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Dating my 1970's Les Paul Deluxe GT mini-hums - pot help


Pieman

Question

I am getting ready to sell my 1970s Les Paul Deluxe Goldtop with mini humbuckers. It was my first real guitar.  I purchased it used in 1978 and it was pretty used at the time. I had no idea what I was doing.   I promised it to my son if he didn't get himself killed in Iraq in 2005-2006.  Now he has a baby and I am getting ready to sell it with the proceeds going to fund  a college account.  The serial number is very faint but looks like 919820, which makes it 1970-1972.  I just tried cleaning the pots which are covered in a layer of crud.  One tone control is numbered 115 500K.   The volume pot looks like 13770.  I think that means 1970.  The other pot is pretty covered over.  What would be a good cleaning solution?  I don't want to f it up. Quite frankly I never thought it was such an early edition.

Is Reverb a reliable source for pricing info?  It is not excellent. It has some nicks on the neck and some pin head indents on the front.   It was pro refretted in the 1990s. I never bonded with it due to the scale length but couldn't part with it either.  It came with Grover replacement tuners.  I has been well maintained with the pick ups being reseated.  The seller told me he had it wired Peter Green style.  I can't tell.

Thoughts on cleaning the other pot? Or should I leave it alone?  Thoughts on getting a fair selling price. Not going for the last dollar but I also don't want to leave $500-$1000 on the table.  Wouldn't mind keeping it in the Hamer family.

Thanks in advance  t

 

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137 is CTS, so the next two digits are the suffix of the year of the pot's manufacture. 1970. Keep in mind a late 1970 (48th week for example), would likely mean the guitar left the factory in early '71. Either way,  we'd deduce it's on the earlier side in the '70-72 SN window.

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The last two digits are 40.  So the 40th week of 1970?  Would seem to point to a 1970 LP.

Now for the kicker.  There are three tone pots and only the one volume pot.  The tone pots are 500K.  Been playing this for 40 years and never realized it.  None of the people who serviced it said anything either.

So, how much different is the 500K tone pot in the neck from a vol pot that should be for the neck?  

 

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