Introduction
The Tall Tale of the Less Tall Guitar
The idea
of building a half scale replica of the Gibson Les Paul came about in
late 2005. Being a big fan of, and a collector of full size Les Paul guitars
(historic reissues), I was a bit frustrated by the fact that I had these
beautiful guitars, all hiding in their cases, with no good way…or
place to display them all. My first idea was to take high quality photos
of them all, print them in large format, and mount them on flat pieces
of wood, cut out in the shape of the guitar. That way, the photos would
have a semi three dimensional quality to them. I then started thinking
that maybe I should angle the fingerboard and headstock like the real
thing…then thought I'd cut out, and add a shim to the pickups, bridge
and tailpiece to give an even greater three dimensional appearance.
Well, one thing led to another, and I decided that if I'm going to go through all this time and effort, and invest in equipment to do this, I might as well try my hand at building a real replica. I figured that building a half scale replica would be a nice size, because at 19+ inches, it would be small enough to fit nicely on a desk or bookcase, propped up on a mini guitar stand…yet large enough so that I'd be able to retain all the details of a full sized guitar. So this idea, combining my love of the Les Paul, my passion for woodworking and my long time interest in collecting and building miniatures, led to the creation of the Less TallTM model.
The Less Tall name came to me almost instantaneously, and the idea was born.
The Tale Grows Longer
The prototype Less Tall took approximately eight months to make. This time, however, included quite a bit of experimentation time, template making (for future builds), research on methods and materials. It also included the time to make all the aluminum and plastic hardware, along with molds for some of the plastic parts.
A few months into the project, I received an invitation (through the
Les Paul Forum) to attend the '06 Gibson Summer Jam, to be held late July
at their new Custom Shop in Nashville. Suddenly, I had a specific goal…to
complete the prototype in time for the Jam. Come late June, I was pretty
much done with the guitar and all the hardware. The only thing left to
do in the remaining few weeks was to finish (stain) the guitar. Unfortunately,
however, the weather along the east coast was not at all conducive to
working with Nitrocelulose; for the entire month of July it either rained
or the humidity was off the charts. So I went to the Jam with a complete,
but unfinished guitar.
At Gibson, my Less Tall was met with an amazing amount of enthusiasm.
I was overwhelmed by the response from the Gibson folks…at all levels,
along with that of my fellow Jam attendees. In fact, Gibson management
liked it so much, they offered to finish it for me! In subsequent communications
with them, it was discussed that I would be invited back down to Nashville
to have it finished by them, that they would take a series of before-and-after
photos, and do a write-up about the guitar and construction process.
After several communications with Gibson, trying to nail down the details of the visit, I received word from them in January of '07 that the project was being halted. It seems that in January, a new policy went into effect at Gibson which either did away with, or severely limited any and all custom one-off guitars and projects. And my Less Tall apparently fell into this category. I was disappointed to say the least, but still very much encouraged by all the praise I had received and all the interest generated in my Less Tall project.
Dave Johnson to the Rescue
When word got out about Gibson's change of heart (and policy), a friend of mine, "Flickoflash", put me in touch with
Dave Johnson, the master Les Paul finisher, and the proprietor
of Dave Johnson Restorations (and co-founder of Historic Makeovers). Dave
offered to help me out with the finishing of my Less Tall guitars. And
after contemplating this offer for no more than three seconds, I felt
that having Dave (affectionately know as "Magic") Johnson finish
these little guitars for me would be the ultimate compliment and "end"
to this part of the story. And I use the plural term "guitar(s)",
because by this point in the story, I'm well on my way toward completing
two more Less Tall models.