Mitja

I have a really nicely hand built Italian EKO m-24 (sold as D´agostino Benchmark in the US) from the 80´s. It has a blazing fast thin maple neck, but unfortunately also the body is made of hard maple. The sound is so trebly that i can´t find any use for the guitar. If you find darker sounding and light weight maple, why not trying it, but it´s always a risk. I´d leave maple bodies for some basses. For some reason many guitars were made from maple in the early eighties. For exemple BC rich used it, gibson made some models etc. and by all standards they sound too bright. Lots of sustain but no attack.

This guitar could be made by Greco. They made flying v´s with the 70´s gibson features during the eighties. Also the neck joint is similar to the Grecos that i´ve seen. There is this piece of wood under the actual neck blank in the neck joint. Haven´t seen many other copies built like that.

I would leave the neck pocket unfinished. If the pocket is a bit loose you could leave the sides of the neck pocket finished and peel off the finish in the bottom where the body and neck have the best contact anyway. Also the neck should be unfinished at the heel. I tested it once by finishing a neck pocket with multiple layers of lackuer. The sound was affected. The highs were dampenend considerably. But yes there were many layers of laquer. Still, when you take a professionally built guitar or bass, usually the neck pocket is free from anything exept filler. Yep same here

When you drill it, from wich side you drill in? Does it crack easier if you start drilling from the mirror surface? i use a dremel type thing with a small router bit in it. slower, but at least it doesnt crack

I wouldn´t spend my money on those. PAF Pros are very nice indeed. As are Duncans Alnico II humbuckers. My favourites for a "vintage vibe".

I like the DR hexcore strings(purple box). They have more clarity than the normal tite fits due to the hexagonal core.

Many of the "shredders" use floyd rose bridges, and the longer scale makes the bridge more stable to use, due to bigger tension from the strings. For a shredding machine i would choose as big and high frets as possible, because it gives almost scalloped feel for the neck. You don´t need to press the notes so hard. Also tapping is much easier with jumbos than with some "banjo" frets.

i´ve never used CA glue or epoxy as a clear filler. I´d like to know: Do you have favourite brands and how do you apply it to the guitar? With brush? cloth? your fingers?

Yeah, there´s the gluefilled gap that resonates! No, but sometimes i´ve found my neck through jackson to have almost too much sustain when i´ve wanted more attack and less sustain on a very demped riff. Set neck have felt better. But i guess it had more to do with the overall specs and the longer scale(in Jackson). Those are really minor differencies but important to me as a picky player and guitar enthusiast. I would also point out thet i´m not a fan of Gibson guitar company at all! I think it´s the most overrated guitar company in the world. Especially nowdays. Most of the new and really expensive Pauls, flying V´s and Sg´s that i´ve tried are really far from the quality they had before 1984. I guess the good old and dense wood is getting harder to find? At least ebony on the market today seems weaker than before. And honduran mahogany is pretty much vanished from the market.

I see what you mean. This "woodoo" thing and unnecessary mysticism around guitars is annoying, however, that´s pretty much what i´ve discovered myself when playing les pauls. I can be wrong. But: I´ve owned a les paus custom, played various standards and i own a great Ibanez custom agent 2405 Les Paul from 76´, wich is otherwise identical to the gibsons but it´s slightly chambered it has maple neck and SD JAZZ/jb set. For my ears it(ibanez) sounds different. Especially with clean sounds. JBs sound good but i prefer gibson´s alnico PAF´s or SD alnico pro´s. They have slightly less output and not so biting and dense midrange when i crank some gains up. I also like to analyze the sound characteristics when playing unplugged. then you´re able to feel and hear some tonal differences from the wood that will be harder to hear when the pick ups deliver the sound. Sorry for getting off topic.

I think the key factors on how to get a "les Paul -sound" in a non-les paul construction are: 1. Scale lenght 24.75 scale lenght sounds warmer than 25.5. the longer scale means more sustain and more trebly sound. Solid body Les Pauls also have a good sustain, But the attack is different if you make the neck 25.5 inch. 2. Wood Mahogany neck and body with or without maple cap. 3. Construction There is a difference in the sound if you compare neck through to the set neck. Set neck is the way to go. Also the neck angle might have some effect on the sound. 3. Hardware PAF! No other options. Look for gibson humbuckers with alnico magnets. 4. Mass Les paul is a heavy, thick piece of wood. An RG-body with traditional dimensions is alot smaller. Perhaps you can stick to the original shape. Make the body thicker, and if you can add an angled neck, then you can add a thicker top or even a slightly carved one. Thus, more wood.