Gibson Les Paul Signature T refinish

Deadman

Finally getting round to refinishing the (interesting) alpine white burst Signature T I got for Christmas. The main thing up to now has been to protect the binding, which I've done with aluminium tape with a 1/4" overlap. I'll remove the rest carefully up to the seams with thinners and scotchbrite pads. Paint stripper is on the top as we speak. I'll probably post again once it's all stripped and the refinishing has started. Haven't 100% decided with what I'm gonna go with yet (and how rough is that control cavity!):

 

Deadman

I've enjoyed doing this so far, nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon... Just the headstock left to strip and some detail work. After the main stripping was out of the way I removed the ali tape and literally used a pencil brush to apply stripper right up to the binding but without touching it, using a paxolin scraper to take off the remaining finish so as not to damage the wood.The rest just wiped clean with thinners and the binding is clean and undamaged, so that's a relief. The mahogany in particular looks lovely, it was very therapeutic taking off all that white gloop:

WezV

Go on.... Give us a "wet" pic of the top.


I'm really curious to see what the maple is like without white pigment destroying the figure

John_P

Nice work so far and a looks a lot easier than when I sanded my standard.

Deadman

Ha, it's at work for now Wez. Patience

Deadman

John_P said:

Nice work so far and a looks a lot easier than when I sanded my standard.

You removed the nitro by sanding it John?

SteveRobinson

You should pull the bridge studs as they are over the finish.

Deadman

SteveRobinson said:

You should pull the bridge studs as they are over the finish.

I plan on doing Steve. Just need to make myself a handy tool, with some plastic pipe, a bolt and a washer. Unless you know any other methods?

SteveRobinson

They are usually not very tight. You can just put a machine screw in there and pull them out using pliers.

streethawk

I can lend you a Faber removal bolt if you get stuck.

But as steve says, they aren't very substantial inserts.

Andyjr1515

As @SteveRobinson says, you can probably pull out using a machine screw and pliers.  

A little trick that is useful for stiffer bushes (as long as they are hollow bottomed) is drop in something hard into the hole that is a bit shorter than the thread top when it's bottomed in the hole - I used an old strat adjusting grubscrew for this one:

Here you can see the grubscrew in the hole.  Make sure whatever you pop in there is short enough for there still to be screw threads in the bush that can be used and also doesn't have a sharp end that would simply dig into the wood at the bottom of the hole:

Then screw in the adjuster.  The screw can't go in because the grubscrew is in the way, so the bush has to come out:

This was a Gibson LP Studio and it took only light hand tightening of the adjuster screw to pull the bush out this far.

Deadman

Thanks for the offers/comments/suggestions gents. It's much appreciated. I'll try your trick first, Andy. Once the England game is over!

Deadman

That worked brilliantly Andy, they're out

Andyjr1515

Deadman said:

That worked brilliantly Andy, they're out

Great 

Deadman

Paint stripping is complete and the thing's as clean as a whistle. I took my time around the binding and headstock again to avoid any damage whatsoever. Just two small dinks to steam out of the top next (not sure where they came from!), then to raise the grain with some light oak stain as I've decided to stay traditional and go with some sort of light burst. Wet one for you too @WezV

BigMonka

That's a top job, it's looking fantastic!

WezV

So a bloody nice top with a couple of small flaws. One would be covered by a guard anyway

I would go very traditional on that and maybe relic to divert attention away from the imperfections

breakstuff

Looking really nice @Deadman.Seeing this and @Andyjr1515's thread is seriously making me consider stripping my Goldtop LPJ.

Deadman

Cheers gents. I might go light relic eventually Wez, but must try to get it spot on first. Then I'll have fun wrecking it

simonbeckwith

Excellent job! What a great top too, cant wait to see the finished result

Andyjr1515

That looks a great top Light oak is a good base stain. My problem with my effort is the rest of it )