Dig it! Resurrecting an old flat top Les Paul copy

vintage clubber

vintage clubber

You gunky!
This is a project that the local mom and pop music store gave me to work on. Stock pickups were dead. Electronics were a mess. Needs new tuners. Will be dropping a set of Kent Armstrong humbuckers in it and re-doing all the electronics.









 
Nice project. What's with the bit of bubblegum on the nut, and is there baling wire anywhere else?
 
I ask this question sincerely: Is it worth the effort?

My first guitar needs that amount of work, maybe more, and even with it being my first guitar, I had a hard time justifying the cost and effort.
It's a very similar guitar, too.

It was actually my older brother's guitar before it was mine and he's got it now after our nephew had it and pretty much destroyed it.
 
I actually want an old tobacco burst Cort LP copy.

Yeah, it was a POS when I got a new one in the mid 80's, and I expect it is a lot of "Is it worth the effort" kind of thing.

But I still want one.

Because it is what I learned the basics on. My first electric guitar.
I don't even remember what happened to it, but I would buy one if I could find one.
 
dodgechargerfan said:
I ask this question sincerely: Is it worth the effort?

My first guitar needs that amount of work, maybe more, and even with it being my first guitar, I had a hard time justifying the cost and effort.
It's a very similar guitar, too.

It was actually my older brother's guitar before it was mine and he's got it now after our nephew had it and pretty much destroyed it.
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Apparently to the proprietor of the store who owns this guitar it is worth the effort. I have resurrected worse than this one as well. I am confident that the outcome will be worth it. :rawk:
 
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wagdog said:
Lol, I knew I picked the wrong car. Pinto?
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KaBOOM!!!

Actually, if you rebuild them as drag cars and put a fuel cell up in the trunk where it's less likely to get hit, they are great drag cars, too.
My brother in law did that just because everyone told him not to do it. He won a lot of races at the track with that thing.
 
wagdog said:
This was my thought as well.

Dropping decent pickups and electronics into that is sort of like putting mags and racing slicks on a AMC Gremlin.
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actually, I did a similar restoration a year or so ago on a lawsuit era Memphis Les Paul copy which had very similar construction except the normal Les Paul carved top. It turned out to be a very nice player.
 
I have one in my garage that's in worse shape. It was a guitar I gave to the son of some friends years ago. It's in such bad shape, when he brought it to me I gave him a Tele in exchange and told him the LP may be a goner. I'm still thinking about what to do with it.

CostValueScale.jpg
 
Another example - a few years back a friend of mine brought me an old Korean Squier Bullet strat to rebuild. It was unplayable at the time he brought it to me. I fixed it up - new pickups/electronics, tuners, nut, tremolo. It turned out to be a very nice player when I finished the project and he now has in regular gigging rotation with his American strat.

 
Got it all wired up, new pickups, tuners, spare stop tail in my parts drawer. Just waiting for the new speed knobs to arrive tomorrow. It really plays and sounds great!









 
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