2004 LP Junior Special rebuild/refinish

I'm a fan of the slab bodied LPs, and found one on reverb.com that looked nice; what I thought might be a 1 piece body:



But upon receiving it, it needed a lot of work. The Worn Cherry finish was in bad shape, and the plating was in bad shape too, along with some sloppy factory wiring:



So I decided to strip the finish, order all new components, and leave that beautiful mahogany body lightly finished with a couple coats of clear nitro; it now feels like fine furniture. Truth be told, it's a 2 piece, but you have to look really close to to find the seam- good job Gibson!

I sold all the original electronics, replacing the 490/498s with Gibson 57 Classic/Classic Plus pickups, CTS pots, Orange Drop caps, and Switchcraft switch & jack. Then I added a Bigsby B5 on a V5 Vibramate, with a TonePros Nashville roller bridge and TUSQ XL nut. Here's the finished guitar, and it's one of my favorites:

Clean! Nice work!

Lotsa work payed off handsomely!

It’s not just dollars and cents - can you get your money back if you sell it?

Who cares?

You polished a jewel in the rough.
Fine diamond now!

Did you use grain filler? Guitar looks beautiful nice job!

massacre said:

Did you use grain filler? Guitar looks beautiful nice job!

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Thanks. I did use pore filler at one point, thinking it would really make the grain pop. It was a bad idea- I hated it. It took all the "warmth" out of the wood, making it look like granite to my eye. Here are before and after sanding photos.You may be able to tell from this side-by-side image; the difference looks more pronounced in person:



So I wiped it down with lacquer thinner, sanded to 320, shot 2 coats of clear nitro, and that's it. It feels great, like wood, not plastic.

Excellent, thanks for the speedy reply!

After living with the Bigsby for a while now, I'm not as in love with it as I had hoped. Even with the roller bridge and the TUSQ XL nut, tuning stability is hit or miss. I'm not sure the angled placement of Gibson bridge posts is helping much...
Any suggestions?

Brewster2025 said:

tuning stability is hit or miss

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Sounds like typical Bigsby! The nut is always in doubt - sometimes you can tell if the nut is sticking after a bend by pushing the string either side of the nut and seeing if the pitch changes.

But overall my Bigsby experience has been that they work for very mild vibrato only.

I wonder if a Bigsby is better suited to a straight across bridge, like a Tele?