1989 first run of Epiphone Les Paul fix up.

zenzeypher

Got her for free after the original owner asked me to bin it



was in a sorry state;

Headstock has a massive break in the back... luckily didnt make it to wood.. just the finish but a corner chip did fall off

Bridge had been routed for a p90

Mysterious holes either side of the humbucker/p90 route... no idea what for

the shittest electrics ever.. nothing worked

No tuners or nut.



Installed Spretzel locking tuners (if anyone has any in gold they wanna trade hit me up)



Installed a shimmed nut and recut the slots.. just to make sure she was worth investing time and effort into.

turns out she's a real, real good player.



Installed;

Gold pointers
Gold speed knobs

nail varnished and plugged extra holes
Glued wood in p90 route for humbucker ring

Installed Gbson  5-ply pick guard
Reamed and Installed r9 CTS pots and Sprauge Orange drops.. although theyre huge so I call em' Orange bombs
Installed switchcraft jack & switch
Oiled fretboard.
Plugged and installed bell truss cover.

And that's about where I am. I've decided to leave chips, dinks, scratches alone. the finish is seeping into the grain. This is actually coated in Nitro..thinly I might add.. I was cleaning it with Napha and it started to remove the finish Luckily it was on the back.



Now;

Need to get me some pickups.
Braided wiring
Strap lock buttons in gold
Fit gold tail piece

But I kinda ran outta money hahaha.

then she's done...

Any thoughts or opinions would be great.


I like player her like this.. very acoustic and loud, probably due to the fact it's completely empty.

thermionic

Good score! Headstock shape and nitro finish suggests a better guitar than the average Epi. I think I've seen one with that kind of headstock on ebay, possibly MIJ?

zenzeypher

hey dude. It's deffo Korean. I've had an MIJ epi (I think Rox bought it) before.. whilst nice and a great player just doesn't ooze mojo like this puppy.

plus it says Korean on the headstock sticker aha.

Apparently a few made it out with nitro on.. but it's hard to tell which ones. Only the first run of LPS in 1989 had this version of the open book headstock whilst similar to Gibsons this has an odd taper at the top.

Long neck tenon too I might add.

OilCityPickups

That's lovely!

zenzeypher

thanks man. Soon as I find someone who has some lovely cheap pups they wanna donate i'll be off gigging it.

I think i'm aiming for something with a good vintage rock tone. Something BB spec. Luckily a friend who's an electrician has given me 2 meters of braided 22awg wiring to use.. which is great.

when I get a bit more back in the gree i'll end up sorting a brass nut and a gotoh bridge setup.

ThePrettyDamned

good save!

zenzeypher

Thanks man. Did the wiring today

ThePrettyDamned

Big fan of the black machineheads - are they matte look, or is it the light?

Looks awesome.  

zenzeypher

Yeah they're matte. Really good locking tuners too.

DannyP

Really nice. When you mentioned BB style pickups do you mean burstbuckers?

zenzeypher

Yeah I do mate, think I might be getting some tone riders

zenzeypher

DONE

zenzeypher

Compiled a list of what it took;

Tuners,
Nut,
Bridge,
Stop tail,
posts,
switch craft jack,
switch craft Switch,
3 meters of braided cable,
Tone rider pickups IV vintage.. FUCK these things are nice
pickup rings
switch tip
gold pointers,
gold speed knobs,
CTS pots x4
Orange Drops x2
Gibson 5-ply plate
Gibson TRC
Schaller Strap lock pins.