Blackdog Posted November 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2011 Thank you guys ! I'm pretty thrilled myself, the burst is looking really sweet. I have a very beautiful R9, but this one may well end up being prettier. With a bit of lacquer on it the flame is already becoming deep and 3D. All the maple tops I used so far... ...came from the same supplier. Probably not the cheapest, but worth the price, I think. Also very convenient for us EU based builders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chops1983 Posted November 15, 2011 Report Share Posted November 15, 2011 Blackdog, Ive already expressed how much i love these builds... but i think your wife just added the icing on the cake, they look absolutely amazing mate. Vintage correct construction and finish....simply beautiful! Hurry up and finish em so i can vote for them in GOTM! Chad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted November 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2011 The kudos go to your wife this time. She did a wonderful job on that LP. I seem to remember that she has skills in inlaying as well. You get points for landing her though! Blackdog, Ive already expressed how much i love these builds... but i think your wife just added the icing on the cake, they look absolutely amazing mate. Vintage correct construction and finish....simply beautiful! Thanks a lot guys, most specially in my wife's name ! Indeed she does the more intricate (interesting and challenging) inlays on the guitars I build. But nowadays, the simpler (boring) ones like these traps and blocks, she leaves for me to do... Still, she is the absolute specialist with dyes. I just need to show her some picture and she comes up with a staining schedule to achieve it. She's gotten pretty good at that. I love to just watch and assist (and take pictures) while she works with the dyes ! Now she's wishing that I finally get over and done with this vintage Gibson stuff and venture again into more daring designs, where she can get creative with some aquas, greens and blues.... I think I have already mentioned that she's also very talented with stained glass (glass in lead) and Tiffany work (that's where that cute water cooled band saw came from). Thanks again, I'm indeed lucky to have her by my side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted December 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Well, I finished spraying these two. My very first job with proper spraying equipment, and I am so satisfied with the results that I wonder why did I wait so long to get rid of the rattle cans !!! My only regret is that on the 355 I overdid the amber a little, but I didn't think it was bad enough to scrape all the bindings and start over... I'll learn to live with it. The final orange peel is so fine that they almost look polished in the pictures ! The ES355 in it's vintage faded cherry: In keeping with the vintage theme I rubber-stamped the serial number, to underscore the handmade nature of the beasts we kept the signatures on the back of the headstock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted December 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 The Les Paul in it's brockburst finish: And the same thing with the serial number and signatures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted December 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Now we wait.... I should be assembling these two between Christmas and New Year: I guess this year I'm my own Santa ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chops1983 Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Ohhhhh ill take the one on the right.... nah the left.... definately the right... looking good BD! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted December 6, 2011 Report Share Posted December 6, 2011 All the maple tops I used so far......came from the same supplier Thankyou for sharing. Most appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 6, 2011 Report Share Posted December 6, 2011 I wonder how much of that blue tape gets used by luthiers each year? That Lester is indeed a very nice beast. Looking forward to next year and seeing it buffed out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Our Souls inc. Posted December 6, 2011 Report Share Posted December 6, 2011 The attention to detail and execution of these builds is mindblowing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted December 7, 2011 Report Share Posted December 7, 2011 Amen Mike. Masterful work BD, just masterful. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted December 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2011 Thanks guys ! I have to say I'm getting impatient... I need to get busy and leave these ladies well alone for a couple more weeks... I am not completely happy with the sound of the bridge P90 for the LP. It is part of a SD Antiquity set, but the bridge unit is a bit weak for my taste. I bought some PE gauge 42 wire from Mojo when I got the golden polepieces, so I will try to rig some kind of a winder and will add some more turns to the bridge pickup. I seem to like my bridge P90s at around 9-9.5K. For the 355 I was originally going to use a pair of Classic 57s. But I kinda changed my mind. On the rebuilt ES335 I have a set of Bareknuckles Stormy Monday and I am extremely satisfied with the classic tone of those, rather under wound, pickups in that guitar. I have a set of mid 70s T-Tops that are similarly under wound, so I'm guessing these will probably sound airier, woodier than the 57s in the 355. I think I will try those first. Mounting and un-mounting the harness in these guitars is a royal pain, I like to do it just once and put some RCA type connectors for the pickup leads. It makes all the difference in the world for pickup changes ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Al Posted December 9, 2011 Report Share Posted December 9, 2011 I have been a looky loo for quite awhile here and joined today just because of this thread. Great work! Exciting read on this build thread! I don't know if this was mentioned on here but where did you get the 335 kit, may I ask? It something I would like to build soon. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted December 9, 2011 Report Share Posted December 9, 2011 Thanks guys ! I have to say I'm getting impatient... I need to get busy and leave these ladies well alone for a couple more weeks... I am not completely happy with the sound of the bridge P90 for the LP. It is part of a SD Antiquity set, but the bridge unit is a bit weak for my taste. I bought some PE gauge 42 wire from Mojo when I got the golden polepieces, so I will try to rig some kind of a winder and will add some more turns to the bridge pickup. I seem to like my bridge P90s at around 9-9.5K. For the 355 I was originally going to use a pair of Classic 57s. But I kinda changed my mind. On the rebuilt ES335 I have a set of Bareknuckles Stormy Monday and I am extremely satisfied with the classic tone of those, rather under wound, pickups in that guitar. I have a set of mid 70s T-Tops that are similarly under wound, so I'm guessing these will probably sound airier, woodier than the 57s in the 355. I think I will try those first. Mounting and un-mounting the harness in these guitars is a royal pain, I like to do it just once and put some RCA type connectors for the pickup leads. It makes all the difference in the world for pickup changes ! I'm quite partial to Molex KK connectors right now. Just not the price of the crimping tool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted December 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 I have been a looky loo for quite awhile here and joined today just because of this thread. Great work! Exciting read on this build thread! I don't know if this was mentioned on here but where did you get the 335 kit, may I ask? It something I would like to build soon. Thank you! Thanks ! Glad you decided to join ! The laminated parts were sourced from here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Al Posted December 10, 2011 Report Share Posted December 10, 2011 I have been a looky loo for quite awhile here and joined today just because of this thread. Great work! Exciting read on this build thread! I don't know if this was mentioned on here but where did you get the 335 kit, may I ask? It something I would like to build soon. Thank you! Thanks ! Glad you decided to join ! The laminated parts were sourced from here. Thank you Blackdog for the link. Looking forward to see these fiddles of yours completed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted December 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 The first one of these is finished, the LP. The new lacquer has been impressive so far. One week and it was cured. Not just hard enough to get polished, but rock hard. And after level sanding, as you break the surface, it didn't smell to solvents at all. WIth the rattle cans it took 3-4 weeks to get to this point. Assembly used to be a challenge with the old rattle-can nitro too, anything could scratch it easily. Not this one, it is significantly harder. I'm starting to think that it's relationship with old school nitrocellulose lacquer is remote at best, but it looks and feels right ! Let's hope it's durable too. On top of the advantages of the lacquer, the proper spray equipment has made a huge difference. Very fine orange peel. In the past I would level sand with wet 800 to begin with. It took me a good 2-3 hours to get to 2000, then micro mesh. Now I started with wet micromesh 1500 directly, and polished all the way to 12000 in about the same time. Here's the 56 Flametop replica in Brockburst. There are a few details that I didn't get quite right, most of them correctable in a future build, but all in all it ended up quite well. Now I can proceed to polish the ES-355 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chops1983 Posted December 13, 2011 Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 That is some seriously good work BD...Im not even a LP fan but she looks tops mate! The burst on that guitar is spectacular Good to hear about the lacquer, the nitro i spray with tends to chip a bit and also scratches easily...as long as i get a few finished pics before any scratches, but then its game on! Hurry up with the ES!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Workingman Posted December 13, 2011 Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 Wow! Can't wait for the ES as I like them better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demonx Posted December 14, 2011 Report Share Posted December 14, 2011 Beautiful guitar... simply beautiful. Makes me want to build a LP ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted December 14, 2011 Report Share Posted December 14, 2011 Makes me want to build a LP ! i know the feeling..it was Blackdog's original LP that really made me want to build one...I am still working on mine...may be years in the making. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted December 14, 2011 Report Share Posted December 14, 2011 (edited) It bears repeating. Outstanding job.....outstanding job......outstanding job.......outstanding job...... How does it sound? do you like the P-90s? SR Edited December 14, 2011 by ScottR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted December 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2011 Thank you guys for the nice words ! Sorry I didn't reply earlier, been kinda busy with the day job.... Anyway, the ES355 is already polished, I started with the control harness stuffing-in last night but I was too tired and gave up before f'ng something up.... Not the kind of task to attempt when tired. I'll hopefully resume tonight. Scott, I always liked P90s. It's a lovely pickup for almost everything this side of metal-gain stuff. For the last couple of years I've been wanting to buy me a Gibson Historic P90 LP, because I like the sound of P90s in the LP platform very much. I guess I won't be needing one now... These are a set of SD Antiquitys I picked up in April during a visit to NY. The neck pickup is really good, both together sound also very nice. It's the bridge alone that I find a bit weak. It is probably vintage correct, though. While there's tons of info about the later Bursts, poor old Goldtops don't seem to get the same kind of attention... Information about P90 cavities' dimensions is scarce and sketchy. When I was routing the cavities for the pickups I got the information that the distance between cavities was to be 3" (border to border). It made sense, and I used that. A few days later someone at the MLP forum chimed in with a "proper" distance of 2.9". Too late... Additionally, I ended up with a small gap of around 2mm between the end of the fretboard and the neck pickup cavity. All this combined laid the bridge pickup some 4-5 mm closer to the bridge than I expected. This is not unlike many early Goldtops as I could see from pictures, anyway. Once again, specs were all over the place... It's easily solved by adding some more wire to the pickup, or installing a slightly hotter one, something I will try when I get the chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted December 15, 2011 Report Share Posted December 15, 2011 The set I had RAD make for me was wired to vintage specs, and then to make the bridge a little hotter he "gave it a few extra wraps". I love them. For my tastes, the tone is perfect. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted December 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2011 OK, some more of these poor flash point-and-shoot pictures again… (I promise better pictures will be taken with a proper DSLR and natural lighting) It's not yet finished (as in FINISHED, FINISHED !), just assembled and strung-up. A few things still require attention: - the toggle switch nut will be changed to gold. I bought a gold nut but WDMusic sent me the wrong one… - I will have to do something with the edges of the f-holes. No matter what they ended up rough, and some residue of the polish creme got in the pores. If everything else fails I can always paint them matt-black, as per modern practices. - Not happy with the fit of the pickguard. There are some gaps around the neck pickup ring that bother me so much I may even make a new one. - Obviously, a detailed setup is still to be done. The ES-355TD '59 tribute: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.