LP-1SS "Blacktop" tribute

[bargeloobs]

"Blacktop" you say? "A Spalt top" you say? You're doing what to a spalt top?
Yes...I'm painting a spalt top, for the simple reason I wanted a mahogany body & neck and the spalt kit's the only one in the LP family that can deliver.
It was that or wait til July for a custom order to arrive... I have many virtues but patience isn't one of them.
Not to mention the amount of glue spilt on the top of this one I wouldn't want to be trying to sand, pry, naw it off anyway, painting this puppy will be my pleasure.

I'm going pretty heavy on the extras with this kit and just when I thought I'd rounded up everything I needed, upon a quick mockup I realized the Pitbull cream plastics are a totally different colour to my pickups , toggle switch plate & knob(groaaan), so a new pickgaurd and pickup mounting rings have had to be ordered as well meaning the extra goodies will now be...

Seymour Duncan SH-4 & SH-2 zebra pups
500k CTS long shaft pots + Gibson knobs to fit said pots
Switchcraft jack and toggle switch as well as the deep nut for the toggle switch
Gotoh Nashville Tune o Matic bridge
Gotoh Machineheads
Gibson headstock overlay (it is a tribute after all)
Gibson Plastics - Toggle switch plate, pickup rings, pickgaurd, back cavity covers, truss rod cover
Graphtech Nubone nut
Schaler strap locks

[bargeloobs]

First job was to ditch the old nut.
I had a bit of a job seating the new one and a bit of filler had to go down first to so I had a flat surface to work with.
After a bit of reshaping of the new nut it all came together quite nicely in the end which was a relief.

[bargeloobs]

Next job was to drill the holes in the headstock overlay, position it, then glue and clamp. As these overlays are quite a bit longer than the pitbull headstocks I had to chop around 9mm off the bottom.

[bargeloobs]

Whilst the headstock was setting I attacked the body with bog and bored out the pot holes to accommodate the CTS pots.
Since this will be a natural finish (apart from the top) I went fairly OCD on the cracks and blemishes. Like I mentioned earlier that spilt glue on the top is some stubborn gear alright, I'm so glad I'm painting over it.

[bargeloobs]

I pulled the headstock off the clamps this morning and found the overlay had pressed on really nicely.
I used a portion of the plastic that I'd chopped off the overlay the day before to fill the gap at the base of the overlay to give me something to fix my truss rod cover to.

[gavinturner]

Sounds like an awesome project Nigel!

Looks like you've gone for top-shelf parts all the way - should be a great axe when completed! Where did you get the headstock overlay? It's a pretty cool idea to create a black headstock face fairly painlessly.

If you are going for natural mahogany on the back and sides, may I suggest pore-filling the mahogany with Timbermate before you stain/clear it? I prefer to use "Walnut" Timbermate myself (it's quite a bit darker than the natural mahogany colour) and I really like how the mahogany looks afterwards. Even if painting it's a good idea to pore-fill mohogany as the pores are quite large..

cheers,
Gav.

[bargeloobs]

Following that I cut out the shape of the headstock. I used a rasp for the sides and a coping saw for the detailed top section.
I mixed some of the overlay dust with some PVA and filled the hairline cracks.

[bargeloobs]

/<\\/p>[/<\\/p>[/<\\/p>[/<\\/p>[/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/]<\\/p>/]<\\/p>/]<\\/p>/]<\\/p>/Quote from gavinturner on April 24, 2014, 00:03
Sounds like an awesome project Nigel!



cheers,
Gav.

Hey cheers Gav, I'm hoping it comes out okay, I'm just cruising nice and slow and hoping there's no unexpected surprises (touch mahogany). To answer your question the overlay came from Germany, with shipping you're looking at about $80 AU so not exactly a cheap option by any means but if you had the right gear they'd be piss easy to make yourself.
And yeah I'll definitely take you up on the pore filler, what does it do exactly? (apart from fill pores, dolt)
I'm gueussing the mahogany really sucks up the lacquer huh?
Just wondering does that sealer come in clear? I really had it stuck in my head that it was going to be a natural finish but if you could show me an example of that stain you mentioned to maybe change my mind, I'm always open to suggestions.

[bargeloobs]

Pretty stoked at how the headstock came up after sanding back the filler.
Just out of curiosity I threw one of the tuners in a peghole just to see what the fit was like and it looks like due to the added thickness of the overlay I haven't quite got enough thread.
Hurdle number one, luckily it's only missing it by a poofteenth and I think with bit of sanding on the back it shouldn't be too much drama.

[wokkaboy]

looking good Nigel, and nice hardware upgrades, does that headstock veneer have the G word on it ? wondered why you have blacked it out