Epiphone Les Paul Bigsby Jr. - Patrick Schwab's latest mod

A stock Epiphone Les Paul Junior

   If you're a long time reader of the Guitar Omnivore blog,you may remember Patrick Schwab from the How do you make a great parts "Tele" even greater? article back in May. If you stop by the shop on occasion,you might know Patrick as the guitar department manager.  He has also been having a blast at home,tricking out inexpensive guitars into custom one of a kind axes. Just the kind of thing we love! As Patrick's guitar modding skills have gotten better,he's needed my help less and less. This one was all Patrick...I just took the pictures.

...and after!

Let's see,we've got a Bigsby tremolo,a new bridge,new knobs and a Seymour Duncan Phat Cat pickup. Patrick also stained the fingerboard black!

Tusq nut and a custom truss rod cover.

Patrick,quite understandably,dubbed this guitar the "Les Paul Bigsby Junior". Hey Epiphone,perhaps a new model for next year? I don't do any engraving so the custom truss rod cover was made by the fine folks at Philadelphia Luthier Tools. http://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/servlet/StoreFront I've also just found out Philadelphia Luthier Tools has a blog! Be sure to get over to http://blog.philadelphialuthiertools.com/ and check it out.

Here's another cool Epiphone modified by Patrick:

Tusq nut,Gibson P-90's and a new pickguard.

I actually had something to do with this one! I wired the electronics:

CTS pots,orange drop caps,Switchcraft 3-way and jack.

I hope this inspires you to do your own "cheapo" guitar mods!