My next project...LP Tribute - take two

[DirtySteve]

What about a 'faux-binding' look? where you paint or stain but mask around the edge to keep a perimeter of bright-looking maple.

This is something I've considered. There are a few different ways I could do it, but I wonder if it's going to look funny without any binding on the neck.

 

[DirtySteve]

My $.02. You mentioned "Rat Rod" and showed an uh, interesting, photo, as a reference.
I'm just finishing a "rat rod" build (31 ford).

I find the notion, a little, problematic when people try to "fake" a look. In true form a "rat rod" guitar would be a collection of guitar parts cobbled together to make a guitar, without trying to hide the fact that you pulled parts from other guitars. The thing is, you already have a Cadillac (Gibson) guitar, you just don't like the paint, and you know that at its heart it's a Cadillac, which is why you don't want to mess with the body of the guitar because you'll ruin the potential reversible value of the instrument. Fair. I get it.

So now my opinion. Do this guitar up nice. You don't want to chop it, it's too nice. Lean into that, this guitar is not the guitar then. It's ok. Make it gorgeous, dig it.

Then, go rescue a piece of shit. Go to an actual automotive flea market and shop around for parts you could use. Like old bakelite radio knobs for your knobs, Little chrome bits to use as farkles. Take a piece of rusty steel and make a pick-guard. Cut the tremolo hole if you need to. Use carb parts as a b-bender. Use old roof vinyl and cover the backplate. Do what you want. It's a frankenstein so who cares. If you drop a nickel in the pickup cavity it would be worth $.05 more than when you bought it.

See the problem with your current LP is that you care about it. And that's not a bad thing. It just means that you can't do this particular project with it. Not properly at least. No one building a "rat rod" is worrying about making the car "reversible" again. They are rescuing pieces of various cars from the scrap pile. (At least the real ones are.) They are unsafe, unruly, and a bunch of work...and a lot of fun.

Yeah, I've pretty much scrapped that whole idea.

 

[DirtySteve]

A little bit different Idea, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway. How about having a tooled leather cover made for it? Like if Waylon Jennings played a Les Paul. Have the same person make you a cool custom strap to go along with it. Totally reversible if you get tired of it, throw an EMG 81 in the bridge and an 85 in the neck, or maybe a HET set.

I wouldn't like that at all. I am still considering active pickups though, but I've never played them so I don't know yet.

 

[DirtySteve]

Paint it all black, satin, non-glossy, and put EMGs (57/66 or 81X/60X).
This is a LP Special Tribute Raven with EMGs:View attachment 149801
Brushed black chrome pickup covers.
Active balance control instead of a switch.
Variable mid control.
EXG expander.
Active tone and master volume.
Hipshot Tone-A-Matic bridge.

Did that guitar come with the actives or did you do that?

One thing about going active is that it would definitely be different that all my other guitars.

 

[DirtySteve]

Speaking of pickups, It's funny, I've always hated any Gibson pickups I've ever tried, but since I got my SC20 all of the sudden my favorite pickups are Gibson. My 2021 LP Tribute came with 490 R&T pickups, I've tried to swap them many times and nothing I've tried sounds as good as those 490s, I love them. Just this week I tried to put a set of Bare Knuckles in it and they didn't sound anywhere near as good as the 490s so today I put the 490s back in.

I bought those Bare Knuckles for my Standard and they sound good in it, but I got this idea in my head that I was going to sell my Standard so last week I put the original Burstbucker 61 pickups back in it and now all I had to do is put the original knobs and pickguard back on and it would be ready to sell. Only problem is I played it again today with the 61s in it and it blew the doors off that plan. It sounds so much better with the 61s than it did with any other pickups I've had in it. Now I don't want to sell it anymore.

The whole reason I swapped the pickups at all in either one of those guitars is because they had covers on the pickups and if I removed the covers they're double black underneath and with the lighter color on both those guitars I like the look of zebra coils, but I couldn't find zebra replacements so I went with other brands. Now I'm starting/trying not to care what the pickups look like because they sound so good. Now I'm not sure if I want to go all black on the Standard, too. I really don't like covered pickups.

 

[JohnH]

This is something I've considered. There are a few different ways I could do it, but I wonder if it's going to look funny without any binding on the neck.

I also thought about it on my '91 ebony/black LP Studio. I wouldn't mind that the neck stayed 'unbound' But my worry would be the huge likelihood of me screwing-up a nice old guitar.

 

[DirtySteve]

I also thought about it on my '91 ebony/black LP Studio. I wouldn't mind that the neck stayed 'unbound' But my worry would be the huge likelihood of me screwing-up a nice old guitar.

Is it a gloss finish? I've seen vids on how to scrape a faux binding on a satin finish or a finish that hasn't been clear coated yet, but I wouldn't think it would work so well on a thicker gloss finish.

 

[JohnH]

Mine was a glossy black, nitro probably? Now it has 30+ years of gentle relicing. The potential for the edge faux-binding is revealed by fore-arm scuffs along the upper edge which have worn away the finish.

 

[december]

Did that guitar come with the actives or did you do that?

One thing about going active is that it would definitely be different that all my other guitars.

