Les Pauls

Got some time on my hands, so decided to roll up my sleeves and open up my wife abit. Decided to uninstall the pickguard, and remove the chrome pickup covers to give my Les Paul a more, rock-ish, brutal, exposed-coil look.

Was successful with the first task, as for the second, I managed to unscrew the pickup covers from the cream pickup rings, only to discover that the chrome covers were soldered on to the pickup by 2 points. Meh. And I don't have the equipment to remove the solder. Meh Meh.

Gonna go to my bro Beg Mal's friend's house this Sunday for some guitar maintenance/DIY lessons and maybe pick up a few skills in my mini-apprenticeship... meanwhile, enjoy the collection of various stunning Sunburst and assorted other finishes on Les Pauls...

The headstock, with the silk-screened 'Epiphone' logo embossed, and green Kluson-type tuners

Epiphone is a subsidiary of Gibson, the maker of 'real', expensive Les Pauls

View from the back, with serial number barely visible and a 'Made in Korea' sticker in grey

The pickup selector. It's missing a cream plastic tip. Selects the rhythm, treble, or a combination of both pickups for a variety of tonal palette

The acrylic-pearloid inlays... not clear from the picture, but looks beautiful up close, on a rosewood fingerboard.

View up the neck, from the 22nd fret onwards

Removed both pickups. Pickup cavity exposed, with the wiring visible

Les Paul, stripped down. It looks like something is bulging in the middle because of the carved maple top, which gives the Les Paul its legendary unique sound. The back is mahogany.

Pickups are turned-turtle to allow me access to unscrew the chrome pickup covers from the pickups. Was unsuccessful because the covers were not only screwed-on, they were also soldered-on

View of chrome pickup covers from the front. Pickups are stock. Plan to install a Seymour Duncan Alnico II pickup in the bridge/treble (for that searing Slash lead tones!!!) , and a Burstbucker in the neck/rhythm (Gary Moore's warm bluesy tones!!!) positions someday.

The Tune-O-Matic bridge, chrome stopbar tailpiece with strings still on and pickguard laid out.

Everything re-installed except the Tune-O-Matic, stopbar, and strings.

My Epiphone Les Paul Standard Goldtop, with pickguard removed by the side

And now... a collection of beautiful Les Pauls...

Various Sunburst finishes... notice the different quality wood tops...

Spalted Maple Top Les Paul in Natural finish and gold hardware

Spalted Maple Top Les Paul in an orange finish... look at the details of the wood... beautiful

A highly bookmatched, Flame Maple Top Les Paul finished in red with exposed pickups with white bobbins

A stunning quality Quilted Maple Top Les Paul finished in Blue...

Another extravagant-quality Quilted Maple Top finished in purple

Highly figured, bookmatched Quilted Maple top in stunning clarity... look at where the 2 halves of the wood that make up the top meet in the middle, perfectly matched

A beauty. Flame Maple Top Les Paul finished in Translucent Black, autographed by Joe Perry of Aerosmith... look at those tiger stripes! O_O

Flame Maple Top Les Paul with chrome pickup covers in... Blueburst?

A crazy, extremely beautiful Quilted Maple top... (in Honeyburst perhaps?) with exposed-coil Zebra pickup bobbins

I can't even describe this wood... speechless.

If I'm not wrong, this is should be a Teaburst or Honeyburst bookmatched Flame Maple Top Les Paul... again, see the line in the middle which is where the 2 halves of the wood meet, bookmatched to fit the flame pattern nicely

and MY personal favourite, the Heritage Cherry Sunburst!!! and this is how I want my Les Paul to look like, with gaping, exposed coil humbucking pickups for that raw, brutal look. No flames or quilts on this Plain Top. A 2004 Gibson Les Paul Classic, in Heritage Cherry Sunburst finish.

Slash's 1959 Les Paul copy made by Chris Derrig, which was the one used for recording the legendary 'Slash' tones in Appetite for Destruction!

The 1996 Slash's Signature Snakepit Les Paul!!!

What a beauty... look at the custom, real Mother of Pearl snake inlays...

this appears to be a copy though, since the headstock says 'Meyer', not 'Gibson'... but a damn quality copy at that

The infamous 'Slash's Snakepit' logo

Nope that's not just a painting folks... its real, carved wood...

The Original Slash Signature model made by Gibson! Only 50 made worldwide!!! Comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. I remember Swee Lee had one selling at S$18,000... after discount, S$12,888... AFTER DISCOUNT!!! In Singapore DOLLARS! NUTS!

The Man Himself... Slash!