Les Paul's first Les Paul

proggy

I think it looks bloody horrible to be honest.

merlin

Burn it. 

Rox

Scallop the fretboard, Floyd Rose Trem... it's what Les would have wanted.

yocky

“In my opinion, this instrument belongs in the Smithsonian next to Neil Armstrong’s boot from the Moon landing. It is a national treasure.”

.......is an odd thing for someone to say whilst in the process of selling off the instrument to the highest bidder. 

maltingsaudio

Has Fiona Bruce proved it’s provenance?

richardhomer

Interesting… From a ‘guitar history’ point of view this must right up there. But outside of guitar circles, I wonder how big a deal Les Paul actually is?

Unless someone like Bonamassa got into a bidding war with (say) John Mayer, I can’t seeing it selling for anything like Gilmour’s Black Strat or other ‘celebrity’ guitars which have been auctioned.

Seziertisch

He treated it like a tool, function over form. The original tinkerer. 

I suspect that if this was posted to one of the Les Paul forums, and people didn’t somehow know the modifications were carried out by Les Paul himself, the scorn that would be poured on it would be quite something to behold.

WezV

I held back from too many comments when I posted.


Personally, I think its great to see how it ended up.  Most of these mods were visible early in its life, with only the bigger plates and dummy coils coming later.

On the other hand, if I recreated this checking on a top everyone would say it looked really naff, like bad knife work  


Les was clearly swapping bits around.

Here is the unbound one of the original pair which apparently became Mary's


Here she is with the bound one with trem




And there were more than 2





I made this one loosely inspired by Les' experiments and a few other early 50's gibsons

JezWynd

Seemingly intonation wasn't on his list of things to be sorted. Interesting fix for the bridge problem on the original 52's. Looks as if he dropped the bridge bar to the guitar top or even countersunk it - hard to tell from photo.

earwighoney

@WezV how did you find those alnico slug P90's.

WezV

earwighoney said:

@WezV how did you find those alnico slug P90's.

I made the covers, mojo made the coils.   The screw adjustment holes on the neck pickup are purely decoration here.... but mojo does do proper adjustable dynasonics now.


In terms of sound, a few vids were made (not by me)

earwighoney

Thanks for the video and info @WezV

Your guitar sounds excellent, I'd say the pickups have a touch more clarity and bite than standard P90's in the bridge, but the neck seems like it's own beast.  Superb pickups, I can understand why Dynasonics/Staples are so highly rated.

designerseye88

Personally I can see Gibson buying this and sticking it in their new Gear Garage shop down in Nashville. 

HerbieTheRadDorklift

Offset said:

Grumpyrocker said:

I expect Kirk will be wahwahing with it on the next Metallica tour. 

That would be tough to stomach.  I fervently hope it ends up in a museum where it belongs so it can be seen by as many people as possible, rather than languishing in some rich collector's vault.

I think it's mint that Hammett actually plays his collectors guitars.

springhead

designerseye88 said:

Personally I can see Gibson buying this and sticking it in their new Gear Garage shop down in Nashville. 

That would be the correct home for it I think.  

hollywoodrox

Offset said:

Grumpyrocker said:

I expect Kirk will be wahwahing with it on the next Metallica tour. 

That would be tough to stomach.  I fervently hope it ends up in a museum where it belongs so it can be seen by as many people as possible, rather than languishing in some rich collector's vault.

If Kirk was playing it on tour millions would be able to see it and it would get played like it’s meant to , I hope he does buy it . I wouldn’t personally it looks too weird  the greenie is much better.

cant beat a proper burst . My favourite ever is the Joe Perry/Slash 59 

Offset

hollywoodrox said:

If Kirk was playing it on tour millions would be able to see it and it would get played like it’s meant to , I hope he does buy it .

So that's limited to Metallica fans (I'm not one) who'd be viewing from such a distance he may as well be playing a Heritage... not quite what I had in mind.  This is a real piece of important C20th cultural history and really should be viewed (and treated) as such.  My view for what it's worth.

impmann

hollywoodrox said:

cant beat a proper burst .  

Matter of opinion but I think they are vile looking.

I'd far rather play this Goldtop than any burst. In fact - I'd rather play most guitars than a 50s Les Paul Sunburst (real, faked, replica or otherwise).

Seziertisch

https://youtu.be/c5ioKxBla98

A look under the hood