Gibson Melody Maker To LP JR Conversion

[oipunkguy]

A friend of mine pickup up this late model MM dirt cheap. but he hated the satin black finish on it so he asked me to redo it. Well we got to talking and he also said how he hated the smaller MM headstock so we decided to just convert it over to an LP Junior.

[oipunkguy]

first thing is I had to plug the tuner holes with a wooden dowel and glue it in. once that dried, I cut off the excess and sanded the edges of the headstock to remove the small rounded off edge and to remove the paint so i had something solid to glue. then i cut a couple of pieces of Honduras mahogany I had laying in my shop and glued them on. once that was dry I began to shape the headstock with my 59 LP headstock template.

[oipunkguy]

same thing had to be done on the body. plug the holes where the controls where and drill the holes where for the volume and tone on an LP JR.

[oipunkguy]

next was time to strip off the paint. since it was nitro, i just used a chemical stripper.



and I drilled the new holes for the tuners

[eltuce]

Nice! I dropped a Lollar in mine. He makes one that fits right in without having to do any routing but you may have known that already.

[oipunkguy]

the next step I had to sand down the back of the body to remove the small rolled over edge on the back. Melody maker bodies are only 1 and a quarter inches thick, so I'll need to glue a 1/2 inch piece of mahogany on the back before I can start the finishing process. I will need to also drill the hole for the side jack. now I'm just waiting on the customer to send me the lumber for the back. more to come

[oipunkguy]

Nice! I dropped a Lollar in mine. He makes one that fits right in without having to do any routing but you may have known that already.

the funny thing is we aren't going to change any of the electronics. the only thing I'm doing is moving the jack to the side, and were going to replace the cap with a bubblebee version. we're still debating on painting it TV yellow or a tobacco burst.

[dubtrub]

Nice work, Aaron!

[eltuce]

One vote for TV!

[Dennisthe Menace]

One vote for TV!

PLUS 1 more!!