• Guys, we've spent considerable money converting the Les Paul Forum to this new XenForo platform, and we have ongoing monthly operating expenses. THE "DONATIONS" TAB IS NOW WORKING, AND WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY DONATIONS YOU CAN MAKE TO KEEP THE LES PAUL FORUM GOING! Thank you!

1953 Les Paul Conversion project! Tiger flame monster..

Jumping@Shadows

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 11, 2003
Messages
1,330
Hi all, I recently came across a project early ‘53 Goldtop that had a very thick ‘champagne’ gold refinish, MOP replaced inlays, all vintage parts MIA etc, but good chunky neck and excellent weight.
I have a full compliment of ‘50s parts and electrics in my stash, so I figured I could strip and refinish using the correct Crescent Gold powder and pure nitro lacquer, but the first scrapes of gelled stripper suggested another direction!

Mocked up with ‘50s parts:

ABdlF8p.jpg


Oh my! Near dead centre seam with fat flames!

1s87lG1.jpg


Final covering of stripper reveals fat bear claw flame with strong forward chevron lean across the whole bass side, with plenty of matching figure on the treble:

bZkhbIc.jpg


Cleaned up with acetone in natural light- huge tiger stripe flame reminiscent of Carmelita/Claw with a healthy dose of Hotlanta chevron, and very near centre seam with well matched third piece between the knobs:

1AbVb0j.jpg


Mocked up with conversion parts:

9Q72jmy.jpg


Suffice to say I’ll be going ahead with a full burst conversion with ‘50s correct routing, ABR and offset tailpiece, late ‘50s pots/caps and PAFs and shooting an aniline cherry burst that’ll fade to honey/green leaving strong parts shadows, and I think it’ll be a fair contender to last year’s Uber Burst ‘53/‘59:

dauzwna.jpg


For those curious how this develops I’ll be updating on my Instagram ‘playergradevintage’ so feel free to follow :salude
 

brandtkronholm

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
Final covering of stripper reveals fat bear claw flame with strong forward chevron lean across the whole bass side, with plenty of matching figure on the treble:

bZkhbIc.jpg

What is 'bear claw' maple? I thought 'bear claw' was a feature of spruce and unrelated to flame/tiger/burl maple.

Looks like a fun project!
 

J.D.

Well-known member
Joined
May 24, 2006
Messages
10,030
I know it's your guitar and you can do whatever you want with it, but this doesn't make much sense to me personally. The 3-piece top and stop TP plugs will be visible. This guitar would be more desirable to me as a restored '53 P-90 goldtop than a sunburst conversion.
 

goldtop0

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 19, 2003
Messages
8,931
Yes it's all subjective this stuff but I really like your conversion.........to me it's a great looking LP and bound to have a fat neck that I love:salude
 

hogy

Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
Messages
715
I agree. The three piece mismatched top looks nothing like a burst. I'd let that be a proper wraparound P-90 again and give it just a tiny bit of arm wear to let some flame peak through. Much cooler to see a bit of flame and leave them guessing than to have a clearly fake "burst".
 

dwagar

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
4,451
Does a '53 wrap tail have enough neck angle to use an ABR1 without shaving it?

Trans Red might be nice on there.
 

boogieongtr

Active member
Joined
May 16, 2006
Messages
937
I love conversions but the 3 piece top and filled bushings holes kills it for me. If it were a 2 piece top and no filled bushing holes I'd say Burst conversion. I'd stick with a Goldtop finish. If your going to Burst it why not inlay a full piece of flame maple for the right side? Just a thought.
 

Reno_1ted

Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2014
Messages
665
Just thought I would add my 2 cents - burst conversion all day long for me. That third piece will blend in fine, as will the filled holes, have seen the OP do that many times. The flame on both sides should be on show rather than recovered, and coupled with the near center seam makes it a no brainier for me.

Its resale value IMO will be much better than a refinished 53 (which minus the parts is what this was when it came into his shop) and thats a factor too, especially when its your job. :)

YMMV
 

fretfinder

New member
Joined
May 28, 2011
Messages
8
It’s all about the resale value, as the above poster correctly recognises. This would make a fabulous restored Goldtop. Or it will make more money as an ugly and obviously fake burst. I suppose you can’t blame pgv for chasing the £pounds, and he does do great-looking spray work. The real pity is that there are people out there prepared to pay stupid money for an obviously mongrel ‘burst’, who can kid themselves that they’ve got the next best thing to a real one. No you haven’t, you’ve got a refin guitar with a three-piece top with plugs in it that was never meant to see the light of day!
 

goldtop0

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 19, 2003
Messages
8,931
It’s all about the resale value, as the above poster correctly recognises. This would make a fabulous restored Goldtop. Or it will make more money as an ugly and obviously fake burst. I suppose you can’t blame pgv for chasing the £pounds, and he does do great-looking spray work. The real pity is that there are people out there prepared to pay stupid money for an obviously mongrel ‘burst’, who can kid themselves that they’ve got the next best thing to a real one. No you haven’t, you’ve got a refin guitar with a three-piece top with plugs in it that was never meant to see the light of day!


