# ANOTHER….Historic Makeover's journey…. Waddy Babe Richards



## faracaster (Mar 9, 2006)

Hey All …….here's the journey (so far) with Gibson Collector's Choice # 3 "The Babe" getting it's Makeover.
I sent it down in July.
I really liked this guitar….as I did with the first one I had (I've had two of these and they were virtually identical in tone). It's up there with The Beast for the best LP tone from a modern stock gibson (IMHO). I bought this from Alex Dann here on the forum.
It's getting the full Richards/Taylor "Get Your Yaya's Out"/Exile On Main St./72' Tour 'Burst treatment. Kim at HM had the real Richards/Taylor 'burst in his shop doing some work on it on it's trip from the Hard Rock Cafe to the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. He took DETAILED pictures of the guitar. Absolutely dripping with character. Since the Keef LP was originally a Bigby'd LP, I got to thinking how a Makeover in the vein of the Keff 'burst might be very cool. 





























So off it went to Kim. I was going to put the original Bigsby B7 back on but drill stop tail holes also. Then I thought about Waddy Watchel's 'burst. It has the B5 or "horseshoe" Bigsby and I thought it looked too cool.
So it's getting the B5 and also getting the holes drilled for a stop tail (like Waddy's and the Keef/Mick) so if I ever wanted….I could go full on rock machine.






The original finish on the guitar.










Gibson nitro stripped off the guitar.










Old board removed from the guitar










Neck removed from the body










Binding removed and body prepped for new binding










New binding installed










Neck re-glued


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## faracaster (Mar 9, 2006)

Oh….and here's the Waddy 'burst. Love that horseshoe Bigsby on it.


















Neck prepped for new truss rod










New truss rod and brazilian board installed










Top and neck re-carved and body sanded


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## faracaster (Mar 9, 2006)

COLOUR !!!





































Colour with lacquer top coat





























Some parts placed on for reference AND sunbathing































And….that's about where she sits as of today. I'm guessing a February return to Canada. I'll post updates as they happen now.


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

That is seriously gorgeous.


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## brimc76 (Feb 14, 2008)

Wow! Beautiful.


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## starjag (Jan 30, 2008)

Hey Pete, when you say "top and neck re-carved" do they remove material only when re-carving or can they add something to achieve more thickness? Curious!


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## Alex (Feb 11, 2006)

They remove wood to make the neck thinner Starjag (i have a 335 at HM getting a similar treatment). I suspect the same for the body.

That guitar sounded great from the get go. It should be a knockout when it's finished. Waddy's guitar looks amazing!


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## ElectricMojo (May 19, 2011)

Wow, awesome!


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## faracaster (Mar 9, 2006)

This just in…..
quick iPhone shot of the B5 in place


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Fantabulous, Pete


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## puckhead (Sep 8, 2008)

this thread made my pants feel funny.
wow.


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## dwagar (Mar 6, 2006)

looks fantastic. Jeez they do good work.


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## Rideski (Feb 25, 2009)

So jealous! That's going to be stellar.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

In my dreams !!!


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## Mr Yerp (Feb 24, 2006)

In spite of my great affection for my Goldtop, I think that this really represents the classic LP look. Nice!


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## Strung_Out (Sep 30, 2009)

Wow. They don't get much more classic looking than that. 

I'd love to one day see a picture of your entire collection, Pete. Every guitar you post seems to be better looking than the last.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

dwagar said:


> looks fantastic. Jeez they do good work.


Agreed. Pete, what's the deal with getting the braz board put on in the states and having it sent back to canada?


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## faracaster (Mar 9, 2006)

Budda said:


> Agreed. Pete, what's the deal with getting the braz board put on in the states and having it sent back to canada?



Well…..it's a bit of hold your breath but, Kim sends the documents in the mail separate from the guitar. And technically it's a recent model so it shouldn't have Brazilian RW. 

Here's a shot of the BABE from last week……it's getting there.


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## faracaster (Mar 9, 2006)

It's here !!!!!


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## bolero (Oct 11, 2006)

WOW!!!



stupendously gorgeous guitar...someone get me a thesaurus I'm running out of exclamation words

love the figuring on the 1 piece back

the horsehoe bigsby looks great too....like the look of those...I use a vibramate, but you had the balls to screw it right into the top


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

bolero said:


> but you had the balls to screw it right into the top



man, no kiddin, eh? when i saw the pic with the neck off i thought holy smokes that's just frickin scary isn't it? i mean, you dont see that every day, it's like a pic of an accident victim laying on the road. body over here, leg over there...
the result is awesome, but c'mon, you musta been a little nervous? i woulda been wearing depends


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

the flame is much more prominent now. Kinda looks like a plaintop in the first pic....looks great now!


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## mario (Feb 18, 2006)

Good Lord that is the most amazing Les Paul I have ever seen. I seem to recall seeing pics of a Historic Makeover LP 3 PU Black Custom (...I'm pretty sure it was your's) and that looked astounding. This one is just crazy nice. Congrats and enjoy!


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