Im finally getting ro make one.
The aim here will be to get as close as possible to this
It started as a 52/53 les paul and his been through many changes. Im going to try and recreate as much as possible.
The starting point is this rather nice shiny MIJ tokai.
It will get fully stripped back to wood. Converted to 53 specs with P90's, then taken through all the NY mods.
The headstock will have a binding ridge without binding added, and a Gibson style crown inlay. Body will get the P90 routes, mini switch added, bigsbsy.
The whole rear will get the stripe and metal plates.
It will be refinised in Black nitro and heavily aged.
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Ragged Glory
That back stripe is the bit i need to think about a lot before i take tools to wood. A few ways i could go with it.
I'm also trying to decide how much of a gold top to make it before it becomes old black. The more i look at it the more I think it needs some remnants of aged bronze powder goldtop under that black.
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There's things I've had, there's things I wanna have"
What’s under the extra round cover plate? I forget… I did know at one time.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The neck has certainly had a lot of work early in it's life. The crown inlay suggests it went back to Gibson for a repair in the early 60's. Really it's all a mystery as it happened so early in the guitars life, much of it before it was given to Young
the back plate suggests it had a switch added behind the bridge. It is the same size as the toggle switch cover. This also suggests it went through a few bridge changes early in its life too. it looks like it may have had a stop bar tailpiece at some point between its early 50's bridge and Bigsby periods.
this is apparently 69
The pickup change is well documented. Interestingly you can see something going on under the B3, and the mini switch by controls has not been added. It's also very shiny and reflecting the trem/bridge
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Following this joker….
I wonder if the switch behind the bridge was the bypass all controls switch, which was then located between the pots when the Bigsby was fitted?.,Or perhaps its is the switch under the B3 that looks awkward to access and perhaps relocated
https://ap-luthier.com/AP-Luthier/OldBlackI.htm
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I am still taking on the occasional refinish/relic job, so this falls into that category
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the black actually peels off rather easy once you find an edge to go at, leaving the sealer coat underneath
I am down to the sealer coat on top, through to the wood on a few patches near the waist on the bass side
I have to say, Tokai did a really good job on this finish on this, definitely not a thick gloopy finish. It is a relatively thin coat of sealer that should sand away relatively quickly. The black/clear coats were pretty thin too
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Neck centre strip; what a massive pain in the arse, could only be justified in the event of a terrible crack with the rod pushing through.
Binding with nibs, how could/do Gibson waste man hours on so something so pointless
The welded on copper bigsby tip!
Aluminium plates and hardware look pretty cool on a black guitar.
Daniel Lanois has his own old black style guitar modelled after Young's:
Dan is a cunning guy, he also kinda stole edge's AC30 delay rig tricks for his own use hahaha
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