This project has taken over a year, but today I consider it done.
The guitar started life as a Silverburst Epiphone LPC and to start with the big painting and woodworking had to be done by someone who knew what they were doing...not me...so I sent this second hand guitar off and got the following done:
- reshape headstock
- apply Gibson LPC headstock overlay
- strip back the paint and apply Silverburst finish
- coat with nitro
- apply tint (to make it look like a late 70's one)
when i got it back, about a year ago now, i changed out all the pots and put in some Lace Dirty Hashers...and it was fine for a while. But, although this guitar looked great and felt amazing to play, it didn't sound that great.
So over the next 6-8 months, i tried out a few different pickups until I settled on some Gibson Burstbucker's which i really like. Next I changed out the stop tail piece and the bridge for Faber steel set, and immediately this lifted the tone and resonance to another level. It was as it this point that this guitar started sounding like the real deal.
Interesting story...I was selling an amp and a guy came over to try it out...I had the LP and my Aluminium neck JM next to the amp...the guy asked to play the LP as it was similar to his guitar and his a LP guy. So I hesitantly handed it over thinking his going to think its a chibson. To my surprise, he was taken more by the guitar than the amp...he started questioning me on the year...pickups etc etc...turned out, he had a mid 70's Custom, but he thought mine played nicer. He thought mine was of the same heritage, and had at some point had fretboard replacement...because mine is rosewood...he was a little shocked when I came clean as to the story...so that just confirmed how I felt about the guitar.
So fast forward a couple of months, and I've done the final mod, the only thing that had been bothering me was the fretboard...so I bought some Minwax ebony stain pen...ridiculously easy to apply...over the last 4 nights, I've applied 3 coats and last night i cleaned it and oiled up the board. Tonight, i though the colour would have faded and settled...but no...it looks great.
from humble beginnings:
To this:
And finally...before and after on the fretboard:
Comments
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
(formerly customkits)
I never went down this road to create a rip off Gibson...because even if I dont play it, its something i would hang up on the wall and just appreciate the beauty of.
Reshaping, adding binding etc would probably be more work.
Ill take a few close up shots of it tomorrow.