• I may not have hypno's skills but I can mod the hell out of a guitar! (Pics inside)
    11 replies, posted
Well, I've got a 2004 Epiphone Les Paul 56 Goldtop. A fine guitar by all accounts, but ordinary guitars like these, which vend for around £300 new, can be modified to play like a guitar worth much, much more. It's good fun to get involved in a project like this, too. So watch and learn! [b]The guitar:[/b] [img]http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab81/Gefferymyman/Epiphone20Les20Paul20195620Goldtop.jpg[/img] A fine guitar. Stock pickups are P90s, which give a lovely fat woody tone, thicker than a single coil but not as dull as a humbucker. [b]Things I didn't like about the guitar:[/b] -[B]High poly finish[/B] - The Korean factories put a LOT of glossy polyurethane on these. This protects them from scratches and drops, but man, it makes it look like a toy. It's plasticy and shiny. It also makes the neck 'sticky' -[B]Stock pickups[/B] - While the neck P90 is a beautifully warm sounding little pup, the bridge pickup is very weak. You lose all your tone when you switch to this one. -[B]Tuning Heads[/B] - This guitar is modelled on a guitar from 1956. So where are the classic Kluson tuners? It comes with reliable but naff looking Grover tuners. Time to replace! [b]Now let's get to work![/b] Right, everything I did here was really damn cheap. I paid £32 for a new set of tuners and fitted these myself. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/publiusdiamond/Photo0567.jpg[/IMG] They're not on perfectly straight because the screw holes are in different places. But it doesn't bother me. You can't even tell from the front. Also, I bought the Gotoh ones, which use a smaller shank, so I had to buy extra washers so they fit in my headstock! Annoying, but cheap enough to fix. Next, I used a little secret technique. Take a kitchen scourer pad like this one [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/publiusdiamond/Photo0479.jpg[/IMG] And use the bristly side to gently rub down the poly finish on your guitar neck. You can't scratch or damage the surface because it's not abrasive enough, but it will knock the poly back enough to give your guitar a much more woody look. It also plays beautifully. This will take you about an hour if you do it right. Add a little polish once you've done, to liven up the shine. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/publiusdiamond/Photo0478.jpg[/IMG] The next part is pretty tough. Replacing pickups is quite a challenging job. But I did it all by myself. Here goes: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/publiusdiamond/Artistic/Photo0693.jpg[/IMG] I bought a mini humbucker from irongear pickups. Only £25. Very cheap for a pickup, and it plays very nicely! I also bought some mini humbucker mounting rings from allparts. I only needed one, but I had to buy a pack of two, which cost £12. Pretty steep for bits of plastic, but never mind. First step is to remove strings, bridge and tailpiece. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/publiusdiamond/Artistic/Photo0694.jpg[/IMG] Now pull that little bastard out [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/publiusdiamond/Artistic/Photo0697.jpg[/IMG] Remember to desolder the cables from their respective places, and remember where the hell they came from! (Usually black and grey are grounded on the control pot, and red is connected to the volume knob). Dropped the new pickup and mounting ring into the cavity [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/publiusdiamond/Artistic/Photo0698.jpg[/IMG] Very nice fit, but sits a little high. When I put strings back on it, they touched the pickup. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/publiusdiamond/Artistic/Photo0701.jpg[/IMG] This is because the pickup has two feet on the bottom which make it stick up. So I had to route two tiny holes which they could sit comfortably in. This was easy with a wood chisel: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/publiusdiamond/Artistic/Photo0702.jpg[/IMG] The treble side was easy because the wood was hollow, so I just bashed it in with a screwdriver. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/publiusdiamond/Artistic/Photo0703.jpg[/IMG] Time to see if it fits... [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/publiusdiamond/Artistic/Photo0704.jpg[/IMG] Looks good! You'll notice I also changed the other pickup cover to one of the new mounting rings, and I quite like the look of it, but not everyone will. So this cost me less than £100 in total to do. Why not have a go yourselves? Thanks for reading! [editline]09:59PM[/editline] Sorry about the size of the pics, I'll resize them!
Nice, how does it sound?
Really sweet, I've got them wired out of phase so it has a nice quack to it. Well worth doing. Bridge pickup is a little quiet on its own, just need to raise it a little bit.
I thought if two waves were out of phase they cancelled out? Or are they not half a wavelength out?
does the sponge thing also work on the body? I can't tell whether or not you did the body or just the neck. Nice mods though!
[QUOTE=Schmaaa;20580423]does the sponge thing also work on the body? I can't tell whether or not you did the body or just the neck. Nice mods though![/QUOTE] I didn't use the sponge on the body, but you can, it gets fantastic results: [img]http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/3838/16hg4.jpg[/img]
I'm sorry but I cringed at the tuners being out of line :v:
Sorry! It couldn't be helped, unfortunately. The screw holes from the old tuners were slightly out from the new ones, so the screw kept trying to find the old hole when I screwed them on. You can hardly tell from the front! Also, glamour shot [img]http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs456.snc3/26081_347241511195_517731195_4248817_831429_n.jpg[/img]
Nice job man, looks great in my opinion. I've only recently gotten into playing guitar and I've so far been afraid to mod or screw with my guitar. But since your attempt turned out so well, I may try to work with mine.
Whoa, nice Maybe I'll try the scourer on my SG, I too don't dig the glossy thing. Putting new pickups in it would scare the fuck out of me
Give me those P90's :haw: I was thinking about not buffing that maple neck, so I could keep the smooth. may lightly wetsand that area of the neck so it's pre-worn like this one.
I'm going to probably sell the other P90 on eBay if you want it. Are you UK?
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