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Les Pauls - The Look


sonic1974

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3 hours ago, crunchee said:

Believe it or not, some players (besides Les Paul and Mary Ford) actually USED LPs, back in the '50's:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws88qmeqLpQ

I'd bet that the weight of that LP had to have been brutal with that skinny strap...Carl seems to lean a bit while playing/singing because of it.  :wacko:  That pre-Seinfeld 'puffy shirt' probably didn't help any.

 

Priceless. What polite clapping! Carl was really one bad mutha. I think Chet and Carl were probably the two best of that era at playing ahead of the times.

Oh, and that audience noise could be mashed up with video coverage from the green at an early hole at the Masters and no one would know any different. 

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1 hour ago, cynic said:

And that ^^ is about as far as one can get from the "Les Paul Look" with it still being an LP

...or IS it?

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I never owned a LP in my 33 years of playing. The closest LP-style guitar might be the Hamer Steve Stevens I model. But, there were a few Les Paul models I would have liked, the LP Double Cutaway XPL, LP Artisan, LP Artist, LP Raw Power all maple (in natural) were guitars I had been interested in. Those were not the typical LP models. I like the maple necked ones from the 70's or the early 80's stuff. With some Hamer guitars I have the sound of a humbucker guitar covered. I doubt I'd find a Raw Power, Artisan, DC XPL or Artist for cheap money. And I still can do well without. I am more of a Fender guy, the two Gibson guitars I have (RD Artist and Chet Atkins Classic nylonstring) are far from the classic Les Paul model concept. I don't think I'd get a LP someday soon...

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5 minutes ago, Thundersteel said:

How about one from 2014? (Not mine, though I own one).

LPTLPANCH1-Finish-Shot.jpg

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Hmm, no. Those are not my thing. I think my two Hamer Steve Stevens and my Hamer FBII give me enough "Gibson-vibe". I like the 25.5" scale better anyway, and with the Gibson RD Artist and the Hamer Californian Elite I have two all-maple (w/ebony board) guitars that are to my liking.

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On 1/27/2017 at 0:00 AM, cmatthes said:

...or IS it?

 

Here is the back of headstock SN# and a pic of it "as built." Orig owner I got it from paid a lot to have a lot of custom stuff put on....piezo bridge, stainles frets, custom aged color, maple board,  custom PUPs, locking tuners, etc. Sent me a number of shots of it being built in TN. But he was very secretive about exactly how he pulled it all off. I was told by a knowlegable Gibson insider that during the early 2000s you could get "anything" built at Gibson "for enough money" and sometimes they were ghost built off-site.  

When I bought it, I thought I got it pretty cheap. The orig owner said he was mad that they hadn't stamped a SN# on it, only the "Made In USA and decal." He said people think it's a fake because there is no SN#....so he had to sell it for a lot less than he could normally. But when it arrived, at the right angle, you can see that there IS a serial number!!! When I sent the seller the photo showing it he totally freaked out. He thought I Photoshopped it on just to bust his balls. Score!! The only mark on the guitar is about a one-inch edge wear rub along the rear edge near where the pickup toggle is....and with a magnifier, I could make out that the body actually has rear binding under the paint!!! I mentioned that to the original owner and, again, he was shocked. He said it was spec'd for "no rear binding" but when he was sent progress photos, they had bound the back. He said he thought they built a new body to fix it. (THAT alone sounds like Gibson....painting over a fkup to cover it up)

Considering the guy sounded pretty up on gear and tuners, pickups, etc. and how he spec'd out the guitar, I couldn't believe he'd missed the SN# and hidden binding that I spotted using a magnifier. Pretty funny 😀

I don't really like the white pearl pickguard, PUP rings and toggle ring. The weird pickups in the shot above are prototype P94s from an ex-Gibson Montana employee who made them, that look cool with the maple f'board. Will probably swap out the pickguard and toggle ring for creme ones. I'm also not wild about the way the tuners lock from the front posts....hard to grab/turn.

So....that's the story on this oddball.

