Les Paul from Parts?

[silencer eleven]

I searched for this and could not really find anything on it, so if there is something please link it so I could read it. I was just wondering if anybody ever bought all the parts for a les paul and had it assembled, I just see how people do it with strat's and tele's all the time I was wondering if anybody has done it with a les paul, and if you have where did you get the neck and body? How did it turn out? What other parts did you use?

thanks a lot

Evan

[MichaelThomas]

hmmm, my best guess would be Warmoth, all the parts are there, mounting a set neck must be a pain in the bum. Go to the gallery section of their site under customer guitars. Look for the les pauls and click on the photos. The photos show sometimes with good literature on how the guys went about building it.

www.warmoth.com (http://www.warmoth.com)

[Rod]

Yeah, Warmoth would be the way to go, but remember that the guitar will be a bolt on neck, so the sound is not really going to be as fat as a Les Paul...depending on your playing style and amp, this could be a good thing...

[silencer eleven]

I would not put the guitar together myself, I would have a tech put it together, would the guitar have to be a bolt on? Are there tech's that can do set necks? Sorry if these are dumb questions, i am pretty clueless when it comes to this.

[3 Mile Stone]

There was a guy on eBay doing this. Same thing that Stratosphere does, buy 'em, disassemble 'em and sell 'em. Except they were Gibsons.

[silencer eleven]

Ya, I was wondering if there was a place like USACG or something like that. Warmoth seems like it could be cool, but I'm kinda hesitant about the bolt on as opposed to set neck.

There was a guy on eBay doing this. Same thing that Stratosphere does, buy 'em, disassemble 'em and sell 'em. Except they were Gibsons.

[Rocketfire Guitars]

Seems like Gibson hasn't really done the parts market thing like Fender was built on (bolt on necks and all kinds of replaceable parts was the idea behind Leo Fender's guitars).

Also they are not the most friendly with people who build similar guitars (PRS for example).

But....

I was reading recently and it looks like Bill Nash is making Les Pauls into something better. Here's Something from the LP forum quoted from Bill. Also see his website. Looks very interesting and I'd bet he's doing a good job:



"As much a fan I am of Gibson and own at least 40 myself, I have never liked the aged and or custom shop guitars they have put out. In a way, they are too good looking. Very few of the original Flame top 59s and 60s have the over- the-top grain that most of the newer ones have. If you look in the "Beauty of the Burst" book or many other books featuring these instruments, you will notice that only a small percentage of these guitars have incredibly dramatic tops. Keep in mind these were not Gibson's rainmakers in those days so most of the really killer wood went on the far more popular models. When Gibson started reissuing these guitars in 1980, suddenly every guitar was being put out with rather fantastic maple tops, great looking but in most cases historically inaccurate. It is why I will be using, for the most part moderate flaming and also doing some plain tops. The real '59 that lived in my closet for 6 months had a plain top, by the way.

You will also find that since we take most of the lacquer off the guitars and re-finish that we are doing here what we do with our Fender-ish guitars which is to keep the lacquer thin so we deliver a very resonant guitar.

Though we experimented with a few pickup configurations and wiring schemes, what we have settled on is what I think is truly one of the best and most versatile pickup and wiring sets available. My complaint with Les Pauls has always been that the neck pickup is too loud an bottom heavy and the bridge can often be Brittle, especially if you try and set your amp so the neck pickup can be really used for a rhythm setting. If you get a bridge pickup that is warm enough, you may sacrifice upper harmonics and clarity of pick attack. If anyone has ever thought that using a coil tap on a standard humbucker could give you more of a strat or clear sound from the neck pickup, I am sure you have been disappointed by that adventure into low-fi land. So my goal was to get a Les Paul that would do the following:

Have a great sounding neck pickup that balances well with the output and tone of the bridge pickup. Have that same neck pickup be split-able but giving a the wonderful characteristics of a strat pickup - chaime and throaty at the same time.

Have a bridge pickup that would grind with the best of them, however not to lose the players individual personality. A pickup that would react and transfer the pick attack, pressure and subtleties of the user. Something with a big output without extra sustain killing magnetic pull.

Have the two together capture that distinct chime and near quack of the best moderate wound PAFs while not giving up the above features.

This sounds like a big order, and it is, but I feel that we have done it. I hesitated at first to use this combo of pickups and wiring on these "aged" guitars as people's (or more to the point - vintage buffs) common misconception of DiMarzio is they essentially make pickups for heavy metal or finger gymnastics. But, after some consideration, I decided to just use what I use in most of my own Les Pauls as I have never gone wrong with the concept that as long as I build a guitar that I, myself would play, the guitar will be right.

So here is what is used: DiMarzio Bluesbucker in the Neck and a DiMarzio Air Norton in the bridge. Gutting the standard Gibson wiring, we reset the neck pickup tone control to work as a standard tone knob between 1-8, between 9-10 the tone control acts as a switch to turn off the second, smaller coil of the Bluesbucker. The bluesbucker is the only humbucker that splits the way we need as, unlike a standard humbucker, the coils are not just two of teh same type with opposing fields, it is a large "power" coil, paired with a weaker "dummy" coil used mainly for it's magnetic field to cancel hum. When you turn that other coil off, you end up with a pickup that is between a P90 and a strat - is that cool or what?

We also do a full fret re-work. I do this to every Gibson in my own collection. I could write 10 paragraphs on fret issues with just about any new guitar, but will stand by the way our guitars feel out of the box. And so will about 5000 or so Nashguitars owners thus far.

