Les Paul....noob question - removing the neck pickup to see underneath....

siraxeman

Now I'm told that to check if your LP has a 50s or 60s neck you can simply remove the neck pickup and there underneath you will see written on the neck what neck it is. Now I could easily unscrew the pickup out to find this out and I will...but having never ever done this on a les paul I'm wondering do I unscrew the pickup via its surround (this is my guess and lift the whole assembly out or just the 2 screws either side of the pickup that are mounted in springs? I'm told mines a 50s neck by Gibson...but always doubted that. Its much thinner than the 50s on the new trads...so now I know its written on the neck I want to check n see....!

also has anyone ever had dinks removed from their guitar...like in the back of the neck that you can feel when playing? Y'know the old soldering iron trick ? I wouldn't attempt it myself but wondering if its worth tracking down a good guitar tech for the repair ?

Bogwhoppit

Twas me that mentioned it.  Under the bridge pickup it will say LP5+ or LP5 or LP6+ or LP6  the 5 or 6 stands for 50s or 60s neck. The + (according to Bob Burns at Gibson, stands for a plus top. i.e AAA). Just remove the 4 screws on the pickup mount and carefully lift it out.

 

I will post up a pic of mine in a minute.

 

siraxeman

cheers dude! One other question to anyone that may know (the answer I guess is no!) can you semi permanently attach the pickguard ie without having to use the screws and leave permanent holes in the guitar. I like the look of the LP both ways with n without...now I'd have it on occasionally but don't want to do any permanent holes in the guitar so short of some smart idea I'd guess not ?

jd0272

Dense foam block, cut to size, double sided sticky tape?

jd0272

Might knack the area of the finish mind.

siraxeman

haha...mine doesn't tell me the neck ! It says LB which I guess is the colour - lightburst. Oh well still no wiser.

Bogwhoppit

siraxeman said:

haha...mine doesn't tell me the neck ! It says LB which I guess is the colour - lightburst. Oh well still no wiser.

Check the other pickup cavity, they usually put the finish under the neck pickup. They may have reversed it on yours.

not_the_dj

Not all 50s necks are equal, likewise not all 60s necks are equal.

What model is it btw?

Of course you could use the serial number and contact Gibson, they'll be able to confirm the spec.

Bogwhoppit

FWIW I have two SGs that have 60s necks and my LP which is a 50s neck. There is about 1mm difference between all three.  My Tokai LS150 and LS320 have real 50s baseball necks equal to two 60s Gibson necks.

 

One of my old posts sums it up, which I have quoted below :

 

Gibson Neck Profiles :

Thick
Medium thick
Slightly thick
Thin
Thinish
Middle thick with thin wedge
Kind of thin
Slim thin
Thick slim
Middlethick with thin tendancy's
Can't make there mind up thin -ick
The machine broke so, thin on Tuesdays, thick on Wednesdays
Pedro de Pacas (the Gibson mexican labourer on cheap wages) who sands the neck, and was high on smack at the time - whatever thickness you want man.

Snappy thin
Twiggy thin
Dawn French super thick
Leslie West big thick

 

JookyChap

siraxeman said:

haha...mine doesn't tell me the neck ! It says LB which I guess is the colour - lightburst. Oh well still no wiser.

Ah, sorry to say that it means it is a Chinese fake. It refers to the Li Bong Plant...

Don't worry though, I've flagged it with ebay for you

Bogwhoppit

JookyChap said:

siraxeman said:

haha...mine doesn't tell me the neck ! It says LB which I guess is the colour - lightburst. Oh well still no wiser.

Ah, sorry to say that it means it is a Chinese fake. It refers to the Li Bong Plant...

Don't worry though, I've flagged it with ebay for you

Li Bong got shut down, it must be from the chibby and sushi plant.

siraxeman

not_the_dj said:

Not all 50s necks are equal, likewise not all 60s necks are equal.

What model is it btw?

Of course you could use the serial number and contact Gibson, they'll be able to confirm the spec.

its a 2004 standard. I bought it off a guy in Liverpool (off ebay) 4yrs ago and he sold it me as a honeyburst with a 50s neck. I was in a band at the time with another guitarist who had a LP in honeyburst - his had a more brown outer edge colour as opposed to orangey..and the back was stained brown instead of red - I knew mine was really lightburst anyway. But the neck size always had me wondering. Now recently I played one of those LP Trad mahogany ones - and reading the spec on those it seems they only come with a 60s neck...and it felt like mine! So my minds at basically its a 50s. I did email Gibson 2 yrs ago and they told me its a Lightburst 50s. I still think they're wrong on the neck tho. I wondered if they really even check or just told me I was right in that its LB w/50s neck as I believed at the time. Hmmm.

Just tuned my guitar back up now gonna slacken off the strings again and take the bridge pup out n see......

siraxeman

Well blow me down...it is a 50's neck! Seems Gibson were correct after all....who'd have thought it eh?

Well all I can say is this 50s neck is slimmer than the 50s on my SG and definitely even more so than the 50s on the LP Trads I've played...they are much fatter at the nut than mine is.

ThePrettyDamned

Gibson QC is incredible

Seriously though, the whole neck profile post above nails it.  

siraxeman

....I even wonder if they just made mistakes ie labelled a neck wrongly. That would make sense of the neck profiles varying ? I mean aren't they don't on a CNC apart from the tenon fitting ?

Bogwhoppit

siraxeman said:

....I even wonder if they just made mistakes ie labelled a neck wrongly. That would make sense of the neck profiles varying ? I mean aren't they don't on a CNC apart from the tenon fitting ?

The CNC gets them to the finishing stage. It's at this point human intervention sands them for finishing, and where it all appears to go tits-up. There is very little difference in the 60s and 50s profiles; add the error from human sanding into the equation and you can why the two seem similar.

 

siraxeman

well I think they got better on the Trads - all them seem to be nice n chunky at the nut end...which I personally prefer.

ICBM

Necks vary, even when they're supposedly the same. Tiny differences that are barely measurable, both in dimensions and exact profile, are quite easy to feel.

Not only that, the so-called Gibson "50s" neck is not like any original 1950s Gibson neck I've played - which is quite a lot. I've owned four as well, all were different - all 1957s, so it's not even a year thing, which some people seem to believe - and none were like that rounded clubby shape they put on the reissues now. The "60s" neck is maybe closer to the originals, but still not exactly.

Even PRS necks vary, and they're much more consistent than Gibsons. I had two Wide-Fats at the same time, one was fatter than the other - the thinner one was very slightly more V-shaped too, although you couldn't tell by looking at it, or even see the slightest hint of the V on either of them at all… but you can feel it.

Bogwhoppit

ICBM said:

 the so-called Gibson "50s" neck is not like any original 1950s Gibson neck I've played

 Indeed, the Tokai 50s necks are closer to the original Gibson 50s necks. Even then they don't have that baseball bat profile. I played two genuine 59 Les Pauls and the necks were chalk and cheese. Big chunky and Super big chunky.

suspiciousminds

What about the headstocks?
I've seen a few gibsons that when you're looking straight on at them have a slightly different "curve" on the left and right sides (where the neck joins the headstock).
Is that down to the QC?

Bogwhoppit

suspiciousminds said:

Is that down to the QC?

No, that's hungry staff taking chunks out of the wood until Gibson free them for dinner breaks.