Hardware Comparision Thread

[Laservampire]

Beautiful!

I've got a set of those tips and I'm just trying to find the perfect set of tuners to put them on

[Frails]

Since I bought two sets of the dyed DiMarzio's and the dye is coming off, I've decided to conduct an experiment this summer. The sun exposure in AZ will kill anything. Lawn chairs dont last more than a summer or two before the material just turns to dust. I'll leave a set of the rings out and check them everyday to see happens. The trick will be to find the perfect amount of time before they warp too badly. But I believe it can be done here.

[1981 LPC]

Originally Posted by BrianH

Got a set of Fatboy aged knobs from Decoy205 (thanks man!) and decided to do some aging on them. They are probably from before Fatboy started adding ambering.

Before they looked like stock Allparts knobs with some greening added. I am currently refinishing a Tele neck so I thought to hit them with some tinted clear nitro followed by nitro and then some high speed buffing to eliminate the orange peel and create a rolled top edge.

I chucked a pot shaft in my drill press, put the spurs to 'er, and lightly pressed on a rag with swirl remover. Came out glass smooth and look way better, I think.

Aged on left, stock Allparts on right (Fatboy was identical aside from the greening):

Thanks for the tip!

[cooljuk]

Originally Posted by weirdotis

What about applying a thin layer of sealant? Maybe a rub-down of WD-40?

In my case at least, it's a matter of the strings digging into the plastic. Nothing short of a layer of steel (or something harder than nickel) will stop that.

I know this has come up before, but...

Where can one get the best deal on a set of OTPs these days?

[GuitarMechanic]

Originally Posted by weirdotis

, maybe it would amber up in the sun from the UV exposure?

I think this is best provided you have a bunch of time to leave parts sitting around in the sunlight

[Stonehard]

OTP rings colour samples - I think this is in the other thread but maybe it should be here too.

[Cpt_Gonzo]

Probably known to many of you guys but I just received my set of Allparts plastics and I thought I'd give you an idea of what they look like. Color is true to what I can see with my eyes.

[1981 LPC]

How about the truss rod cover plates? Does anyone have comparative photos of these?

[gigant0r]

Originally Posted by Cpt_Gonzo

Probably known to many of you guys but I just received my set of Allparts plastics and I thought I'd give you an idea of what they look like. Color is true to what I can see with my eyes.

Are those rings arched or not?

[Cpt_Gonzo]

NOT arched.

[dave27]

Wow some people are really anal about their plastics, and thats ok.

[dave27]

Curious to what people are using as a guide to original aged burst plastic colors? Unless you have one to compare with whats the guide?

Beauty of the Burst is so poorly printed color wise, nothing should be used in it to compare colors! Just look at the difference in the colors of the background which should be neutral gray, not yellow or magenta. They shift 35 points in all different directions.

[alexvdl]

I was looking for an accurate replica of a 50's LP custom pickguard because I like the look of the wide bevel. None of the ones I found at montreux or monster relic etc. were looking good. The laminate layers are wrong, so are the angles of the bevels. Also, I want to use the pickuard on a guitar with a modern pickup spacing, so a vintage replica won't fit anyways, because it would leave a gap at the bridge pickup.

So I decided to make one myself. I traced the bevel outline of an image from a 3 pup black beauty and made a 2 humbucker version with a modern pickup spacing.

I bought a sheet of correct material from stewmac for $29, took my scroll saw and a custom made angled scraper and worked for about 4 hours The sheet is big enough for 11 pickguards

Here's the result. Much better than the ones on the historics IMO and it costs not even near the $80 of the replicas







compared to a modern original gibson 5 ply pickguard:






during cutting:

[pinefd]

^^^ Wow, Alex...awesome job!!!


Frank

[JimmyPage968]

Originally Posted by Es Paul

I've just bought these DiMarzio white rings. They're pretty damn white. Now, I don't have a pg yet or a poker chip or jack plate. I figured I'd get these to throw in when my ThroBaks come in. How white were the rings when a Burst was brand spankin new? My R9 is a gloss, so I don't want anything aged. I just want it to look like a brand new Burst. I'm guessing they should be a shade darker, no?

check these out.

Now, did you get the curved or flat base?

[Robert Arthur]

I see the tuners all appearing white or almost cream/almond. Almost all the vintage Gibsons I have saw had a Green Tint to the tuners, None of the ones displayed match that.

