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Couldn't resist
I can't help about the shape I'm in, I can't sing I ain't pretty and my legs are thin
But don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to
If I had to guess why, it’s because the odd bit of missing flame on the treble side of the seam, and maybe the seam itself, weren’t thought good enough to be finished in sunburst, so the body was converted to a Custom before it ever got near being assembled.
I just feel sad because the overly elevated status of the Standard has resulted in the loss of a much more interesting example of an original vintage Gibson, which had survived more or less intact for 60 years.
To make a ridiculously exaggerated analogy , it’s like repainting an original - albeit damaged - Botticelli in order to make a fake Leonardo.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Show me a single serial numbered example of a 50's LPC with a maple cap...a single one will do.
If you think it’s not, show me a single example of an original 50s Standard with a wide bound diamond-inlay headstock, ebony board and multi-ply body binding.
Just because it didn’t correspond exactly to any official model does not make it not an original Gibson, and it was never modded.
Gibson did also make unique one-offs to special order. How can you be sure this wasn’t one? After all, Les Paul himself said that Gibson got it the wrong way round - the Standard should have been the cheaper all-mahogany model, and the Custom the one with the fancier maple cap.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"You don't know what you've got till the whole thing's gone. The days are dark and the road is long."
Love seeing these threads
Couple of quick questions;
How does the headstock look now, did you trim that down to regular burst size / spec?
Did you have to do anything to the neck as you say it was shaved / carved in the past?
Any plans to sort out the minute gaps where you had to put the maple in on the front for regular binding?
Looks amazing in the pics though, congrats
There was a thread on this guitar in 2015 where it was speculated that it was originally a Standard that had been upscaled to a Custom, but it was concluded that the maple cap was original and it left the factory as a Custom:
https://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?198339-1960-Les-Paul-Custom-with-Maple-top
The problem for me is that any 50's custom with a centre seamed maple top would raise a lot of questions. Many here would scream "fake", some would say "too risky". People generally don't like deviations from standard spec. As much as this would have fallen into the "the factory sometimes did that", some would always have doubts about its authenticity.
Whatever you think of this approach, the guitar is now well documented in its entirety and any future buyer will know exactly what they are getting.
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This is the right thing to do and it looks fantastic
(formerly customkits)
That's about the strength of it.
One does one's own thinking.
My thoughts are obvious, as are others.
Miles vary considerably and interestingly.
I repeat my congratulations to Yukki on a superb restoration, and leave it at that.
I wish you well with your guitar, I humbly and personally think it's your best work to date.
- stripped top with garish Gretsch orange
- refinish in a customburst colour
Given that is the state of play prior to this conversion, I’d say that the two viable restorations were:
- Refin (again) back to custom black
- Refin/convert to what was intended when it was on the line at Gibson.
It’s funny how you don’t see this sort of controversy if someone takes a stripped fender or a refinished fender and has some sort of Refin to another fender colour or indeed a non fender finish.
I think if you have the time and skills to make the guitar you want then fair play - it looks awesome!
It wasn't collector's quality in the first place - just an interesting, anomalous old weird guitar that had been messed with a lot. Even after restoration it is still exactly that. Except now somebody might play it!
The thread you previously linked to suggests otherwise.
Authentication of something like this always comes down to speculation and opinion. That's enough to put off many buyers
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The amount of maple-topped Customs out there will probably out-number the solid mahogany guitars by a ratio of more than 100 to 1.