OGD: Les Paul Custom refinned & modded

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Only one pic but it's a pretty decent one I guess.



I ended up having this resprayed by Mike Learn. He was really easy to work with and even though it was just a boring black paint job, he did a great job with it.

I love this thing now! It's so nice to be able to play a Les Paul without the neck feeling all sticky!

It has a lot of aftermarket stuff:
18:1 locking Grovers
TonePros locking bridge & tail
Duncan SH6N & SH6B (distortion neck & bridge)
500K volume pot only for bridge
300K volume, 500K tone and a "spin a split" for the neck PU (turn down the bridge tone and this grounds red & white on the neck PU)

And of course, refinished in poly black/clear with pickguard mounting holes filled. Still love my Soloist of course but I dig this for that Les Paul tone, and now the neck feels just like the Soloist painted neck instead of gooey lacquer.

I'm sure someone will point out how I've completely killed the resale value on this... I wouldn't sell it for $10G, so you can save your breath.

[DonP]

I'm sure someone will point out how I've completely killed the resale value on this...

(I'll bite ) Yep, you have.

It looks very clean, very new. My 1977 is missing almost all of that "gooey" paint on the neck so it's like an oiled neck.

Mayhem set just seems like overkill in a LP, but I guess a lot of people like it. I have a mayhem set too, but not sure which guitar to put them in. I wish you lived closer, I'd like to hear how that set sounds in person.

[Twitch]

Looks great, is this the one you burned?

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Yep! That was a farce.

Mike fixed it up pretty nice though, and this way I don't have the sticky nitro or pickguard holes.

Don, the Distortion with a 500K pot in the bridge is perfect for the LP IMO, it cuts through but it still has that tight bass. That is also what I have in my chambered LP's bridge spot.

The neck pickup is surprisingly bright which is another reason I like the SH6N. I also have an SH6N in my Soloist. It's very nice and clean when it's split, too, and it's also wired out of phase with the bridge PU. So you can combine the SH6B with the neck split & out of phase or do just the neck split by itself. I guess what I'm saying is, despite the double SH6's it's not a one trick pony in the slightest.

[Hellbat]

Very nice LP. With the zebras it's classy and sleazy all at the same time.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Oh thanks, and well put man. I do dig the stock Black Beauty look but it's not for me...

The poly shouldn't really yellow so I'm hoping the binding and everything stays bright white and matching the pickups... Mike kept all the factory logos & serial and all that shit. You would never know if I didn't tell you that it had been refin'ed, you'd just think it was one of the nicer factory LP finishes you've seen!

[clifffclaven]

That is fuckin cool. What year is it? What happened that you had to have it refinished?

[Gartron]

That look killer...fuck the resale value !!

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

LOL...

OK here's the backstory. This is actually a 2010 guitar. Yep. 2010. I was just going to do the pickups and so I wired them in one Saturday afternoon and I was doing it with the neck to the right of me, on a rest, fret side down, you get it?

So I wired in the pickups but at some point, a blob of solder got flung and happened to land on the rest, right next to the neck. It yellowed/burned the lacquer. By the time I got the burned lacquer scraped off it was also part of the black (the black is partially over the binding).

So, I did this:





I had it looking pretty good and even did a "stinger" instead of what you see in that 1st pic and it was doing the last coat of wipe-on finish on the neck that a piece of masking tape took some clear off. I had de-sticked all the tape that was to be stuck to the guitar finish, and the piece in question was never supposed to touch the guitar, but it got folded/pressed on when I was maneuvering it on the work bench.

No problem, I thought, I'll just dust a little clear gloss lacquer on there... So I mask about 4" around the area and go to spray a light coat and shake it up real good and then I carefully sprayed...



Oh, no. It actually melted all the clear, and the black, which ran onto the binding. Then, it got sent to someone who could paint it.

I made lemonade out of it though, I'm glad I did the poly finish, I like it even better than the bare neck because it's stealthy.

Just to clarify, it is all black now, including the neck. It's seamless, you can't actually see that anything has been done.

[Chad]

I remember that thread.

That turned out great! I don't really get the love of nitro. I have an Explorer that has nitro and it has a weird odor. Also, the neck is indeed sticky feeling. And that finish is so fragile. You can breathe on it and dent the paint.

[DonP]

Yep! That was a farce.

Mike fixed it up pretty nice though, and this way I don't have the sticky nitro or pickguard holes.

Don, the Distortion with a 500K pot in the bridge is perfect for the LP IMO, it cuts through but it still has that tight bass. That is also what I have in my chambered LP's bridge spot.

The neck pickup is surprisingly bright which is another reason I like the SH6N. I also have an SH6N in my Soloist. It's very nice and clean when it's split, too, and it's also wired out of phase with the bridge PU. So you can combine the SH6B with the neck split & out of phase or do just the neck split by itself. I guess what I'm saying is, despite the double SH6's it's not a one trick pony in the slightest.

Now that I think about it, I had that set in my 750XL. I was using a Mega E switch, and had a push pull phase reverse in the middle. For some reason I just didn't like all the output and downsized to a Full Shred set.

[matt_gu3]

Very nice looking LP. You must be exstatic!

[toejam]

Looks great!

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

I remember that thread.

That turned out great! I don't really get the love of nitro. I have an Explorer that has nitro and it has a weird odor. Also, the neck is indeed sticky feeling. And that finish is so fragile. You can breathe on it and dent the paint.

Thanks! Well Mike put the finish on super thin and it sounds kick ass, I think that "nitro breathes and helps the tone" stuff is BS.

So my other lacquer guitars I just leave out of the case all the time... Of course they get oxidized, dusty, accidents happen... But the necks don't feel as sticky. Also wipe it down with a paper towel and some lighter fluid to clean it. But still, it doesn't resist my sweat as well as poly.

Very nice looking LP. You must be exstatic!

Looks great!

Thank you both, I am so glad to have it done!

[zeegler]

Yeah. Nitro is shit. Nice LPC!