Les Paul 1999 Purchase.. a little help

sloan1874

I'm currently chatting to someone from my work about possibly buying their 1999 LP Standard in vintage sunburst. From the photos he's sent me, it looks just about pristine, scratch-free, neck is fine etc. If I can tap into the collective experience and wisdom of this forum, I'm trying to work out what a reasonable price would be for it? Small pic to give you an idea of what I'm talking about...

<img src="https://i.ibb.co/F7MFL3j/Les-1.jpg" alt="Les-1" border="0">

timmypix

Pic isn't loading, but from your description,  I'd say £1600-1800.

guitars4you

timmypix said:

Pic isn't loading, but from your description,  I'd say £1600-1800.

I wouldn't disagree, but wouldn't surprise me if he had to pay closer to 2K

richardhomer

Can you get to play it? I had one from that period - massively heavy and generally not great. Post 2002 models were significantly better.

sloan1874

Will definitely get a chance to play before I pay. From our conversation, I think it's more in the £1,500 ballpark. Can you see the pic now?

Boromedic

richardhomer said:

Can you get to play it? I had one from that period - massively heavy and generally not great. Post 2002 models were significantly better.

Absolute rubbish ^^ even the internet bollox puts the late 90s as a good era of the Les Paul. Mines from 99 and it saw off an R8, a Les Paul from any era can be great. Dan Hawkins standard is from the same era.

Agree with Mark, around £1.8k depending on condition etc., factor in changing the stock pickups and possibly wiring although because they're not everyone's taste. 

Boromedic

sloan1874 said:

Will definitely get a chance to play before I pay. From our conversation, I think it's more in the £1,500 ballpark. Can you see the pic now?

That sounds like a bargain to me

NCo

If you don't want it, I'll take it

sloan1874

"That sounds like a bargain to me "

It's beginning to look that way. It's funny because the guy has been dangling it front of me for the past year but I just didn't have the money or the inclination. Time moves on, and he pinged me a few pics this evening and it's a beaut. I love the plain top and vintage tone of the sunburst. Can someone advise me where the '99 Standard sits in the many versions of the LPs in terms of neck, weight relief etc? 

Boromedic

It'll have a 50s rounded neck profile kind of a medium C, 9 hole swiss cheese weight relief, 490R/498T pickups with modern wiring, Nashville bridge, zamak tailpiece I think.

Personally I ditched the pickups, wiring, bridge and tailpiece but the base guitar was ace, and being held back by the shit pickups and modern wiring. It's a brilliant guitar, really resonant and lively, plus looks amazing. 

guitars4you

Boromedic said:

richardhomer said:

Can you get to play it? I had one from that period - massively heavy and generally not great. Post 2002 models were significantly better.

Absolute rubbish ^^ even the internet bollox puts the late 90s as a good era of the Les Paul. Mines from 99 and it saw off an R8, a Les Paul from any era can be great. Dan Hawkins standard is from the same era.

Agree with Mark, around £1.8k depending on condition etc., factor in changing the stock pickups and possibly wiring although because they're not everyone's taste. 

Pick-ups I can give or take - Depends on the finer part of your tone and indeed genre of music you are playing - But I think they'll be 300K pots and on that basis I'd fit a new loom at the very least 

sloan1874

Boromedic said:

It'll have a 50s rounded neck profile kind of a medium C, 9 hole swiss cheese weight relief, 490R/498T pickups with modern wiring, Nashville bridge, zamak tailpiece I think.

Personally I ditched the pickups, wiring, bridge and tailpiece but the base guitar was ace, and being held back by the shit pickups and modern wiring. It's a brilliant guitar, really resonant and lively, plus looks amazing. 

Thanks for that. Good to know

Nerine

If you can get to play it as mentioned, then most of the detail kind of becomes irrelevant. If you like it, then cool. Don’t go into it thinking you NEED to change the pickups or NEED to change the wiring or NEED to replace the bridge etc. 
You might really like it, so everyone else’s opinion on what you should do is kind of arbitrary. You might like the pickups, wiring, bridge etc, so it matters not if people disagree on something ultimately subjective. 

Not aimed at anyone in this thread, although related to the topic, I’ve never understood wanting to mod or alter a guitar before you’ve had any time with it. 

“I’m going to buy this guitar and I’m going to change the pickups, the hardware, the tuners, the wiring, the plastics… etc etc” 

Why? You might like it as it is! 

richardhomer

Boromedic said:

richardhomer said:

Can you get to play it? I had one from that period - massively heavy and generally not great. Post 2002 models were significantly better.

Absolute rubbish ^^ even the internet bollox puts the late 90s as a good era of the Les Paul. Mines from 99 and it saw off an R8, a Les Paul from any era can be great. Dan Hawkins standard is from the same era.

