Major progress today....huge update....
First off, as I think I mentioned already, I wanted to absolutely minimize the amount of time this guitar sat with no string tension. So first thing I did was wire up a new switch-to-control-cavity loom using pushback cloth wire with braided shield.
With that done, off comes the hardware and pickups and it's time to pull that bushing. This is where things got stupid. I mentioned my trick of just dropping a small bolt down the hole and screwing the stud back in to extract the bushing. Well, that worked until the stud botttomed out and couldn't go no more. The bushing pulled up some but still wasn't loose enough to pull by hand. So I dropped another little bolt in there to take up some space aaaaaaand.....they jammed side-by-side instead on standing on top of each other. Lol. So I had to release my genius and make a puller tool. I ran to my massive toolbox in the garage and started rummaging around for anything to make an extractor. My toolbox has decades of hot rod building bits and pieces and parts left over. I had an idea of what to make. I found a piece of PVC pipe and a random fine-thread bolt. A good start. Now I need a large fender washer. Can't find one. But I did find some valve spring retainers off a Ford Windsor. Perfect fit. I needed some thick washers....Pontiac intake manifold bolt washers did the trick. Voila.
This is about as far as the stud alone would pull the bushing. Two little bolts stuck down in the hole.
The random-toolbox-junk tool in action! That's a piece of old beach towel to protect the finish.
Victory!
Now the scary shit. Time to drill. I'm gonna drill through this hole into the control cavity.
Protect the surface with painters tape, a folded up napkin, and an old sawzall blade.
So going through the bushing hole into the control cavity wasn't working. At that angle the bit kept walking. I tried to punch a pilot hole, but the bit just wouldn't bite. So I had to go backwards through the cavity into the bushing hole. This was easier, but the is no room for error. I just eyeballed it, held my breath, and got after it. It worked.
Peekaboo!
I frayed the wire in the bushing hole and hammered the bushing back into it's home. Checked with multimeter, good connection. This guitar is now grounded!
So on to the pickups. Removed the original T-Tops. Someone at some point removed the covers and made some halfassed ground that does nothing. This is the bridge pickup.
Neck pickup. That faint stamp says Dec 30 1977.
Neck pickup rout. Cherry SB - Sunburst. My second favorite Les Paul finish....Goldtop is my first favorite.
So on to the pickups...here's my Bare Knuckles. Riff Raff for the bridge, The Mule for the neck. PAF-style handmade vintage output pickups. I had em made with cream bobbins because the rest of the trim on the guitar is cream and it's gonna look very Ace Frehley-ish. Unfortunately they do not glow or smoke. Well, they might when I'm done wiring this thing.
These strings came with the pickups. I've never heard of them, but what the hell? They're going on.
So as it stands right now, the pickups are in and the guitar is strung up. And it looks
SICK AS FUCK. Looks awesome. But no pics yet because I have not put the pots in yet. Tomorrow will be pots installed and final wiring. And hopefully it works.
It's a bit like Porsche putting the engine in the boot (trunk) then having to design the hell out of the Carrera just to stop it throwing you into a hedge.
