I came across this company that is producing a good aftermarket contol plate for a Les Paul Recording. If there was enough interest here, we could contact them about making them for the "Hobbit".
http://www.littlebrookengraving.com/Gibson_Guitars.html
Depends how close they get to the original.
Chandler offered one but it didn't have any of the engraving on it, just a plain control plate.
Yeah and they had it wrong. They didn't know the difference between a Les Paul Recording Guitar and a Les Paul Bass...
Would there be a way to reinforce the corner by the output jack? Mine is in decent shape, but I have lost the tip of that problem corner.
Gratuitous pic that doesn't illustrate the problem:
(http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/5332/triumphfront.jpg)
Yes there is a very effective way to reinforce that control plate: I mounted a (thin) duplicate aluminium plate underneath the three ply plastic one.
I'm afraid I don't have pics.
A number of years back I made a few of these out of .015 spring steel. PM me your address & I'll send you one. It seems to stiffen it up quite a bit.
(http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af119/Grog_03/DSC06959.jpg)
Here is a picture of the plate installed. I bought a NOS control plate with all of the controls on it, paid way too much for it & wanted to make sure this one lasted..... even if I stepped on the guitar chord!
(http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af119/Grog_03/LPTStiff.jpg)
I can only recommend the steel stiffy, have it on mine too.
will have to look into a steely one...
That's a great fix!