Never2Late

IMHO, the guitar looks 'wrong' without a boomerang headstock......

Is there a 'tilt' to the pickup layout/routing, compared to the bridge position?

Is that a 'copper' finish on the first SSII?

Are picks still available?

Dunno - my bid was 'around' what the ending price was, and I didn't win it either....

Just curious, as I'm no expert on vintage Gibsons, but wouldn't a good Luthier shop know 'what to do' to make this thing sing perfectly again, or are old guitar necks more-finicky to make right once they've sustained damage compared to a newer neck? I see a broken headstock, but with the benefit of the original wood retained and re-assembled as part of the repair. To someone like Greg, this would be preferable versus having to find a donor headstock/neck from another lost-cause '54 and manufacturing a jigsaw puzzle on the bench prior to re-assembly. With the value of 59' Pauls well-known, I would think that 1950s-era Gibson restoration projects are 'old hat' in that community and technical pitfalls well-researched.

This is done all the time with vintage cars - if you want nice things, you have to pay the piper.

I don't get it - I've seen Greg at BCR resurrect 'worse', with excellent aesthetics/sound/quality results. Are 1954 Les Pauls that plentiful on the market that they don't need restoration? If its a 'money' thing, I can tell you that there are worse things to throw money at. Just ask Elliot Spitzer. Personally, I'd rather restore something like this than spend a long weekend in Vegas.

I bid on it, but was outbid.....somebody got a very nice guitar for good money.

Very early Joe Satriani/Vernon Reid wacky.....if you can identify the artist, it might have some value.