Stickergate II?

peteri

https://reverb.com/item/18206427-gibson-les-paul-junior-1957

All original apart from the painted over serial number

mrkb

Was it painted over during a service to protect it from damage??!

IvisonGuitars

All I’ll say is @richardhomer, it’s over to you...

fretfinder

Never mind the serial number, it weighs 8.4 lbs!! 

IvisonGuitars

fretfinder said:

Never mind the serial number, it weighs 8.4 lbs!! 

Well imagine how heavy it’d be with the serial number on there as well?!!!  

Funkfingers

"All original paint" ... except for the bit where the serial number used to be ... but which appears to be of equal thickness to the surrounding area. Therefore, by definition, some of the finish is NOT original.

One end wraparound bridge/tailpiece looks unusually out of round. 

stonevibe

Haven't they just blurred the photo?

andrewaward

From the ad:

The serial number was removed decades ago for some reason, original serial number is scratched into the underside of the pickguard.

"for some reason" ……….only 1 reason I can think of.

Simon_M

So, forgive my ongoing ignorance about vintage guitars but, without the serial number, does this make the guitar significantly devalued as it is essentially just a beaten up LPJ? Are things like this ever resolved? 

peteri

Realistically they can only be resolved by someone to some extent 'faking it' by putting the serial number back on, assuming the scratch plate one is correct.

There are two reasons to do this - one it's dodgy, or the second (and this is likely what it is in this case I'd say) - it has been refinished much more than they're admitting, from the description some time ago (70's or 80's?) when serial numbers didn't matter so much and it was basically an old budget Gibson - so what did the serial number matter?

Of course being a Gibson - heavy refinished paint on the headstock adds the thought 'headstock break' to the list.

I started playing early 80s and I remember a couple of school friends starting with old LPJs - hard to believe now, but I distinctly remember a TV yellow one for example.

We also took apart a very old AC15 just because we were curious

Different times

Simon_M

peteri said:

Realistically they can only be resolved by someone to some extent 'faking it' by putting the serial number back on, assuming the scratch plate one is correct.

There are two reasons to do this - one it's dodgy, or the second (and this is likely what it is in this case I'd say) - it has been refinished much more than they're admitting, from the description some time ago (70's or 80's?) when serial numbers didn't matter so much and it was basically an old budget Gibson - so what did the serial number matter?

Of course being a Gibson - heavy refinished paint on the headstock adds the thought 'headstock break' to the list.

I started playing early 80s and I remember a couple of school friends starting with old LPJs - hard to believe now, but I distinctly remember a TV yellow one for example.

We also took apart a very old AC15 just because we were curious

Different times

Thanks for taking the time to write this. It seems like, whatever the case, someone isn't being truthful. Seems like a minefield with vintage guitars.

I had no idea about the vintage guitar market until I joined this forum and it's opened my eyes a bit. I'm stunned what some people will pay for a guitar which was, like you described it, a school boys starter guitar! I know some people collect cars, some collect football stickers, some collect guitars.

SteveRobinson

Here's another @richardhomer , must've had a sticker there at some time?