What better way to get used again to be in a forum if not doing a guitar project,right? ahah.

Anyway..
It may not be one of her most iconic guitar but the new Les Paul that MAMI is using became one of my favourite and since I wasn't able to find the correct model I decided to do it myself.
I have a Les Paul copy that I almost never use so I'll see what I can do with it.
After looking for a while the closest model I could find was this one, so I'll use it as a reference for now, but I'm not sure about the colour of the back so if anyone have some clear pictures of the back of the original I'll really appreciate.



Tomorrow I'll start stripping the paint and see what kind of wood it has

Mentolo wrote:After looking for a while the closest model I could find was this one, so I'll use it as a reference for now, but I'm not sure about the colour of the back so if anyone have some clear pictures of the back of the original I'll really appreciate.

MAMI's LP Std in Blue Mist is no longer in production. This is from the Gibson USA website:

http://www2.gibson.com/Images/Products/Electric-Guitars/Les-Paul/Gibson-USA/2012-Les-Paul-Standard/LPNSTDBMCH1-Finish-Shot-jpg.aspx?KeepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=410&width=1000



Surprisingly, it looks like the back and sides should be the same colour as the top. I kinda prefer it the way all other LPs are finished - ie colour on the top but natural wood for the sides and back, like your photo.

The Blue Mist is a metallic finish by the way.

Fuhgeddabouddit. lol.

Looking forwards to see the finished results! ^^

I'm happy to see at least one person interested, Thank you^^
I though the same for the finish but after watching the arena live festival it was clear the it had a natural back.
I would have posted some screenshot from the live but I'm not if it's something against the rules, so I'll just steal some photo from the Kyuu ni Kite Moratte Gomen. 2014~Shinkyoku Yaru Kara Kiite Yo~ live gallery if it's ok.
And for what I recall it's definitely not a standard model, but I may be wrong.


Anyway I almost finished sanding and it was really difficult and hard, whoever did the guitar put at least 3mm of lacquer, so hopefully I should finish it during this Christmas holiday.

That is a nice guitar she uses even if it is as heavy as a house. What pups you plan on using?

yeah, if not chambered the les pauls are pretty heavy.

Anyway my plan is to cut the expenses where I can, I have a couple of nameless epiphone pickups that sound decent for now.
I love the sound of the burstbucker(I haven't decide which type yet) but they are so expensive, so maybe in the future I could make an upgrade or maybe try some boutique pickups.

To be honest I know more about single-coil pickups than humbuckers, so if you have any suggestions I'm happy to listen.

I play Epiphones because while Gibsons are NICE, I can't justify the price. The only real difference is pups. The burstbuckers are really nice but a little softer I guess you could say. The probuckers is what Gibson usually uses so hers probably does as well. You might be able to find some cheap somewhere used. If time is not an issue you could hunt down a destroyed Gibson (punk rockers .tsk.) and gut it. Sorry man never built one before but I'll help if I can.

I looked at the page where I took the first picture because it looks really similar(even thought it's a one off) and it just says burstbucker, but I'm not even sure if it's a custom shop '57 vos like the one I posted but it has the nickel hardware and the less shiny finish, if it really is it's a bloody expensive guitar  .omg.

But I'm be no means a Gibson expert  and for know I'll concentrate on the finish, I can change the hardware and electronics at any time

Thats a good plan. Go nickel if you can because the cheaper hardware is terrible. I just bought a replacement saddle last year and its bubblely and turning green. Mami being a guitar person its probably an expensive one. I was thinking of doing this as well but you beat me to it. I still might build one but looking for a deal on parts.

for the bridge it's quite a problem, for now the only ones that fit the holes are gotoh, they appear to be a couple of 0.1mm off but they are not so expensive so I'll give them try, they even come in nickel!

I did a couple of guitars project before, actually more or less the majority of my guitars are project guitars, so if you want we can give each other a hand.
anyway I'll say one thing: it was kinda stupid to refinish a guitar, if I knew what I was going into I would have spent some more to buy a decent  unfinished kit...you'll never know what you can find under this cheap guitars...

