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GE Smith's 1960 LP Custom at Cream City Music

DrRobert

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2003
Messages
6,050
GE is selling a bunch of his stuff thru CCM. I had a chance to play it unplugged (not really in the market for one right now) but thought it'd be cool to share it here. It's got a nice neck, not beefy like a 59 but not a super thin one either. VERY worn. Black/yellow case, seems original (not a lot of support for the neck, though). Refret. Otherwise seems straight. $55k.

Here's the guitar:

010498_03__39055.1499974609.1280.1280.JPG

010498_04__52752.1499974604.1280.1280.jpg


And the listing page:

http://www.creamcitymusic.com/g-e-s...les-paul-custom-black-beauty-electric-guitar/
 

JJ Blair

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Jan 9, 2011
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3,462
Weird. Joe's news Custom has the middle pickup facing that way, too.
 

El Gringo

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Apr 8, 2015
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This is one guitar that I would want to buy because it belonged to GE Smith who I like .
 

DrRobert

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Jun 12, 2003
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I've talked to a few other guys, and, while I haven't followed GE's career before SNL, I can't recall him playing the Custom? Do you?
 

houndog31

Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2004
Messages
550
Some background on the guitar here from the book 'A Perfectly Good Guitar' by Chuck Holley

I guess he decided it goes.

GoodGuitarBook_052617.GESmith.jpg

Screen Shot 2017-09-07 at 8.06.48 PM.jpg

Screen Shot 2017-09-07 at 8.07.02 PM.jpg
 

El Gringo

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deytookerjaabs

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Nov 6, 2016
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Of ALL the guitars I've oggled at over the years, being in the out of reach category, this one takes the cake. If that kind of $$ was in the account, it's almost a no-brainer. Okay, it's a GREAT Les Paul according to GE, one who'd know if anyone out there really does. But, beyond that, the story is wonderful. It's a gem, but it's dingy enough to still hit the dives with and show off your "beat up reissue." You can tell it's the kind of guitar which will sing as well through a vibrolux as through a jtm45 as through a gemini.

More importantly, in my opinion, it was owned by one of the pivotal "vintage" players ever to grace American Television. I remember seeing GE on SNL almost every weekend and thinking how hip he was at a time when 99% of dudes with a guitar and pony tail were most certainly less than cool! Yeah, he always had some wicked old guitar with some obscure (to me at the time) fender amplifier getting solid sounds. And the band would always be great, totally rooted in blues/r&b yet could take it anywhere. Then, decades later, come to find GE is just a top shelf human being at that with a brand of wisdom & humility you just can't teach.


I hope someone half as cool as GE buys this guitar ASAP, before I walk into a bank and yell "Stick'em up!" :hee
 

geddy402

Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
216
Of ALL the guitars I've oggled at over the years, being in the out of reach category, this one takes the cake. If that kind of $$ was in the account, it's almost a no-brainer. Okay, it's a GREAT Les Paul according to GE, one who'd know if anyone out there really does. But, beyond that, the story is wonderful. It's a gem, but it's dingy enough to still hit the dives with and show off your "beat up reissue." You can tell it's the kind of guitar which will sing as well through a vibrolux as through a jtm45 as through a gemini.

More importantly, in my opinion, it was owned by one of the pivotal "vintage" players ever to grace American Television. I remember seeing GE on SNL almost every weekend and thinking how hip he was at a time when 99% of dudes with a guitar and pony tail were most certainly less than cool! Yeah, he always had some wicked old guitar with some obscure (to me at the time) fender amplifier getting solid sounds. And the band would always be great, totally rooted in blues/r&b yet could take it anywhere. Then, decades later, come to find GE is just a top shelf human being at that with a brand of wisdom & humility you just can't teach.


I hope someone half as cool as GE buys this guitar ASAP, before I walk into a bank and yell "Stick'em up!" :hee

great post. He is one of the all-time vintage guitar guys. Bonamassa may have the market cornered now as the go-to vintage guitar slinger, but GE was doing it when they were just used guitars. His story about playing his original Flying V the night Keith Richards and the Winos were on SNl is a classic.
 

Tom Wittrock

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Aug 2, 2001
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42,567
great post. He is one of the all-time vintage guitar guys. Bonamassa may have the market cornered now as the go-to vintage guitar slinger,
but GE was doing it when they were just used guitars. His story about playing his original Flying V the night Keith Richards and the Winos were on SNl is a classic.

l:rofll

Funniest post I have read in a long time. :ganz
 

JBLPplayer

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Sep 29, 2010
Messages
1,136
great post. He is one of the all-time vintage guitar guys. Bonamassa may have the market cornered now as the go-to vintage guitar slinger, but GE was doing it when they were just used guitars. His story about playing his original Flying V the night Keith Richards and the Winos were on SNl is a classic.
My name is Joe by the way. GE and Jimmy Vivino along with a few others gave me the bug for vintage guitars. I used to barter with my Mom and Dad to stay up to watch him and T-Bone, Sean Pelton and Co to see what he was playing and who was on.

Those were the days.
Before computers ruined music in my opinion.
Joe B
 

romano38

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Jan 9, 2013
Messages
14
My name is Joe by the way. GE and Jimmy Vivino along with a few others gave me the bug for vintage guitars. I used to barter with my Mom and Dad to stay up to watch him and T-Bone, Sean Pelton and Co to see what he was playing and who was on.

Those were the days.
Before computers ruined music in my opinion.
Joe B


:applaude:applaude:applaude
 

deytookerjaabs

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Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Messages
1,592
Growing up in the 90's, back to the vintage thing, although there were still plenty of folks around from the 60's/70's who sometimes donned their old favorites most everyone else in the mainstream of guitar music was usually not and if they did it wasn't front & center to the music. Just watch all those old SNL clips of guest bands then cutting to the house band, that's what was so hip about GE to me, like a modern throwback to the roots-ier stuff. He was the reason I bought Aspen Pittman's "The Tube Amp Book" when I was 12, and that was only because I didn't recognize any of those amps from the monthly guitar center catalog.


I'd concur that the custom was, in a sense, "just a used guitar" when he picked is up in the mid-70 as he had less than a hundred into it....adjusted for inflation that's merely fancy Squier territory (yeah, that's right, I put fancy & Squier in the same sentence). Then he paid 150 for the new pickup :hee Plenty of videos on youtube of him playing it too, check out the 6:45 to 10:00 mark here, just the LPC, GE, & possibly some sort of phase-shifter:



And for an example of his SNL days, this clip with a V no less:


What's that on the guitar stand over there???
 
Last edited:

DrRobert

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2003
Messages
6,050
That Hall and Oates clip is killer! He looks like he's just having fun, and giving a clinic in showmanship!
 

geddy402

Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
216
My name is Joe by the way. GE and Jimmy Vivino along with a few others gave me the bug for vintage guitars. I used to barter with my Mom and Dad to stay up to watch him and T-Bone, Sean Pelton and Co to see what he was playing and who was on.

Those were the days.
Before computers ruined music in my opinion.
Joe B

Yeah, it took some effort to do things back then. No DVR, no google to find out what he was playing, etc. Computers kinda take the sense of excitement out of discovering new things. Not sure if that is where you were going with the music comment but I'm a few years younger than you and we grew up in a weird time of using landlines and being early adopters of all the new technology.
 
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