I’ve always wanted a Gibson Les Paul. I’ve played guitar since High School and a mid-90s Fender Japan-made Jaguar was the first nice guitar I bought. Since then I’ve picked up other stringed instruments (banjo, mandolin, lap steel) and even built a few guitars, but I’ve always wanted a Gibson Les Paul. During the pandemic I decided to build a custom Les Paul to my personal specification.
Step 1: The Body
I was able to acquire a modern Les Paul Studio body from a place out of the east coast of the US that deals in surplus guitar parts. I opted for the modern body style because of the updated weight reduction that Gibson swears retains all the tone and sustain of the old solid body models.
Step 2: Parts!
Next up I had to order all the different parts and add them to the guitar. I opted for Lock and Trim tuners, which lock the strings in place and automatically cut off the excess. They are maybe the best thing I learned about on this project – I’ll be replacing the tuners on my Jag soon.
Because this is a fully custom guitar I sourced classic style knobs with a slight difference. These go to 11.
There are literally dozens of ways to wire Les Pauls. One reason I’ve been playing a Jaguar (and not the more popular Jazzmaster) is the freedom you have to fully customize which pickups are engaged in the circuit. For this build I wanted the same freedom. I installed CTS push-pull pots that are set up to let me split the coils on my humbuckers so I can independently turn them on and off. I also opted for a pre-1950s style tone to volume wiring because it lets you do some cool things with the way the tone and volume pots interact.
I used modern Orange Drop capacitors because honestly I can’t tell the difference between these and NOS Russian or other oil and paper resistors.
Step 3: Pickups & Putting It Together!
The real heart of the guitar are the pickups. My partner was kind enough to order me custom wound pickups for my birthday from a great US based company called Planet Tone. They sound fantastic and with the wiring setup I get a fantastic range of tone from twangy highs down to solid bluesy lows. They also sound great overdriven.
After installing a 3-ply cream pickguard and the bridge and tailpiece, I installed the pickups and strung it up. I also spent probably 3-4 hours doing setup and fine tuning and now it plays like a dream.
All told this saved me maybe $500 off retail, but every component is an upgrade from what you get in a stock Gibson, so in reality I ended up with a great guitar that is 100% mine. And it kept me busy for a few months during the pandemic.