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Re: Hardware shopping for Les Paul



hey guys Luigie,Ingo and Bill thanx a lot for your advice,my Les Paul
Standard Natural is actually a 1976 and not a 74, sorry my bad.
Ive heard or read somewhere sometime that there were some changes
around that time withthin the gibson company and changes as far as
quality of components as well,so i really dont know how valuable that
original hardware is on the 76 LPs.
anyway here is a pic of one,this is exactly how mine looks

http://www.guitar-museum.com/uploads/guitar/999/88025-1.jpg

The pickups squeal really bad i cant even use the overdrive full
blast,though clean is no issue,you think thats electronic issues
rather than the pickups themselves?
Also the toggle switch creates sort of a static noise and seems to
amplify the tone buttons when you touch them so thats why i want to
get all those parts as well if neccesary.
thanx guys ill be checking out your recomendations.
Luis




On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 4:05 AM, William Walker <billwalker@baymoon.com> 
wrote:
> If  my experience buying and selling vintage guitars over the last 30 
> years
> carries any weight with you Louis , my advice to you is if it is stock, I
> would only replace gears with kluson or klusen style  reproductions that 
> fit
> the exact footprint, several good quality ones are available from WD and
> Allparts. don't ream out your tuner holes for larger tuners if you can 
> help
> it. it will de-value your instrument. Are yours the tulip shaped metal 
> ones
> with gibson stamped on the back, or do they have plastic buttons?  If its
> already been done before, try to at least match the foot print of the 
> newer
> tuners rather than make new holes. getting a new nut and having fret work
> done is essential and won't effect the guitars value, the bridge, is most
> likely bowed by this point, the result of years of string tension, and 
> the
> commonly held belief  that screwing a stop tail piece all the way down 
> gives
> you more sustain and better coupling, true to an extent, but it will also
> increase the likely hood of string breakage, and the afore mentioned 
> bridge
> warping, and hey its a les paul, its got the sustain thing happening. 
>  also
> its probably prone to vibration issues as its gotten stressed over the
> years. So you will need to get a bridge and i would suggest a tone pros
> tune-amatic as they have set screw anchor reinforcements so they couple
> better. ditto with the stop tail piece, keep your originals. As far as 
> the
> tone controls go, they often can be revived with some contact cleaner and
> the toggle switches and jack can be re-tensioned, so again replace only 
> if
> you have to.  ditto with the pickups, though in this case if you really 
> want
> a change keep the old ones and avoid routing if at all possible. As far 
> as
> humbucking pickups go if you are going for a classic sound bear in mind 
> that
> you probably have a maple neck that sounds brighter than a mahogany neck 
> so
> a slightly overwound pickup might darken it up a bit to compensate. I 
> like
> pickups with alnico II magnets,they are warmer with better sustain than
> alnico v's or ceramics.  Duncan makes some great ones and they would 
> sweeten
> up a maple neck guitar. I suspect your guitar is suffering form fret 
> issues
> bridges issues  nut issues and tuner issues and electronic issues not
> related to the pickups, and if you get those taken care of first, you 
> might
> find you like the sound of the stock pickups.
> Bill
>
>



-- 
www.luis-angulo.com