Les Pauls

[Death by Uberschall]

Gary Moore LP, 1957 LP Special (not a reisue), Gothic LP

1957 5E3 Fender Tweed Deluxe

[Cary]

I don't have one, but that is a very cool pic, Cary!

Thanks, Special K - Man, there are some nice guitars on this thread!

[BCR Greg]

Gary Moore LP, 1957 LP Special (not a reisue), Gothic LP

1957 5E3 Fender Tweed Deluxe

If you don't have the original bridge for that Special, let me know. I have a few.

[Death by Uberschall]

If you don't have the original bridge for that Special, let me know. I have a few.

Actually I do have it, it's in the case. But definitely, thanks for the offer.

[zorrow]

I don't have one and I'm not a big fan, but I'm allowed to play my bandmate's from time to time, like in this picture:

[tommy p]

The "real" Les Pauls.

The full collection (minus acoustics) from about 2 years ago. The red Special is gone, the checkerboard Jackson's for sale, and I've acquired 2 more in the meantime.

[GaryT]

I had a KILLER Cherry-Sunburst 83 Tokai LS-80 with a Long neck tenon that I sold to a close friend.

BTW I like the older VM Fadeds. Ugly , but they sound GREAT.

[DavidE]

Guess I forgot my Jr.

[moozak]

I've posted this one many times but since Cary probably hasn't even looked in any forums besides The Crucible in who knows how long I'll post it again.

My 78 "Kustom"

wow... you gotta tell me about this one! is this original?... part original?... it looks great!

[Stike]

wow... you gotta tell me about this one! is this original?... part original?... it looks great!

It's a 78 I got in 1984 for $295. Originally black. Somewhere in the mid 90's the glue in the neck joint failed and it just languished. I quit smoking about 6 years ago and when I quit I said if I made it a year I was going to take the money I would have spent on smokes and have it reworked. A year later it went to Chris Mirabella's shop to get rebound with the outer layer in white pearloid and have the neck reset. When Chris got it back to me I shot the orange flake you now see and added the pearloid covered pickups, rings, knobs, and tuner buttons. With all the pearloid and metalflake I thought it's be a funny nod to Billy Gibbons if I named it Pearly Flakes. Still need to get the engraved truss rod cover .

[bubs_42]

wow... you gotta tell me about this one! is this original?... part original?... it looks great!

It's a 78 I got in 1984 for $295. Originally black. Somewhere in the mid 90's the glue in the neck joint failed and it just languished. I quit smoking about 6 years ago and when I quit I said if I made it a year I was going to take the money I would have spent on smokes and have it reworked. A year later it went to Chris Mirabella's shop to get rebound with the outer layer in white pearloid and have the neck reset. When Chris got it back to me I shot the orange flake you now see and added the pearloid covered pickups, rings, knobs, and tuner buttons. With all the pearloid and metalflake I thought it's be a funny nod to Billy Gibbons if I named it Pearly Flakes. Still need to get the engraved truss rod cover .

Great Story.

[ArnieZ]

No LP's now

Had a wine72 deluxe which I traded for a 83 dot reissue that I sold to buy an R8 that I traded back to the dealer for my Talladega. I 'll probably own another some day tho I really couldn't accept the QC issues on the R8 I owned.

ArnieZ

[yngwie308]

I had two beautiful '54 Juniors and now have my killer '52/'56 LP Goldtop conversion

http://s57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/dav...1952%20Goldtop/

http://s57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/dav...Paul%20Juniors/

Here is the story of the Goldtop, if you have an extra half hour to read..

I am telling the story of one of my favorite guitars, which started life as a 1952 Les Paul Gold top when she left the Kalamazoo factory.

Back when I lived in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, I came to know Jack Romano, who already had quite a reputation as a master luthier in the Philadelphia, Tri-state area. Jack at the time had his shop based in his fathers paint store, next door to a beer distributor in Conshohocken, just south of Philadelphia, near the Schuylkill river. Jack lives not far from the shop and with the pizza/sub shop on the corner, it always was enjoyable to visit the little town and it’s quaint small streets, only the parking meters spoiled the ambiance of a visit!

Jack had done various work on my guitars over the years when I lived in Pennsylvania and I had met him through Paul Hammond, another friend of mine, who is quite well known in his own right as a master electronics tech and he was always wiring studios and involved with the busy Philly area music scene.

Jack always had an interesting guitar or various acoustic instruments in the shop and it was always an enjoyable experience hanging in his shop, talking guitars and watching the customers come and go.

