Aoresteen Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 A couple of years ago I got the itch to get a Les Paul Deluxe (LPD) like the one I had in the 70's. The one with the mini-humbuckers in them. Prices were way high so I ended up getting an Epiphone Les Paul Deluxe (ELPD). Well, I like it so much that I ended up with three of them - gold top, red sparkel, and blue sparkel. The blue sparkel LPD was a custom color made for Mars Music. I decided to do a few mods to it. Pete Townsend used LPDs in the 70's and he added a 3rd pickup to them, a DiMarzio Super Distortion. So if Pete did it, why not me? Here's what it looked like when I got it: When I got the ELPD it had a couple of problems. The neck strap lock was attached by an oversized screw and I had to plug the hole with a dowel & re-drill. Once fixed I installed Schaller strap locks: The 3 way switch was bad and had to be replaced (BTW the seller sent me a new one). The truss rod had a bad rattle at the 1st fret. I fixed it with rubber cement & Naptha. I had to remove the nut and truss rod nut & washer. Was fairly easy to do. http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Setup/BuzzDiagnosis/TrussRod/trussrod.html Next I routed out a cavity for the center DiMarzio pup. I had to strip all the hardware off of the guitar so that the router template would lie flush on the top of the guitar. Here are the installed pups: I had to cut an opening in the pickguard for the center Dimarzio. The bridge and neck pups are Seymour Duncan replacements And a detail shot of the controls: The special knobs go to 11 making the guitar even louder :) Here she is all done: I've named her Petra Blue (Petra is the female form of Peter - a tip of the hat to Pete Townsend). Mods: Pickups: Neck - Seymour Duncan SM-2N Middle - DiMarzio Dual Sound (Same a Super Distortion) Bridge - Seymour Duncan SM-2B Controls: 2 vol, 2 tone. Neck Vol push-pull for phase switch (B&N) Neck Tone push-pull for neck single coil Dimarzio center uses neck tone/vol controls as well Bridge Tone push-pull for bridge single coil. Bridge vol - just a plain vol pot. 3 way switch controls Bridge & Neck pups as normal. Top toggle: DPDT - turns neck & bridge pups on/off Center toggle: SPDT - turns Dimarzio pup on/off Bottem toggle: SPST - Dimarzio single coil tap. Knobs: Dimarzio blue top hats - to 11!! Schaller straplocks. Gotoh Tuners. And, yes, she sounds AWESOME!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aoresteen Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 And here are her sisters! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitmore Willy Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Aoresteen. I'm impressed. Nice job. I'll bet they sound as good as they look. BTW... I've had to do the same mod on every strap lock I've ever installed. Well done! Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNick Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Very good work. Looks good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubstar Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 now you need numbers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon S. Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Very nice!! Great work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSAR Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Cool mods, and they look to be very well executed. Though I don't think I could ever keep track of that many switches. You're just missing a black one now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aoresteen Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 Cool mods, and they look to be very well executed. Though I don't think I could ever keep track of that many switches. You're just missing a black one now... I'm not big on black guitars. If I run across a black ELPD at the right price I'll pick it up. I did go on a long hunt for the gold top ELPD. Finally found one in Baltimore and paid more than I should have. But it's such a nice guitar and after looking for over a year I jumped on it. No mods to it :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aoresteen Posted April 2, 2015 Author Share Posted April 2, 2015 Well, a black Epiphone Leas Paul Deluxe came up on eBay and I could not refuse! Here are some seller photos of it: Now I have all four colors :) ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crust Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 need a photo of the Epiphone deluxe quartet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aoresteen Posted April 8, 2015 Author Share Posted April 8, 2015 need a photo of the Epiphone deluxe quartet Coming up soon!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iankinzel Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 This is the one LP model I most wish Epiphone would reissue. Have they made them at all since moving to China? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capmaster Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 ... I've named her Petra Blue ... Great job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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