Unequivocal Designs: Some progress, some questions answered

I have had a few questions in regards to this project I’d like to address.

What kind of Guitar is this?
This is a 1974 Gibson Les Paul ‘55 Special Reissue. This is an example of the first year of the re-issued Les Paul Special. The 1975 and later models have the Tuneomatic bridges and this model has the wrap around bridge.

Why not graft the headstock to a new neck?
While this would seem like the easier option, I wanted to preserve as much of the original Guitar as I can. It’s not about an actual by the book restoration to factory original for me. This Guitar is nearly 45 years old (at this moment) and deserves to be played again.

Are you going to refinish the guitar to original specs?
No. This guitar has earned the scars, bumps, bruises and nicks over the years. I also do not have any of the original pieces beyond the body, neck, fretboard, frets and nut so an accurate restoration is not in the cards for this guitar.

Have you discovered anything more on the history of this guitar?
Unfortunately, no. So far there are two stories surrounding this guitar (as outlined in my first excerpt about Lola), and I have reached out to my connection who has put this guitar in the lime light as a local circuit rhythm guitarist owned and played who’s nephew hacked to this condition; and also to the shop my friend had pointed out as the guitar being owned by an old man who left it to his grandson that put the guitar under a belt sander.

Now for progress!!

I wanted to try to match the age of the wood used in this guitar and found some local reclaimed mahogany. In the following pictures, I have hand shaped and created a truss rod channel plug that will be glued in place and cut back to accept a truss rod once again. I will NOT be using the factory style truss rod as there is really no room in the neck to do so. Instead I am going to use a dual action, two rod style truss rod. This will allow me to use a shallower depth on this application and still be able to have the truss rod be adjustable.

Why is the strip mint green? Well, this donor wood is Mahogany reclaimed from cabinetry that was built into a nunnery in the 1940's. I decided to leave it as until its glued and shaved down.