also had a gap in the weather to get it into sunlight to see the colour. Some might say too red, but I think a slightly brown nitro finish will soften it and I am sure that it will mellow with time.

Gearhead

Most awesomest :yup:

warrenpridgeon

wow... epic work sir... epic! one day I would like to build a guitar... one day.

singemonkey

Gearhead wrote: Most awesomest :yup:

Wizard

Has anyone asked the left handed luthier what he's going to do with three superb right handed LP's?

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

lapdawg

I'vefinished the pore filling & am going to get a compressor this weekend coming, so I finished up the plastic cover pieces. I employed the usual technique - make the templates & cut out with router. Interestingly, the jack plates changed mid '59. The corners were fairly square for from 54 to mid 59. They appear to have become very rounded somewhere mid year. I will do one or 2 that way when I finalise the screw holes - I still need to source the screws.

shaunf

*****Drool******

rikus

Absolutely staggering! I agree with Wizard... this makes building a tele look like childsplay!

Very inspirational man. Do you have any prior spray painting experience? That was by far the steepest learning curve for us... I cannot wait to see the end result.

ezietsman

Wow! ??? ??? Would you take some bribes for a playtest before these go to their new homes? :?

lapdawg

Thanks EZ - there are no homes planned for them. Assuming that I manage to get them to a playable state, then I would definitely like them to played. I'd be happy to loan them out. I was also thinking that I might ask Graham at Gear Junkie to hang one up in the store for a few weeks so that those who have followed the thread can go in & have a test drive.

I have no commercial intentions with these 3. They have really been my own little adventure. At the end I might have even learned a little bit. ?

Chabenda

This has definitely got to be one of the most incredible threads ever posted. What an achievement! it adds so much to the forum. Thank you Lapdawd.

lapdawg

Chabenda wrote: ..it adds so much to the forum....

Now if only we could get Vic to come back....

Vic! Vic! Are you there?

el-guapo

lapdawg wrote: Thanks EZ - there are no homes planned for them. Assuming that I manage to get them to a playable state, then I would definitely like them to played. I'd be happy to loan them out. I was also thinking that I might ask Graham at Gear Junkie to hang one up in the store for a few weeks so that those who have followed the thread can go in & have a test drive.

I have no commercial intentions with these 3. They have really been my own little adventure. At the end I might have even learned a little bit. ?

Graeme, you're a loony. A wonderful, inspirational loony that I think we all feel hugely blessed to have around.

ezietsman

el guapo wrote:
lapdawg wrote: Thanks EZ - there are no homes planned for them. Assuming that I manage to get them to a playable state, then I would definitely like them to played. I'd be happy to loan them out. I was also thinking that I might ask Graham at Gear Junkie to hang one up in the store for a few weeks so that those who have followed the thread can go in & have a test drive.

I have no commercial intentions with these 3. They have really been my own little adventure. At the end I might have even learned a little bit. ?
Graeme, you're a loony. A wonderful, inspirational loony that I think we all feel hugely blessed to have around.

^^ THIS

?

lapdawg

Flattery will get you everywhere...

I am busy looking for quality pickup parts. I've gathered a few & I've spoken to a few people. I'm getting answers like this:

Hi Gaeme. Sorry, no I can't do that. The screws were really expensive to make and no one sells the right materials, the slugs I make myself and are a lot of labor to make. There are parts sellers who sell slugs and screws, none of them are right for PAF but at least you don't have to make them yourself, stewmac.com is one source everyone uses, Mojotone is another.
Thanks,
Dave

Thats Dave Stephens from SD Pickups. I understand, but if you don't ask you'll never know.
I'm also struggling to separate fact from fiction in the great pickup debate. Of all you read, it can't all be correct. Methinks a little bit of legend always helps to tell people what they will hear.
For my pups i will focus on:
- slugs & pole screws: I might just be caught with the stock standard.
- Magnets: I will probably A2 & A5. I do a bit of switch out with 4's & 8's & have a listen. Thats easy enough with this design. I would also like to be able to handle the gaussing, but thats not necessary from the start, I can get to that later.
-Winding: This is probably quite important. Tension, resistance, winding pattern etc. are all things that I am trying to understand. I've got the "correct" wire, but understand that this will take a bit of practice.

Have any of the forumites dabbled here? Please chime in.

Attila

MikeM Might be able to help here. Also Ryan O'Niel

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