Ten Year Les Paul Custom Restoration Project

Final sanding was pretty straightforward, wetsanding with 400, then 600 then 1500. After that I used 3M rubbing compound, followed by 3M Hand Glaze. I wanted to avoid any wax, in case I had to touch up any areas that chipped when installinig the hardware.
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Before I installed the hardware I used a Dremel with a pointed metal tip, on high speed, to bevel the entrance for each screw or metal assembly. As the coats of clear built up, it closes in all the holes in the wood. If you don't carefully remove the paint buildup it will chip bad. I had to use a drill bit to clean out the holes for the tuning pegs. First I beveled the edges on the front and back, so the drill would not chip the paint.
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Wiring was OK, except that the older Dimarzios I was using had 3 leads. All the curent Dimarzio humbuckers have 4 leads (and of course, the original pickups for this guitar only have 2 leads), so the Dimarzio site was of no help. I remembered that one of the leads goes to ground but couldn't remember which. I wired it up with black to ground but had to reverse it so that the white goes to ground. I should have checked with the Ohm meter first, because that's the best way to tell if it is hooked up ok. DImarzio specs are about 13K for the PAF and about 7K for the Super Distortion.

After it was wired I strung it with a set of .009 Ernie Ball strings. The bridge saddles were not slotted, so I used a caliper to get the spacing right and small coping saw and files to make the slots.

The truss rod nut has been loose all these years. I tightened it up so it was just snug. I'll see how the neck responds after a few days with the strings in place.

I set the action to 5/64" treble and 6/64" bass side. I used an electronic tuner to set the intonation. Thanks to the adjustment range of the 'Nashville' bridge, I didnot have to reverse any of the saddles. With the old style bridge and Ernie Ball strings, I usually have to reverse the last two saddles to get them as far back as possible.
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It has an excellent clear tone. Probably a combination of things that make it so nice. For example, a 20-30 year old guitar frequently has a 1/4" output jack that doesn't always make good contact, and the tone and volume pots are scratchy and have some baseline resistance when full on.

This guitar's bridge has not rattles or buzzes. The nut is done well and the frets are excellent. These things, along with the new hardware and new electronics all contribute to the excellent tone.

 

I have never uploaded MP3s to F chat before so lets see how it goes...

The guitar was recorded with a Mesa Dual Rectifier Maverick amp and a Tascam mic. It is mixed with a blues 'play-along' CD.
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How do you like those guitars without the pickguards? I guess most people support their hand with the palm on the edge of the bridge, but I use my middle two fingers on the pickguard. This way I can attack the string closer to the neck pickup. Someone took the pickguard off my ES175 before I got it and it is difficult for me to play. Too bad the common sources of guitar parts don't carry ES175 pickguards.

Here are a few tracks featuring the LP I restored in this thread:

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6664347
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6664342
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6664325

The amp used in these tracks is a Fender Super Twin Reverb that I heavily modified.