Les paul restoration

citizenerased1

Guys, bought a gibson les paul!

Happy days!!

The hardware is made ****e off (unhapppy days):pac:

So the stopbar tuner heads input jack pickup covers potentiometers basically anything metal has like a weird crust on it very rust like, not liking that

Guitars frets are as filthy as a german smut movie...

So im wondering does anyone have any advice on gettin this beauty looking spick and span?:D

punchdrunk

if you got a good deal,and are willing to spend a bit of money
Tonepros make the best Gibson style bridge I've ever used..

here's my SG fitted with them



they make tuners now too

hopefully the pickups are good,
if not then I thoroughly recommend bare-knuckle pickups in Devon

crainnog

I've recently done this work for a friend of mine who bought a les paul studio, but all the hardware was rusted.
I got everything from eBay for less than 100 blips - delivered and all!
I needed to get a new bridge and tunomatic piece, new pickup covers, new machine heads, pickup rings, wiring upgrade and strap locks.
Once ya steer clear of Gibson branded stuff, you'll get it all fairly cheap and yer guitar will look gorgeous!

Seziertisch

punchdrunk wrote: »

if you got a good deal,and are willing to spend a bit of money
Tonepros make the best Gibson style bridge I've ever used..

here's my SG fitted with them



they make tuners now too

hopefully the pickups are good,
if not then I thoroughly recommend bare-knuckle pickups in Devon

Callaham also make an excellent bridge. The word on the online street is that it is a step up from Tone Pros, but seeing as I haven't compared personally I can't say for definite either way.

Quattroste

punchdrunk wrote: »

if you got a good deal,and are willing to spend a bit of money
Tonepros make the best Gibson style bridge I've ever used..

here's my SG fitted with them



they make tuners now too

hopefully the pickups are good,
if not then I thoroughly recommend bare-knuckle pickups in Devon

Stop showing that picture ya b@stard It never fails to gas me out!

OP. What about cleaning the parts up befire deciding on removing. Have you got pictures?

CiaranK

How Much did you pay for it and where did you get it? I did up an old peave, for the Guitar and parts it cost €75! I would love to do another one.

punchdrunk

actually before i spent a penny i'd be checking are those pickups working!
if they are and you don't want to spend big money on tone pros/callaham hardware then waltons seem to be pretty well stocked with budget Gibson fit parts at the moment,which could be upgraded over time to the good stuff

Quattroste...gotta post the pics as often as possible!!

cause when uneducated folk see them in the house they usually just go
"oh you bought another one,...why??"

your the only people who understand

Demeyes

You can try cleaning up some of it first. The frets should clean up fine, so will the fretboard if it's bad. I've got a planet waves polishing thing for my frets. It's a little card template and a piece of treated cloth so you just rub the frets clean. It will make them look great again.
The fretboard can be cleaned up with a tooth brush if it's really bad, followed by some fretboard conditioner like lemon oil.
As for replacement stuff, I would not cheap out on the big things like the bridge or tuners. If you get cheap ones of those your guitar probably won't hold it's tuning well.

Dord

The tonepros is a gotoh with a locking allen nut to stop it falling down the bridge posts. Costs a bit extra but bloody worth it!

I have one on my Les Paul Junior.

eoin5

If its nickel hardware then you should have no problem cleaning up the parts. Get some fine steel wool.

punchdrunk

eoin5 wrote: »

If its nickel hardware then you should have no problem cleaning up the parts. Get some fine steel wool.

Oooh not sure about this??

aren't most parts just lightly nickel plated?
i'd be weary of using something abrasive

eoin5

If fine steel wool takes off nickel plating then its ready to fall off anyway. People often use a little drop of light oil to help the process.

punchdrunk

bump for an update!