jackass
Well-known member
what wood is the neck made off?
Memphis/greco
- Thread starter jackass
- Start date
Help Support Tokai Forum:
jmc627855
Member
Don't know what the neck is exactly, as I am not stripping it down. Looks like similar grain through the color, so I am speculating maple or mahogany.
I will take some pics as it is almost finished getting its rehab and just got its first basic setup with the new bridge, tailpiece and nut.
Interesting note, I think I have at least made a good educated guess at the date of the guitar. Looks like 1978.
The wiring inside the control cavity seems to be original, and the grey insulation on the wires to/from the 3 way toggle say "Pacific 1978" on them.
I don't know who "Pacific" is, except I speculate they are a Pacific based wire/cable company.
But its clearly a 1978 date on the wire. Maybe check your cavity wiring to see i there is a date on it?
It may be luck of the draw as it might be covered up in the passthru areas and not visible.
I tried to get a clear picture of the words on the wire, but its simply to small for my camera to get clearly.
I will take some pics as it is almost finished getting its rehab and just got its first basic setup with the new bridge, tailpiece and nut.
Interesting note, I think I have at least made a good educated guess at the date of the guitar. Looks like 1978.
The wiring inside the control cavity seems to be original, and the grey insulation on the wires to/from the 3 way toggle say "Pacific 1978" on them.
I don't know who "Pacific" is, except I speculate they are a Pacific based wire/cable company.
But its clearly a 1978 date on the wire. Maybe check your cavity wiring to see i there is a date on it?
It may be luck of the draw as it might be covered up in the passthru areas and not visible.
I tried to get a clear picture of the words on the wire, but its simply to small for my camera to get clearly.
jmc627855
Member
I'm in RI. I'll get a pic of the headstock overlay and the rest of the guitar maybe this weekend.
jmc627855
Member
Here's the finished product, and a close up of the headstock "adjustment"......
[/img]
[/img]
jackass
Well-known member
looks nice!
I think I will refinish mine also...
I think I will refinish mine also...
jmc627855
Member
cool. Have fun doing it! Lemme know if you figure out what year yours is as well.
jackass
Well-known member
let's resurrect this very old thread. I decided to finally start the completion of this one, after it's been in the case completely stripped/ bindingless/ inlay-less for about 10 years. The project had been put on hold, since I didn't play the guitar anymore/ home renovations/ family life/ working on client’s guitars/ other bands where I play bass/.../well, you know what I mean.
Lately I've been looking at LP customs again, but with the current prices of Norlin era ones, I don't see myself owning a 'real' 1981 custom soon... so, I decided to finalize this project as my 'guitar for life' and I'm going to go all made-to-measure on it. I'll be going all-in on this one. Doing the work myself (being a guitartech) in cooperation with a good friend of mine who's luthier by craft. We sat aside this weekend and brainstormed/discussed my kind of over the top idea's.
Just for referece sake, I borrowed a 76 Gibson LPC last week to do all measurements on, and all measurements match with mine up to 1mm differences here and there. Of course, the only thing which doesn’t match up is the body thickness, since mine obviously has a thinner body. Around the start of this project a long time ago, I measured up an 81 too and this was very similar, but I lost the written down results anymore…
So it matches up and there’s no visual differences between them. Apart from the wood choices that is, since mine is an all maple specimen instead of the mahogony back/maple top on the real deal. (although my coworker isn’t entirely sure that it’s maple, opposed to what I was told over the years on forums and doing research).
What we are aiming for at the moment (and keep in mind this guitar was/is one of my best playing ones ever, so I think it's worth it):
- make a new fretboard in ebony (with real MOP block inlays);
- fretboard binding with fret nibs (since they were there initially also + I like it that way);
- new frets, but still deciding what size I want on it;
- modify the one ply binding around the headstock to a 5 ply;
- modify the top binding to a 5 ply or 7 ply instead of the LP standard style one ply (and there was a black purfling initially);
- and then: we will take a layer off of the back, which is now rounded as a LP standard, by routing a whole slab off, and we will add a mahogony (or some likewise species) backside to it to thicken up the body up to specs;
- add a 5 ply back binding;
- new bone nut;
- add all new (old stock which I have laying around) nickel hardware which will be aged (I like the look of aged nickel over the gold plated look);
- ABR style bridge directly mounted in the body (already installed maple dowels in the holes from the inserts);
- Grover tuners (tulips or the vintage looking Kluson type)
- make a complete new wiring harness with CTS pots/ cloth wire/ switchcraft output…
- still trying to decide on the finish/colour...
