Sick Riff Cliff

I covered the inside of the Pot cavity with coper tape. Before sealing up the cavity I used my multimeter to test the continuity of each of my connections to ground to make sure what I want grounded was, and what I did not want grounded was not. Then I closed up the cavity.

The build begins…

Thank go to all the suppliers and manufacturers of the parts used in this project.

I couldn't have done it without you.

If you like what you see check out their products and customize your own guitar. Cliff....

Guitar Prep:

I removed the string, bridge, pickups, potentiometer circuit board, and three way switch. I then stripped the original skin of the guitar, the creepy trees were difficult to remove. The skin itself peeled away in pieces leaving behind a thin layer of sticky glue.

The new trim rings dropped right into the stock Les Paul locations and the screw holes lined up perfectly.

Next was the Emmerson 3-way toggle, I tried to fit it into the cavity but was unable to easily mount it onto the cavity, I found that the wires were soldered on the switch straight out from the contact this made it so the wires were in contact with the side wall and I could not turn the switch to align it so it was straight up and down when switching. Strike one for Emmerson. I ended up de-soldering the wiring, re soldering and covering the contacts with heat shrink tubing. It fit nice after the wiring change, and I was able to make the switch travel straight up and down. I removed the switch and I estimated the length of wire needed for the cable, and crimped on the pins and connector. I used my multimeter to check continuity for each position of the toggle switch. I dropped a star washer inside the cavity, inserted the switch, used the nomenclature plate and a washer and nut on the outside, and tightened up the switch using my ESP Multi-Spanner.

I installed the new metal jack plate from Stewart Macdonald with the jack from the Emmerson kit.

I estimated the length of wire I needed to connect the pickups to the pots and terminated the wires with crimp pins and connectors. I used my multimeter to test the amount of Ohms displayed with the switches in each of the positions to ensure the Pickups and switches were working as expected. I added Copper tape into both pickup cavities.

I turned over the guitar and placed the skin ontop. I lined up the skin and made the cutout for the fingerboard extension. I had to trim it a few times in small increments until it fit the fingerboard and the skin was in the proper position.

Add copper Shielding:

I wanted to keep the build as noiseless as possible, so I added copper tape shielding. I cut lengths of tape and applied them to the walls and bottoms of each of the cutout cavities, I did nor add any to the channel that runs from the 3-way switch to the controls cavity. I did let the tape run over into the channel where I cut it too long. I also made sure it ran over the top edge so it would contact the cover when I screwed it in place.

Purchased parts:

Here is a list of items I purchased to complete this build:

·         Skin, from Inzane Skins, $71.95, HonneyBurst2, Nice color and a good simulation of a two piece book matched flamed maple top.

·         Pickups, Seymour Duncan Whole Lotta Humbucker, $209.00, provided by Sweetwater

·         Pickup Switching Mounting Rings, Seymour Duncan, Triple Shot for Arched top Les Paul Guitars, $55.00, provided by Sweetwater.

·         Emerson Custom Les Paul Push-Pull Prewired Kit, $99.00, provided by Sweetwater

·         Emmerson Custom Prewired 3-way Toggle Switch, $42.00, provided by Sweetwater

·         Mojotone Vitamin T .047uf Tone Capacitors, $11.90, provided by Sweetwater

·         MojoTone CTS Long Shaft Push-Pull Potentiometer 500k, $15.90, provided by Sweetwater

·         Metal Jack Plate for Les Paul, $9.81, supplied by Stewart Macdonald

·         Copper tape 1” wide = 1 Roll = $52.51, supplied by DigiKey

·         Male Housing 4 pin = 1 Pc = $0.42, supplied by DigiKey

·         Male Pins = 10 PC = $1.89, supplied by DigiKey

·         Female Housing 4 pin= 1 Pc = $0.40, supplied by DigiKey

·         Female sockets = 10 PC = $1.55, supplied by DigiKey

·         Total, $571.33

Electronics: I started with the pickups. Assembling the pickups to the pickup rings, and soldering the pickup wires to the solder points on the Triple Shot boards was a snap. You just have to watch out for orientation, the trim rings can only be mounted one way, the switches wind up at the top of the pickup.

Application of the new skin:

I first decided which way I wanted the flame pattern to angle and marked the side that the neck was to face with a penciled arrow. I laid the skin face down on my counter on top of a towel. I located the center line of the image and marked it in pencil on the back. I then marked the width of the neck at the top of the skin so I could see it after I laid the guitar on top of the skin. With a ball point pen, I lightly traced the shape of the guitar by holding the pen straight up. This gave me a 1/8” of space around the whole body of the guitar. I then finalized the outline on the skin in the areas I was unable to trace and trimmed the excess material from the skin creating the Les Paul shaped skin cover.

I turned over the guitar and tried to install the pickguard. I found that the new pickup rings were slightly larger and I needed to adjust the pickguard so it would fit without bending the ring around the Neck pickup, I used my file set and adjusted it until it fit nicely, I also had to adjust the location of the screw hole did not line up well with the hole in the guitars body, I used my needle file to elongate the hole in the direction I needed.

 I covered the inside of the cavity cover with copper tape and screwed it in place.

Potentiometers:

I covered the cavity with copper tape.