No not a conversion...........you will get more $$ for a restored GT from what I've seen over the years.
My thinking is that the OP will maybe keep this one as it's a unique looking LP with old wood.
 

andy k

Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2006
Messages
359
Bigsby with batwing would hide a lot of the problems, just a thought.
 

marshall1987

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
3,278
No doubt a controversial topic, as witnessed in many previous conversion threads. I'm in the "go ahead and convert it" camp. At the end of the day... it is his guitar. Who am I to second-guess the OP's intentions, and his decision to go with a sunburst, tune-o-matic, PAF conversion. :hmm

In the hands of a talented guitar builder with a proven track record, why not go the extra mile and proudly show off that exquisite maple top? I appreciate that many folks enjoy playing vintage goldtop Les Pauls with the wrap-over tailpiece. However, there are just as many who prefer a Les Paul with a sunburst maple top and the ABR-1 bridge. And going this route allows the OP to outfit the guitar with his choice of PAFs or other comparable humbucking pickups.

I have little doubt that nearly all traces of the tailpiece bushing holes can be concealed by carefully matching the plugs to the maple top. A non-issue. :2cool

When the project is completed the OP will enjoy owning a vintage sunburst Les Paul that plays and sounds like a million bucks. Who can argue with that? :teeth
 

Reno_1ted

Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2014
Messages
665
No not a conversion...........you will get more $$ for a restored GT from what I've seen over the years.
My thinking is that the OP will maybe keep this one as it's a unique looking LP with old wood.

With that top, in the current market, it will likely make more as a burst conversion than a goldtop IMO.
 

Skipped

Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2008
Messages
412
If the guitar was refinished gold it would only work with an aged finish. We would presumably be seeing comments about "fake greening".
I have been looking at this forum for more than 10 years and I am still seeing the term "fake burst" used by posters who object to Conversions. A "Fake Burst" is a Replica, and sadly there are many of those.

This guitar will be a heavily modified 50's Les Paul (on completion).
Neil Young's main guitar is a heavily modified 50's Goldtop.
All of Les Paul's working guitars were heavily modified 50's Les Pauls.

I would be amazed if the 'Burst owners, who also own a Conversion, are calling their guitar a "Fake Burst". It is not a fake Burst. It is a 50's Les Paul with PAFs/Pat Nos that can be taken to a small gig without hired Security.
If I need to explain what the attraction is, to a player, of a 50's Gibson Les Paul with PAFs/Pat Nos.....that would be astonishing.
A refinished guitar with an imperfect/multi piece maple top can be a thing of great beauty. A unique guitar.

Surely we have consistently debunked the theory that 52/53 Gibson Les Pauls are in any danger of disappearing from collections or museums. They are not. There are huge numbers of untouched guitars that are preserved for posterity and which will never be touched.
Many other examples have been modified into truly world class instruments on which the strings are actually suspended over, and not under, the bridge. (Just imagine that Huh?)
This is a good thing.
The colour of these wonderful guitars is not the most important thing about them.
 

Tarcisioo

Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2014
Messages
385
The colour of these wonderful guitars is not the most important thing about them.

Actually, it is. If it wasn't, OP wouldn't be repainting and selling them for a living.

In a theoretical case, I'd rather have a 2020 guitar with 1950's finish than a 1950's guitar with 2020 finish. In 2020, you still can find old good wood everywhere, lots of 1800-1900 brazilian rosewood where I live, and quite cheap (I'm from Brazil alright). But old nitro? That's not something you can find today, as I understand their formulas were dramatically changed during those decades and will never go back due to regulations.

But I guess the bad reception this project specifically has received here and on other forums is less due to the sunbursting, as the og gold is long gone, and more to the "removing neck, adding forever visible dowels at the bridge and getting rid of the P-90s"

But yes, plenty of goldtops around. But the OP isn't in this business for a play, he's clearly quite serious, so I bet my ass he knows everytime he posts about converting a non-issue goldtop, it will bring controversies. At the end of the day, all we can say is that it WILL sell, no doubt in that.
 

Jumping@Shadows

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 11, 2003
Messages
1,330
I hope all are safe and well and weathering this Covid storm..

Trivial as it sounds, painting this guitar has really helped with my anxiety levels, and I’m really pleased with the results :salude

6FDqxSu.jpg


kHyZ80o.jpg


This vibrant cherry burst will fade to a green/honey burst in the coming weeks, which I think will be a perfect fit for the wide flame.
 

rockabilly69

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 29, 2001
Messages
2,872
I hope all are safe and well and weathering this Covid storm..

Trivial as it sounds, painting this guitar has really helped with my anxiety levels, and I’m really pleased with the results :salude

6FDqxSu.jpg


kHyZ80o.jpg


This vibrant cherry burst will fade to a green/honey burst in the coming weeks, which I think will be a perfect fit for the wide flame.

And clips of this one yet? As you know I loved the Jr conversion with the P90 in the neck!
 
Top