Yeah, I put all the EMG stuff in. Completely solderless. Though it takes some time to take it all apart and install everything, it's simple and straightforward.
This guitar comes stock with 496R/500T ceramic passive humbuckers. They're alright, the bridge had a pretty good high gain sound and the middle position had a good clean tone, but the neck pickup on its own was pretty muddy (like most neck pickups in a LP).
The actives have a clarity and punchy percussive attack that passive pickups just can't do. And the addition of the active EQ and balance pots opens up a lot of tonal variation. Using the VMC variable mid control to cut ~200Hz really helps clean up the neck pickup for nice cleans. Using it to boost ~900Hz-1kHz is a nice mid boost for high gain. And the EXG expander that boosts bass and treble while cutting the high-mids... it can make the bridge pickup sound almost like a neck pickup. It's very useful for cleans but you can't use too much of it with high gain.
And the VLPF active tone pots that come with the X-series pickups give a much more usable range of tone than passive tone pots. It's usable all the way to 0, while a passive tone turns to mud by 0.
The ABCX active balance control provides blended pickup tones and eliminates the need for the I/O bus for the switch, which freed up enough room in the control cavity to fit a second 9V battery for 18V.

 

[anitoli]

This is something I've considered. There are a few different ways I could do it, but I wonder if it's going to look funny without any binding on the neck.

No it won't.

 

[fitz]

Speaking of pickups, It's funny, I've always hated any Gibson pickups I've ever tried, but since I got my SC20 all of the sudden my favorite pickups are Gibson. My 2021 LP Tribute came with 490 R&T pickups, I've tried to swap them many times and nothing I've tried sounds as good as those 490s, I love them. Just this week I tried to put a set of Bare Knuckles in it and they didn't sound anywhere near as good as the 490s so today I put the 490s back in.

I bought those Bare Knuckles for my Standard and they sound good in it, but I got this idea in my head that I was going to sell my Standard so last week I put the original Burstbucker 61 pickups back in it and now all I had to do is put the original knobs and pickguard back on and it would be ready to sell. Only problem is I played it again today with the 61s in it and it blew the doors off that plan. It sounds so much better with the 61s than it did with any other pickups I've had in it. Now I don't want to sell it anymore.

The whole reason I swapped the pickups at all in either one of those guitars is because they had covers on the pickups and if I removed the covers they're double black underneath and with the lighter color on both those guitars I like the look of zebra coils, but I couldn't find zebra replacements so I went with other brands. Now I'm starting/trying not to care what the pickups look like because they sound so good. Now I'm not sure if I want to go all black on the Standard, too. I really don't like covered pickups.

I found some '61 Burstbucker zebras with the quick connects on Reverb and put them in my Tribute.
When I got the studio, it had a chrome 490/498 set that was too hot for my taste, so I sold those pups to Vin for his V.
Popped the covers off the old 490/490 set from my Trib and put the black bobbins in the Studio.
I've since added open face covers on the 490's.
(I've swapped them back and forth, but like them like this)

 

[Deftone]

I like the natural look myself. My 1st LP was a 2000 Standard Raw Power. Definitely should have kept it.



It came with cream plastic but I changed it all out to black. You couldn't really even see the binding on it anyway.


I'm currently using a dummy PU in the neck of my '89 Custom. It's a cheap GFS humbucker I pulled the magnet from.

 

[DirtySteve]

I like the natural look myself. My 1st LP was a 2000 Standard Raw Power. Definitely should have kept it.

View attachment 150007

It came with cream plastic but I changed it all out to black. You couldn't really even see the binding on it anyway.


I'm currently using a dummy PU in the neck of my '89 Custom. It's a cheap GFS humbucker I pulled the magnet from.

I might end up just leaving it natural after all this. I thought I knew what I was going to do, but now I can't decide. Thanks to this thread I have too many ideas now.

 

[DirtySteve]

Well after much consideration I've decided to just leave the guitar as it is and put it back together, my heart's just not in it to redo the finish again and I can't decide on what to do. It looks good, I just need to make it sound good. I've addressed the high fret, I have a complete PCB (with switch and jack included) on the way to put it back the way it was originally and hopefully resolve my wiring issues. I have pickups with quick connects and I ordered a new set of black Grover tuners to replace the ones I stole off of it to use on my Melody Maker. Parts should roll in in the next day or 2. I'm really looking forward to getting her up and running again!

 

[guitarbilly74]

This is something I've considered. There are a few different ways I could do it, but I wonder if it's going to look funny without any binding on the neck.

I did that to my Studio. I like the results

 

[DirtySteve]

I did that to my Studio. I like the results

I do too! With the dark color that looks great!

 

[fitz]

Well after much consideration I've decided to just leave the guitar as it is and put it back together

So, all black on the natural finish?
I think that 2nd pic in post#1 looks cool - if that's what you mean.
Are those black bobbin pups 490's?

 

[DirtySteve]

So, all black on the natural finish?
I think that 2nd pic in post#1 looks cool - if that's what you mean.
Are those black bobbin pups 490's?

Yes, like this..

The pickups in the pic are not 490s if that's what you're asking. But the plan is to put the 490s that came in my 2021 Tribute in this guitar, and I'm going to put the reverse zebra Burstbucker 61s that I just ordered for my Standard in my 2021 Tribute instead.. My plan was to put the 61s in my standard, but that's changed, my new plan is to get both my Tributes up and running and sell my Standard.

I hate to do it, but I need to sell my Standard. I love the way it looks, it's my "dream LP" as far as looks, but the 60s profile neck is just too small and it's not comfortable for me to play. I've been struggling with this for a long time, I don't want to sell it, but I can't justify keeping a guitar I don't play just because I like the way it looks.

 

[DirtySteve]

Well, this was a waste of time and money. I got it all put together and strung up and as soon as I started to play I hated it. Forget everything I said before. I'm putting the 490s back in my 2021 Tribute, the zebra 61s are going in my Standard and I'm going to hang on to for now.


I was really hoping the issue was with the wiring and the high fret I found, but it's more than that. I tried, I really did, but I don't know what else to do so I'm done trying to polish a turd. This guitar is just a dog and it's going bye bye.

/thread.

 

[What?]

This guitar is just a dog and it's going bye bye.