NGD: The Paul Content

Kittyfrisk

I suspect that the word random needs to be totally redefined when discussing Gibson...
Both my Paul's are 1979, one July one August, both have T-Tops.
According to Gibson's own info. http://archive.gibson.com/Press/strings/pr/DirtyFingers.html   the Dirty Fingers were only available in the 1980's, but from Steve's & John's considerable experience, this can't be the case.
I have heard (but never seen) of Tim Shaw's turning up in original Paul's, but frankly this just further muddies the situation.
Confused? you bet I am 

fretfinder

Congrats to the op and hope you enjoy it. I had one in the 90s and have to confess I thought it was an uninspiring guitar - heavy, slim neck, ‘orrible pickups, didn’t even look like a proper Les Paul! Maybe I just had a duff one. I paid £300 for it and sold it a few months later for over £500 so can’t complain. 

guitars4you

SteveRobinson said:

guitars4you said:

Great info - I was trying to recall the price and was guessing £300 ish - I recall an LP Deluxe then, with case was £365

I recall Amrik's shops and adverts - Big hitter in his day and had 2/3 shops inc London and Birmingham if memory is correct

Yes, I used to gig in the Chase T-shirt (blue and gold) that I got free on the cover of IM&RW.

List price was £299 retail including the Mk I protector case (wish I still had that) but I got money knocked off because of a small lacquer burn on the back caused by a stand.

Just thinking back, I'm sure this was the 1st time we had a Gibson Guitar with the Protector case ??

guitars4you

ICBM said:

Most of the ones I've seen have had original Dirty Fingers, but I have seen one or two with T-tops. I'm sure they came with both, but I don't know if it's an earlier/later thing or more random.

I think random, subject to warehouse supplies, but mainly Dirty Fingers

JerkMoans

MattNovak said:

I saw a Gibson 'The Hawk' pop up on my FB feed this morning - never seen one before, cool guitar. Nighthawk shape with a wrapover bridge.

That's pretty cool.  Reminds me of my old B&G Little Sister, without the f-holes.  Also basically the same set up as my Gibson LP DC Studio...

JerkMoans

Kittyfrisk said:

^ Hawk is very nice. 
As were the short lived Goddess range IMHO 

There's a white one of those on eBay right now.  Albeit that the seller is after £1,699, which seems a trifle optimistic.

JerkMoans

fretfinder said:

Congrats to the op and hope you enjoy it. I had one in the 90s and have to confess I thought it was an uninspiring guitar - heavy, slim neck, ‘orrible pickups, didn’t even look like a proper Les Paul! Maybe I just had a duff one. I paid £300 for it and sold it a few months later for over £500 so can’t complain. 

Oh no!  First impressions of mine pretty good: it's lighter than a full fat LP, I LOVE the neck, and while I've only plugged it in once to check the pups were working (crackly pots, but that's what contact cleaner is for) I gather these T-Tops are rather sought after...

Tonight is 'strip it down. clean it up and set it up' night, so then we'll see.

LastMantra

Tbh it took me a wee while to totally get to grips with mine. Had a bit of work done to the frets (few replaced the rest tidied up), gave it a good set-up, and good clean. The pots weren't too bad but the switch (sure the switch is decent quality but I don't really like the design Tbh) and socket needed a bit of work. 
I've had it a good few years now and love it. Has ended up kicking my strat off #1 spot.

JerkMoans

Kittyfrisk said:

Both my Paul's are 1979, one July one August, both have T-Tops.

Mine's July '79!  

Specifically 26/7/79, according to the Guitar Dater Project.

People write to the newspapers about these sorts of coincidences  

Kittyfrisk

JerkMoans said:

Kittyfrisk said:

Both my Paul's are 1979, one July one August, both have T-Tops.

Mine's July '79!  

Specifically 26/7/79, according to the Guitar Dater Project.

People write to the newspapers about these sorts of coincidences  

Don't know how significant it is (it really isn't), but mine is 31/7/79 so you found my guitar's long lost big brother!!     
Looking at the absolute crap in TV schedules, there must surely be a family tree (sic) programme in this? 

LastMantra

Think mine is 80/81?

Coincidentally similar age to my amp. Don't know how that happened. 

Kittyfrisk

LastMantra said:

Think mine is 80/81?

Coincidentally similar age to my amp. Don't know how that happened. 

Fairly easy to check the details, https://www.gibson.com/Support/Serial-Number-Search

ICBM

All of them are post-1976, so will have the standardised 8-figure serial number in the form YDDDYNNN, where Y is the year, D is the day of the year (ie you can work out the exact date it was stamped) and NNN is the sequential number on that day. Numbers below 500 are from the Kalamazoo factory, numbers starting at 500 from Nashville.

I think The Pauls were all made in Nashville but I might be wrong.

JerkMoans

ICBM said:

All of them are post-1976, so will have the standardised 8-figure serial number in the form YDDDYNNN, where Y is the year, D is the day of the year (ie you can work out the exact date it was stamped) and NNN is the sequential number on that day. Numbers below 500 are from the Kalamazoo factory, numbers starting at 500 from Nashville.

I think The Pauls were all made in Nashville but I might be wrong.

Nashville for mine, according to the Dater Project website.

JerkMoans

Kittyfrisk said:

JerkMoans said:

Kittyfrisk said:

Both my Paul's are 1979, one July one August, both have T-Tops.

Mine's July '79!  

Specifically 26/7/79, according to the Guitar Dater Project.

People write to the newspapers about these sorts of coincidences  

Don't know how significant it is (it really isn't), but mine is 31/7/79 so you found my guitar's long lost big brother!!     
Looking at the absolute crap in TV schedules, there must surely be a family tree (sic) programme in this? 

Actually, where's that lad looking for ideas for documentaries?

Kittyfrisk

ICBM said:

All of them are post-1976, so will have the standardised 8-figure serial number in the form YDDDYNNN, where Y is the year, D is the day of the year (ie you can work out the exact date it was stamped) and NNN is the sequential number on that day. Numbers below 500 are from the Kalamazoo factory, numbers starting at 500 from Nashville.

I think The Pauls were all made in Nashville but I might be wrong.

I don't think you are wrong (like that could be a thing), all of them were Nashville made according to everything I have seen.

LastMantra

'81 Nash.

Thanks IC.

JerkMoans

Right, fellow The Paulistas: I demand pictures.  Let's see 'em.

not_the_dj

Here’s mine. 

https://i.postimg.cc/Nj3fP9yK/EBE4-C6-BB-8-C13-4-DDA-BF31-7-CFA651-D3534.jpg

an old shot of me gigging it (handy spot for the gents you’ll see). 

https://i.postimg.cc/RFNmSvJk/479-D70-C8-614-B-4106-8253-BB5-E06-EC5-D75.jpg

rivercider

It was the 80s....me and mine