ItsaBass
New member
Hi,
I bought this '04 Les Paul Standard new that summer. It has a Latte Cream finish with the '50's neck. Until recently, it was almost always used as a backup to my Black Beauty, so I never got around to the fine tuning work that new production-line Gibsons always need. It needs a properly slotted and back-angled nut, end dressing/rounding of the plastic fret nibs, and all the frets need to be crowned. The Gibson frets out of the factory are very boxy IME, not properly crowned or end dressed (but then again, practically no guitar factory end dresses frets very well). Additionally, the stock Gibson hardware isn't very good either. Not only do I dislike the Nashville bridge design in general, but the fitment of the post anchors on this guitar is terrible. They'll fall right out of the holes if the guitar is turned upside down without the bridge on.
I've always wanted to address these issues, but they were never pressing, so I let them lie. I eventually sold my Black Beauty, so the Standard became my only carved-top Lester. Still procrastinated, dealt with it, etc. The last straw was when I was setting up the guitar after changing string gauges, I noticed that the bridge is caving. That was it! Since I work so much these days, and I like my off time to be true off time, I arranged with my old guitar guy Eric Chaz to do the needed work. I'll be converting to Callaham ABR-1 bridge with Nashville conversion posts, getting the nut replaced, and getting the frets leveled, crowned, polished, and the nibs end dressed. I thought about a whole fret job, eliminating the plastic end nibs and going with my preferred skinny Fender frets. but I think I'll go ahead and work through these stock ones first. As long as they are dressed properly, I'll like them a whole lot more.
I am very excited to finally get her into proper tune, and here she is:
I bought this '04 Les Paul Standard new that summer. It has a Latte Cream finish with the '50's neck. Until recently, it was almost always used as a backup to my Black Beauty, so I never got around to the fine tuning work that new production-line Gibsons always need. It needs a properly slotted and back-angled nut, end dressing/rounding of the plastic fret nibs, and all the frets need to be crowned. The Gibson frets out of the factory are very boxy IME, not properly crowned or end dressed (but then again, practically no guitar factory end dresses frets very well). Additionally, the stock Gibson hardware isn't very good either. Not only do I dislike the Nashville bridge design in general, but the fitment of the post anchors on this guitar is terrible. They'll fall right out of the holes if the guitar is turned upside down without the bridge on.
I've always wanted to address these issues, but they were never pressing, so I let them lie. I eventually sold my Black Beauty, so the Standard became my only carved-top Lester. Still procrastinated, dealt with it, etc. The last straw was when I was setting up the guitar after changing string gauges, I noticed that the bridge is caving. That was it! Since I work so much these days, and I like my off time to be true off time, I arranged with my old guitar guy Eric Chaz to do the needed work. I'll be converting to Callaham ABR-1 bridge with Nashville conversion posts, getting the nut replaced, and getting the frets leveled, crowned, polished, and the nibs end dressed. I thought about a whole fret job, eliminating the plastic end nibs and going with my preferred skinny Fender frets. but I think I'll go ahead and work through these stock ones first. As long as they are dressed properly, I'll like them a whole lot more.
I am very excited to finally get her into proper tune, and here she is:
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