Next up is a cool (probably) 1970's Japanese copy of the famous Les Paul Custom. I've come across quite a few of these Japanese copies lately... They are all nearly identical guitars but were sold under different brand names... Electra, Ventura, Cortez, Conrad, etc... This particular example is sans-brand but it has some of the tell-tales of a far-east knockoff. The body is lots of pieces of solid wood laminated together with an arched plywood top. When you look in the pickup cavity there is actually a void space between the flat body and the arched top. I had an Electra come through last year with this exact same construction. The "arched" top is actually created by gluing a small piece of plywood to the flat body of the guitar at the center, directly under the bridge and tailpiece. The separate top plate is then pressed over this plywood and glued to the flat body at the perimeter. The small piece of plywood causes a bulge in the top plate, thus creating the arch. Another giveaway is the Maxon pickup in the neck position, which were in that same Electra and also in a Conrad doubleneck SG knockoff that I serviced a few months ago.
The Overall condition of the guitar is dismal. This was another wall hanger that I picked up in the same lot as the Silvertone. The back cover plates, the tailpiece, the nut, the jack and jack plate are gone completely. I have not yet tested these electronics. The bridge pickup is not screwed down so it flopped out when I picked it up. I got a nice surprise though, a vintage Dimarzio PAF style humbucker has replaced the original. The body has lots of dings, cracks, dents scrapes, etc... Pretty much everything on this guitar is thrashed.
I've got all the missing parts on order and will make a new nut out of black Corion. This one will also need new tuners as the originals are just worn out. The neck is bolted on and the screw heads are stripped. For some reason there is a roller bridge... weird. This one will get a complete disassemble, de-grease, clean down, re-wire, de-louse, and re-build. Everything is wrong with this so you can't mess it up!
This is my favorite type of project.
Hello, I know this post was almost 2 years ago, but I recently found a les paul copy nearly exactly like this one. I am currently fixing it up and would like to know if you have any pictures of the finished project (assuming you did eventually finish it). Thanks
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