Thats my fear too. I was looking at a kit maybe but my soldering is not so hot .common. (sorry)

It's not that hard, for this kind of project the wiring is quite simple, there's a lot of wiring scheme around, for example on the seymour duncan site you can find tons of schemes.
and if you do something wrong you can alway fix it(well...as long as you don't burn the lacquer)

Are you going to use standard pots? They make a difference with low power pups. It looks like gold hat knobs which is good because they are only like $30 and I think the selector switch is included.

I haven't really looked into the pots, I thought it was not worth it with the pickups I have.
When I'll buy decent pickups I'm definitely going to buy a decent wiring kit.
Do you know where I can find some good quality wiring kit?

I have been looking at a site called guitarelectronics.com. I have not order anything but they seem fair but cost is always the issue. I want to build one just because of experience but it would cost more than a similar one premade by pros.

that's true, especially if you build one from scratch.
But if you don't expect too much from it and do it just "for fun" you can find some decent unfinished kits with everything included.

it all depends on how much do you want to spend. you get what you paid after all

Thats true. The only thing i would spend good money on is a neck. I hear warmoth has the best quality mail order necks out there. The original kit necks seems like a hit or miss thing. Lower end guitars are the same way so, meh. How far along with the finish are you?

Playing a guitar after you put into it time and energy feel so good, even if they don't come out as expected it feel more personal(even thought some of them came out pretty good).

Anyway I'm done with preparing the wood, now I have to wait for the filler and paint to come, hopefully it's next week.
I wasn't going to make an update every time because it looked no one was interested but if you want I can do it anyway.

After looking a little more I think you were right about the burstbuckers pups. You don't have to update every step but I'm interested in the finished product.

Update time!
(sorry for the quality of the photos, I'll try to take some better one once there's a sunny day)
I didn't do to much, I've only put the filler and applied the pelham blue on the top,
Anyway here's the pictures:




After all I'm fairly satisfied, the wood was extremely pale for being mahogany, but after a couple of hand of colored filler it came out of a decent color, on the other hand I feel that the blue is a bit darker than expected.
Anyway now I have to wait for the weather to warm up a bit so I can start putting the clear coat.

That is superb!!!

Are you going the whole hog - ie getting the best pups / wiring for this baby?

nice job. The color should be fine after clear coat but I like it slightly darker.

maharizm wrote:That is superb!!!

Are you going the whole hog - ie getting the best pups / wiring for this baby?

That was my intention, but I'll have a lot of expenses this years and only for the nitro finish and other parts I've already spent too much.
I'll see...

@eionswolf:
It's never going to be light blue like the real one, but you're right, it's not that bad even if it's bit darker

Slow but steady I keep working on this project.
I wanted to wait until the very end to post an update but I'm having trouble finding white plastic parts, so, anyone knows a site where I can find them?
In exchange I'm posting a little update:

I just finished spraying the clear coat, now I only have to wait for about two weeks before wet-sanding and buffing.



I also planned on leaving the headstock plain black but I didn't really like it, so I went for a little fakery and put the gibson logo(the sun messed up the photo,sorry)

That looks really cool.
It looks darker than before, is it just the lighting?
Or was it to your own preferences, you had made it darker?
Good job, dude! I can't wait to see it when it's finished.
(BTW, if you hadn't mentioned 'Gibson' headstock was all fakery, I would've believed it to be real)

M wrote:That looks really cool.
It looks darker than before, is it just the lighting?
Or was it to your own preferences, you had made it darker?
Good job, dude! I can't wait to see it when it's finished.
(BTW, if you hadn't mentioned 'Gibson' headstock was all fakery, I would've believed it to be real)

Thank you!
you're right,it's indeed darker.
I didn't mean to but for the wood is normal, with the clear coat it's like if it's always wet, even before if I wet it with a dumb cloth.

About the blue: it's just a bit darker than before so I think it's the light(I'll check when I'll put the guitar in the same room as when I took the other pictures)

yeah the headstock came out pretty good, I'm quite satisfied.
You can't see it from the picture but the gibson logo it's a thin sheet of mother of pearl.
Unfortunately the "Les Paul" logo is way of, especially the "MODEL" part, it's non aligned and the font it's not even close to the real deal.
But I didn't want to make a exact copy so I'm ok with having little defects.