Partscasters, does anybody have Parts Pauls?

[Blazer]

I admit to being a busy man and loving every second of it, I buy a lot of bodies, necks and hardware to make guitars from (as evident by my last few topics) I'm always busy making yet another contraption.

It occured to me that the majority of the posters on this forum who also love to do this make their own fender-ish solids: Partscasters. But does any of you make their own Gibson like solid?

I do, I bought a cheap epiphone body of the 'bay and married it to a neck from a lawsuit era Japanese made SG copy. I am now at work turning the result into a goldtop.



Those with an eye for detail may notice that I plugged two of the usual potmeter holes and drilled a third one between the two remaining. The fact is that I once saw a picture of a fifties Les Paul Custom with a three in a straight line knob set up much like an explorer and I found that to be so cool looking I had to do it for myself.

In this picture I applied the first layer of gold, tomorrow I'll start applying the layers of transparant coating. Maybe, as to add a little extra mojo, I should pinstripe it, add some hot rod flames.

[mm2002]

Looking good! Now, I'm not an Epi of Gibby guy, but I thought all Epis were set neck. Is that a bolt on?

[Blazer]

In the mid nineties Epiphone offered two bolt on models, the LP100 and the LP Studio, the latter differed from the other by having bindings on the fingerboard and body.

The body comes from an Epihone LP Studio.

But I glued in the neck, so technically speaking, this is not a bolt on guitar anymore.

[Newc]

That's the big reason you rarely see PartsPauls - lack of quality bolt-on material.

I had a Montaya Les Paul that had a bolt-on neck. I swapped out the original neck for one from a Dixon semi-hollow thing once, but that was the only bolt-on LP I ever had.

[Blazer]

Today I bought the hardware to put on the guitar, I still need to apply the transparent coating but I couldn't resit putting it together to see how it looks when done.

But it DEFINATELY has that Vintage Goldtop vibe.

My workspace, it's chaotic but I can make sense out it all.


A close up of the body from the picture above


The electronics compartment showing the plugged holes and the allignment of the pots. This shot also shows the jet black color of the back of the guitar.


Another angle showing the guitar.

[toejam]

Yummy goldtop! Nice job!

[Bengal65]

Nice job, great work. I think you don't see much Gibby stuff, as Mark said because of lack of parts and availability. Also, when people think of a Gibson, they think "set neck". That would ( wood) require more experience in the assembly process. I think it would really be cool to build a set neck or neck through Les Paul.

Great gold finish. Are you using Nitro or something else?

[Blazer]

I used your standard hardware store spraycan of Gold color for the gold itself and I used alky-utherane varnish to provide the transparant protective layer.

When the layers of varnish have all dried, I only have to wash it off with a little white spirit and I don't have to do much else because the varnish has a very nice vintage tint and shine of itself.