More GAS and more pics - 2001 Gibson Les Paul Special

[kspeed]

Yesterday I scored a 2001 Les Paul Special with P100 pickups and a SKB hardshell case for $500. I've played for 14 years and never owned a Gibson before this year - this one's my second.

So here's the pics. This one is definitely in player's condition and needed some TLC.




Custom painted SKB case - I don't really feel it, but I don't mind it either:


Here she is - the previous owner named her Antigone, after the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta:






The original G tuner was replaced with some generic vintage style model:









The knobs were a bit misaligned:

[kspeed]

Now a couple of backside shots before she goes into surgery. The belly contour's a nice feature, though it's a bit dinged up:




Serial number is 02591458:



Back in the shop, stripped:



Not sure what this means, exactly, but the writing at the top says "LPJS" (does Gibson's name for the color start with J?) with a signature below it:



A closeup of the P100 pickup - you have a white ground wire and a black wire that connects the coils (as seen on the left side):



I didn't care for the stock tone of the P100's so I snipped the black wire. It's much more vibrant and alive now (sorry for the blurry shot):



Headstock stripped - those tuners were begging to be replaced:

[kspeed]

It had some light/moderate grooves in the fretwire, mostly up to the 9th fret. There was plenty of life left in'em so I ran through my tried and true restoration method:

Apply two layers of masking tape to every fret and the sides of the neck
Wet sand with 6000 grit paper by hand
Clean up with some Brasso
Polish with Meguiar's Mag Polish
Oil the the fingerboard with Gibson conditioner:



Sorry I didn't take more "in progress" shots. This one was taken after I sanded the fretwire:




...And here she is, all cleaned up:





New Sperzel locking tuners replaced the old Gibson/generic combination. They aren't large enough to cover the old screwholes, but it doesn't bother me as much as the fact I misaligned the D tuner:

[AustinPlaysGuitar]

Gorgeous!