Curiously, I'm one of the few people who loved the 2015 Les Paul Less+ concept. A Les Paul with the weight of an SG - great!
Of course we all know the reality of 2015 wasn't that great. But it seemed to me that if I could live with the wider neck, everything else was fixable, and I bought my Less+ at less than half list, so it was worth a try.
Firstly I needed to get the thing playing properly. So the robot tuners went in the bin, the nut was replaced with the titanium one, and the binding cleaned up around the neck. The frets were actually very good, and a decent low action was easy to get.
Sound-wise, I have no complaints. The Classic 57s sound like they should, and the coil tap/split switch added flexibility.
But 3 knobs on a Les Paul? And taking the scratchplate off leaves holes in the pickup rings? Also I don't think the exposed pickups goes with the burst...
So - pickup rings replaced with vintage style, nickel pickup covers added, and rewired with 50s style wiring, adding a push/push on the neck tone control to keep the coil split.
The trickiest bit was finding a pot that would fit under the backplate (the body is thin!) but keep the knobs low. The most nerve-wracking bit was drilling out the switch hole to hold the lower pot...
Anyhow, here's how it now looks. I may swap the 70s top-hat knobs at some point, but I kinda like them. And now it looks like a "real" les paul!
Of course we all know the reality of 2015 wasn't that great. But it seemed to me that if I could live with the wider neck, everything else was fixable, and I bought my Less+ at less than half list, so it was worth a try.
Firstly I needed to get the thing playing properly. So the robot tuners went in the bin, the nut was replaced with the titanium one, and the binding cleaned up around the neck. The frets were actually very good, and a decent low action was easy to get.
Sound-wise, I have no complaints. The Classic 57s sound like they should, and the coil tap/split switch added flexibility.
But 3 knobs on a Les Paul? And taking the scratchplate off leaves holes in the pickup rings? Also I don't think the exposed pickups goes with the burst...
So - pickup rings replaced with vintage style, nickel pickup covers added, and rewired with 50s style wiring, adding a push/push on the neck tone control to keep the coil split.
The trickiest bit was finding a pot that would fit under the backplate (the body is thin!) but keep the knobs low. The most nerve-wracking bit was drilling out the switch hole to hold the lower pot...
Anyhow, here's how it now looks. I may swap the 70s top-hat knobs at some point, but I kinda like them. And now it looks like a "real" les paul!
Needs a pickguard 
