LP Scratch build

[telentubes]

Martin,
I think it sounds really good. I've been playing it a lot. Will start wiring this weekend. It's going to weigh in at 8 LBS, give or take an OZ or two.

Drilled the hole for the jack.

Here are the pickups I'll use. I have had them in a box since the mid 80's.
The cream uncovered is a Dimarzio.
Does anyone recognize the other?

The Dimarzio is a little hotter than the other (around 7.7 vs 7.2. It doesn't sound too bad. The chrome is a little muddy) but the pole pieces are not wide enough to work in the bridge slot, so I'm installing them the other way around. Just so I can plug it in. "Real" pickups will come later. I had a fascinating chat with JM Rolph yesterday that lasted over an hour and a half, complete with over the phone demos. He's quite a guitar player and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the industry. Pretty fun conversation.

[martin manning]

Beautiful! I guess you went with the two-plane rout for the floor of the control cavity? What about caps? Any thoughts on those or which circuit to use yet? I'll bet that was an interesting conversation with Rolph. Did he have anything to say about the electronics?

[Reeltarded]

Pull the cover. That is a late 60s T-Top Pat# Gibson pickup.

[Reeltarded]

Martin is pretty much dead on with the bridge setup. I flip a saddle if I need more action and leave the adjustment side toward the neck.

I only use a tiny millionth drop of CA to retain the saddles if I am playing in the dark and pull the strings off.

[telentubes]

The Gibson pickup was in a 70s tele that I bought in the 80s. I had the guitar taken apart when our house was broken into and stripped of valuables, while we were at work. Musta missed the lone pickup. I never put it back in a guitar, till now.
So is a late 60s T-Top Pat# Gibson pickup a cool pick-up??? I hope I hope.
Anyhow my wiring plans turned into a day of dead ends and missing parts, so I didn't get very far. I was hoping to plug in.
I'm going 50s wiring.

I asked JM Rolph about caps and pots etc. He hit me with more information than I could take in, except for the caps, where he said to find some Bumblebees (obviously the real ones and not the Gibson scammer caps). He said they can be found in the Model # 53 Baldwin Organs, which I knew, but if you don't, that's what you look for on Craig's List etc.

I will eventually get some Bumblebees, but for now I just stuck some Mallorys in there. I've heard that Paper in Oil caps work well. Any thoughts?

Here's the jig for the second control cavity route, and the wiring I got done.

Miles...
So pull the cover to improve the tone?

[telentubes]

vibratoking,
The neck at this point is a pretty fat "boat" shape. I'm finding that I'm rounding the apex (taking the "point" off the "V") as I play this thing more. The "V" does disappear into your hand though, once you get used to them, and I contend that fat necks sound better, and stay in tune better. Personal taste, of course.

[telentubes]

Oh I see. Take the covers off to see if there is a "T" on the bobbins.

[rp]

Oh I see. Take the covers off to see if there is a "T" on the bobbins.

You probably know this but just in case, don't use a solder pistol (as everyone did for decades) it's a big energized coil, use an iron for stained glass work or gutter work, otherwise a careful dremel. Not sure what covers Gibson used when but if it's brass rather than nickle-silver base taking the cover off is a good thing.

I can't believe what it takes just to drill the jack hole right. Good thing I never tried anything like this, what a mess I would have made.

[telentubes]

rp
I did not know that. Not a clue. Thanks.
And yes, every step that looks so simple turns out to be involved.
The up side is, if I ever do this again, I'll have lots of jigs already made.

[Reeltarded]

Yessir T for That'll work!

They are fine pickups. The era doesn't intrest me so much but there is nothing wrong with the electronics at all. Not better than or worse than a PAF, but different. Like everything.

Very cool guitar!

[xtian]

50s wiring! I just did that to my Agile. Very nice. I'm liking it much better, since I can roll the volume back a bit without so much treble loss.

[telentubes]

I wired up the pickups today. Gibson pickup at the bridge. Dimarzio at the neck. Underwhelming first impression.
Yes, the two pickup are poorly matched, but besides that, I didn't like the sound of the guitar much at all. I changed the caps to 6PS Orange drops, which helped a little. Hoping that I can sort things out with electronics, and it's not the guitar. The high end is brittle and harsh, like a telecaster can be. Maybe it's the new Vin 30 speaker in the Princeton. Who knows at this point. I've got some work ahead of me to sort it out. Hopefully I can just throw a different set of pickups and caps at it, but reluctant to spend a pile of money on boutique stuff if the guitar, tonally, isn't up for the task. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

[telentubes]

Would lowering the value of the volume pots help cut treble?

[vibratoking]

Lowering the vol pot values will reduce some treble and signal.

FWIW, I have swapped a lot of electronics hoping to improve the sound of many different guitars. Barring broken parts, the swaps have made very little improvement. All that said, the Gibson Historic or very expensive 50s CTS pots help to widen the useful adjustment range for volume and tone. I very rarely ever run the vol or tone pots full up. That's not where LPs sound good IMO.

You might find this clip interesting...I did. Good luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkGCvLstPrE

[telentubes]

vibratoking. What you said has been my experience as well. I'm not giving up, but I was hoping for better first results. However, it's not painted yet, and that can have a big effect on tone. If done right, for the better.
Good video with Joe. Thanks for that.