First attempt...Rebuilding a Les Paul Special II

[Junk420]

Hey there everyone,

In the future, I plan to build my own bass from scratch. I have a plan in my head and it looks fantastic.

But this is the present and I need some more experience before I tackle something like that.

So I have a beat up Epiphone Les Paul Special II that a friend gave to me for free. What better canvas to practice on?

I plan on filling the hole where the neck pick-up used to live. Replacing the bridge with an EMG ALX-HZ set, new bridge (still undecided), tuners and a full paint job. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/acces...bucker-abq-set

I took a picture before tear down and I have posted a pictures below with some questions.

Here is the guitar before tear down. Ugly...



My main concern is the neck. No idea when, but one of the previous owners decided to remove 3 frets at the base of the neck, chipping it in the process. Then paint over half of it with primer and write all over it. I got the majority of the paint off the first time I changed the strings. Is this neck worth saving? I was going to do a re-fret anyway. I figure sanding and new frets would make it like new anyway (In theory).



Parts are being ordered over the next week.

First step is to get my hands on a piece of mahogany to fill in the hole from the neck pick up. Then I start shaving wood from the body and stripping off that awful finish.

[crazydave911]

Well, those missing frets tell you what the guy didn't play ...............lol

[Hopkins]

My guess would be that he had a fret buzz on those frets, and he never played that high on the neck. So he just pried them out with a screwdriver or something. He didn't do a very good job, but I imagine it got the job done.