ScottR Posted September 14, 2012 Report Share Posted September 14, 2012 That staple pup is wild looking. I'm looking forward to hearing you opinion of how it sounds. It is surrounded by pure beauty....that's a hell of a home you've built for that pup. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2012 That staple pup is wild looking. I'm looking forward to hearing you opinion of how it sounds. It is surrounded by pure beauty....that's a hell of a home you've built for that pup. SR Thanks Scott, The Staple is quite unusual, as it never became mainstream like the ubiquitous buckers and P90s you can only find one version of it. It is what it is, but that is a good thing. It has the responsiveness of a P90 but it is a lot louder. Which is a good thing, because you have to keep it low, or the magnetic pull of the individual magnets will start dampening the strings. While a good P90 sounds raunchier, this one is a lot cleaner and more sophisticated. Somewhat HI-FI sounding in comparison. I have one of these in a LP Custom 54 reissue (all mahogany, no maple top), and on this new guitar the sound is very close to that other guitar. I sank the bridge posts past the redwood top and a good 10mm into the mahogany back. And the sound character of the guitar is pretty much the same as the all-mahogany one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2012 Then the preparations for finishing started. Raising the grain of the maple tops and sanding down, as at this stage I was not sure if I was going to apply the amber base for the sunbursts as a stain directly on the maple. Eventually, after testing on some off-cuts I decided against, and the amber was sprayed. The Custom top was indeed stained, and this is something I wanted to get done before setting the neck, as any glue residue was going to cause trouble with the water-based staining. The bodies final sanded. I cut the nut blanks (Graphtech Tusq) and glued them in place. I wanted to have the lacquer covering the sides of the nut as per Gibson practices. The blanks are pretty much shaped, but left a bit high anyway, the final adjustment and shaping came after cutting the string slots. Then masked the fretboards in preparation for the finishing stages. Stained the top of the Custom. As usual this is my wife's job. And set the necks with hot hide glue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2012 Then I did the the finish of the tops. Masked the back, sides and necks and shot some clear on the Custom's top and some amber on the Standards'. Then sealed with clear. Then I sprayed the first sunburst (a faded tea-burst) on one of the Standards using an airbrush. And the second sunburst (a darker burgundy burst) on the other one. I was originally thinking of finishing this one as a Goldtop, but the more I worked on the top the more I liked its subdued figure. In the end I couldn't bring myself to cover that figure with solid gold… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted September 17, 2012 Report Share Posted September 17, 2012 Good. Goldtops may be iconic, but to me they are one of the plainest, most boring finishes out there. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiewarlock Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 wow!! Incredible!! Can i send you my les paul body to you so you can apply it's multiple binding? hehe, it's a task i don't wanna do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 wow!! Incredible!! Can i send you my les paul body to you so you can apply it's multiple binding? hehe, it's a task i don't wanna do Come on ! It's not that difficult ! Just gather the courage and do it ! You know you can ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 Photo tour continues… After masking the tops and the bindings the backs and necks go through a two steps process, the first to fill the pores using tinted filler (Timbermate, water based), and then a staining process to enhance the red. The Custom was stained using a deeper wine-red colour. The masking of the tops and bindings was removed and the bindings scraped clean wherever needed and a few coats of clear were shot to seal the back and neck. The serial numers were stamped and the process of clearcoating started. Some days later, with the clear finally applied, the guitars were left to cure for a couple of weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 The Standards were wet-sanded and buffed and the "Les Paul model" silkscreen was applied on top of the clear, vintage style. An artist type gold oil-based paint is used for this. It is very thick and takes forever to dry (weeks), so a dissecant agent was added to the mixture before applying. With this dissecant the drying time is reduced to some days, say a week. So the guitars were put aside until the silkscreen was dry. In the meantime, the Custom got wet-sanded, buffed and entered the assembly process. First step was to locate and mount the bridge posts. For this I installed the tuners and cut the two E strings slots on the nut and the correct distances from the fretboard sides, and installed these two strings (used .10 and .46). Then I set the bridge is set so that the high E saddle is pretty much at the front end (closest to the nut) and the low E saddle is about three screw turns before the end of the travel towards the tailpiece (this will allow intonation range for thicker strings). I put the bridge under the strings in its approximate position, seating on a couple of pieces of veneer to raise the action enough to allow the strings to vibrate freely. Tuned up the strings to pitch or thereabouts and using a piezo tuner on the tailpiece, bridge, headstock, etc. I manually positioned the bridge for proper string alignment to the neck and proper intonation. With the bridge held down by the string pressure in the proper position, using a drill press I very carefully drilled through the bridge holes the two pilot holes for the posts. Removed the strings and bridge and drilled the posts holes to their final depth, past the redwood top and some 10mm into the mahogany. For the posts I used long bronze screws, which I used to tap the holes first, then cut to lenght. And mounted the bridge. Mounted the two outer strings again and marked the slots for the remaining strings with the StewMac spacing ruler. Then added the strings one by one and cut the nut slots with the proper gauged files. With all the strings in place I did the final adjustments to the nut slots depths and slotted the bridge saddles with the gauged files. Tuned to pitch and verified that there were no issues with string geometry, action and overall playability. Then removed the strings, filed down and polished the nut a bit and did the final polishing of the frets. Now it was electronics assembly time ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 And the Custom was the first one to get finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted September 19, 2012 Report Share Posted September 19, 2012 At the risk of repeating myself, WOW. Nice Luis, very very nice. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 Thanks Scott ! The Custom is the most interesting of the batch. The Standards are just more of the same... But anyway, here it is the first one of the Standards. The same drill for locating the bridge, and some assembly pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 And the first Standard finished: These are the "just assembled" pictures. I made a few modifications yesterday (no new pictures yet): added a slightly distressed cover to the neck pickup, and aged the tuners, bushings, screws, nuts and pickguard bracket to better match the bridge and tailpiece. I think it looks a bit better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 And just for fun, the two together: The second Standard will still take a bit longer. After closer inspection I am not happy with the polishing/buffing. There are some sanding scratches that bother me, specially apparent in the black finished headstock face. So I have to work a bit more on that, and re-apply the silkscreen. So, it's going to take at least one more week. Besides, now that I learned the trick, I will lightly age all the hardware before assembling it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted September 20, 2012 Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 did you put the same caps in the custom? (I must admit I was wondering if there would be some bees in there, but I can completely understand why you might not). They look fantastic by the way- again great work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauliemc Posted September 20, 2012 Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 Than did you put the same caps in the custom? (I must admit I was wondering if there would be some bees in there, but I can completely understand why you might not). They look fantastic by the way- again great work. Thanks again ! No, I have a rather limited supply of these PIO caps. These are a different manufacturer's version of the Sprague Black Beauties, real NOS 60s, and have drifted to something like .027uF. I have another pair for the second Standard. I bought them for very little money some years ago from an old-school radio shop in Buenos Aires that was going out of business. The Custom got some .022uF polypropylene caps, similar to Sprague Orange Drops. Just for the quality of them and not necessarily because they make any difference. I don't think there can be much of a difference in a treble-cut tone control anyway, but ceramics just look too cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted September 21, 2012 Report Share Posted September 21, 2012 Just great! BTW an excellent method for locating the bridge, will have to try it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2012 Just great! BTW an excellent method for locating the bridge, will have to try it! Thanks ! The method works great, just make sure you set your saddles correctly before you start. The compensation required for proper intonation is a function of the string thickness. The high E string hardly requires any compensation, the saddle usually sits at the exact scale length distance from the nut. You want to set this saddle essentially all the way to the front for maximum intonation range for all the other strings. The low E will require the most compensation, but if you locate the bridge with the saddle all the way to the back you will run out of intonation range if you ever want to go for thicker strings. This is far less critical for a Nashville bridge, since the saddle travel is significantly longer. Alternatively to drilling through the bridge holes, if you feel less confident, you can punch-mark the post hole centres (lightly) on the top using a nail through the hole. Then drill without having the bridge in your way. Drill slowly with a brad-point drill bit for a clean hole through the finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted September 21, 2012 Report Share Posted September 21, 2012 Thanks a lot for the advice! So basically, high E all the way towards the nut, and the low E sort of a to the middle or a bit more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2012 Thanks a lot for the advice! So basically, high E all the way towards the nut, and the low E sort of a to the middle or a bit more? I have found that what works for me is to set the low E all the way to the back and then back the screw off about 3 turns and then set the intonation with 10-46. If you plan to use something thicker than, say, 52 for the low E, you should set the intonation with thicker strings to begin with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackdog Posted September 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2012 And the last of the batch of three got finished. The second Standard: The two Standards together: And the three ladies together: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi79 Posted September 25, 2012 Report Share Posted September 25, 2012 (edited) Wow these came out awesome! I especially like the darkest one with the gold hardware. Edited September 25, 2012 by Levi79 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted September 25, 2012 Report Share Posted September 25, 2012 Thanks again, I have written it down in my little black book of LP info for future reference! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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