Would This Flame Make A Good Dirty Lemon Finish

ajay taylor · Oct 22, 2015

I bought this Les Paul because I thought it would make a good Dirty Lemon guitar. I just want a good player that has the worn '59 look. It sounds and plays really great, so I'm hoping that the flame would be a good match for that "Skinnerburst" look. The swirls around the knobs are reflections of the "tie dye" in the case lid.

renderit · Oct 22, 2015

I think it looks perfectly awesome just the way it is dude!

DanD · Oct 22, 2015

Is that a Trippy Hippy with new hardware and knobs? :hmm

I'm with Ren, I like it as is. Nice color and far more unique than a lemon burst. Lemons seem to be everywhere right now. I'm starting to get tired of seeing so many. Heritage Cherry Sunburst was all over and got burnt out for awhile but seems to be coming back into fashion recently.

If anything I'd swap the pup covers and hardware for nickel. Tone Pros makes a Nashville to AVR conversion bridge that would really give it a more vintage look if that's what you're seeking.

The nickel will tarnish up quickly enough and give that girl some patina. :dude:

ajay taylor · Oct 23, 2015

Yes, It's a Hippy guitar. I think that the gimmick was a little goofy, but they really put out nice Flame tops with the Green and Orange. Thanks for the compliment. I like the top, and it really sounds great, so I'll be keeping this one. Maybe I will leave it Peaceful Orange.
great Avatar renderit! One of my favorite bit players of all time. Really a great funny man!

j45 · Oct 23, 2015

That red / orange is not far away from the tint of the color Gibson used in '59 for it's red stained guitars. Trumps a lemon any day of the week IMO. I'd put a guard on it, maybe some better looking / more accurate looking repro nickel hardware and knobs....and let it be!

ajay taylor · Oct 23, 2015

Thanks everybody. You guys are saving me a lot of money! Did they call the '59 color "Trans Orange"? I wasn't aware until recently that they made an Orange-Red Les Paul in '59. I'm seeing some Custom Shop Guitars that look very similar to mine going for $4000 to over $5000. Of course they probably have a lot of extras.
The cool thing about mine is that it's an early Peace Model, so it's hand-wired from the factory with Orange Drop Caps. Of course the wiring doesn't resemble that of a '59, but I may be better off spending upgrade money on '59 wiring.

DanD · Oct 23, 2015

The new Historic model color reproducing the original red LPs is called 'Faded Cherry'.

The color on those Trippy Hippy models always reminded me of faded cherry. I came real close to scoring one in that color but the one I was looking at was in the 10 pound range and that's a no go for me. :dang

Definitely had a sweet top with lots of figure tho. I was going to remove the hippy treatment, stash the hardware in the case, and go nickel on the hardware and pups.

I still keep my eye out for the orange one. It's my fave color from that run. And it's peaceful!

eace2

ajay taylor · Oct 23, 2015

If You look at 2014 Les Pauls on Gibson's website, The Peaceful Orange Peace Models are supposed to be plain tops. I haven't seen it on the Orange ones, but the Green ones are sometimes just partially flame Maple. I read that, and figured that I must have gotten lucky, because the flame on this one is really consistent top to bottom.
I really love the green ones, but I have yet to see one that's figured like mine. I saved the knobs and the laser etched tailpiece. If You look closely on mine, You'll see that the Peace Sign Studs that hold the tailpiece are still on there. I really don't mind that particular detail, so I left it. The knobs and stuff are kind of funky, but I wanted to keep everything together for the future, so that all of the Peace Model stuff is still with the guitar. There are people who like the Hippy stuff, and they just left it stock.
Underneath the chrome pickup covers are '61 Zebras, so if You just take the covers off it's almost the same as one of the Slash models without his signature and the little Top Hat guy that He drew, so there are several things that make the Peaceful Orange Lester pretty versatile.
Can someone tell me, if You take the pup covers off to replace them with Nickel covers, there are two solder points top and bottom. If You change them to Nickel, do You need to resolder those two points on the Nickel replacement?

expo · Oct 23, 2015

The only difference I see is, it looks like a light BBQ top appearance.
The straight grain lines which cross the flames.
You also see this with veneers.
This is different with a 59 Lespaul, because its a another method of sawing the board.

