I bought of aftermarket parts for my Les Paul.

Dirty_Frank

Stuff like pickup brackets and selectors.

Guess what?

The stupid company obviously has never measured a Les Paul because the parts don't fit the guitar!

Now I have a guitar that I have to put the old parts back on to, and I blew about 30 bucks on shit that is useless.

:(

exhausted

same shit happens with strats. the cheap parts are for import copies that don't have the same dimensions.

Dirty_Frank

I went out and did some searching and got Gibson parts for my Les Paul. The store was pretty good about the shitty parts not fitting.

I'm still looking for the right control knobs.

mccreadyisgod

The control knobs should be easy, the pots are a pretty universal size...

Sorry about the other parts not working, but like Ex said, the knock-off parts are close but not right. I had the same problem with a pickguard for one of my Tele's, in inverse order: I tried to put a Fender pickguard on a knock-off Tele, but it wouldn't fit right. You live and learn. One of these days, I'm gonna get Warmoth or WD to cut me a new 'guard from a tracing.

Anyhoo...

Dirty_Frank

The pots on it got done a long time ago. I've got it set up for pushpull coil splits on the volumes and I just have some higher quality shielded ones in there. Believe it or not, I couldn't find the right control knobs, but I ordered the ones I wanted. No store in London had the flat topped vintage looking ones, similar to what you would have found on an early 90s Les Paul.

All of the changes I'm doing now are aesthtic.

What I have is this guitar. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/518321/

BUT... It had two PRS zebra pickups in it (Vintage Bass and HFS) and the aforementioned pot switches.

I put creme mounting rings and creme toggle selector and the adhesive piece that says "Rhythm/Treble" in it so far. Once I get the knobs it will be perfect and look a lot like Stone's Custom here: except the rings and the selector (but you get the idea.)

http://www.pearl-jam.com/pictures/stone/pjsgicec.jpg

enharmonic

Frank, did you hit up the Stewmac catalog?

Dirty_Frank

enharmonic wrote:

Frank, did you hit up the Stewmac catalog?

Nope. But I'm looking at their website now. That's amazing! They have absolutely everything.

These are the knobs I'm going to order

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Knobs/Speed_knobs.html (the amber ones)

Edit:

Looking at that site, it looks like they're selling the same brand parts that I bought. The pickup mounting rings are the same dimensions and have the flat bottom, so they require a fairly precise screwing in to make them fit properly.
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Hardware,_parts/Electric_guitar:_Covers_plates/Gibson_Style_Toggle_Switch_Plates.html

That toggle switch plate is the same as the one I picked up, but it's not exactly the same as the orginal black one I had on the guitar. The Text is taller and pushed a little bit closer together.

Dirty_Frank

I also notice some pretty serious problems that have developed with this guitar. At the nut end of the neck, a lot of the frets have deep craters from my strong playing style. It extends all the way to the upper frets, but is really prominent near the headstock.

I've been using .11-.54 for last little while, and it's taking a toll on my neck. I never really noticed how bowed it really is. I adjusted the truss rod to straighten it out, but it's not quite straight enough now. I'm going to take it to a tech to let them do the rest of it. I think this is affecting the innotation of my b and g strings too. My tunematic bridge has the saddles all the way back, and these strings still are just a little sharp. It's kinda annoying, because the guitar is in tune in certain chord shapes, but in others, it's just enough out to really bother me.

The finger board was really dried out too. I gave it a good coating of oil though, and it looks like new. Nice and dark now.

The guitar is almost 6 years old and I've been playing it exclusively for about 5 years now and it's had the shit beat out of it. I'm really just starting to notice how bad of shape it's in though.

MetalGod75

any parts for Gibson you gotta get the real thing cuz like you've found out they dont fit!ARGH!LOL!Especially the pickup surrounds i found that out too.I replaced the bridge on my LP custom too and even though that was a Gibson part i had too get the tech to fit it cuz the holes were too small to fit on the posts!

JofZ

If you want the best repro parts look no further then RS Guitarworks. If you want repro of original plastic and have the budget then you want DMC. If you need parts for Gibson and can tolerate the crap they use then pick it up from Music123 and make sure it is Gibson.
I have never used Stewmac before so I can't comment, but all speed knobs are not created equal!

Spook Fish

Dirty_Frank wrote:

Stuff like pickup brackets and selectors.

Guess what?

The stupid company obviously has never measured a Les Paul because the parts don't fit the guitar!

Now I have a guitar that I have to put the old parts back on to, and I blew about 30 bucks on shit that is useless.

:(

Its basically an Imperial and metric measuring difference. the knock off shit is metric, the same thing happend to me when i needed 2 new pick up surrounds for a gibson hollowbody Jap copy i have. strange though because it was made in Jap land, but had American imperial measures. i thought i would need the Jap versions, and wasted £5. but as a general rule, get the real deal from Fender or Gibson if you have a proper one, or only buy from licenced aftermarket suppliers.