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1959 knobs?

thunderkyss

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Nov 1, 2002
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743
I've been looking at pictures of 1959 Les Pauls & it occurred to me that they have a variety of control knobs.


Is that the way they came from the factory? Gibson had a few different bins of knobs & the builder just picked whichever set they thought looked best on that particular guitar? Was there a more prescribed method for knob selection? Or did the owners of these guitars switch the knobs to their liking?
 

Kris Ford

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Jan 6, 2007
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I've been looking at pictures of 1959 Les Pauls & it occurred to me that they have a variety of control knobs.


Is that the way they came from the factory? Gibson had a few different bins of knobs & the builder just picked whichever set they thought looked best on that particular guitar? Was there a more prescribed method for knob selection? Or did the owners of these guitars switch the knobs to their liking?

Far as I know..they only had ONE in 1959..the gold tophat..what time, use, age and the environment do to them is a crap shoot..some still look gold and pretty..others are smoked out and amber, and some done went green.:peace2
 

Tom Wittrock

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Aug 2, 2001
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I've been looking at pictures of 1959 Les Pauls & it occurred to me that they have a variety of control knobs.


Is that the way they came from the factory? Gibson had a few different bins of knobs & the builder just picked whichever set they thought looked best on that particular guitar? Was there a more prescribed method for knob selection? Or did the owners of these guitars switch the knobs to their liking?

If you are talking about vintage 1959 Les Pauls, then you should post this in the Vintage area.
In 1959 they used gold and black knobs of the same design, depending on the model. I don't understand how you arrive at more variations than that. :hmm
 

TM1

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Jun 27, 2003
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If you are talking about vintage 1959 Les Pauls, then you should post this in the Vintage area.
In 1959 they used gold and black knobs of the same design, depending on the model. I don't understand how you arrive at more variations than that. :hmm

+1
 

thunderkyss

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Joined
Nov 1, 2002
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743
If you are talking about vintage 1959 Les Pauls, then you should post this in the Vintage area.
In 1959 they used gold and black knobs of the same design, depending on the model. I don't understand how you arrive at more variations than that. :hmm

In the link I provided, there are speed knobs, in addition to black knobs and gold knobs. Some of those have the silver tops.
 

Tom Wittrock

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner
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Aug 2, 2001
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In the link I provided, there are speed knobs, in addition to black knobs and gold knobs. Some of those have the silver tops.

And in that link, many of the images are not of 1959 Les Pauls. Even the very first image shown is a modern reissue.
For 1959 Bursts there was only one knob used, the golden colored bell shaped knob [without a reflector on the top].

And again, this is best discussed in the proper Forum area, although you can try it anywhere.
 

Uncle Gary

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Oct 15, 2006
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I've been looking at pictures of 1959 Les Pauls & it occurred to me that they have a variety of control knobs.


Is that the way they came from the factory? Gibson had a few different bins of knobs & the builder just picked whichever set they thought looked best on that particular guitar? Was there a more prescribed method for knob selection? Or did the owners of these guitars switch the knobs to their liking?

First, many of those pictures are "reissue" '59 Les Pauls. That said, They all look like the very same knobs to me. The only exception I see is the "Peter Green 'burst", which has two top hat knobs and two reflector cap knobs. This was done by the owner, and didn't come from the factory like that. It was probably done so the player could tell the neck pickup/bridge pickup controls apart by "feel".

From 1955 to mid 1960, Gibson used the "top hat" style knob. They were either gold or black (and a few brown have been seen as well). Gold knobs were used on natural, gold top and sunburst guitars. Black knobs were used on black, cherry red, and all other custom colors. The EB-1 bass was finished in a brown "violin" finish and had brown knobs.

In mid 1960, reflector cap knobs appeared. The same color rules applied, but now the reflectors could be either gold or silver in addition to the black or gold knob color. The reflector color was matched to the color of the hardware, either gold or nickel.
 
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