'96 Les Paul Studio.. Long story..

[Rich]

I picked up another stray a couple of years ago, pretty much by accident. It was hanging on the wall at our local Sam Ash store, back when I would still go there.. (It has been at least a year since my last visit).

Anyhow, I went strolling in to see what their offering du jour was, and (as usual) was unimpressed. I walked around the guitar section, looking at all the guitars, and there was a Lester hanging there with a strap attached. This piqued my curiosity, as normally there wouldn't be a strap on a guitar that was hanging on the wall..

I pulled it down, and it looked as if it had been left in a sandbox or something.. Talk about a filthy instrument.. Anyhow, the strap was one of those cheapo ones that looks like a seat belt from a '74 Pinto, complete with a plastic buckle. It had been screwed into the body with a washer and a drywall screw. I almost put it back, but I noticed it had a pair of soapbar P-90's, and it was a "Limited Edition" Studio model in tobacco burst. I wasn't sure if I could resurrect the looks of the guitar, and thoughts of getting a tetanus shot prior to playing it raced through my mind.. (Truth be told, I have a phobia about playing somebody else's filthy guitar. Reminds me of borrowing a stranger's toothbrush).

Anyway, I noticed it was all original except the "straplock" arrangement, and decided to plug it into a Twin Reverb, which was similar to my own. After commandeering a polish cloth and some spray cleaner from the sales guy, I did a little cleaning- and the finish must have been protected by some of the grime. There were superficial scratches, a couple of minor dings, no pickguard.. typical signs of neglect, but nothing insurmountable.

Once it was clean enough to see past the dirt, I plugged it in and started playing.. the pickups were typical modern Gibson P-90's (which I dislike), the strings were rusted, the neck had a huge forward bow, and it wouldn't stay in tune. However, the neck was chunky and comfortable, the hardware was in pretty good shape, and I tried to dislike it. Unsuccessfully. An hour and a half passed, and I was still there, playing it...

So it sort of followed me home. Obviously, it needed some major work, but it had "something" about it.. I wasn't even looking for a guitar- I have more than enough of them.. but ..

I brought it home, disassembled it, gave it a bath, touched up the finish problems, ordered a pickguard and Kluson tuners (they look the same as originals, but I hoped they would be better than the Gibsons) and started looking for different pickups on Ebay. Those P-90's were so muddy and lifeless- the guitar was just begging for a pair of mini humbuckers...

Long story short, I spent weeks buying up all the old Gibson minis I could find.. I wound up buying six of them, all from the late '60's and early '70's. This was a little bit nuts, but I figured I could always use some minis in the neck spot of telecasters.. one of my favorite combinations. Once I had enough pickups to choose a good pair, I started trying a bunch of combinations. Each pickup sounded different, but most of them were "OK".. Then I accidentally got one that was different.. a '72 mini from a Firebird. I paired that in the neck spot with a '72 from a Goldtop Deluxe in the bridge. Holy crap!!! The guitar absolutely came alive!!

The Kluson tuners fit the original holes, and were marginally better than the Gibsons, but I was still plagued with tuning issues. I ordered a set of Gotoh reproduction Klusons (again identical to the originals), installed those, and they have been fine. The black pickguard arrived, and I procured some black pickup surrounds to replace the cream ones. Much better look with the darker colors of the burst finish.

After a thorough setup, fret level/crown, truss rod tweak (major adjustment), new pickups, cleaning, tuners, and tons of elbowgrease, it only needed one more thing.. A "Deluxe" truss rod cover... Sure, it started out as a studio, but it was really creeping into some Deluxe territory by this time. It doesn't have all the fancy binding, but the trapezoid inlays are gorgeous. the maple top, mahogany neck and body, and rosewood board really make for a great sounding, great looking axe.

I played it for a while, but I'm so accustomed to T style guitars that I put it away for a rainy day.. Well- the day was yesterday.

I pulled it out of storage, and took it for a spin. And kept playing it. What a monster guitar! Sure, I spent too much time on it, and way too much money... but it is such a unique instrument, and very versatile. I'll probably never gig with it, as too many folks around here know who I am and what I do- but I'm a closet Lester lover..

It has me thinking about building a T style with a carved top, short scale, flatter radius, and a pair of mini buckers.. I wonder if that's cheating..

