Hi all, I thought I’d share my latest, and arguably most significant vintage Gibson restoration to date- a genuine vintage 1960 Les Paul Standard/Burst!
Some of you may have seen this guitar elsewhere online, and it had already been through a ‘makeover’ with Kim LaFleur at Historic Makeovers to a kinda neither fish nor fowl ‘Custom Burst’, which I felt missed the essence of what this is, so I decided to take it on and restore it to my own vision.
Here’s it’s previous HM incarnation:
This is a truly exotic guitar straight out of the gate, as it’s a flame maple capped 1960 Les Paul Standard that was factory finished as an LP Custom!
I can only speculate that one day back in 1960, Gibson needed to fulfill an order for an LPC and came up short, so simply plucked a Burst out of early production and reassigned it to be a Custom, in the knowledge no one would ever know once it was painted solid black.
As most will know, all ‘50s LPC’s had one piece bodies with no separate ‘cap’ added- so a solid slab of Mahogany, with the traditional top contours carved into said slab, which this guitar, with it’s centre seamed flamed maple cap, clearly is not.
When it was found previous to the HM makeover it retained its’ original factory black LPC finish on the body, three PAF pickups and full Custom cosmetics, but the flame top stripped and stained an almost Gretsch orange!
I saw this as a unique opportunity to acquire the chassis of a genuine ‘60 Burst, and restore it back to how it would have been if it hadn’t met that fork in the road..
Here is it stripped, showing the routing details and black paint still in the wiring channel and cavities:
The presumably original serial number was impressed into the headstock after a minor fracture repair, and is the one I only stamped on completion:
A little mock up with a spare Brazilian RW board and some loose parts:
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The tenon area is tight as can be, and shows no sign of modification or a reneck:
The obvious challenges with this project are dealing with the multi ply body binding front and back...Oh, and that gaping middle pickup hole(!), but we’ll get to that shortly..
I cut a ~3mm ttrim’ from an eastern maple top and painstakingly inlaid it to fill the oversized binding channel, taking care to match the grain orientation:
Then ‘bound it’ to make up the missing maple to accept a vintage correct single ply LP Standard body binding:
I’ve sawn off a good few ‘50s Gibson headstocks, and routed many a vintage guitar, but its a peculiar feeling to route a great slab of maple out of what would normally be a £175,000 Burst, but you need to crack some eggs as they say:
I then selected some centre seamed flame maple for the plug, taking care to match the figure, and shapes to give a really tight, seamless join:
After much scraping and shaving the broad woodwork is coming on, and a quick mock up suggests what’s to come:
This took an absolute AGE of hand carving and hand shaping, but have a very clean and presentable result that is all but lost in the roundover:
The middle pickup plug I also extremely clean, and barely noticeable:
Instagram
And the big reveal:
As I wanted to mute the binding repairs I opted for a ‘darkburst’ a la Kossoff/Duane, and couldn’t be happier with the result
I’ve a full complement of late ‘50s parts and electrics including a set of zebra PAFs saved for this project, and all in all it far exceeds my wildest expectations considering the technical and aesthetic challenges, and it is pretty thrilling to finally be a Burst owner, something utterly preposterous to hope for via conventional avanues.
I hope some of you enjoyed the process
I normally love your work when you’ve taken something damaged and made something good out of it, but I can’t help feeling that this time you’ve taken a very interesting, unique and perfectly good original guitar and ruined it, turning it into something much more ordinary and in fact now damaged, for the sake of the “burst” mystique.
It was *much* better as an original factory maple-cap Custom in my opinion. I admit I do prefer Customs to Standards anyway, but it’s not just that.
Sorry. Like I said, I normally love your work.
"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
This guitar was so unique and had a great story about it. A 60s maple capped custom with 3 pafs surely is a much more unique piece than a burst conversion?
It seems a shame to eradicate it from history.
The standard of work is outstanding and that paint job is incredible. Good for you.
Rift Amplification
Brackley, Northamptonshire
www.riftamps.co.uk