Les Paul Studio Project

eSGEe said:
wouldnt that be UN-heavily "chambered" ........thing must weight like 3 lbs!
Click to expand...

It's not quite that light! But, the weight seems comparable to an SG. Once I get it all together with pickups and hardware, I'll weigh it.

The other thing is that the neck comes in at a sharper angle than my Custom, and the body is very slightly thinner. In just messing around with it in a seated position, it seems like the upper fret access will definitely be superior to my Custom. But, we'll know for sure once it's completed.
 
After the first week that this thread started, for whatever reason, I haven't been paying attention. But I just caught up... Yay!

What a fun project up to this point. Very nice and detailed work Mr. smitty... :yesway:

Did you already post what type of hummers you're going to install?

BTW, I thought this was really funny:
smitty_p said:
Tell me straight...if I lived in Florida near you I'd be a shaking, twitching Peavey crack-head, wouldn't I?
Click to expand...
P:lol:
 
syscokid said:
After the first week that this thread started, for whatever reason, I haven't been paying attention. But I just caught up... Yay!

What a fun project up to this point. Very nice and detailed work Mr. smitty... :yesway:

Did you already post what type of hummers you're going to install?
Click to expand...

Thanks, Sysco.

I literally just made up my mind on pickups.

I wanted something higher output than normal, vintage output PAF humbuckers.

I’m going with a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 (SH-14) in the bridge. This is described by Seymour Duncan as having the same sound as a SD ‘59, but with twice the output. In the neck I’m putting a Seymour Duncan ‘59 BRIDGE pickup (SH-1B).

This will give me a higher output pickup in the neck, as well. My hope is that this will allow me to split the coils and suffer a more tolerable volume drop when split.

These will be the last pieces of the puzzle.
 
Last edited:
smitty_p said:
Thanks, Sysco.

I literally just made up my mind on pickups.

I wanted something higher output than normal, vintage output PAF humbuckers.

I’m going with a Seymour Duncan Classic 5 (SH-14) in the bridge. This is described by Seymour Duncan as having the same sound as a SD ‘59, but with twice the output. In the neck I’m putting a Seymour Duncan ‘59 BRIDGE pickup (SH-1B).

This will give me a higher output pickup in the neck, as well. My hope is that this will allow me to split the coils and suffer a more tolerable volume drop when split.

These will be the last pieces of the puzzle.
Click to expand...

Good Choice!!!!!
 
smitty_p said:
Thanks!

After this, I've got a new round of upgrades in mind for my Jackson, and I need to start putting money away for a Mesa Rectoverb 25. @gball has me psyched on that!
Click to expand...

HA!!!

Well, I have certainly done my share of upgrade stuff....mostly the double neck build...that's my main goal right now.
 
So, here's a little more of a teaser. This is the full image of the pic I posted above.

You can see the guitar patiently waiting.

There will be more updates this evening....stay tuned!


LesPaulStudio_and_Pickups_Sm.jpg
 
Aaaaand finally, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in a pictorial presentation as I take this project across the finish line.

You've seen my teaser posts above showing the pickups. Unlike the original thought in my OP, I ended up using a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 (SH-14) in the bridge, and I used a Seymour Duncan '59 bridge pickup (SH-1B) in the neck. The Custom 5 is quite a bit hotter than a '59. In the end, this gamble paid off. It wasn't too hard to get them to balance and they split well. So far, I'm quite pleased with the results.

The split is more noticeable when playing clean. It is a really nice effect. Of course, it doesn't sound like Strat...I never expected it to. But, I think it's a very useful tone.

Here is the finished wiring. As I indicated in my OP, I set this up with push-pull pots so I can coil split both the bridge and neck pickups.

LesPaulStudio_WiringCompleted.jpg

Everything all covered up awaiting the next step:

LesPaulStudio_CoverInstalled.jpg


Here's a shot, showing the bridge pickup, bridge, and tailpiece. The bridge and tailpiece are a little different. I got them from Philadelphia Luthier Tools. The bridge is adjusted with a small allen wrench. It fits very snugly onto the posts and exhibits no slop or play. The saddles were also practically perfect just as it came! Very little adjustment was required to get the intonation set.

The plating also seems pretty good.

LesPaulStudio_BridgeAndTailpiece.jpg

So far, so good. Now, it's time to get artsy!

A shot from the left....

LesPaulStudio_Left.jpg

A shot from the right...


LesPaulStudio_Right.jpg


And finally, the fully complete frontal shot!

LesPaulStudio_FullComplete.jpg

All in all, this was a very enjoyable project and I thank all of you for sharing in it with me!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top