Mini to full size humbucker conversion :: 2012 Gibson Les Paul Studio 70's Tribute [9.0 lbs]

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A local player wasn't digging these mini humbuckers and wanted to install full size humbuckers in his Gibson 1970's Tribute Les Paul Studio.  This involves enlarging both pickup cavities with a router.  I used a straightedge to guide my cuts.

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Next is installing corner blocks in order to mount the pickup rings.

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The player supplied a Gibson PAF for the neck and a WCR Icebreaker for the bridge.  New cream pickup rings were fit to the top before the pickups could be mounted.  Making the solder connections at the pots finished off the mini to full size humbucker conversion.

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I used this video from the Youtube channel of Paoson WoodWorking for inspiration on this project.

2010 Gibson Les Paul Studio [7.9 lbs] :: switch issues

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A nice little Les Paul Studio in for a bone new nut and some switching issues.  The toggle switch had been replaced and the solder connections were rather poor.  This style switch is designed to break the connection as opposed to making a connection.  The pickups would cut in and out and there was no neck-only position.  The neck position was not properly kicking away the bridge pickup connection so the contacts needed to be physically adjusted to allow the neck-only pickup.

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Bridge Radius Mismatch :: 2012 Gibson Les Paul Studio [8.0 lbs]

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Bridge Radius Mismatch :: 2012 Gibson Les Paul Studio [8.0 lbs]

The A string was significantly lower on this gold top Les Paul Studio with respect to the fingerboard and was causing fret buzz.  The other saddles notches were filed down to match the radius and the action corrected.  This was the most mismatched bridge radius I've seen yet on a tuneomatic.

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2007 Gibson Les Paul Studio [7.5 lbs] :: replace tuners & drop D setup

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2007 Gibson Les Paul Studio [7.5 lbs] :: replace tuners and set up for drop D.

This came into the shop absolutely filthy with only three strings on it, the G tuner bent and the D tuner shaft broken off.  I spent a good amount of time cleaning the entire guitar before replacing the tuners with a new set of gold Grover Deluxe's.  The bridge was also cleaned, lubricated and the saddle slots recut.

Note this is one of the lighter LP's to grace my bench since I picked up the scale a couple months ago.

2007 Gibson Les Paul Studio :: quick case handle repair

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2007 Gibson Les Paul Studio :: quick case handle repair.

I offered to replace this broken electrical-taped Gibson handle but it was not in the owner's budget. So of course I had to at least improve it with zip ties. It is still a sticky shoddy mess but at least shouldn't let go for a little while. The damn thing almost fell to the ground when I picked it up initially - scared the shit out of me.