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, mc2 said:

 

Here is the back of headstock SN# and a pic of it "as built." Orig owner I got it from paid a lot to have a lot of custom stuff put on....piezo bridge, stainles frets, custom aged color, maple board,  custom PUPs, locking tuners, etc. Sent me a number of shots of it being built in TN. But he was very secretive about exactly how he pulled it all off. I was told by a knowlegable Gibson insider that during the early 2000s you could get "anything" built at Gibson "for enough money" and sometimes they were ghost built off-site.  

When I bought it, I thought I got it pretty cheap. The orig owner said he was mad that they hadn't stamped a SN# on it, only the "Made In USA and decal." He said people think it's a fake because there is no SN#....so he had to sell it for a lot less than he could normally. But when it arrived, at the right angle, you can see that there IS a serial number!!! When I sent the seller the photo showing it he totally freaked out. He thought I Photoshopped it on just to bust his balls. Score!! The only mark on the guitar is about a one-inch edge wear rub along the rear edge near where the pickup toggle is....and with a magnifier, I could make out that the body actually has rear binding under the paint!!! I mentioned that to the original owner and, again, he was shocked. He said it was spec'd for "no rear binding" but when he was sent progress photos, they had bound the back. He said he thought they built a new body to fix it. (THAT alone sounds like Gibson....painting over a fkup to cover it up)

Considering the guy sounded pretty up on gear and tuners, pickups, etc. and how he spec'd out the guitar, I couldn't believe he'd missed the SN# and hidden binding that I spotted using a magnifier. Pretty funny 😀

I don't really like the white pearl pickguard, PUP rings and toggle ring. The weird pickups in the shot above are prototype P94s from an ex-Gibson Montana employee who made them, that look cool with the maple f'board. Will probably swap out the pickguard and toggle ring for creme ones. I'm also not wild about the way the tuners lock from the front posts....hard to grab/turn.

So....that's the story on this oddball.

 

 

 

 

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Piezo? Interesting! How does the acoustic sound, can you blend with the magnetic pups?

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On 1/26/2017 at 11:41 PM, Biz Prof said:

Priceless. What polite clapping! Carl was really one bad mutha. I think Chet and Carl were probably the two best of that era at playing ahead of the times.

Oh, and that audience noise could be mashed up with video coverage from the green at an early hole at the Masters and no one would know any different. 

That was cool. The clip is from 1957, it is a Goldtop P90 with Bigsby, wonder what year that LP would be?  It looks tiny on him, big guy I guess.

The applause kicks in at one random spot half way through, I bet they had one of those light up "Applause" signs.

 

2 hours ago, mc2 said:

 

Here is the back of headstock SN# and a pic of it "as built." Orig owner I got it from paid a lot to have a lot of custom stuff put on....piezo bridge, stainles frets, custom aged color, maple board,  custom PUPs, locking tuners, etc. Sent me a number of shots of it being built in TN. But he was very secretive about exactly how he pulled it all off. I was told by a knowlegable Gibson insider that during the early 2000s you could get "anything" built at Gibson "for enough money" and sometimes they were ghost built off-site.  

When I bought it, I thought I got it pretty cheap. The orig owner said he was mad that they hadn't stamped a SN# on it, only the "Made In USA and decal." He said people think it's a fake because there is no SN#....so he had to sell it for a lot less than he could normally. But when it arrived, at the right angle, you can see that there IS a serial number!!! When I sent the seller the photo showing it he totally freaked out. He thought I Photoshopped it on just to bust his balls. Score!! The only mark on the guitar is about a one-inch edge wear rub along the rear edge near where the pickup toggle is....and with a magnifier, I could make out that the body actually has rear binding under the paint!!! I mentioned that to the original owner and, again, he was shocked. He said it was spec'd for "no rear binding" but when he was sent progress photos, they had bound the back. He said he thought they built a new body to fix it. (THAT alone sounds like Gibson....painting over a fkup to cover it up)

Considering the guy sounded pretty up on gear and tuners, pickups, etc. and how he spec'd out the guitar, I couldn't believe he'd missed the SN# and hidden binding that I spotted using a magnifier. Pretty funny 😀

I don't really like the white pearl pickguard, PUP rings and toggle ring. The weird pickups in the shot above are prototype P94s from an ex-Gibson Montana employee who made them, that look cool with the maple f'board. Will probably swap out the pickguard and toggle ring for creme ones. I'm also not wild about the way the tuners lock from the front posts....hard to grab/turn.

