Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

daan

New member
Man I REALLY gotta stop looking at Ebay... I was looking for parts for my 543534 other projects, and happened upon this one.

It's a '91 LP Studio "Lite", meaning it's hollowed out and filled with "Chromyte" (balsa) A guy I know has a pile-0-LPs and his LPSL was the one I liked best, so I had been kinda searching for one for a while. This one popped up, it's stripped and has a neck break, so I could afford it. The Lites usually came with Black hardware, and super hot Ceramic pups so I would have wanted to change all that anyway... Just what I needed, another project (eye roll, "Didn't you need the $ to complete HOW MANY other guitars?")
Anyway this was something I'd always wanted, and I had enough dough, so I grabbed it. If it really isn't what I need, it's not my usual bottom-0-the-barrel stuff, so I SHOULD be able to pass it along...

A lot of these came in strange colors, like all black back with a brown tinted top, or "clown burst", I'm glad I found a normal-ish burst one.
I read that they used up the last of their "good" light Mahog. on these, so the back is probably 3-5 pieces, hence the opaque paint.

I'm very OK with multi-piece bodies, if the nicest sounding guitar I have is made out of Masonite, this should be fine.
I also have some of the hardware this needs (Tone Pros bridge/tail) and if any of my crap sells I'll get the rest.
What size tuners did these usually come with, were they 10mm ones, or is there some other size Gibson used? And the big question, should I get the Slash set, or the WLH pups? (grin)
I'm at work right now, and this should be at my door when I get home tomorrow, I'm actually really stoked about it. I've always wanted a "real" LP, I know all the arguments for getting any number of copies instead, but I wanted to have a proper one at least once. Just not the same cherry sunburst, tiger striped 59 style one everybody else has, as nice as those are. One of the Drs I work with has a R9 or R0 (can't remember now what it is) and a super fancy PRS of some sort, I think I'm the only one here who plays so he sometimes brings in his new "toys" so I can ooh and aaah over them. This will be fun, to bring mine in later this week, I'm pretty sure he paid more for the CASE for his than this thing just cost me.
Of course, more pix when I have it in hand.
 
Re: Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

I like it. Looks like a cool project. What are you thinking for pickups?
 
Re: Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

I like it. Looks like a cool project. What are you thinking for pickups?

If I didn't have to follow a budget, I'd already have a WLH set on its way to me. As it is, it'll probably get a set of A2/A5 humbuckers of some sort. I already have a couple guitars with Super D's (or clones of them) so I want some "vintage PAF" types for this. Plus what I read was the stock pups in these were super hot ceramic ones, so those are out, too. Hmm, I wonder if anyone on here has an opinion about this topic...:smash:
 
Re: Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

I'm super anxious to get this, and they just asked me to stay over tomorrow (work a double). I wanna say NO just to go home to collect this, but if I do enough OT I can buy more parts to finish it...
 
Re: Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

You 'should' be able to pass it along, but who are you kidding? Unless it turns out to be a real POS, there's no way in hell. (But if you do, I'm calling 'dibs'.)
 
Re: Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

OK I'm finally home, and can finally check it out. THe first thing I notice is the huge hole in the box...

:bigeyes2:
THe next thing I noticed was that the box was so light, I thought they forgot to put the guitar in it before they shipped it... (I weighed the guitar once I got it all out, it's 5.4 pounds. Lighter than my ash/maple Hondo LP, even though that one's thinner than the "real" LP. THey don't call this a "Lite" for nuthin', huh?)
I tore it all open, and it's fine. I was pretty worked up there for a minute...

When I read up on these, the article said most of them were multi-piece bodies and tops. I've seen ones with 3 and 4 piece tops, and the backs are usually an opaque color. The auction pics made it look like it was brown paint

but on actually inspecting the guitar, it really looks like a one-piece back. Either they did a REALLY good job matching the pieces, or it's veneered...



So that was a nice bonus. The wood is a real nice shade, I love Mahogany.
The neck was definitely broken at some point, but it SEEMS to be fixed right (just completely visible)

I don't really care, as long as it was fixed right.
I was expecting it to be completely stripped, but it still has the strap buttons, TRC, and jack plate. And cracked pup rings. And the back covers. All with black screws. Oh and a weird lookin' white nut.

I have Nickel stuff to replace everything, and I kinda want to get Cream plastic stuff.
There does appear to be sparkly gold nail polish splashed all over the guitar


It's all over the top and the neck. I got it off the fret board (carefully) with some Acetone, but I was afraid to get any on the body, I'm not sure what takes nail polish off, but DOESN't take Lacquer off... I got this expecting to want to refinish it (actually to freak out and do it all Candy Apple Red like my first guitar)

but I actually like the way this looks so I want to keep it the color it already is. (Well, I want to freak out and do cream binding, but that's WAAAY down the road before I mess with something like that...
I actually have enough bits from my other guitars that I could have this one up and playing by the weekend... but I want to do it right, and get quality parts for this, without robbing stuff off the other guitars. It is tempting to just get it done, though...
Oh yeah, I ordered a Tone PRos bridge and tailpiece for it right away, and when I tried to put them in, the tailpiece holes were way bigger than the bushings...

So apart from that, I'm real happy with what I got. Now if my crap on Ebay just sells, I can get the rest of the parts to finish this thing...
 
Re: Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

That's awesome man! Lots of cool tones to be had with that one.
 
Re: Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

Looks like a great back and top. The neck repair looks solid too. Cream and nickel will look nice on that. 10mm Locking Grovers would be nice on that. If this guitar is bright, like it maybe, regular A2P's for the Slash sound. Otherwise, Whole Latta's.
 
Re: Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

This looks like a fun project. Gibson was using balsa in many guitars around that time. I had a Howard Roberts with a balsa center block. Not their finest moment.
 
Re: Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

It's always awesome to have a project guitar, much closer bond with the instrument. gratz!
 
Re: Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

Looks like a great guitar. Those might almost have a semihollow type tone.

The repair looks like it was done very well, and the interface looks to be quite tight - as in it has good contact between the halves. Its impossible to hide the repair save for an opaque refin, but I think you've done well.

Ebony for the fretboard??
 
Re: Joined the "LP club" (NGD)

They didn't specifically mention either thing, but there was a picture of the neck and it LOOKED like a repaired crack... plus the price was about 1/3 of a "good" one.
I spent a few hours yesterday trying to get the polish off it. Each layer of lacquer you spray, "melts in" to the layer below it, so the polish splatters are "in" the finish, instead of laying on top like it would on a Poly-type finish. So I was able to get a lot of it off, but not all.

How I got it, and

after a couple hours with auto buffing compound. And I know it looks "sanded", but that's actually a reflection of the ceiling... its super mirror glossy now.

I also buffed the back, there were a lot of scratches and "buckle rash" which is mostly gone now.

I also pulled out the pup sets I have for other projects to see what they'd look like:

Dimarzios

Zebras!
Although I really want Nickel pups for this. Once I can afford some...
 
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