Agree with Mark, around £1.8k depending on condition etc., factor in changing the stock pickups and possibly wiring although because they're not everyone's taste. 

No, it’s only bollocks if the 1999 Les Paul I had was actually great and I said it wasn’t just because that’s the received wisdom. Not doubting that your’s is great - but mine certainly wasn’t, hence the suggestion to the OP that he really needs to play it before committing to buy.

Boromedic

I agree on trying/playing before buying absolutely, but your suggestion that 2002 onward Les Paul's were "significantly better" is patently untrue. You found one that was significantly better than the 99 you tried, that I can believe obviously, but it's not true about all of em. Hence the reply.

@nerine makes a good point, I'd lived with mine for 16 years when I finally changed it, although the neck pickup was generally unusable from the off, I wanted to go for a 59 Les Paul vibe hence the changes. You might like the 498T/490R combo, The Darkness do!

OilCityPickups

Boromedic said:

I agree on trying/playing before buying absolutely, but your suggestion that 2002 onward Les Paul's were "significantly better" is patently untrue. You found one that was significantly better than the 99 you tried, that I can believe obviously, but it's not true about all of em. Hence the reply.

@nerine makes a good point, I'd lived with mine for 16 years when I finally changed it, although the neck pickup was generally unusable from the off, I wanted to go for a 59 Les Paul vibe hence the changes. You might like the 498T/490R combo, The Darkness do!

My advice ALWAYS as a pickup manufacturer is live with your existing pickups on any new purchase for long enough to make a proper decision. If you like them great you've saved some money. If not you will have a better idea of where your existing pickups are falling short of your expectations.

I always prefer it when someone can phone me and say they have such and such a pickup - and it's a bit lacking in upper mids, or it's a touch lacking in headroom for their amp setup. I then have something to work with. 

guitars4you

OilCityPickups said:

Boromedic said:

I agree on trying/playing before buying absolutely, but your suggestion that 2002 onward Les Paul's were "significantly better" is patently untrue. You found one that was significantly better than the 99 you tried, that I can believe obviously, but it's not true about all of em. Hence the reply.

@nerine makes a good point, I'd lived with mine for 16 years when I finally changed it, although the neck pickup was generally unusable from the off, I wanted to go for a 59 Les Paul vibe hence the changes. You might like the 498T/490R combo, The Darkness do!

My advice ALWAYS as a pickup manufacturer is live with your existing pickups on any new purchase for long enough to make a proper decision. If you like them great you've saved some money. If not you will have a better idea of where your existing pickups are falling short of your expectations.

I always prefer it when someone can phone me and say they have such and such a pickup - and it's a bit lacking in upper mids, or it's a touch lacking in headroom for their amp setup. I then have something to work with. 

So true Ash and both accounts   - The question before you change the pick-ups is what am I currently missing and what do I need in order to change that - But also what is the natural tone of my guitar - Bright, dull, mellow etc - Nothing wrong with either, as for some genres of music a mellow voice might be fine - But it helps to understand what you have, what you want and therefore what needs to be changed - I do have a tend to want to change the wiring looms regardless as I find replacements tend to have more usable 'control' over a 10-5 range, hence more emotion/soul at my fingertips

LessPaul

I paid £1700 for my 99 Standard about a year and a half ago.

https://i.imgur.com/UzexB7P.jpg

Offset

I guess the lesson here is that any two Gibsons from the same year can significantly vary in terms of weight, finish and QC.  So everyone is largely correct :-)

If you and the seller are local to each other, playing it in person is a no-brainer.

Nerine

I challenged an American on Facebook the other day (I know) when he said on the Gibson Les Paul page “my 1996 LP Standard is from the good wood era”. 

I said:

”it’s weird. It seems like if you look hard enough every model year is described as “good wood era” by someone at some point.”  

He replied something about Bursts and people referring to a guitar produced after 1960 as a Burst. 

I then said: 

“Weird. Seems that not everyone even agrees when the “good wood” era was. I’ve just read on one website it was 1999-2002.”

The response: 

“I bet that you can find that it would be 2006-2009 too if you look really hard.” (Which to be fair to the guy moved the conversation away from the roasting I was planning a bit) 

I then said: 

“yeah. More than likely. So how do we know what’s actually accurate beyond internet conjecture?”

the response: 

“I for one use the designated forums, where very initiated people comment, to gain insights.” 

I left it there. 

95% of all this Les Paul lore is pure fabrication by internet grifters that shout louder than everyone else. Ignore it. 

Epsilon

On ebay he might fetch £1800 for it. If I was buying through a private sale I'd be looking to pay £1600-ish and think that'd be fair to both parties.