This is more or less visible with different stains and colors.
Maybe it looks more prominent in your pictures than it actually is.
I had tops where it disappeared after staining and some where it popped out to a BBQ style.

You have to keep that in mind if it bothers you.
If not.:dude:

ajay taylor · Oct 23, 2015

The left hand picture is just about exactly what it looks like. The right hand picture I messed with the contrast to bring out the lines.
The straight lines that are perpendicular to the flames are very evident on this one. There is a Light Blue Burst Peace Guitar on which those lines that cross the flames are almost the most apparent detail on the top. They look like someone took a black Bic ZPen and just drew lines across the flames. I do like that detail on my top, because You can be looking at it, and not see those lines. Then, all at once they hit You in the forehead.
I think that ZI had mine for a few weeks before I noticed them, and now I see them every time that I take it out of the case. This is a very interesting guitar, and I'm glad that I bought it.

DanD · Oct 24, 2015

Yes, those two spots need to be re-soldered. Be mindful not to get the bottom of the pup too hot with the iron and don't run the old solder into the pickup winding. I try to get the cover hotter than the pup bottom and use just a small amount of solder for the new cover. If you've never done a cover swap I'd check out a youtube video or two before hand.

eace2

j45 · Oct 24, 2015

ajay taylor said:
Thanks everybody. You guys are saving me a lot of money! Did they call the '59 color "Trans Orange"? I wasn't aware until recently that they made an Orange-Red Les Paul in '59. I'm seeing some Custom Shop Guitars that look very similar to mine going for $4000 to over $5000. Of course they probably have a lot of extras.
The cool thing about mine is that it's an early Peace Model, so it's hand-wired from the factory with Orange Drop Caps. Of course the wiring doesn't resemble that of a '59, but I may be better off spending upgrade money on '59 wiring.

There may be at least two or more red dyes used in '59. The one for the '59 Les Paul is the infamous cherry red that would in some cases, fade completely away if exposed to too much sunlight. The other, first seen on examples of 1959 355's, 345's, and very rare on L-5's, ES-175's and even some flat tops. In many cases, maybe even most or all...but at least in my experience many examples of this red were hand rubbed, not sprayed like the Les Paul. This color is seen on many '59 examples to fade to an orange-ish, reddish color that can appear something like yours.... sometimes even to a reddish orange melon or coral color depending on how they fade. I've had a few and we've posted quite a few over the years and seems to be the most desirable "red" of all the variances seen on these guitars compared to reds of later years. And to answer, the color was just called red or cherry red at that time. All these "names" for different Les Paul finishes that are "supposed" to represent accurate reproductions of the original finishes of 1959 Gibson Les Pauls are mythical and are strictly new, made up names. In 1959 Gibson only offered "Cherry Sunburst". All the new "Historic" "faded", "washed", "Iced Tea", "Bourbon", "sunrise" heritage" ,"lemon", and so on are just modern marketing.

ajay taylor · Oct 24, 2015

Thank You for the factual information. There is more to learn about '59's than I ever thought. One thing that I know about them for certain is that I WANT ONE!
The funny thing about this guitar is that I didn't actually BUY it. I traded a 2002 Advanced Jumbo for this guitar and a Roland CUBE 40GX Amplifier. I would have traded him even up, but I played hard to get, so He threw in the Amp on the deal.
Four months afo I was all acoustic, and now I have The Orange Crusher, a Vintage Sunburst LPJ, a Roland Micro Cube Bass Amp, Roland 40GX, and a Gibson GA-5 Les Paul '54 Reissue, and several other acoustics. Here is my Super Cool Les Paul GA-5. I LOVE TUBE AMPS!

ajay taylor · Oct 28, 2015

Wow. I just looked at a NOS Peace In Peaceful Orange on Amazon. There isn't even a HINT of flame on the top. It looks like the top on my LPJ, just plain Maple with a few swirls of grain. Mine is a very early one, Around the 7200th Electric Gibson made in 2013 as a 2014 model. I am extremely glad that I bought one with top wood probably from the first pallet for Peace Models. I really wish that I could have seen the batch of wood that mine was made from. Gibson stated that the Peaceful Orange was a plain top, and I guess they knew which direction that they were headed with them. I probably WILL sell this at some point, but it will be hard to see it go. It sounds as good as it looks, but ZI really want a nice Historic at some point.

Would This Flame Make A Good Dirty Lemon Finish

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