Les Paul modifications

[ilyti]

Ok so this is a fun thing I've been doing this fall whenever I had a bit of spare time. I recently moved back to Ottawa where working outside is considerably nicer than up North. I've been meaning to get around to this for years so here we go. You know the square heel on a Les Paul? Yeah that had to go. RNC and BBE to be added also. Sanding the fretboard down to a 20inch radius and refretting obviously.

Anyway, Ill let the pics do the talking now.

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Old frets.

Lets get em out!

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Some before pics of the body.

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Got some scars over the years.

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Diggin' into it. My boss had a tech do a similar heel joint on two of his LP and yeah, they all have that gap under the neck tenon, it doesnt even touch the bottom. So it is totally structurally safe to file away at the wood under the neck tenon. All the adherance is on the sides.

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Aaaand thats all the pics it will let me do this time.

[ilyti]

Round two! I have more pics of the process but the uploader here doesnt like them because they have the opposite alignment. Bummer. Here's after sanding the back and doing 5 coats or so of tung.

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Really pleased with how that neck joint and BBE turned out. Now I'm just waitin on the postal system to get radius sanding block to me so I can do the fretboard.

[Doctor Turn]

Did you use wood paste to fill those void areas?

I have to do some light work on my Special.. new tuning pegs and the screws for my bridge P90 are wonky. Keep popping up out of the direct mount holes. May need some wood paste myself.

[ilyti]

Non-expanding epoxy actually. Theorerically, the joint should actually be stronger now than before I took a rasp to it. I find wood filler annoying to work with. Foams too much and doesnt stick where you want it to. Iunno maybe Im just bad at it.

[skully13a]

Cool project.

[skully13a]

[Doctor Turn]

Non-expanding epoxy actually. Theorerically, the joint should actually be stronger now than before I took a rasp to it. I find wood filler annoying to work with. Foams too much and doesnt stick where you want it to. Iunno maybe Im just bad at it.

Hey man, the point is that it works.

As for it being even stronger, there are folks who specifically hunt down LP's with headstock breaks/repairs, because they know beyond question that the headstock is stronger after a repair than the way they come out of the factory with that 17 deg tiltback.

So you get a stronger more reliable headstock, and a much less expensive, more durable guitar.

[Casual Madman]

... I recently moved back to Ottawa where working outside is considerably nicer than up North.

Filed under "Things Only Canadians Say."