I had heard through Paul Hammond, that Jack had in his possession a 1952 Les Paul Goldtop, that he was restoring. Upon further inquiry Jack told me that it had an extreme neck/headstock break, that was unrepairable. Also it had been ‘converted’ to 1956 specifications, by the addition of an ABR-1 bridge and a stop tailpiece. It also had the original gold finish removed and was painted as a sunburst.

The previous owner also had recessed the bridge into the body somewhat to compensate for the shallower neck angle that had been standard with the original tailpiece. Also one of the pickups was not working, the controls weren’t the originals, but the pickups, the pickup selector and all associated wiring was original. Also the pick guard, switch tip, were the originals.

I remember telling Jack I wanted the snot green tuners eventually and he used the Gibson Deluxe double line with the washer and nut up top.

We briefly discussed making it an ‘all gold’ Goldtop, but decided against that and making it a conventional Goldtop finish.

Jack discovered in the pickup cavities the original gold paint .We decided to make the paint match the original color, unfaded, as it would have been new, fitting as the guitar was being born again anyway.

Jack sent the non-working pickup to Lindy Fralin, along with the other one, to be repaired and to match the two.

Jack removed the binding, Brazilian fingerboard, along with the inlays, from the damaged original neck, after removing the whole neck from the guitar.

Also the Gibson hollyhead veneer logo he carefully removed from the original headstock. Eric Schulte, a renowned local guitar builder, known for his 1959 Burst replicas and Flying V’s, supplied Jack with a mahogany neck blank of some older wood. The story of the neck profile and 14 degree headstock pitch, is related to the blank being cut in two to make two necks and there was not enough wood available to make a full 17 degree headstock angle.

The nut is the original one and Jack, with great craftsmanship and attention to detail, mounted the original board to the newer neck, managing to preserve the beautifully aged inlays and attaching the original binding.

The correct neck set angle was obtained with the correct tenon. Replacement Gibson hardware, the ABR-1, tailpiece and studs were fitted.

Jack took great care to accurately match the gold color and although the finish is very thin nitrocellulose lacquer, he had to hide the maple block he used to repair the bridge mounting area with.

The back is finished in a natural mahogany finish with the correct pore filler, I chose not to have an olive colored back as I prefer the more reddened look of the mahogany.

The backside of the body has a great looking grain pattern and complements the rest of the guitars finish. I believe the input jack plate to be a replacement, but again the wiring was mostly original. All the correct routes in the control cavity were present, the addition of a hole for the stoptail ground wire had already been added, as originally of course, there had been no need for it with the original tailpiece.

As soon as I first laid eyes on the guitar, I loved it. During the course of the restoration Jack had been offered big cash, from the recording studio owner from across the street from his shop. Being a loyal friend Jack asked me if I needed the money if he sold it to this gentleman. This is without me even having paid Jack for the guitar yet!

I of course declined the offer, which was substantial at the time. This goes to show the loyalty of my friend, which didn’t surprise me, but has always been refreshing to have a close friend who loves guitars and playing as much as I do and makes his living from it. The sentimentality I have for this instrument is directly related to all the above kindness and the superb handcrafted work used to make this guitar come back to life.

I felt it had been created for me and later when I had traveled to Arizona as a travel nurse, to escape the aftermath of a painful engagement breakup, I had to face the dilemma of selling one of my guitars to repair the transmission in my Honda Civic.

I chose to sell my 100% original 1954 Les Paul Junior, which I had bought from Jim’s Guitars in Baltimore, to celebrate my graduation from RN Diploma nursing school. This was at the time of the O.J. trial, which sticks in my mind, to this day.

This guitar which Jack brokered to one of his customers for me, to help me out, was an incredible instrument; the acoustic tone was so loud and had a great P90 which was downright nasty sounding. I have posted pictures on the forum of both my 1954 Juniors, still my favorite year. The most early P90’s I discovered back then, are to my ears, the best sounding of all the years following.

I knew there was really no choice, I kept the Goldtop, mostly because of the handcrafted nature of it’s rebuild and I loved having a neck pickup and better intonation, with the ABR-1. I knew the Junior was an overall monster, but would be able to grow old with my Goldtop.

So quite a few years passed and I knew there were certain electronic issues with the guitar. Jack doesn’t do the electronic wiring and he has subbed it out to a colleague. Mainly in the volume and tone control area. It was always my plan to further upgrade that area of the guitar.

