59 Burst replica nearing the finish line...

[vanhalen5150]

Flame shot with wet alcohol.

[neikeel]

8 years!!! That's outrageous.
I manage to build these things in my spare time with an hour or 2 here and there. Your guy takes these on for people and he takes years? WTF?
Here is the newest lefty.

Very impressive!

I'm impatient so bought an R-0 recently, but I added 550k push-push tone pots for coil taps and 550k volume pots, Jensen PIO caps , Bareknuckle Mules and strap locks. Stopped short of locking Grovers as I did not want to drill the headstock. Nice and light with a surprisingly wide range of tones for a Les Paul
Will start NGD thread with resized pics

[vanhalen5150]

I wouldn't worry about the tuners as much as the nut. Gibson may not have used the 6/6 nylon on those. I'm not sure. Its a very hard plastic type nylon.

I know a lot of guys have replaced those nuts with bone and oiled the nut slots with just regular light machine oil. The porous nature of the bone works great and holds the oil. Stewmac sells pretty decent bone nuts with 2 different string spacings.

[neikeel]

I wouldn't worry about the tuners as much as the nut. Gibson may not have used the 6/6 nylon on those. I'm not sure. Its a very hard plastic type nylon.

I know a lot of guys have replaced those nuts with bone and oiled the nut slots with just regular light machine oil. The porous nature of the bone works great and holds the oil. Stewmac sells pretty decent bone nuts with 2 different string spacings.

I believe the newer models (as this one is) have the correct stuff. My local luthier (Martyn Booth) uses Tusq usually. This one plays really nicely so I am not meddling with anything as fundamental as the nut yet (don't want to find out if it is 1 or 2 piece fret board )

[vanhalen5150]

Yeah. 2 piece ply fretboards......who is running that place?

[neikeel]

Yeah. 2 piece ply fretboards......who is running that place?

Good question! Maybe why I got it 'cheap'. List on those in the UK is £4.3k, some discount them a little. I got it for just over £2.5k with all the doodahs that come with it. Nicest, lightest most resonant and expressive less pauls I have played so to be honest the two piece board should not matter. If I ever wear the frets out I have an expert to do it with the end binding etc(he even saves the translucent tortoise side fret markers!).

Hope to see pics of Jim's replica soon

[vanhalen5150]

Never know unless you look.

Yeah the tortoise dots are unique to the old bursts LP's. Nobody makes the long rods of the stuff any more. I found some thick vintage tortoise binding on ebay. Rolls of it actually.

I clamp an old hand plane on its side and drill a hole with a drill press using the correct size into the thick steel side wall. I then flip the drill bit around and use the press as a punch to make my own.

Here is one in the Royalite binding with just some acetone as glue. Has a brownish lucency to it.

[neikeel]

Any news yet Jin, a good news story is long awaited

[Scumback Speakers]

No, sorry. I got food poisoning at the LA Amp Show, then spent 9 of last 22 days in the hospital with various stomach/colon surgeries and fixes. Frankly, I haven't even checked.

I'm finally on the mend now, but with so many orders coming in from the sale, I've been too busy to call.

[Scumback Speakers]

Gee, June 2013 to February 2015 and here's where it's at...final assembly, intonation and sound check later today...only 8 years and 3 months later.

My pic is too big to embed, so click on the link below.

http://www.scumbackspeakers.com/jimspic ... 2015-2.jpg

[neikeel]

It does look good, almost vintage itself now!

What hardware/electronics have you gone for?

[Scumback Speakers]

It does look good, almost vintage itself now!

What hardware/electronics have you gone for?

Gibson parts:
Two real PAF's, 7.4k neck, 8.2k bridge
Historic plastic, lightweight tailpiece and new steel anchor studs, "no wire" ABR-1 bridge.

Grover tuners. CTS pots, real Bumble Bee caps (.017 neck (drifted up in the last 50 years, .033 bridge)

Switchcraft jacks/toggle switch.

Been up most of the night sick, going back to bed...

[Scumback Speakers]

Finally in my possession...
http://www.scumbackspeakers.com/jimspic ... full-1.jpg
http://www.scumbackspeakers.com/jimspic ... atop-1.jpg

[neikeel]

Nice!
How does it feel/sound? (particularly vs a stock RI and I guess, unfairly vs an original, or let's say a Gil Yaron?). I really like my RO, it is only the VOS and I am intent on ageing it myself with gigs and usage, should be doing an A/B with a real burst through a crop of my Marshalls very soon

[syscokid]

The guitar is beautiful, Jim. Hope you're feeling better!