Friday, September 12, 2008

'76 Les Paul Recording



Completed 7.14.08

My friend Tony brought this one to me. You can see by the frets and the back of the neck, that this puppy was really played hard. With the finish worn down to the bare wood on the back of the neck the 3 pieces of wood that make up the neck began to separate, and the neck began to twist and bow.

Using heat and tension I was able to straighten the neck. I then sealed the back of the neck with 8 coats of Tung oil, giving the last coat a light sanding to give the neck a nice satin feel.
Tony likes the feel of bare wood, but without sealing the neck, it's just going to start twisting again. I then leveled and crowned the frets (luckily there was enough left) and treated the fretboard with Lemon oil.

I like Tung oil. It soaks into the wood like sanding sealer but if you give it a light sanding after it dries it feels like bare wood.

When she was strung up and plugged in, she had a low action and smooth neck. Tony was happy I didn't refinish the neck. He likes the look and feel of wood. We won't tell him about the 8 coats of oil.

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