Sunday 2 February 2014

Les Paul Florentine: Polishing Done, Hardware Installed

Well today was a big day for the Gibson Florentine. First the polishing was finished using the 'fine' and 'swirl remover' ColorTone compounds from Stewmac. The finish has come up nicely indeed. Not sure I'm going to be able to use my right arm for a couple of days, but hey - that's what it costs!

As soon as the polishing was complete it was on to the shielding of both pickup cavities using my old friend copper foil with conductive adhesive. The ground wire was added to the bridge post, the bridge post hammered home and the ground wire soldered to the bridge cavity wall. Additionally the neck and bridge cavities were joined eletrically with a second lengh of wire soldered at both ends to the cavity walls.


After the shielding was complete, it was time to install the three-way switch. The switch was soldered to some 4-core shielded cable from Stewmac and then placed inside the body using the tried and trusted 5mm aquarium pipe method. You can see how this works in the photos below.




Amazingly, the switch went in relatively easily - it only took three attempts!! Once the switch was in, I just had to get the rest of the hardware in to see what it looked like. I had to widen the hole from the bridge cavity to the outer body to accomodate all the wires, but everything fitted in the end.



I think it is looking pretty damn good, don't you? The gold hardware really sets off the cherry dye job. Anyway, just the wiring to go now. I'm planning on using 50's vintage wiring with the independent volume and treble bleed mods - just like I did with my 335 12 String build. Should sound great with these Dream 180 humbuckers from GFS!

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