I turned over the sticker and started to remove the backing from the top by the fingerboard on the switch side, aligning the fingerboard to the skin on the switch side, and then flipping the skin back, removing the backing from the horn side and aligning it with the fingerboard, once these two sections were set, I rolled the back off the skin a small amount at a time while aligning and making sure there were no trapped bubbles. The contour of the arched top on a Les Paul makes adhering the skin flat and bubble free is difficult and I had to pull it up and set it back in place a few times until I was happy with its placement. I think I just got lucky, getting it to stick without wrinkles or bubbles. I choose to, rather than cutting it short of the edge to allow it to hang over and stuck it down. This accomplished covering all the little chips in the paint on the top edges of the guitar. A small amount of puckering occurs on the tighter curves. I plan on trying a heat gun on these areas to get it to shrink to fit.

Trim to fit:

I used a brand new X-Acto blade to cut out each of the Potentiometer holes and the 3-way switch hole, then trimmed the pickup holes right at the top to the exact shape of the cutout, then cut out the bridge thread inserts.

I ordered the Emmerson kit thinking it was a great place to start when I found that I was unable to order the Potentiometers individually, they were on back order, but I had to nix using the Emerson Prewired kit, the folks at Emmerson decided to be sure I did not wire the pots in any other way then they intended by cutting off all of the connection points they did not want me to use. Of course I did not notice this until I had opened the package and was getting ready to wire the potentiometers, strike two. No returns on electronic components.  Also, the capacitors in the Emerson kit were not the values in the schematic I was using, so rather than experiment, I ordered some of the value shown on the print. Strike three for Emerson. I ordered a set of CTS Pots with the Caps, push pull, long shaft. I mounted them onto the Emmerson board with the two tone pots from the Emmerson kit, and proceeded to follow the wiring diagram that Seymour Duncan has on their website. The schematic is labeled, “2 Volumes, Push/Pull phase switch and series/parallel switch 2 Tones | 3-Way Toggle”, nicely drawn and easy to follow. I used the excess wire I cut off of the pickups to make up the connections between the pots, 3way switch, and the end jack. I made connections to the pickups and the three way switch using the female connectors and female sockets. I used the crimps and connectors for serviceability. I can quickly disconnect the pickups and 3way switch and remove all the components without de-soldering anything.

To remove the glue without damaging the guitar’s finish, I sued a product named, Goo Gone, it’s a citrus based glue remover, I put on some nitrile gloves and spread on the glue remover, I used my finger nail to remove the larger deposits after letting it sit for a while. All the glue came off and the guitar’s finish was not damaged too much. I notice some swirl marks left over from the skin in the paint. No bumps, scratches or surface imperfections were left behind. I did notice that the edges of the guitar did get its paint nicked, most of the nicks occurred before the skin was applied.

Project Les Paul Studio

I’ve had my 2014 Gibson Les Paul a few years now and was disappointed with is look.

I wanted a real Gibson Les Paul but they seemed hopelessly out of reach price wise. Being a beginning guitarist I did not know what the difference between a Gibson and an Epiphone leas Paul, but I do own an Epiphone SG and although it plays well its fit and finish are, so to speak, cheap.

I purchased it from Zzounds they advertised it as “ebony” in color and at the time there were several Studios available that had beautiful wood tops, the price point on this one was half and it was also advertised as a “Demo”. I thought I was getting a “Deal”. Well when it showed up, I was not quite as happy with the “ebony” finish. It was flat black and the pickup rings were a tannish brown color, it’s a heritage color I’m sure, just not for me. There was no way I was returning it. I finally owned a real Les Paul!!!

About a year later I was searching the internet and learned about “Skinning”. A process of putting a “sticker on the guitar’s top of a picture or “wood grain”. I read all the pros and cons and decided I would give it a shot even though it may be detrimental to the guitar’s resonance. There are people on both side of the argument, but I do not think it really applies to my situation.

The cons, state that you will ruin the guitars sustain, dull its tone, ect… None of which can be quantified.

The pros, are that that you can change the guitar’s look without applying paint, a process that can take months to dry and still be easily damaged, you can choose from hundreds of design styles and even have something custom made.

The first time I skinned the guitar I picked an image, something conservative, creepy trees, kind of like being in the woods at dusk in the winter, barren black tree branches against a white sky. I also replaced the pickup rings and pick guard. It came out nice, I received many compliments on the guitar and how well it came out. Pictures of me with the guitar on stage looked very cool, it stood out from all the other instruments, for it being an image instead of a color. No noticeable change in tone or playability, basically still a stock Les Paul with standard pickups and electronics.

Skip ahead a year, I had been reading about Jimmy Page’s number one Les Paul. I will never be able to afford one of those, but, why not emulate the tone? So, I started looking at how his guitar was wired and found many different ways to accomplish similar wiring. So, I settled on one that included a switching product from Seymour Duncan named “Triple Shots”. These allow you to switch from Humbucking to single coil operation. As the name suggest, you can have three different switched settings, Series Humbucker, Parallel Humbucker, Adjustable Coil only, and Slug Coil only. With the three way switch on the Les Paul, I get 4 X 3 different tones, add on the two Push Pull potentiometers, and the switching options increase exponentially.