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Newbie Hello, And Some Pics Of The Latest..


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NO!!!! Dont reck that guitar with a pick gaurd :D Wicked Guitar man VERY SEXY B)

!!METAL MATT!! :D

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Well, I tend to not like uncovered pickups (the P90 there has a cover now), and I tend to like pickguards on LPs. I wanted a clear one... but searched and they were outrageous in price, so I got a black one for a LP Deluxe inbound. Clear would have solved everything... but I'm not spending close to $50 for a pickguard just because its clear. Even Dasbootzman was really expensive. Must be something about clear that makes it tough to work with.

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If you use lexan, it's no more difficult to use than standard pickguard material. Plexiglass, however, shatters very easily. So if you can build a guitar, why can't you also make a pickguard? I've made 3 or 4 lp pickguards in the past, two of which were clear. It's easy, I promise.

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Is it a from-scratch build or a refinish?

It looks a hell of a lot like a les paul BFG, finsihed in blue, with a new humbucker.

Either way- it looks good!

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If it's a bfg, then he changed the knobs and added a varitone as well. Although, that would explain why he didn't make a pickguard.

Nevermind, just looked at some bfg pics. The "figure" on the bfg is painted on, I believe. The gibson site says that the bfg "does not" have a figured top. So either it doesn't, or gibson's marketing department and production department had some major miscommunication.

Edited by thegarehanman
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http://www.americanacrylics.com/cyroffgp.htm

I acquired some scraps of Acrylite-AR (one side abrasion resistant) clear polymer from a blues player who ran a plastic fabricating shop right beside a friends woodworking shop. We got to talking about playing guitars and it led into materials etc. Just as I was leaving he gave me some of this "wonder" material and I've made an assortment of pickguards (for archtop & solidbody), pickup rings and covers since then. I found its VERY easy to work , I cut it with a jeweller's saw, stays clear, and you would have to be using a quarter for a pick to scratch it up. I made one for my friend's Monterey archtop in the space of one hour.

Excellent looking guitar, almost has a pearlescent look. It would be a shame to destroy such symmetry by covering it over with something you can't see through.

Edited by Southpa
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Hm? It's a soapbar P90. They don't require frames. :D Indeed, a frame around a soapbar pickup would just be cosmetic.

It's amazing work... just beautiful. But let me be the voice of criticism-- it looks like you didn't calculate enough of a neck angle to use TOM + tailpiece. The TOM might be within acceptable parameters, though to me the ideal is to have'em all the way down in their bushings. The stop tailpiece seems hella high, though, no?

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Ben, yes it started life as a Les Paul BFG. It was purchased, new, with the intent on total renovation of the instrument. It started life sorta like this (seen with partial finish removal... to see if I'd need a strong stripper. I didn't, just lacquer thinner.)

IMG_6666.jpg

Greg said: ....it looks like you didn't calculate enough of a neck angle to use TOM + tailpiece. The TOM might be within acceptable parameters, though to me the ideal is to have'em all the way down in their bushings. The stop tailpiece seems hella high, though, no?

Well blame it all on Gibson. My own thoughts though, are to leave about 1/8 inch yet to drop, when the strings are at proper playing elevation. On the stop bar, I try to go for about the same break angle as is on the nut, and to hell be damned the "must be low" mindset types (present company excepted of course). There's about 160 or so lbs pressure pulling on those studs. The body is hollow. I did it my way!

LPBFG.jpg

The pickups are the stock P90 and BB-3, now with covers, bridge with mounting ring as well. The controls are volume, middle, and treble. The middle control is a direct rip off of the very nice L6s middle control. The "varitone" is not a varitone. What it is, is a 3 pos. rotary switch, that selects between both pickups in series, either singly or both pickups in parallel, and both pickups in parallel semi out of phase with a phase delaying capacitor inserted (again, as the L6s does). This way you get all the great "normal tones" plus two additional "special tones". One being very phat with no loss of highs, the other being a very "Strat-like" tone when a Strat is in its #4 position (except this one is a bit phatter being HB and P90).

schemosmall.jpg

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Heh, I blame it all on Gibson. :D You seem to know what you're doing and what you want, too, though-- my opinion on the matter is therefore irrelevant. :D Be that as it may, is there any particular reason to want the break angle over the bridge to be the same as the angle over the nut?

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Aw Greg... your opinion matters to me! Its just different than mine :D

As for the break angle... why make it severe? I know the low stop bar school of thought says "better sustain!". I find the claim... unconvincing in my own experimentation. Certainly bending, is easier with the bar higher, and subsequent tuning stability is more positive. Perhaps a bit softer toned as well. That is - ever listen to a Tele with a Bigsby? They're not as smart in the attack. There's still lots of quack, but they lose a little of what they had. Maybe thats part of it too, just a bit softer. Whatever is is, I tend to keep the string angle to something less than 20 degrees and it seems to be an enhancement _for me_ rather than a drawback.

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There may be something to what you say. I never thought of it in terms of sustain or anything-- to me, a really high stop tailpiece just seems shaky (which is I guess a sustain thing, though I didn't really think of it in terms of sustain) and it just looks weird. So, for me, primarily an aesthetic thing. I'm not sure how much the bending is improved by a lesser angle, but you might be right. I have a TOM + stop-tailpiece guitar sitting right here, perhaps I should give it a go. :D

Greg

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