Guitar Gear Forum

After seeing Billy’s thread about the faux binding and always weirdly loving the 12fret inlay on the og gothic I decided to grab one to do the “binding mod” on. I’m also gonna grab a bottle of satin nitro from stew Mac to pick up the overall finish a little cuz I know how thrashed the gothics get with seemingly the thinnest/softest factory finish ever
The couple Gothic explorers I had were fantastic players but if it’s a dog I’ll just return it

Yeah do it!! The binding wasn't very hard, especially if you have some tolerance about it being completely perfect and you're OK with a bit of wear in the look.

I love the Gothic series btw, I'm actually thinking that's going to be the next LP I'll buy. I'd also love the Gothic Explorer but the price on those kind of skyrocketed recently.


But yeah man, congrats!! That's a badass guitar!!!

First, don’t do that binding “trick”. Lol. if not done Nicely it looks pretty shoddy to me. Even on a beater.

But 2, these were thinner bodies. I think even moreso than a standard studio. I have one in pieces here now. Gonna eventually revuild it but I remember noticing the thinner body and thinner maple top. . And that actual maple top at the edge is carved down to about an 1/8th of inch iirc. Or thereabouts. . So you’ll either have a real skinny “binding” line or you’ll end up going too far and revealing the mahogany and you’ll have some weird looking 2 color binding.

I loved the gothic Vs I had. I would just leave it as is and play the fuck out of it. These guitars are always beat up because the finish is so thin. But yeah...gothic V, 500T...just awesome.

Yeah I heard they were thinner but I wasn’t sure by how much and what wood they took the thickness out of lol overall it looks pretty close to a studio body. When I have it in hand I’ll decide if it’s too thin I’ll just return it. And the binding idea is non negotiable:lol:

Lol. Well overall it’s not too thin. It feels fine. But for “revealing” the top edge I think it may be. I’ll even double check a bit later..

But in the end this isn’t really a trick as it’s just performing a standard binding scrape but simply removing the finish and creating one. Meaning I do this all the time on guitars with binding while finishing to scrape off any color that may have found it’s way under the tape. It’s not difficult but there is a technique to keep it straight. If you happen to be a contractor and can scribe perfectly straight lines freehand, then it’s essentially the same thing. If you don’t know how or what that is, then it’s no help. But just look up techniques or vids of people scraping regular bindings. And make sure you use a sharp blade, even have a few on hand and if you do it, you gotta just commit. Cause going too slow will get “chatters” which is when the blade doesn’t ride smooth and skips along and then it looks like shit.

I’m moderately versed in DIY, plus I saw a trick where they put a blade in the middle of a dowel to be able to adjust the thickness and keep it straight. Is that a good trick or is it ass? overall I think I can do it pretty well, I appreciate all the tips from you, your work is amazing!

Binding! Binding! Binding! Binding!

Holy-diver wrote:your work is amazing!

I can confirm this.

Holy-diver wrote:I’m moderately versed in DIY, plus I saw a trick where they put a blade in the middle of a dowel to be able to adjust the thickness and keep it straight. Is that a good trick or is it ass? overall I think I can do it pretty well, I appreciate all the tips from you, your work is amazing!

first, thanks!
Yeah the dowel can work. Provided the blade is secured well. It’s basically doing what your finger or knuckle, more precisely, is doing. Being a depth stop. I’ve seen a few little DIY things made for this. Pick one and go for it! Good luck

One of the best sounding and playing Les Paul guitars I have owned! I had a 2001 model. It was my first Gibson, so I might be a bit bias by inexperience at the time I installed a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge and a '59 I'm the neck. That guitar ripped after that, but the stock 498T/490R sounded great as well. I still think about getting another one from time to time.

If you want to get a feel for what it will look like get some 1/4” vinyl tape and mask it up
https://www.amazon.com/GGR-Supplies-T-R ... YXRm&psc=1

I’ve always liked the Gothic series.

Most of Gibson’s attempts to be cool come off as a room full of 70 year old rich white men who don’t play guitar trying to imagine what a young guitar player might find cool, and the Gothic is no different, but they actually hit a mark with that one.

I had the Epi LP and the Gibson Explorer for awhile. The Explorer was cool and the previous owner had loaded an 81/60 set in it, which was awesome, but I felt like a poseur when playing it.

It’s here. I went ahead with the “binding” scrape idea. It came out mostly good, the paint where the arm rests was really crispy for lack of a better word it kinda chipped and flaked a lot it was super brittle. Overall the paint jobs on gothics is fucking trash anyways so I’m pretty happy with how it came out. Around the cutout was the only part that got dicey but like I said the paint on these is ass anyways so I wasn’t that worried about it.

Looks good man. I mean, for what it is! Haha. But the effort seems solid!

But I can’t help how I see guitars these days but what’s up with the Spacing on the A and D strings? Just not in their “slots”, or are they that misaligned? If so there should be enough room to move em over and notch a new spot so they stay more even.

Oh no it’s all detuned and shit lol I just set it up to snap a quick pic

Holy-diver wrote:Oh no it’s all detuned and shit lol I just set it up to snap a quick pic

Looks great! I did the automotive pinstriping binding on my PRS S2. 5 minutes on and 3 seconds off if I ever change my mind.
PXL_20230711_001615908 by Billy Coverdale, on Flickr
PXL_20230711_001623338 by Billy Coverdale, on Flickr

Looks awesome man!!!! Cleaner than mine for sure