White-ish LP Custom

This one came in covered in Dirt and nicotine with a decapitation and the truss rod showing throught the back of the neck. Luckily no one had tried to repair it before, so the surfaces were both clean and getting the headstock back on was fairly painless.

It was going to be striped and resprayed back to the original Alpine White after the repair so i chose to use maple for the splines and the cap to go over the exposed rod section. I just prefer to work with it, it carves easier and finishing maple is les of a hassle. I routed the outside splines first and then the small section to cover the rod, making sure not to hit the rod with the router or to fill the cavity with Titebond during the glue up.

I wanted to keep as much of the original mojo as i could so a white nitro with a healthy amber coat over the top and then a bunch of clear to keep it all in. The hardware and pickups had a heavy patina, a freash paint job would look out of place. I hit it with the old hot/cold treatment to get the new nitro to fall into some of the old checking lines. It worked better in some areas than others

I did this respray along side another custom i had in the workshop, they both got a refret with some narrow vintage style fret wire, a new harness and new bone nut. This one has the 'The Original' Gibson HB-R and HB-Ls in it. Great pickups, i think they get a weird wrap, mainly because of the circuit board backing. Super tight and articulate.