Les Paul Florentine: All Soldered Up

With new heat shrink in hand, today I soldered the pickups and switch connections to the wiring harness. Viola! There were no issues at all with the wiring harness, despite the violence metered out to it at times yesterday in my attempts to get it seated properly.

Now this baby makes some serious noise! There's a lot of wire in the cavity (if you look from the right direction you can see it) but who's worried about that? I'm not about to fool with it at this stage. I guess I *may* go back and trim the wires up at a later date, but who am I kidding?

I still have a couple of things to do before I can call this build finished. I have a full fret level and re-dress to do. Also, I need to create a bone nut for this baby. I have ordered a new tool from Stewmac - the 'Safe Slot Nut Guard' so I'll wait for that to arrive before I get started on the bone blank. I also need a truss-rod cover that is fitting for this baby. I am thinking of a hand-cut cream perloid cover, but I'll have to find the right pickguard material. Sounds like i have some ebay trolling to do!

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!

Les Paul Florentine: Bring the Bling & Second Trace Dye

Well, I changed my mind again. My gold hardware arrived today from Guitar Fetish and it looks awesome. Seeing it on the guitar with the original trace dye, it seemed obvious to me that more colour was required for this build. As you can see, there's a 335 style Trapeze Tailpiece, a gold Tune-O-matic bridge and a pair of GFS Dream 180 humbuckers with gold pickup surrounds.

And so it was back to the idea of wine red. I mean how awesome will those gold doodads look on a field of dark red! Over 2 hours I slowly sanded off the original trace dye with 240 grit, paying close attention to those pesky glue spots. 2 whole pieces of sand paper, and a little bit of my sanity later, the job was done and I couldn't wait to get a second trace dye on there to see if my sanding was complete. Here's the result..

All the glue spots are gone (hooray!) and the wine red looks great. This is a darker shade created from 80% cherry red and 20% blue Colortone dyes from Stewmac. Next step is to sand down through the grades again - 360, 400 and 600 to get the surface ready for clear coats and to take a bit of the colour back off the top. The colour will be replaced with a slightly lighter shade (95% cherry, 5% blue). Hopefully this will let the figure pop as much as possible. I can't wait to see the red with the gold!

I still need to decide on a colour for the bottom part of the guitar. I was thinking to just leave it natural with a slight tint from the Tru-Oil that is to come. Hmm.. still not undecided. I may hit it with a slight Amber dye, or a mix of Amber and Red Mahogany or even Medium Brown. I might need to do a couple of experiements to see what they look like though..

Les Paul Florentine - Unboxing

I started a new build today, with the arrival of a Pitbull Guitars ES-2T set neck kit as an awesomely unexpected (and much appreciated!) birthday present. Un-boxing was commenced in haste, and the unassuming cardboard box divested its awesome contents.

The kit is a semi-hollow model with dual f-holes and a nice quilted maple cap. The headstock is pre-shaped and looks pretty schmick, and the rosewood fretboard has nice trapezoidal MOP inlays. The cap and the f-holes are both surrounded in neat white binding, and both the bridge and stop bar have been left undrilled just in case a trapeze tailpiece and floating bridge are desired. Hmm, that's not a bad idea at all!

 So what do I have planned for this bad boy? Well, it's an awesome looking kit and I want to make the most of it - a bit of extra-special treatment. I am thinking a wine-red Colortone dye with black grain highlighting and sexy gold hardware. I'm not too fond of the twirly-whirly tailpiece that came with the kit, so in addition to a gold upgrade I have dialed it back and ordered a new 335 style trapeze in gold. I think I will forego the floating bridge in favour of a fixed ABR-1 tuno-matic bridge just to make re-stringing easier. With the body having the solid central block (like all semi-hollow bodies) the sustain will benefit greatly from having a fixed bridge anyway.

In terms of pickups, I am coveting a pair of GFS Dream 180s in Gold and Pearl (pictured above), surrounded by gold plated brass humbucker surrounds and delivered through a 50s vintage wiring harness. Man do these pickups sound awesome - have a listen:


Should look vintage-fucking-awesome against the wine red body, especially with the gold surrounds. Some gold tuners (naturally) will top the whole thing off - I'm thinking Wilkinson EZI-lock. I mean how awesome does all that sound? I know! I can't wait to get started.

First step - fitting the set neck with a bit of Titebond, doing a fret level and re-crown and then a mock-up assembly to make sure all the hardware fits. I have to wait for my new parts to arrive, so maybe I'll slip in a little sanding as well before the mock-up. Stay tuned!

12 String 335 - It's a Thing of Beauty!

The 335 is finally finished. All agree that the Colortone Amber stain + Tru-oil looks spectacular, as does my choice of tailpiece and GFS Surf-90 pickups. You be the judge!

12 String 335 - The Hardware has Arrived!

My hardware arrived for the 335 build today; pickups, solid metal humbucker mounting rings, and a trapeze tailpiece all in beautiful shiny chromey goodness.

The pickups are Surf 90's from Guitarfetish (GFS). These have received rave reviews from all quarters, and I'm expecting them to really bring the jangle. These pickups were specifically recommended for a 12 string application by the guys at GFS. Suffice to say I have high hopes for the sound. The humbucker mounting rings are also from GFS, and will require some bending to fit the archtop of the guitar. I love the low profile look to them much better than the bulk of the regular humbucker rings, and it's always better to have real metal rather than chrome plated plastic. I'm going to use them on all my builds in the future!

The 12 string trapeze tailpiece is from Allparts and completes the setup. It's not the flashiest tailpiece around, but it was really hard to find any 12 string tailpieces at all! I do like the simple lines it provides however - it compliments the lines of the flamed maple finish. It's going to look awesome with the strings on.

Once I complete the True-Oil finish (only a final wet sand and a polish to go now!), I have only to drill the holes for the bridge posts, and then all these badboys will find themselves installed. I have ordered a set of Brad-Point drill bits from StewMac, so hopefully they will arrive soon. This build is really nearing the finishing line now, and excitement is growing!