After getting married and finally settling down and with the purchase of my first house at 50 years old, I was able to contemplate finishing the guitar to my ultimate specifications.

KThesheep I believe pointed out to me that replacing the double row tuners, with the more correct single line Kluson’s would restore more of the original look to the guitar. This, plus my recently joining the Les Paul Forum, enabled me to advance my knowledge base of what would be period correct and more importantly, what would improve the electrical and mechanical tone transfer of this already incredible sounding, extremely lightweight guitar.

If all this is appearing long winded and some of you are asleep already, I apologize, but telling a story is what I am attempting to do here and the guitar deserves the background and history to be related.

Fast forward to 2008, when I discovered Rick Norman, aka Dr. Vintage, lived extremely close to me across town in Phoenix.

I arranged with the good Dr. to visit the clinic and have him evaluate the guitar and recommend what it would take to bring her to optimum playing performance.

Rick and I discussed several key issues that would really take the guitar, tonally to the next level. These were the addition of a lightweight aluminum tailpiece, steel studs and a closer tolerance ABR-1.

Rick was very helpful and spent quite a long time going over the guitar and making so excellent suggestions. Although to the purist, the guitar could be considered a mongrel of sorts, I feel that as an organic sum total of all it’s parts, this guitar was almost all the way to being a very unique instrument, that was most importantly incredible to play and equally sonically fantastic!

That I have a love for early P90’s is no secret and this guitar now, serves the pickups to the best of its ability.

I purchased through BCR Music and Sound from Greg, my Pigtail hardware. I waited a few months and Greg faithfully contacted me when the ship came in, so to speak! I had originally planned on Steve’s lightweight tailpiece and steel studs, but when I was speaking with Greg on the phone concerning my order, he mentioned to me he had aluminum Pigtail ABR-1 bridges.

This intrigued me and I chose to jump in and choose that as well.

Asking Rick about this, he took the time to write me a detailed explanation of his experiences of the aluminum bridge and how with the slightly thicker finish on my Goldtop, that the ally bridge would ‘wake up’ the guitar, even more.

Also integral to the vibration transfer was the addition of the aged RS Kluson single line tuners, which the posts, having a lower height than the Gibson Deluxe doubles, would increase the angle of the strings over the nut to the headstock, inching closer to the magic number of 17 degrees, headstock pitch.

The neck profile, although substantial, is more a seventies style profile, which is unique and makes for a very playable neck. Those here can discern the slight differences in the headstock shape, denoting it not a true vintage ‘52/’56 shape. That’s all right though, as again the total package of this guitar is so pleasing and natural feeling, that all the necessary components that give a fifties guitar it’s feel, are present.

The Brazilian board has a great feel and Jack did a great job of refretting, the neck, with some vintage correct wire.

So I brought her to the Doctors office and it became apparent that more than an afternoons work would be required as being basically custom built, thing wouldn’t just bolt in directly in some non critical areas. Jack did step cut the tuner holes, so no bushings were required to place the Klusons, although some small filling was necessary to fit each tuner. Then the Pigtail studs, required the addition of a small amount of additional threads to be added, to mount the tailpiece all the way down. Also with my existing bushings, a small amount of the ends of the studs, needed to be removed. This is by no means meant to be any reflection of Steve’s incredibly accurate and superbly crafted parts. They are indeed works of art and so light as a feather.

I have become a lifetime Pigtail endorser and any future Gibson’s, new or old, will have these magnificent pieces fitted as a matter of course!

I also planned on having Rick’s Dr. Vintage control set fitted, which he did and the feel and practicality of the tapers is just superb. Rick mentioned that I had the option of having the controls sit higher up with out spacers, which it originally had when I got it. This would be vintage correct and I have endeavored to do this whenever possible within reason on the guitar. The pointers I had were drilled to the incorrect diameter for the pots, so Rick told me he would obtain some correct pointers for me later, thus some pictures show the controls without the pointers fitted.

Rick then cleaned and oiled the fret board for me and polished the frets, causing the beauty of the Brazilian to really pop and making the frets smooth and silky, causing the player to glide up and down the neck.

Rick was very interested in my P90 pickups as he is building his own versions and he loves these ones, the neck pickup being his favorite. Rick took measurements and snapped some photos of the pickups out of the guitar and the backs ect. He opined that the covers showed some evidence of being exposed to a heat source at one time, as there was some shrinkage of the plastic, besides the normal aging, which sinks in the top of the covers over time.

