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 | | | | Jun30Written by:Bill Park
Saturday, June 30, 2001 6:00 PM  Am I in Heaven, or what!
The Gibson Les Paul. Quite a guitar. From Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton through the Allman Brothers and Joe Walsh, to Slash and... er... Les Paul... some of the most famous guitar players in the world have used the Les Paul to obtain their signature sounds.
The most famous and desirable of all the Les Pauls is the Les Paul Standard. Produced from 1958 to 1960, this was a cherry sunburst instrument with 'Patent Applied For' Humbucking pickups. The "Burst" is the Holy Grail of Les Paul instruments, fetching stunning amounts of money on the international collectors market. A fellow that I know brokered a deal to sell one for $125,000. Unbelievable. But my favorite Les Paul has always been the original, simple, elegant gold top Les Paul Model guitar.
The year is 1952. Gibson has partnered with an innovative inventor/guitarist to create a new and different kind of guitar. After several prototypes and modifications, the original Les Paul Model is introduced to the public. The model proves to be very popular... in fact, it is probably the most popular signature guitar ever produced. Within two years there is a Junior model and a Custom model. Over time, there dozens of Les Paul models are released: Florentine, The Paul, The Les Paul, Deluxe, Special, Signature, Triumph, Artisan, Artist, and a host of others. Now, there are signature versions of this signature model guitar from artists like Jimmy Page, Zak Wylde, Peter Frampton, and others.
Years ago I had a 1957 Les Paul. It had original P-90 pickups and a Tune-O-Matic bridge, so it was a somewhat rare bird, because that configuration was only available in late 1956 and the first part of 1957. By mid 1957 the Les Paul Model guitar was outfitted with PAF humbucking pickups. This was a year before the famous "Burst" models were produced, which also were appointed with the PAF humbuckers. Last year I picked up a 1970s gold top Les Paul Deluxe. This guitar is a first year of issue from Nashville, and has several different appointments from my original gold top Les Paul Model. I bought it with the intention of trading up little by little to get to an earlier model. I wanted to end up with another 1950s gold top with P-90s.
The problem with trying to buy a ‘vintage' Les Paul is that so many have been modified, counterfeited, and otherwise mucked around with to try to make them either more valuable… a recent event… or trying to make them more up to date… something that was done by stupid owners over the years. Many had the original pickups removed, and some aftermarket super-duper-distortion pickup installed. So it is very hard to find an authentic 1950s Les Paul that has not been refinished or had the pickups changed, the headstock broken off, the headstock drilled out for larger machines, the body routed for a dive-bomb tremolo, or any number of the other modifications people have felt were ‘cool'. During the 1970s, many earlier Les Paul gold tops had their tops stripped and refinished in natural. It was quite a fad for a while. In recent times some sellers have even stripped off the gold tops and refinished the guitars as counterfeit ‘burst' models to try to get $40,000 to $80,000 out of a $5,000 to $8,000 guitar.
I went to the Summer NAMM show last July. I really enjoy looking at guitars, so it was a pleasant trip. Gibson had a wonderful collection of new instruments and one in particular caught my eye… an Aged 1957 Gold Top Reissue. It looked very good. These remarkable instruments are hand-aged by Gibson's Tom Murphy. It's a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, which limits the total number of guitars that can be produced. If you want to read the story of Tom Murphy and this process, you can log on to http://www.gibsoncustom.com/57goldtop/murphy1.html.
Since every guitar is hand distressed, each one will be different. But the pictures give you an idea of what to expect. I could not stop thinking about it. When I got home from NAMM I called my local Gibson dealer and ordered one for myself.
Article Continues >>
Tags:4 comment(s) so far...
I came to own a 73 Goldtop. It has P-90 pups and is in fair condition for a guitar this age. I was wondering if there is an easy way to tell if everything on this instrument is stock Gibson.
By Neal Smith Alex. Va. on
Wednesday, January 02, 2008 6:01 PM
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I owned a '57 gold top with p-90s and traded it in 1983 for a brand new Les Paul. I could hang myself for doing that but it was worn. The fretboard had already been shaved to eliminate holes from years of playing (I am a pro). I recently asked at Gruhn's guitars in Nashville if they had any in stock and they told me they had one that was pretty worn and said it was $110,000. I could have cried. By Donn on
Friday, January 11, 2008 2:03 PM
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i had the honor of witnessing a true untouched 1957 gold top my friend had bought.... he is a private dealer and knows his stuff.. he came our place of work and was waiting for the ups truck to deliver it.... i was curious.. when he was opening and inspecting the guitar.. and he say he bought it for $79,000.. i thought he was bull shiting me.. so here i am reserching and he was spot on... he showed me the code.. the way it was aged and untouched... can he really make money on this? By 57 gold top on
Saturday, April 12, 2008 1:58 AM
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"... can he really make money on this?"
Sure. Why not?
Commodities are bought and sold every day withput consideration of their original purpose. Do you know what a Faberge Egg is worth today? Or an original Edsel? Or even a "Penny black" postage stamp? You could not even mail a letter with it today, yet it is worth thousands.
I'd love to keep guitars affordable and in the hands of players. But that is not the reality... players tend to fuck them up, to start with. They always seem to want to carve holes in them, change parts, and do other things that really seldom help the guitar play or sound better, just give the guitarist the feeling that HE is going to play or sound better because he is somehow 'different' than everyone else, or because he has modified his instrument in exactly the same way that some other far more talented player mdified -his-, and thereby built a career.
So Gibson and Fender have created their Custom Shops, where any shmoe with $5000 can get just about any dream guitar that he ever wanted, classic, or modified.
Meanwhile, the collectors will keep pushing the prices of original vintage instruments up and up... of course, they will fluctuate and vary but the overall trend will be upwards, until no players are still playing who can afford the classics, and then they might loose their allure. I mean, how many current artists are creating classic music that will stand the test of time, and are using any sort of vintage classic instrument? Not many. Do you know or care what guitars the "Fall Out Boys" or the "Raconteurs" use? So are Pacific Rim Gretsches and Japanese Fenders goingto be the next big guitar investments? When nobody cares about Clapton, Page, et al anymore, the prices of 1950s and 1960s era Gibsons and Fenders may come down to earth. Maybe.
Bill By bill_park on
Saturday, April 12, 2008 9:05 AM
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