mistermikev

yeah... 60 years is a looooong time. would not complain. u r right about that prs... that does not appeal to my eye at all. looks all 'fuzzy'. and after 3 years...it looks like THAT? and sells for probably 2-3K! it's one thing if you buy a nitro guitar - you should expect that and it's kind of cool... but buying poly... why NOT do uv resistant? is it THAT expensive?

did not know that (about the poly) will have to check that... got any good pics? won't actually show the gibson pic in here but here's the link: gibby

I believe they added aniline dye to the grain filler so... basically the sm as dying it. and they used aniline to dye the base color on the fronts (as I understand). now somehow the fronts don't fade as much. (perhaps the color yellow fades slower?) I'm told alcohol based dyes (not simply diluting aniline in alcohol) is more colorfast... but I think w/o uv protection almost anything is going to change to some degree. would love to know if I'm wrong. over at mlp a gent had a real 59 that he showed pics of the guitar with the cavity covers off... the cavity was dark red... the body looked completely natural. https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/when-did-gibson-start-doing-the-back-of-guitars-in-red.438630/#lg=_xfUid-5-1586297119&slide=0

freddy is a member over at mylespaul.com. I could have asked over there since they know EVERYTHING about les pauls but generally it can take some time to get a response. I trust scott's experience on the matter so have what I need but that's def a good call on your part. I was recently in a thread over there asking about "when did the cherry back start on the les paul vs natural" and it was a shocking ride. I was aware that water based dyes fade over time... but I had no idea how much. A few members chimed in that A) all vintage burst les pauls had cherry backs but many of them faded to the point where there was ZERO indication of cherry anymore. could have knocked me over with a feather. some of the pics that were posted - you'd never have guessed they started cherry let alone dark cherry. was a real learning experience.

all great ideas... (stored for later) but I'm saving all my offcuts in hopes of someday doing a build with a mountain/stream/mackaray thingy! probably never happen but a guy can dream right! haven't used an airbrush since high school... model building... this should be a real trip down memory lane! gonna try the preval first cause i'm told they are pretty awesome.

you are a wealth of info. I very much appreciate. your finish work is outstanding so I'll take it like the bible. this will be my first time tinting lacquer myself (using preval and perhaps airbrush depending)... so no confidence yet. also cracked me up with 'last drunk on the floor' hehe!

wow, feels like I stepped away for 3 seconds and blammo - looking beautiful. that top is really coming to life. looks like a mars dust storm.

I've had mixed results with what i've come across... and it makes total sense that what you've got there is sort of cherry picked. Every time I order stuff I seem to get a few outstanding pieces... and then quite a bit of 'bla'. Pictures are so hard to gauge. I was wondering if perhaps you were going to a wholesaler like gondor and then picking thru to get decent stuff. might try that next. thanks for the response.

so... I'm using nitro and I've laid down some lemon keda dye. have started working towards building up some clear nitro over that so that when I spray a burst, and inevitably get it wrong... I can wetsand and start over without going thru my clear/yellow. Then it hit me... I love the look of old les paul lemon burst/lemon drop/amberburst... and am wondering if the way they did it was to spray right on the yellow dye with no clear on top. the reason I ask is because the orange/cherry/brown/amber that would go on top... always seems to display the figured maple well... not cover it up. I'm wondering now... if some clear nitro with some keda in it is going to lay on top and now allow the flames of the flamed maple to show thru... does that make sense? let me rephrase that in the form of a question... anyone know if that's how gibson did it and/or if when you burst on top of clear nitro if the flame will still show highlights? going for this below, but with a light cherry which will be a bit darker than the orange here:

my gawd I thought it was only me. early memory breaking a motercycle that my dad, me and my brother just glued up... don't tell them. I like the idea of how you plan to cut the channels. storing that for later. also... where do you get your mop? (if you don't mind) some fantastic looking stuff and what seems like large pieces.

that is NOT very comforting...

I hear you there... getting old sux!

that's pretty cool altho it does look a bit heavy. lava... hehe, yeah, that's what it feels like on your skin! weight... I don't know how I did that crap back in the day... big ole 6' tables of 1 1/4 mdf... guiding 'em around, that would land me on a couch real quick these days. hell I can't even lift a porter cable belt sander with one hand any more!

interesting. have never seen the mobile variation. spent lots of time putting 1/8 abs on various fixtures for stores. the one I used you could do a 3" radius by manually spinning the work piece. my back hurts just remembering it. your picture kind of took me back there. bitter sweet. afa inheritance... I know that sentiment. even if it's perfect it's likely "not how you'd do it". really bothersome for some reason.

happens to the best of us... and also me...

that's ok... I have just "found this out" more than an avg number of times!

when I was young I spent some serious time edge banding things. doing something that big on the machine we had would be tuff if not impossible. one time I was cleaning the glue pot and dropped a glob of that glue on my hand. no way to get it off and just sat there and burned. i can't recommend that experience. I don't know if your machine has this but ours had a spike wheel to keep the banding taught... I heard that a prior operator tangled with that thing... can't imagine that was pretty. looked like something out of mad max. anywho... looks lovely... and fing heavy.

oops, my bad. you do need 2 poles... because of the combo positions. afa switch it matches what you have assuming we are looking at the bottom of the switch and the order is clockwise. the tone pots are right too. afa humbucker... no, a push pull won't help you if you just have two wires. spliltting a pickup requires access to the wire between the two coils. in a two wire humbucker you've got the start of one coil and the end of another. you could peel back the tape on the pickup and find a little wire connecting the end of the first coil to the start of the last... and just solder a wire to it... and send that to ground to split using a push pull. that makes it a 3 wire. but those wires are so delicate... and if you break them from the coil wire - yer done. if you are delicate you could do it. but you could just as easily ruin the pickup. not recommended.

I'm still like a 4 yo child when I get close to finishing... "but i want it NOW!". like a game of shoots and ladders... one sandpaper swipe too much and blammo... back to the start. that said, I know in my heart... if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right - however long it takes. good point biz. it does really start fast and then progressively each step seems to take forever. AD - the trouble with sand thru + dye = one more swipe and you've got a little 'spot'. always seems to be the case for me anyway.

oh, I know... but it's the razors edge you walk between sanding it smooth... and waiting another 3 weeks for another few coats of nitro to dry. perhaps you aren't as impatient as I... but this scenario is one I have bad dreams about.

"If I hit wood I could just spray again." famous last words. wishing "thick enough" for you.

i think you may have rivaled me in terms of the number of photos you took of your work... it's fun to just scroll for a minute and almost watch a movie of a guitar being built! looking good.

looking lovely my friend.

he makes a good point... in keeping with the hillbilly/hunter(my roots) theme... it's 4 by 4 not 4 x 4... even tho it's spelled 4x4, which makes even less sense because there are only 4 wheels but I guess 4 driven wheels so... I forget where this was going!

at least in the US... you can trademark anything... but whether or not that trademark would hold in court is not reflective of the fact that you have a trademark. People are silly... they think just because they were the first to think of something they should have exclusive right to it. I doubt the dimarzio trademark of double cream would be upheld in court, but who wants to spend the money to fight it? also... it's ALL MINE!