NGD Vintage content

designerseye88

A few months back I took a bit of a punt a bought a pretty beat up 1959 Les Paul special. It had been stripped and repainted several times, had an old but secure heel break and humbucker routs that had been chiseled out by a spoon. 
I took pity on the poor thing and after a few beers i decided to buy it. 



Prior to this I was in the process of buying one of @miserneil juniors so i got in touch and he was more than happy to undertake the restoration. I wanted to attempt to bring the guitar back to life as close to an original spec as i could. I decide to go down the hard route and source as many original parts as i could. The cherry on top being an original set of p90's from @jumping@shadows .

Yesterday was a great day picking it up from Neil. Top bloke who has completely given this guitar new life. He has plugged the humbucker routs and re-routed for an original set of p90's and has finished the guitar in a stunning tv yellow, thin nitro finish which has been lightly aged. 

I raced down the M5 last night to get home, plugged it in and could not stop playing it. It has everything you would want. It's super light and resonant and those p90's scream! I wanted say a huge thanks to @miserneil . His work is simply amazing and the level of detail he has gone into is just fantastic. 


Below is the guitar all finished.....  (would someone be able to embed the pics please )


https://imgur.com/a/BQEulQA

grappagreen

That is sweet...

roberty

Jaw dropping, the gamble paid off! He who dares...

guitars4you

wow - nice to see such 'wrecks' given another chance - Total credit to you for buying it and assisting with such a change - Total credit for such guys on FB who can undertake such work - I'm in awe of them - Looking forward to seeing some of Neil's work at the forth coming guitar show at Northampton in Oct

designerseye88

guitars4you said:

wow - nice to see such 'wrecks' given another chance - Total credit to you for buying it and assisting with such a change - Total credit for such guys on FB who can undertake such work - I'm in awe of them - Looking forward to seeing some of Neil's work at the forth coming guitar show at Northampton in Oct

Thanks very much, Yeah I couldn't let this one go. I did think about keeping it as humbuckers and just exploring that but I did feel the best thing to do with this guitar was try to restore it back to its original state and try to source an many original parts as i could. Couldn't be happier

Neil's guitar builds are amazing, I saw one yesterday and they have the feel of an old guitar! Hoping to get one next year. 

mart

https://i.imgur.com/PYkldDB.jpg
Very nice!

Danielsguitars

That looks in remarkable condition compared to the basket case 58 that i need to restore, great work Neil

we should start a who's got the worst junior to restore thread 

Funkfingers

customkits said:

we should start a who's got the worst junior to restore thread 

Easy. Music Outlet Shop of Köln.

Henrytwang

Great restoration job, wish it was mine.

JezWynd

Was that mould growing in the bridge pu cavity, looks pretty skanky!  Great work by Neil, it looks stellar.

Henrytwang

Funkfingers said:

customkits said:

we should start a who's got the worst junior to restore thread 

Easy. Music Outlet Shop of Köln.

Yeah, they seem to specialise in basket cases.

blueskunk

Lovely guitar. Well done man. 

designerseye88

JezWynd said:

Was that mould growing in the bridge pu cavity, looks pretty skanky!  Great work by Neil, it looks stellar.

I think that's blue paint, We discovered the guitar had been painted several colours previously - We actually decided to leave the control cavity unfinished as it showed several of the colours the guitar used to be. I think it has been cherry, blue, black and white! 

designerseye88

Thanks everyone for the positive comments  

TheMarlin

Wow.  what a beauty!

Neil

Fabulous job!

One of my favourite guitars, had to be TV yellow. 

Looks great. 

fendergibson

You did a fantastic job on that - lovely !

musicman100

Wow. Congrats n top work 

ICBM

Very nicely done. The Mk2 neck pickup position also makes it much less likely the neck will fall off again too .

designerseye88

ICBM said:

Very nicely done. The Mk2 neck pickup position also makes it much less likely the neck will fall off again too .

Yes I agree! It had the original Mk1 position but im assuming that's probably how the neck got broken originally. Neil beefed up the neck tenon and moved the position into the Mk2 position. Now it's really solid!

punchesjudy

Beautiful!