I was asked by a friend, and fellow musician, to restore this 1962
Gibson Les Paul Custom.
It came from the deceased estate of John Donohue, a very well
known and loved local musician.
This guitar was his pride and joy.
JD with his Band, Cheshire Katt. 1969. |
This closeup reveals that John already owned this guitar in 1969. |
Steve Marriott playing Billy's Guitar. |
Sister Rosetta Tharpe famously played the same model guitar. |
The opened control cavity reveals some modification but plenty of originality too. |
The Top-hat knobs, the switcraft selector switch and output jack are all original as is the sideways acting, Vibrola tremelo unit. |
The frets were dressed down to the tangs and the binding had been filed over, removing all the original plastic fret nibs. |
Those Ibanez Velvetune tuners just had to go! |
The guitar retains its original case and is in fair condition as well. I stabilised some loose and fraying Tolex and cleaned the brass ware. |
The original scratch plate had shrunk and buckled, preventing me from refitting it. |
The headstock polished up nicely. I decided to leave the cigarette burns. |
I re-radiused the fretboard to its original 12 inches then I fitted new, vintage, nickle silver frets. |
This mad looking object is the sideways acting Vibrola Tremelo unit. |
I fabricated new white, black, white scratch plates, the new plastic material was supplied by Nev Claughton, Mr Music in Nelson. |
The chip repair to the neck is now invisible. I left as much of the original paint finish as possible so the neck & body still shows its original play wear and minor dings. |
Refitting the guitar and awaiting the new replacement humbucker, made with original materials, (by Mr Glynn) magnets and wire. |
I left most of the orignal dents and dings so the guitar reveals a real life of gigging. |
I decided to chose the horn position for the strap button. I don't want a repeat of the fall damage done to this guitar. if its good enough for Tony Lommi, its good enough for me! |
The original nut cleaned up beautifully. |
Here you see the new lazer engraving of the neck mortice plate done by Aaron White. Also the new humbucker has been united with the original cover. |