Lucius Paisley

The guitar came back earlier this week, but not before I had a chance to decorate. Before/After, clearly.

To prove a point. How would it be quicker to make a new so-called "correct" body than to use the body I have AT THIS VERY MOMENT? "that many adjustments" - all that's left is route a new cavity, drill holes for potentiometers and output, apply nut, swap over the electronics, restring then retune and intonate. Five things. Versus remove neck, source a new body, do some of those things I mentioned above, then go through all the bulls**t involved shaping the pocket of a left-handed body to fit a RIGHT-HANDED neck and glue that in place, fit bushings, route cavity for the pickup, and so on. And that's "quicker"?

I will most likely just leave it. It's not like anybody will see me with it.

The nut appears to have been glued right into place. I had to tap from the front to get it loose. The tiniest sliver off the top of the headstock came with it. The other nut, while cut to the same string distances, is slightly wider. I guess I can either have the guitar guy file it to the same size. Or I can check the size of another spare. It's a black Tusq nut, but if the string distances work out to be the same, we're back in business.

Let's jump right in. These are the changes I need to make to reverse this guitar entirely. Why the tuners? I've already swapped the originals for locking tuners, for no real reason other than I just wanted to. I had them from a previous guitar (R.I.P) so YAY, money-saver. I also have a left-handed nut from the same previous guitar (R.I.P), but removing the current nut looks like a very delicate job, so I'll be leaving that in the capable hands of anybody else. It's not like I can put my foot through the neck joint and have it pop out like the last one. The above two photos are the points of reference for routing locations and their relative positions to everything else. I could have just used dots, but I felt lines were more precise. I have no idea why. It makes me look like I know what I'm doing? Pfft. Sure. Think what you want. And finally. This is the simplest of all my "diagrams" and is basically, the end product. Which brings me to an important issue. That brown splotch. The cavity under the cover isn't that large, so leaving it as is doesn't seem like it would be a big deal. If I were to fill it, I'm guessing resin would be my best bet. Anyway, resin or not, plans have always included covering the damn thing with stickers - Tasteful, not glue-sniffer "HOLY S**T! THERE'S STILL SOME YELLOW SHOWING!" level - so most of the imperfections will be covered. ("It will still be left-handed." Shut up.) So, there's that. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks. That's what the guitar brand people also (eventually) told me. It's also probably why the "gold top" isn't really gold, too many layers.

Maybe?

Finished the first step in paint removal tonight and I'm wondering if anybody could tell me what exactly it was I was dealing with here? I read polyurethane, which I don't think this was. As I was applying heat, the top layers would bubble and if I removed the heat source would cool almost instantly. If I kept a lower temperature over those areas, I could happily scrape away. and finally... I mean I guess it's moot now the lacquer(?) is completely off, but I'm sure I can put some other purchasers of this guitar's minds at ease knowing what I was dealing with. My next step is to remove the remaining paint and reveal the natural finish underneath. It's a basswood top and hopefully the rest of it is as light as what has been already revealed. Fingers crossed.

Now @Bizman62 is in with a chance!

Not to speak out of turn, but shouldn't the Ovie and 8020 guitars get a separate voting choice?

Damn. There goes that plan

I just rewatched a video I saw a month ago about differences between caps and as you said - values are true to the originals, aging changes the properties. A good point made by the video was that the parts they put in guitars in the '50s were based on availability and not some "magic" quality. So it's going to be orange drops for me because nobody is going to sell me their aged parts at a reasonable price. As I said in the original post, I will definitely go for the cosmetic similarity - even if the parts I buy will be new and not aged, I could age them myself, but I can just let the passage of time do that. If you ever find them, play safe and try not to wrap your guitar around a tree. Thanks for talking me down, guys.

I went digging and found the following pages. https://web.archive.org/web/20140126000548/http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Les-Paul/Gibson-Custom/Collectors-Choice-10-Tom-Scholz-1968-Les-Paul/Specs.aspx https://www.creamcitymusic.com/2013-gibson-custom-shop-collectors-choice-10-tom-scholz-1968-les-paul-electric-guitar-natural-finish/ The wiring calls for bumblebee caps (I think they're .022, but not 100%) and these look kind of pricey.

I'm hoping to take this guitar... ... and even if the removal of the paint doesn't quite have the same result, make it into this guitar. A copy of the Tom Scholz Les Paul. While there are some similarities, as you can imagine the differences are quite a world apart. Cosmetically, I could go near enough = good enough. It's not going to sound at all like the same guitar, certainly not with a price difference of over $10K, so one would think purchasing the same (or at the very least, similar) electronic components would not be "worth it". But I have an artist's pride and a stubborn streak a mile wide (I didn't intend for that to rhyme), which I'm sure is common among all of us here, so I guess what I'm looking for here is a push in some direction. It would already be unique as the only left-handed Scholz lookalike in existence... okay, I'm not that delusional, there are a LOT of guitar players, so somebody must have done something remotely similar before now... and in the world of guitar parts, cheaper components must have been created to emulate 50-year-old components, so maybe near enough is good enough after all. Do I reach for authenticity, or do I settle for facsimile? Thoughts? Opinions? Reprimands?

One unsuppressed urge to say "screw it" and two snips of my beard scissors - I don't even have a beard, why do I own these? Because they work better than my damn wire cutters seems to be the answer to that question - later and the "extra" noise is gone. There's still a little, but no more or less than your standard P90 hum, which is why we buy P90s to begin with. And how great is the Orange Crush Mini? Guitar tuner and perfectly portable guitar "cabinet" in one. Perfect for testing my flights of fancy.