What is this!? Old LP on eBay

Iamnobody

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=121662257063

Erm...

xmrchi

Ha 0 feedback seller, no PayPal, and loft damage??? Its amazing how water makes such huge gouges in the wood, wow that's the worst example of a fraudulent les paul I have ever seen!

thermionic

That looks pretty much like what I think a guitar would look like after a long time in a very damp environment to me.

Why would anyone try and fake that kind of damage?

GuitarMonkey

"Don't leave guitars in lofts" 

Where the mice presumably all have little chisels and sandpaper.

Iamnobody

thermionic;648268" said:

That looks pretty much like what I think a guitar would look like after a long time in a very damp environment to me.

Why would anyone try and fake that kind of damage?

It's got fret nibs..but beyond that clue I couldn't tell if it's a genuine Gibson. But yeah I agree you wouldn't fake that damage.

ICBM

Intriguing...

I'm almost 100% certain it's not a real one for several reasons, but it's difficult to put a finger on anything about the guitar itself that you can see in the pics which *definitely* proves it's a fake.

The one thing that both looks 'right' and 'wrong' at the same time is that it does appear to have binding nibs, but the frets look too tall and the binding looks slightly too thick for a real 50s Gibson.

What's certain is that it didn't get like that by being stored in a loft - it's clearly been "distressed" on purpose - so I wonder if it might actually be a genuine modern Les Paul which someone has tried to relic, it went wrong and so they decided to go overboard and make it into a 'barn find'.

Either that or I'm missing some major giveaway which someone will now point out and I'll feel stupid .

thermionic

It's been in the water so long a colony of limpets has moved in:

richardhomer

To get THAT water damaged, you'd imagine it would have been submerged - which you would imagine was more likely in a cellar than a loft.

Which begs the question, why would you put what you 'think' might be a '50s Les Paul there?

carlos

Looks like a failed chibson project!

olafgarten

Its only a penny, I might bid on it.

GuitarMonkey

ICBM said:

I'm almost 100% certain it's not a real one for several reasons, but it's difficult to put a finger on anything about the guitar itself that you can see in the pics which *definitely* proves it's a fake.

That's because the tell-tale signs have been deliberately obfuscated, like all the crap in the control cavity so you can't see any tooling marks.

OilCityPickups

I'm fascinated too ...  and actually love the look of it

Flink_Poyd

I'm no expert on the real vs fake side of things.
If it's been water damaged wouldn't there be more rust on the metal parts?

OilCityPickups

Got to be a fake of some sort ... but one of the most startling ones I've seen

Hertz32

I really like it too!

underdog

It's amazing that anything that could be used to date it has been damaged or removed like pots, pickup surrounds, serial etc, yet they also know it's a 50s les Paul some how.

So either they knew they had a 50s LP in the loft but never once checked on it over the years, not even when prices started going sky high on them, or he's a liar.

My money is on real Gibson that someone thinks they could make easy money on.

Sassafras

I think this must be the first ever Gibson and it's been recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose.

ICBM

GuitarMonkey said:

ICBM said:

I'm almost 100% certain it's not a real one for several reasons, but it's difficult to put a finger on anything about the guitar itself that you can see in the pics which *definitely* proves it's a fake.

That's because the tell-tale signs have been deliberately obfuscated, like all the crap in the control cavity so you can't see any tooling marks.

I know, and that is one of the 'several reasons', along with the obviously bogus description and the seller's feedback - and the photography is also quite 'selective' - but it's still slightly surprising that some of the other usual obvious flaws aren't there.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's a lost 50s Les Paul! But I think it *might* be a modern one. If it's not, it's a very thoroughly disguised fake… done on purpose to make it hard to tell rather than to try to make it right, probably by someone who knows the second way can't easily be done.

Or not without this sort of workmanship, anyway…

http://www.abalonevintage.com/guitar_Gibson_1959_Les_Paul_standard_fake_forgery_1_w.jpg

DulcetJones

The "no PayPal" raises a big alarm with me, wouldn't that take away any chance of resolve if you decided it was a rip off?

woody

Im sure ive seen this guitar maybe a year ago or so..may have been on guitar mart? At time there was some yarn about the guitar being purchased in egypt...seller wasnt as confident of its authenticity then if i remember correctly..said he didnt know if it was real deal or not..

robinbowes

I actually quite like that. Wasn't there another water-damaged Les Paul on here recently?

Oh, and you *have* to accept Paypal - ebay won't let you list without it.

R.