What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

[blueman335]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

On mine straps locks were the first thing to do.

+1. Strap locks are a must. I was at a small fundraiser in Sarasota, the draw being two of the town's residents, Brian Johnson and Dickie Betts. They played separately, but did a blues song together (talk about the odd couple). Dickie's LP burst was brought to the gig in a limo with body guards. They brought it inside to him. He didn't have a strap, and had to borrow one from another guitarist. In the middle of a song, the strap came loose and the guitar fell, Dickie caught it just before it hit the floor. Whew. All the security for that guitar, and to almost drop it. After that, all my guitars have gotten strap locks.

 

[LReese]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

Fretboard scalloping is a must!

Bonus points if you get a Tele bridge with string-through on there.

 

[blueman335]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

Fretboard scalloping is a must!

Bonus points if you get a Tele bridge with string-through on there.

Hello. We're talking LP's here.

 

[LReese]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

Hello. We're talking LP's here.

Hello - I am too. Noticed the smiley???

Edit - Lookee here:

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

I have 3 Les Pauls. I have put different pickups in all of them. My Goldtop has a set of Seth Lovers, my Custom also has Seth Lovers and my Standard has a set of Bare Knuckle Black Dogs. All of them have stock pots and modern wiring but I have changed the caps to PIO.

I put nickel plated tone pro stuff on the gold top, including an aluminum stop. My Custom has an ABR bridge.

Ahhh, i would LOVE to see your three LP's as well mate !!!

I have a couple of pics of some of them, and I'll post them when I get my new computer set up. I am very fortunate to have some beautiful guitars.

Thanks for asking.

Bill

Thanks . . . can not wait to see 'em !!!

 

[y2stevo]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

Floyd Rose....




















....






:laugh2:

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

Fretboard scalloping is a must!

Bonus points if you get a Tele bridge with string-through on there.

 

[LReese]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

^^^ I like that - a lot, but there's the scallops?

Its also screaming for a B-Bender...

Let me get proof I'm talking about LP's...

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

Super Strats are not the answer to all guitar-related questions, nor do they appeal to everyone for a number of reasons. And thanks for the recommendation for one in a thread about LP mods. Excellent fit.

Les Pauls aren't the answer to all guitar-related questions either, but in a thread with a title like this one has, they are.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

Gimmie!!!

:headbang:

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

Just pickups, pots, and caps, 11's.....and a bone nut if the original bothers me for any reason.

The best upgrade is playing it well... and plugging it into great sounding amps.

 

[blueman335]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

Les Pauls aren't the answer to all guitar-related questions either, but in a thread with a title like this one has, they are.

I'm well aware LP's aren't for everybody, and I have other guitars besides LP's. I'm a big advocate for having a variety of guitars. No single guitar model is going to please everybody. I think it's funny that this sometimes comes as a shock to Strat fans.

 

[LReese]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

 

[Aceman]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

In general

#1 pickups to whatever flavor suits them. Usually a ceramic screamer in the bridge
#2 Klusons suck moose knuckle.
#3 500k neck. I keep the 300k bridge, because see #1
#4 Straplocks.

 

[phil_104]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

The first thing I dig is changing the bridge pickup to something with more output.
Then I like to add straplocks, because I like them.
On my Gibson LP Trad, I added a bigsby that I put on and off every 6 months or so.

The important thing to forget, is that you need to respect the instrument, but not too much. Have fun with it.

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

The one where they change my forum badge to "Showmasterologist".

Just kidding. The one I'm going to do first is put a Jazz neck and FS bridge in it, then the Stewmac P Switch (does the PRS switching mod). Then I'm probably going to put a new hole in the body so that I can have independent neck and bridge volume, but master tone.

On my ESP EC-1000FM I'm not going to change a thing because I don't want to decrease the resale, and because, to be honest, it's already perfect.

The mods I've liked the most are the push/pull split mods. If the Showmaster had a Les Paul three-way switch, I'd put the push/pull mod in for splitting them. I've had that before in a cheaper ESP LTD, and it was great. However, Showmasters have the blade switch. Hopefully I can wire the P-Switch so that I have independent neck/bridge volume (which is what I prefer: neck on 7 until/unless I use it for a solo, but bridge on 10 because I usually solo with it). I'll find out. If the P-Switch doesn't work, I may use a superswitch if it will work for what I want, or just stay with one master volume and one master tone. To be honest, the most useful thing to me about a stock Les Paul is the one volume and one tone per pickup.

Other mods I normally perform: straplocks, graphtech stringsaver saddles, locking tuners (but most Showmasters have them already, IIRC).

Past mods I've performed: replacing a few of the pole pieces with the allen head pole pieces to balance out the bass....

Future mod: I'll buy a Showmaster SSS and put three stack pickups in it and set it up so that in positions 2 and 4 they're split.

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

Hello - I am too. Noticed the smiley???

Edit - Lookee here:

OMG......puke lol

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

I left the stock strap locks on my custom. I got a strap with locking slots instead. Still might go to dunlop strap locks in the future though. I still haven't changed pickups yet from the 498/490 set because I cant make up my mind on a replacement set lol. Im keeping the stock nut and pots for the time being but I can see 500K pots and a Tusq XL nut in my future

 

[Aceman]

Re: What upgrades are you guys doing on Les pauls?

Excuse me Mr. Delahunt,

Greetings. I notice you have been around since 06 yet i don't recognize you. I see that you have 35 posts and gloss. I note that you are in Japan. This is all highly irregular. I do like your general taste in LP upgrades. My dean Cadillacs are actually like that.

Please stop by the Soundoff Room and introduce, or re-introduce yourself, as it were!

Sincerely,

Aceman