Gibson Les Paul Refinish
Scale: 24.750"
Body: Mahogany
Top: Maple
Fretboard: Ebony
Neck: Mahogany
Pickups: Bare knuckle Ragnarok
Controls: 2 Volume 2 Tone
Finish: Satin Black Oil
Hardware: Grover Locking Tuners, Gotoh Bridge
The Gibson Les Paul Story
A good friend of mine approached me with the idea of giving his Les Paul a total makeover. After spending some time throwing ideas back and forth we settled on a final design and I got to work.
The most drastic change the guitar went through was in refinishing it to a natural and coloured oil finish. This Les Paul started it's life as a 2009 Robot, which came from the factory with a fairly thick metallic nitrocellulose finish.
After many hours working away with a scraper and heat gun, it was finally time to breathe new life into the guitar. The back and neck were stained with an all natural shellac based ink. For the top I used a chemical reaction called ebonizing to enhance the grain and add some colour. Once all that was done, I used a hand applied oil to protect the wood and create a satin finish.
There was a noticeable change in the sound of the guitar unplugged. I find that natural finishes
create a more open and dynamic tone, compared to guitars with thicker finishes that sit on top of the wood. Having played this guitar before and after the refinish, I can say that that it doesn't necessarily change the character of the sound, but it seems to add more resonance and widen the frequency response. Plugged in, this serves to create a "wide open" and organic sound that lends itself very well to dynamic pick attack. A perfect combo for the percussive heavy metal music the Les Paul was intended to play.