[romey]

I to am a closet LP fan, thats a pretty one, nice to see a piece of coal turn into a gem

[chris]

All this thread needs is the story of our gig where the bug spray glued the Les Paul to your arm.

[Rich]

Well- ok. Just remember it wasn't just the 'Paul. Your bass was worse in the long run...

We used to play tons of private parties, mostly outdoors. We played for a birthday party in the back yard of a huge home, on a very hot and muggy evening. The gig was doomed from the start, as it was two hours from home- and we left a suitcase at home which contained the microphones, mic cables, speaker cables for the PA (mains and monitors), the speaker cables to go between the bass amp head and speakers.. Basically a complete disaster. It was on a Sunday evening, in the middle of nowhere. The guests were there when we arrived, and we had to hike all the gear from the front (driveway) down a hill, then back up a hill, and set up under a portable gazebo in the rear yard. After everything was loaded into the performance area, we noticed the suitcase was missing. Luckily, the lady who had hired us was out with her husband, who was not aware of the party. (It was a surprise for his 50th birthday). She had requested classical violin music at the beginning, during the gathering and cocktails, to be followed by our blend of classic rock and blues rock for the remainder of the evening.

I jumped into the van, and went in search of someplace to try to buy some mics and cables while the kids set up what we had. My daughter had her violin, and she started playing in order to buy some time.. I doubt if many folks heard her, but she played (unplugged) for about an hour.

In the meantime, I found a shopping mall adjacent to the main highway where we had come from, with a Circuit City store. I raced around in there like a madman, buying karaoke mics, various stereo adapters, headphone extension cords.. They didn't have anything that was "correct" for my uses, but I figured it all out anyway.. Headphone extension cords (curly ones) with 1/8" male/female adapters, then converted to 1/4", to connect the PA, etc... It was the craziest way, but somehow I was able to figure it all out, and make it work. I rushed back to the gig, where Jessica was sightreading out of books, and we rigged up the rest of the band. Just as the lady and her husband walked around the house for the surprise, we struck the first chord for the first song. Perfect timing, and they never knew anything was awry.

At any rate, it was really hot, really muggy, and we were swarmed with mosquitoes. That is one of the pitfalls of setting up in the sun, and then playing through the evening into the night. We were being eaten alive, and it's impossible to swat at the little bloodsuckers while playing. We took a break, and sprayed each other down with bug spray. At the end of the following set, my 'Paul was stuck to my shirt with a combination of heat, sweat, and bug spray. My forearm was sticking to the face as if it was covered in contact cement.. I tried to wipe the guitar down, but it was as if the combination had chemically bonded with the finish. I couldn't wipe it off, and it had hardened on, and formed an interesting (ugly) hazy smear all over the instrument. I figured the finish was permanently destroyed, and was in extreme distress- as you can imagine.. About that time Chris showed me his bass, which was in a similar condition..

We played for hours, and our time was up, but the partygoers weren't ready for us to stop- so they went to their homes and took up a collection for us. A few hundred bucks later, we started playing another set. By that time, the wife had had way too many drinks, and kept requesting the same song over and over (which we played at least four times, despite the fact we had never played it together before). She would dance to the song right in front of us, then we'd go into a different number, and she'd come up to me requesting the same song, wondering when we were going to play it. I would reply that we had just finished the song, and she would say she must have been in the house, and had missed it. Would we play it again?

It was so apparent to me that she was gone, that I began wondering if we would be paid for the gig before she passed out-

Her friend brought an envelope out to her, and she paid us handsomely for the evening, then counted out another $300 as a tip... So between the neighbors' money and the tip, we made an extra $600 for the night before the cops came and shut us down halfway into the extra set. The money paid us for the extra time, and more than covered the additional expenses incurred for the Circuit City purchases. We packed up in a hurry, and got out of there.

The next day I looked at our instruments (it was too late by the time we drove home at 1AM, and the damage was done) and was dismayed, at best. I tried to wash the stuff off, but nothing would touch the mess on the guitars. In the end, after several hours of trying different things, I wound up wet sanding the bodies, steel wooling, and hand rubbing the finishes back with automotive products. They turned out fine, actually better (clean, smooth, shiny) but I'll suffer with the bug bites from here on out. Nightmare gigs.. Funny thing, we've had worse- but the show always goes on. ;D

[chris]

I don't remember my bass being damaged..hmmm..