'69 on the bay

Jumping@Shadows said:

I almost bid on this too, as it's the perfect vintage beater and as others have commented the tyre piece neck ones are still killer guitars.
You will have to route the cavities to accept different pickups however, as it's only been converted to fit short leg Dimarzios, but it'll be a straight forward job

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Route the pickup cavities? Yikes. I'd think long and hard before doing anything like that.

I agree with the nickel parts (yank the Nashville offa there LOL) perhaps new P/Us and tuners(Kulson) and rock that thing :dude: congrats

Congrats on a cool score. I was tempted, but hesitated. Looked like a cool project. Enjoy!

Thanks everyone for your comments. I will post some pics as soon as I get back home (on the road at the moment).

I've done many restorations before including a banner 1944 Gibson J45, 1946 J45, 1960 Fender Strat, 1962 Strat, 1962 Jaguar, 1967 Jaguar to name a few. This is my first Les Paul so I'm really looking forward to it.

I live in Thailand and shipping the guitar here was quite some fun. The customs guys slugged me an extra $600 for the pleasure of bringing the LP to the "land of smiles" and the shipping cost was $250.

I am very torn about the finish. I believe that looks good as it is but it would be nice to restore it to a GT finish. I think I will leave it as it is for the moment as a really does have that road warrior look.

As suggested by many who have posted here, I have purchased late 60s original parts to replace those that have been installed later. This includes lightweight tailpiece and posts, Pat number bridge, Pat number sticker T top pickup for the neck position and switch tip. The pick up rings are an unmatched set and the one in the neck position is marked M69. I have an old 1975 Dimarzio super distortion pickup that I will put in the bridge position. I'm waiting for the parts to arrive and hopefully they will have arrived by the time I return home.

The neck is absolutely beautiful. It's a nice chunky C - not too big though. I will however put a "Les Paul model" decal on the headstock and properly fill the holes in the head stock. They are not very deep but look ugly so the headstock will be sympathetically restored. I will keep the original Grovers as they are period and I like them more than the Klusons.

I will definitely clean up the routes in the pick up cavities just to make them uniform. The routs for the HBs are very amateurish and I do my best to clean them up however I'm weary about removing too much wood.

Thanks for the comments - pics will come soon.

rgrace said:

Route the pickup cavities? Yikes. I'd think long and hard before doing anything like that.

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They've already been routed to the max (non-Gibson pattern either) and the whole guitar has been stripped and refinished... no point in keeping a butcher job "original"....


Anyway, this was a great deal and I'm jealous!! If I really wanted to make this my player, I would fill the routs, snag a pair of 52/53 P-90's, a few aftermarket quality nickel parts (and definitely some older nickel Grovers) , do a cheap touchup on the rout repair in black and take it out and play the dog-$*&# out of it. Some of the best Les Pauls, and I mean compared to my original '59 burst, PAF Goldtops, you name it...have been late 60's with 52 P90's dropped in. I wouldn't even bother with the LP silkscreen...

Hear hear J45!

Thanks J45. I agree with you wholehartedly.

I am really torn about the finish and when I have the funds will go back to some original 50's P90's and I get the guitar refinished back to the GT. In the meantime it will stay black with HBs and played as it deserves. Any suggestions on who to do the GT refin? Gord Miller is my go to guy but it will cost upwards of $2000 and then I am starting over capitalize I fear. Suggestions welcome. Will try to post pics later today.

J45 -Very jealous of your collection by the way.