Ampmans First build - LP1-M

[Ampman]

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

[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

[andrewdosborne]

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

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

[Ampman]

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

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

[gavinturner]

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

cheers,
Gav.

[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

[Ampman]

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

cheers,
Gav.

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

[Ampman]

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

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 )

[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 )

[stan]

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