- the final product will be slightly reliced and aged, but nothing excessive, I just want to make it look the age it is; I will try to make it look real, with real 80’s les pauls used as reference;
Done already:
headstock inlay with an 81 period correct Greco script (thx to Tulsa Hanson from Alberta Canada, who is on the Mylespaul forum), combined with a crown inlay. Before anyone gets all fired up: I decided to go the Greco script style because of the fact it's made with the same specs in FujiGen. This will NOT be for resale, hence the script/crown combo which has never been done by Greco and it will support an all custom (referring to me) serial number also to state this is not a guitar for resale.
I’ll try to post pictures of the progress from time to time, for those who are interested
Lately I've been looking at LP customs again, but with the current prices of Norlin era ones, I don't see myself owning a 'real' 1981 custom soon... so, I decided to finalize this project as my 'guitar for life' and I'm going to go all made-to-measure on it. I'll be going all-in on this one. Doing the work myself (being a guitartech) in cooperation with a good friend of mine who's luthier by craft. We sat aside this weekend and brainstormed/discussed my kind of over the top idea's.
Just for referece sake, I borrowed a 76 Gibson LPC last week to do all measurements on, and all measurements match with mine up to 1mm differences here and there. Of course, the only thing which doesn’t match up is the body thickness, since mine obviously has a thinner body. Around the start of this project a long time ago, I measured up an 81 too and this was very similar, but I lost the written down results anymore…
So it matches up and there’s no visual differences between them. Apart from the wood choices that is, since mine is an all maple specimen instead of the mahogony back/maple top on the real deal. (although my coworker isn’t entirely sure that it’s maple, opposed to what I was told over the years on forums and doing research).
What we are aiming for at the moment (and keep in mind this guitar was/is one of my best playing ones ever, so I think it's worth it):
- make a new fretboard in ebony (with real MOP block inlays);
- fretboard binding with fret nibs (since they were there initially also + I like it that way);
- new frets, but still deciding what size I want on it;
- modify the one ply binding around the headstock to a 5 ply;
- modify the top binding to a 5 ply or 7 ply instead of the LP standard style one ply (and there was a black purfling initially);
- and then: we will take a layer off of the back, which is now rounded as a LP standard, by routing a whole slab off, and we will add a mahogony (or some likewise species) backside to it to thicken up the body up to specs;
- add a 5 ply back binding;
- new bone nut;
- add all new (old stock which I have laying around) nickel hardware which will be aged (I like the look of aged nickel over the gold plated look);
- ABR style bridge directly mounted in the body (already installed maple dowels in the holes from the inserts);
- Grover tuners (tulips or the vintage looking Kluson type)
- make a complete new wiring harness with CTS pots/ cloth wire/ switchcraft output…
- still trying to decide on the finish/colour...
- the final product will be slightly reliced and aged, but nothing excessive, I just want to make it look the age it is; I will try to make it look real, with real 80’s les pauls used as reference;
Done already:
headstock inlay with an 81 period correct Greco script (thx to Tulsa Hanson from Alberta Canada, who is on the Mylespaul forum), combined with a crown inlay. Before anyone gets all fired up: I decided to go the Greco script style because of the fact it's made with the same specs in FujiGen. This will NOT be for resale, hence the script/crown combo which has never been done by Greco and it will support an all custom (referring to me) serial number also to state this is not a guitar for resale.
I’ll try to post pictures of the progress from time to time, for those who are interested
jackass
Well-known member
jackass
Well-known member
meanwhile: backside routed away, truss rod has been taken out because it was stuck. Slab of mahogony received, we will make a 2 piece back out of it.
Ebony fretboard preparing and mockup.
Edit: my collegue who's helping me out thinks it's some kind of basswood (or linden) instead of maple
Ebony fretboard preparing and mockup.
Edit: my collegue who's helping me out thinks it's some kind of basswood (or linden) instead of maple
Attachments
jackass
Well-known member
jackass
Well-known member
next up: routing all bindings on the body/ fretboard and headstock!
still: undecided on the finish colour...
still: undecided on the finish colour...
jackass
Well-known member
This is so impressive.
You know there are a lot of Fujigen built closet queens (Ibanez, Greco, etc. ) that got binding rot from the pickguards, etc. off-gassing. If you can replace binding you could get some incredible guitars and save them. Most people can’t do this work and it would be prohibitively expensive to pay someone to do it. Just a thought.
You know there are a lot of Fujigen built closet queens (Ibanez, Greco, etc. ) that got binding rot from the pickguards, etc. off-gassing. If you can replace binding you could get some incredible guitars and save them. Most people can’t do this work and it would be prohibitively expensive to pay someone to do it. Just a thought.
Last edited:
jackass
Well-known member
thanks, Sigmania. Well, if I would find some of those, I would'nt hesitate to buy them to give them a full restoration. It would be time consuming without a doubt and maybe expensive because of need of refinishing, but in a lot of cases it would be worth it, I guess
