Official Luthiers Forum!

I've seen Les Paul binding done different ways:

1.) Constant binding height all around - resulting in seeing some top wood in the cutaway area.

2.) Binding that gets taller in the cutaway but you don't see any top wood.

I found a pic on Elderly's site of a vintage '59 and it appears to follow #1 above.

I've also found pics of later 60s LP's that follow #2.

Does anyone know when they did what?

Thanks
Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

So for anyone playing along at home, I got out my ‘the Les Paul Legacy” books.

Apparently when Gibson started remaking the LP in ‘68, they went to the taller binding in the cutaway to conceal the cap & they did that for “many years”.

If anyone else knows more beyond that, I’d love to hear.

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I don't know anything about when they did what, but when I built my first one I did the up and down thing that you show in your first picture. I was building from some '59 'burst plans and that what it showed.

When I built my second, which was only loosely patterned after a Les Paul at all I changed the carving of the upper bout so it is not symmetrical from treble to bass side and made it drop to the binding level all around the horn. I was using wood binding and didn't want to try to bend on the long axis - much simplier.

I've also seen the extra tall binding for sale but can't imagine scraping all the way around the body. That just seems like a bad idea.

Doesn't answer your question I know, but unless you are trying to duplicate a particular year does it matter?

It doesn't matter unless someone is getting nerdy about details, or maybe there's a tonal impact

I made on LP with the taller binding and actually bandsawed the binding to rough shape before installing which was a PITA but I think it looked better.

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

The wood showing is called “the smile” and is desirable to any vintage geek. It is easier to do and uses narrower binding material. So I would advise doing it this way although there will be no difference in sound.

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Ken

I always wondered why they didn't just make the cutaway side all the same body depth as the rest of the guitar. Know what I mean?