Pimp My Guitar Project
Inspired by a never ending curiosity about guitar modifications, we decided to see what would happen to a brand new Gibson Les Paul Traditional if we changed all of the parts to high performance after market replacements. Well, the results were pretty dramatic and our "Pimp My Guitar" correspondent Ryan Jenkins has blogged in depth about the experience. Below are pictures taken in the workshop of Mike Smith aka "Smitty" at MJS pick ups. Beyond creating and handwinding the after market MJS pick ups for this guitar, Smitty did all of the installation and customization work for this project for which we are most thankful. For complete details on this process, read Ryan's blog under the blog menu.
1

Full shot of the guitar before modifications.

2

Detail of the body

3

De-soldering the original pickups

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De-soldering the original pickups

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Pickups have been completely removed. Note how thick the Maple top is where the pickups are installed.

6

Using a Magnetrometer to measure the magnetic flux of the magnets it the original pickups and Smitty’s pickups.

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Our brand new custom hand-wound MJS Pickups in the original packaging!

8

MJS pickups being installed into the pickup mounting rings.

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Pickups are in. You will notice the lack of screws that you see in most humbucking pickups.

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The packaging for the MJS pickups. The code at the bottom describes the output and magnet type for each pickup.

11

Measuring the resistance of the pots.

12

First RS Guitarworks cap being soldered in. These caps were about 20 times the size of the stock caps!

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Soldering in the second side of the cap.

14

Pickups are installed, let’s hear them!

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Smitty tries to leave as much room as he can for whoever ends up working on this guitar in the future.

16

Installing the Tonepros locking bridge and tailpiece. Check out the hex screws, which keep the bridge and tailpiece from moving.

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Smitty uses a hand counter sink when installing new strap buttons to prevent the finish from cracking around the hole.

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Removing the original tuners.

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The original tuners are also made by Tonepros/Kluson, but are non-locking and have a lower gear ratio than the new tuners.

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On go the new tuners!

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The nut is gone and since there is no glue residue there is no need to clean the nut slot.

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First step in cutting a new nut: roughing out the blank.

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Smitty creates the basic shape of the nut on a belt sander.

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Putting on the finishing touches.

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New blank nut and tuners installed

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Smitty then marks the first and sixth strings using the old nut as a guide.

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Begin putting the strings back on

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Guitar is strung up, but the nut slots are still a work in progress.

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He checks the depth of each slot by pressing down the string at the second fret 32

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Smitty carefully shapes each nut slot with a file slightly larger than the string itself

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This is a painstaking process that takes a lot of time, a steady hand and a sharp eye

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Sighting the neck

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Using a straightedge to check the straightness of the neck.

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Setting the intonation

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Final tweak of the pickup height.

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Smitty poses with the final product.