As with any guitar, you cannot judge it by looks alone. Our Pauls will feel like a well worn boot, look great and most importantly sound wonderful. At least that is my opinion and it seems to be shared by those who have bought them.

I would like to point out that I have been trying to post some answers to these questions to the LP forum, but for some reason they will not let me register or post.

Bill Nash"

[silencer eleven]

That's interesting about Nash I'll have to check out his website. I must admit I have always been pretty biased to coil-tapping and DiMarzio pickups, but maybe it'll sound great. I have also been trying to get on the LPforum but it won't let me post, it says i'm in line for approval or something.

[Pietro]

Years ago I found a body and neck that needed to be glued together by me. Don't remember the details, but found that glueing the neck was the easiest part, actually. The guitar came out okay. I hated it though. Gave it to a friend. It's probably in some landfill now.

[MichaelThomas]

oooooh yeeeaaaaah...I forgot they were bolt on. I guess it depends on how authentic you wanna be, but there is something kinda icky about a bolt on LP

[silencer eleven]

Ya bolt on LP is just somewhat strange you know? Its just you here about a lot of people buying top quality strat and tele parts that they love and having them assembled and for half the price getting a guitar that they prefer to some very expensive boutique guitars, I was thinking maybe somebody had done with with an LP. How would the bolt-on differ from a set-neck in tone?

[Nickguitar]

The thing about set neck is interesting. I also wondered why it is impossible to buy set neck guitar kit. I know that Les Paul is more complex guitar, because it has exact top carve, than there is an neck angle, that the same angle where fingerboard joints the body, that the heel, ecc..ecc.. But hell, if you got precise Cnc machines and you could do it. I know it would cost more but why there aren't any? :BITCH

[silencer eleven]

So I guess I take it nobody has done a set-neck LP style guitar from parts?

[doctorx]

It's not a les paul, but.... (http://www.grizzlyindustrial.com/products/Heirloom-Guitar-Kit-2-Quilted/H6083)

[daddyo]

Soulmate sells set necks but not exactly like a Les Paul.
http://www.soulmateguitars.com/

[jhczar]

Bought this in '82 from the bass player in my band. He had 2 of 'em & sold 1 to me for $100. All these years I thought it was an aftermarket kit, and I saw the guy at my 30th HS reunion. I showed him a pic of it, and he got all excited & said "those weren't kits, they were from Gibson!!!" He went on to say something about new employees training on new equipment using different woods, and that it certainly wasn't a production run...

Though I'm skeptical, this thing is dang close. The headstock is identical to a Gibson. The neck pocket & tenon looked like Gibson, but I'm no Gibson expert. The wood is different - Mahogany back & neck, ash cap. The lighting in the 2nd pic shows how the carving on the cap isn't quite as smooth as what I've seen Gibson.

The kit was the body, neck, pickguard, tailpiece and cavity covers & V/T controls & PU selector. I bought the PU's out of a fishbowl at GC in Chicago for $50 each.

It's set neck & I glued it in with Elmer's wood glue. Stained it with Minwax Honey Oak & Provincial. Brushed about 8 coats of poly on with 2 wet sanding sessions. Hand rubbed the finish which gave it a nice semi-gloss finish. That was the best I could do since the poly had only been on it for a month. It was my 1st woodfinishing project & 1st guitar build, & the only LP I've owned.

My kid plays it now. I've come to find out that the PU's are virtually indistinguishable from his SG '61 reissue's stock PU's. It plays OK, but it sounds fantastic.

After 27 years, I figured the poly's pretty well cured. I recently buffed it out using Fender/McGuire's swirl remover and it turned into a beautiful gloss finish.

I've got very few pictures of this one, but with the new buff job, I'll be doing a porn shoot soon.

I'd love to see another one of these, just to confirm the story.

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n14/jhczar/P1000102.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n14/jhczar/P1040529.jpg

[12guitdown]

The thing about set neck is interesting. I also wondered why it is impossible to buy set neck guitar kit. I know that Les Paul is more complex guitar, because it has exact top carve, than there is an neck angle, that the same angle where fingerboard joints the body, that the heel, ecc..ecc.. But hell, if you got precise Cnc machines and you could do it. I know it would cost more but why there aren't any? :BITCH

Because Gibson would take them to court.

[Nickguitar]

Because Gibson would take them to court.

Yeah, but you change a bit a headstock (sometimes companies that sell necks leave headstock as a plate) and a cutway and there you go - by this way it is a slightly different designed guitar so there would be no legal issues.

[jleung]

Musikraft offers set neck Teles:

https://www.musikraft.com/product-info.php?pid118.html

[CitizenCain]

Here's a place that sells setneck LP kits, http://www.spgguitars.com/guitars_kits06.html

[phild]

I bought a Gibson LP online 6 months ago or so, just the guitar, no tuners, p/u's, bridge, tailpeice, electronics, strap buttons, etc - got it for $400 plus shipping, then put in a set of custom handwound pickups from Smits, locking tuners, tonepro bridge/tailpiece and top of the line pots, capacitors, etc - totaling just under $1000, and it is one freakin' nice axe now. (I also put in a new nut - but that goes with any new LP - and yes it was built 4 months before I bought it, with no fret wear or any marks on it). I think the guy was buying them new then stripping them and selling all the parts separately on ebay. I noticed it would have cost about the same as a new LP if I had bought all the parts from him.