So....that's the story on this oddball.

 

 

 

 

IMG_5700.JPG

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IMG_5703.JPG

Wow, interesting story for sure, funny how the original owner never saw the sn, built by "ghosts" too ha ha.

For only having one LP you have a unique one for sure. Have you posted it on the LP forum? Those guys would be interested for sure.

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1 hour ago, mrjamiam said:

Don't you have other things to be doing today rather than posting here?

Bit nervous I guess, got up super early today.  

😮😮😂😂😂😂

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3 hours ago, mc2 said:

during the early 2000s you could get "anything" built at Gibson "for enough money"

That is true, but no "ghost builds".

Henry busted the GCS in 2006 during a audit of serial #'s and skew #'s each one off had it's own skew #, that was too much for corporate to handle in regards to documentation, warranty, etc. (gray area for them anyway).

It's legit.

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4 hours ago, Hfan said:

That was cool. The clip is from 1957, it is a Goldtop P90 with Bigsby, wonder what year that LP would be?  It looks tiny on him, big guy I guess.

 

Wow, interesting story for sure, funny how the original owner never saw the sn,...

Perkins has a IMDb entry online from his movie appearances, they list his height as 6' 1" (1.85 m).  I can't tell what kind of bridge the LP had (the Bigsby might have been factory, or not), but P-90s were used on LPs until 1957, when PAFs were introduced.

As far as mc2's 'one off' LP goes, THIS is why being able to 'read' a guitar's finish is so important!  Using the reflections off of a guitar's glossy finish to see otherwise unnoticeable details can REALLY be helpful.  It's one of the ways that you can tell through an opaque glossy finish if a LP back is one piece, two piece, or more...just like you can see the join/glue lines of the headstock 'wings' in his photos.  Using reflections on a finish to find detail really does work.

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On 2017-01-26 at 11:30 PM, Northsider said:

Will a Monaco Elite satisfy? Or is it a different animal.

I'd love me a Monaco Elite. After buying my first LP two weeks ago, and it is a killer one, I'd say I have not changed my mind about the fact that all of my HB Hamer's are just as bad ass. The Superpro is like an LP on stereoids, the low end on that things makes a burst LP fade to natural. The Standards and old Sunbursts are just mean too.

I'd really love to try a Monaco Elite to hear what it can do. The way Zenmind slings it here makes it pretty obvious it can be as great as the best LP's out there:
 

 

 

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I guess what bugs me about it is that the split diamond looks all wrong for a Gibson.  It looks to be more of a reworked LP Standard or some other production Gibson guitar than an LP Custom, with a too-small diamond added.  Maybe it's the photos?

5320801150_09b0466666_z.jpg

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29 minutes ago, cmatthes said:

the split diamond looks all wrong for a Gibson

I've been going back and forth...does it look funny because the maple?  The lack of block inlays?  Lack of first-fret inlay?  I finally settled on too small, but it seems odd they'd have them in different sizes?  

It's a very cool and unique guitar, but plays hell with my sensibilities.

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Steve - I've never seen a diamond of a different size from Gibson.

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44 minutes ago, cynic said:

I think those they used for the Flying V Custom's were smaller...at least that's what I had in mind.

Gibson-custom-shop-flying-V-usa-guitar.j

True.

It looked really odd though.

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18 hours ago, cmatthes said:

I guess what bugs me about it is that the split diamond looks all wrong for a Gibson.  It looks to be more of a reworked LP Standard or some other production Gibson guitar than an LP Custom, with a too-small diamond added.  Maybe it's the photos?

5320801150_09b0466666_z.jpg

I didn't like that either.  But I thought it distracted from the logo, headstock shape/binding and truss rod cover because it was too big.  Instead of coming off with an Art Deco / baroque vibe, it looks like it got jammed in there.  

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Beats me. I'm not a Les Paul guy. I bought it because it was so different and the owner seemed to know a lot about the specs he had it built to. I recall him saying they bitched about the stainless frets and the weird wiring.

i did get a bunch of pics from the original owner he had from the build, if those mean anything.

 

 

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