[alexvdl]

Here's a pic of my home made stewmac material LPC pickguard on my (sorry no gibson historic) les paul. It's a bad blackberry pic at night sorry, but you get the point. Look at that bevel... now where is that drool emoticon?



And here is a correct LPC trussrod cover from Crazyparts.de (again, no gibby sorry):

[weirdotis]

Here are some DiMarzio's I have... percolating right now.

Will post results once I get them somewhere I like.

[1981 LPC]

Originally Posted by alexvdl

And here is a correct LPC trussrod cover from Crazyparts.de (again, no gibby sorry):

Alex, could you tell me if that cover plate is engraved or if the letters are painted on? I'm trying to find an engraved one for my '81 Custom.

[alexvdl]

It's engraved. But the shape is for a 50's model. The shape is much sleeker, the bevel is different and the engraving is deeper.

From my understanding the 80's truss rod covers are exactly the same as the modern ones. So the cover you need is indeed engraved, but not as deep as the old style, and the engraving should be filled with a white paint. This is because the top black ply layer is thicker on the modern ones, so they filled it with white paint. On the old ones the black layer is much thinner so they engraved thru it uncovering the white layer.

So IMO you could get one of the cheaper import covers for your 81 custom like this one Truss Rod Cover Gibson 2ply Les Paul Custom New - eBay (item 110639218306 end time Feb-21-11 15:01:03 PST)

or an original gibson one:

Gibson Les Paul Custom Truss Rod Cover Black - eBay (item 350434566169 end time Feb-24-11 13:15:43 PST)

Here you can see the difference between the two. 50's left, modern right:

[1981 LPC]

Thanks for the explanation Alex. I'm afraid the standard Gibson replacement part has painted letters.

[goodasaf]

just found out:
Gil Yaron Guitars - Parts For Sale
the most accurate M69's from the TDPRI les paul 1959 replica build.
right material, great price
i got two already

[floyd84]

Here's a lil comparison of P-90 pickguards. This pic had the best color match on my monitor. It was taken wth a Nikon D3100. It was done with diffused sunlight in the room, the internal flash, and a slave flash a few feet away. I set the white balance to flash and used f/11

[gpivet]

(forgive bad english, brazilian here) Hi there, don't know if this is of help (if it's not i can remove?), I'm just a regular USA user, don't have any HISTORIC. Just done some upgrading in my '02 Classic LP and among them are some plastics - I exchanged the pickguard and the mounting rings from USA line to Historic Line, and took some pics to compare. Below are them.

Here's the 20 pic topic about the upgrade, let me know what you think bout my beat up "poor man's r0" (Gibson USA forum).... Upgraded my '02 Classic (PICs)

Comparison pics (camera Sony H-9)

Pickguard: USA above mounted HISTORIC







Mounting Ring: USA besides mounted HISTORIC



Pickguards and Pickup rings: installed HISTORICS, uninstalled guard is USA and uninstalled rings are USA and Dimarzio CREAM CURVED BOTTOM (more like yellow):



My final (at least for now) result:

[weirdotis]

I'm pretty sure the Historic rings are made out of the same stuff that the USA ones are.

[gpivet]

Originally Posted by weirdotis

I'm pretty sure the Historic rings are made out of the same stuff that the USA ones are.

I agree that the rings (USA and Historic) are made of the same stuff - only difference is size and design. The color is equal (in my case at least).

What I do confirm, in my case, is that the USA and Historic PICKGUARDS have VERY DIFFERENT colors.

And that the Historic Pickguard is closer to the rings/washer/etc than the USA guard. The USA guard is the PINKIER THING among the plastics.

[MXR]

what do you think about the Monster relic vintage clone pickguard? I've got a '58 2008 reissue, do you think that the monster relic is better thank the stock pickguard?

MonsterRelic.com: Clone

thanks

[Stonehard]

More OTP rings - I think this may answer a few questions... the three colours currently available from Vintage Haven against an original (if battered) M69.

[coldengray]

Anyone know if the toggle switch ring that Kim at Retro-Spec sells is the same as Montreux? They look identical.

[cooljuk]

Originally Posted by coldengray

Anyone know if the toggle switch ring that Kim at Retro-Spec sells is the same as Montreux? They look identical.

I thought the same thing. He used to sell DMC rings, I think I got one of his last ones. I don't think the font on the current ring is as nice, but the color looks good.