Just Scored a 55-77 Les Paul Special...

Cody said:

There's no difference - in fact, "limed mahogany" seems to be the official name:

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:salude
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It looks like "TV Yellow" is a popular slang name for the finish, probably because they called the guitars (Juniors and Specials) with Limed Mahogany finish the "TV Model" (in the brochure you linked to). I've heard both terms before, but that makes sense. Funny, though, Gibson has used the term "TV Yellow" in the modern era for guitars with that finish, I don't think they use "Limed Mahogany" at all these days.

I read that they called those guitars the TV models because the brighter finish was supposed to show up better on television (which was black and white back then).

Al

By the way, a friend of a friend of mine used to show up at yearly jams I used to go to, he had one of those '77-'55 models (I thought I remembered that it said "Junior", not "Special" on it, which I thought was odd because it had two pickups. Maybe the TR cover had been changed). I had never seen one before, but I played it and it was a great guitar. It had the tunematic/stop tail setup on it, and it was a burst finish. I wanted it bad, and I offered to buy it every time I ran into him (he probably was annoyed by my persistance, but never gave in). He was just a casual player, but had the guitar since he was younger and didn't want to part with it. I'd like to pick one up myself one day, but it seems they are getting pretty popular now, so I don't know if it is going to happen.

Al

P.S. What price range are these things in these days?. I think we're not supposed to discuss specific deals, but what's a ballpark figure?.

First I would kill for a 74, I really dig them. Since the thread digressed a bit into Special love, here is mine.

I live with a 95, it's too red, and not wrap tail but I still like it, has P90, not the dreaded 100's. I still have black covers, can't decide, no big deal.


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treeofpain said:

Cody,

I'm assuming the 1974's were all sunburst with wrap tailpiece - about 2000 of those made.

I'm guessing Gibson transitioned to tuneomatic circa 1976-77. They appear to add wine red as an option then. I have never seen one either, but then again, I've only seen a few of the sunburst ones.

The totals for 1976-1981 are less than 1000, so I guess that's to be expected.

Limed mahogany was apparently never documented in a catalog or price list, but they obviously exist. It would be nice to confirm how many of each color were made. It would also be nice to know if the Limed Mahogany was done as a special run, for a particular event or dealer, or just an unadvertised option like the Les Paul Standards with regular humbuckers in the early 70's.

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I have a 1974 LM 55 special w/ wrap bridge, one pc body. Only one I've seen so far, and I've been playing over 50 years.

They made two successive versions, one with a wraptail and one with a tunematic/TP setup.
Al

slackken said:

I have a 1974 LM 55 special w/ wrap bridge, one pc body. Only one I've seen so far, and I've been playing over 50 years.

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I assume that you tried to post a pic of it, but the url reads like a novel, so it's not showing up. If you can post a working picture, I, for one, would LOVE to see it... and congrats!

:salude