Rick shimmed both pickups, several times, adjusting the pole pieces where necessary, the bridge pole pieces were rusted solidly in place though!

The neck responded well to adjustment and he was able, through his Blueprinting service, which I highly recommend, to lower the action more than it had been previously.

When I picked up the guitar, Rick met me at the door with his physicians coat and the Dr. Vintage head mounted exam light. I asked if the doctor was in and being a nurse, felt confident that the operation had been successful!

The Vintage controls worked really well and were so smooth in operation and for the first time, I was able to roll off my volumes effectively, without robbing the pickups of tone.

Through Rick’s Vox AC 30 and his various Marshall amps, the guitar was just enough to take your breath away!

I will need to have some of my frets slightly leveled in the future and a Plek, closest is in LA I believe, will be on the horizon.

In closing, I would like to wholeheartedly endorse the services of Rick Norman, as his considerable experience inspired confidence, in an owner who isn’t averse to changing things for the better, but can be a concerned patient.

Thanks to Jack Romano again for making the whole thing affordable and possible. Dr. Vintage for taking the guitar to a completely different level.

BCR Greg for his great service and advice. This has been a real team effort and I am indeed a lucky fellow, to have such a beautiful Goldtop.

yngwie308

[Willie G. Moseley]

None at this time. Of the traditional "Gibson" shapes, seems like LPs feel the best for me on a strap, but ES-335 style thinlines are a close second (and I'm thinking about getting one of Gibson's new ES-330s---any input?).

Over the last couple of decades I've been thru a '74 Special (a so-called re-issue that wasn't) in brown sunburst, a '78 Std. in tobacco sunburst, '76 Deluxe in (optional) wine red, '79 Custom in silverburst, a '92 Studio in wine red. There was also an '80 LP Firebrand; unsure if that counts or not but it was a good guitar for gigging.

[moozak]

wow... you gotta tell me about this one! is this original?... part original?... it looks great!

It's a 78 I got in 1984 for $295. Originally black. Somewhere in the mid 90's the glue in the neck joint failed and it just languished. I quit smoking about 6 years ago and when I quit I said if I made it a year I was going to take the money I would have spent on smokes and have it reworked. A year later it went to Chris Mirabella's shop to get rebound with the outer layer in white pearloid and have the neck reset. When Chris got it back to me I shot the orange flake you now see and added the pearloid covered pickups, rings, knobs, and tuner buttons. With all the pearloid and metalflake I thought it's be a funny nod to Billy Gibbons if I named it Pearly Flakes. Still need to get the engraved truss rod cover .

great story... and... well done!

[HamerHokie]

After going through this thread quick I gotta ask - are there more Les Pauls owned on this board than Hamers??

[JGale]

After going through this thread quick I gotta ask - are there more Les Pauls owned on this board than Hamers??

I have only played one, Victoria's husband's plaintop. I liked that a lot. The rest I have picked up, not so much. Pretty much finding out the short scale is too cramped for me.

[Hamerweizen]

A few in there.

LP Standard

LP Classic

LP Special red

LP Special wine

LP Special black

LP Studio VM

LP Studio Gothic

LP Studio DC

LP Studio white

LP Special DC white

LP Special DC black

Orville LP goldtop

Orville LP burst

Jeez who's the lousy drunk who took that pic?

Here's the 83 or 84 Custom I traded off awhile back.

[Thundersteel]

Here's mine: 1989 LP Custom that I bought new in 1990. The color is Black Cherry--it looks black, but under the light you can see red sparkles, almost like glitter. I've never seen another one like it!

[BCR Greg]

[serial]

THUD!!

[Hamer of the gods]

The only girl-on-girl action my wife allows in the house! 2001 R8 Porn!

[JohnnyThunders]

[diablo175]

So this month I get a bonus, and I'm trying to figure out how to spend it... I think "Man, for some strange reason, I want a Les Paul", and then it occurs to me... "Damn, I HAVE one"...

So out of the closet comes my 1976 LP Standard, which I've had since 1979... I LOVE this guitar...

Who else has one? Let's see it!

I KNOW I'm not the only one who has one here...

I got a '08 LP FireTiger Axcess Floyd Rose. My understanding is that there are only two out there with this particular finish. And this one has a factory installed Floyd which, in my book, makes it aces! This is a stock photo I found on a Gibson forum. Mine, IMHO, looks better.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk148/v...50/LPAxcess.jpg

[Brooks]