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Thickness of a 1955 LP Custom


Crusader

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I'm no authority, but I can tell you that early les pauls varied a lot in thickness... however I believe they are all generally in the 2.0 to 2.325 range when including the carve.  I would be surprised if there were any as thin as 1.75 including the carve.  Over at mylespaul.com there is a lot of cumulated knowledge and many drawings and measurements from actual les pauls from that era.  There are even drawings of cross sections of a les paul trying to dial in the minutia of the exact carve and those are generally at full size. 

generally the construction is based on availability of wood and then and now it is real common to find 8/4 mahog and 3/4 maple so... to end up with 1.75 you'd have to start with 6/4 mahog which is much less common.  So long story long... prem gtr was prob talking at the edge.

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Yeah the reason I'm asking is I always thought the all-mahogany Customs were a bit slimmer than the maple capped ones but on mylespaul.com there is a video of Barrie Cadogan demonstrating a '55 Custom and it looks even chunkier than usual

My R9 is 2" at edge and 2 3/8" in the centre

I know dimensions vary a lot with Les Pauls but I wonder by how much!

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13 hours ago, Crusader said:

Yeah the reason I'm asking is I always thought the all-mahogany Customs were a bit slimmer than the maple capped ones but on mylespaul.com there is a video of Barrie Cadogan demonstrating a '55 Custom and it looks even chunkier than usual

My R9 is 2" at edge and 2 3/8" in the centre

I know dimensions vary a lot with Les Pauls but I wonder by how much!

having read a bit of your thread over there... I would vote go all mahog.  You can always build another mahog w maple cap.  Personally, I'd feel better making full use of the wood I have ass opposed to making the wood fit the design.  Just be a shame to waste wood.  I'm guessing all mahog would sound different - but I doubt it would be so different that it'd be off-putting.

I'm sorry I don't have enough of a definitive answer afa if all mahog lps were any thinner... couldn't even come close to competing with the knowledge of freddy g and such!

that said, my guess is gibson would have gone with 10/4 mahog because starting with 8/4 it would seem like it would end up looking way too thin... mill it flat and end up with  1 7/8... put a carve in and it'd be 1 1/4 at the edge?

I'm guessing 9/4 is pretty rare so... 2 + 2 = 79.

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On 9/17/2020 at 1:21 AM, mistermikev said:

.....Just be a shame to waste wood

JFTR, there's no way I would make the Mahogany thinner! I've gone through all this years ago and my conclusion was Maple cap FTW but the top of the Mahogany is so beautiful. The back on the other hand has a flaw in it and if I had noticed it beforehand I would have made it the top and the cap would have gone on it with no hesitation

I have been watching as many Youtubes as I can that feature all-hog Les Pauls and sometimes I can tell the difference. I've also made two guitars that have all hog bodies (not LP's) I don't really like them but there's no way of knowing what this particular piece of wood will sound like. I'm trying to figure out a way of fitting a neck and trying it out before I buy. Another thing to remember is SG's are all mahogany. The thinner body makes them sound brighter

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18 minutes ago, Crusader said:

JFTR, there's no way I would make the Mahogany thinner! I've gone through all this years ago and my conclusion was Maple cap FTW but the top of the Mahogany is so beautiful. The back on the other hand has a flaw in it and if I had noticed it beforehand I would have made it the top and the cap would have gone on it with no hesitation

I have been watching as many Youtubes as I can that feature all-hog Les Pauls and sometimes I can tell the difference. I've also made two guitars that have all hog bodies (not LP's) I don't really like them but there's no way of knowing what this particular piece of wood will sound like. I'm trying to figure out a way of fitting a neck and trying it out before I buy. Another thing to remember is SG's are all mahogany. The thinner body makes them sound brighter

glad to hear on the 'not making it thinner'.  Seems to me all wood sounds different to some degree... but there are so many things you can do with pickups, pots, tone controls etc.  I typically plan on doing some sort of tweaking after the fact.  Perhaps that's why my builds take me so loooong!  haha!

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