Ampmans First build - LP1-M

Hi All , sorry this is a bit late in coming and not too detailed but better than nothing .
Any way , the guitar is as follows
LP1-M kit
Tonerider AC4 pickups
Grover locking tuners
Bone nut
Finish is U Beaut wood dyes mixed to suit with an acrylic lacquer clearcoat .

I have encountered an issue with the nut but otherwise no major dramas and
despite the nut issue is coming along OK but I will need to sort this out .
The problem is that I set the height using strings 1 and 6 only ,and set to
a conservative height (hopefully the pix show this ) but after glueing and stringing
found that the 1st fret clearance on strings 3 and 4 was almost zero .
A little tweak of the truss rod and saddle heights got it playable but it does
buzz the first on 3 and 4 slightly . Looks like I will have to crack the nut back out
but I will play it in for a week or so first
Once sorted though and given a proper setup it will be quite a nice guitar .
It still only has the standard kit strings on it so will be better again with the EB's

Cheers
Andy

nice build Ampman very cool looking LP, nice choice of colours. How do the Toneriders sound and are the tuners ok ?

sounds like needs a few more fine tweaks. Can we please see a pic of the finished headstock ? cheers

Classic looking LP Andy good job. How are the tomeriders?

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

nice build Ampman very cool looking LP, nice choice of colours. How do the Toneriders sound and are the tuners ok ?

sounds like needs a few more fine tweaks. Can we please see a pic of the finished headstock ? cheers

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Thanks for the compliments , I'm really happy with the way the colours came out .
I was spraying the clear under EXTREMELY adverse conditions so if you saw it straight
off the gun you would be amazed at how well it came up . Thank God for 1200 wet and dry .
As for the Grovers its early days of course but so far they are brilliant .
My HS Anderson has Schallers on it which I feel have a smoother , more precise
action , but that locking function on the Grovers is really good .
Takes no time at all to string and tune and no issues so far .
I did read that they can break high E strings but the cure is to put one turn on first prior to tensioning .

I wouldnt say the Toneriders are the best pickup available but for the price they are good value .
I will reserve final judgement till I get decent strings on it , these ones were initially terrible
and made for a pretty average sound till they wore in .

I will post another pic of the headstock once I decide what to do . I left the tape on too long and tore
the clear on the top of the headstock unfortunately .
Not a major drama as I'm now thinking of doing a laminate with a fancy inlay and I'm going to have to break
the nut out I suspect to sort the other issue. It is shaped like a 50 's Les Paul , maybe not exact but looks good .

Cheers

Great LP man, congrats! Any chance of a sound demo? Can't go past that sweet LP sound.

cheers,
Gav.

Nice work Andy. I've got the Tonerider Ac2's and they took a bit of getting used to, but they sing quite well now I've put some 10's on my LP

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gavinturner

Great LP man, congrats! Any chance of a sound demo? Can't go past that sweet LP sound.

cheers,
Gav.

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Hi Gav , thanks for the compliment
It was actually the pic of yours that convinced me to buy a kit and have a go .
When I saw how sweet yours looked I just had to try . Once I am happy with
the sound and handling of it I will do some sort of demo for you all . Not sure
exactly what yet but I will use the big Marshall as an extra treat .
I have only run it through an 80 watt valvestate Marshall so far which is OK but
not a patch on the 66 JTM 45/100 that I have .

Cheers
Andy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy40

Nice work Andy. I've got the Tonerider Ac2's and they took a bit of getting used to, but they sing quite well now I've put some 10's on my LP

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Hi Andy ( I take it )
Thanks for the tip , Ive got the Ernie Ball 9's on it now and they are much better than the first ones in the kit .
I might try 10's next time as it feels as though they might be better . I use Dean Markley 9's on my HS Anderson
but that is a slightly longer scale length which was better on 9's than 10's

Cheers
Andy ( Ampman )

Hi all , thank god it's Friday .
Any way ,just a quick update on the LP-1M .
I forgot to mention that I have done some mods from standard so to update .
The first can be seen from the pic of the back . I removed a fair amount from
the back of the neck near the pocket and radiused it to look more like a real Gibson.
There was too much in the way trying to get right up the neck !
The other was to use some really old Japanese paper and oil caps instead of the
polyester (greencaps) ones that were supplied with the kit . Everyone seems to think
paper and oil sounds better and they were left overs from when I built my 12 watt amp
so why not .
I will change the pots for decent ones with a switch for coil splitting in the future
It's now had the nut reset , the Ernie Ball strings fitted , a quick twang and rough setup
with very promising results . Haven't plugged it in yet but thats next so will update further .

Cheers
Andy ( Ampman )

Nice work Andy, a very slick guitar, what is happening on the face of the headstock?