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what date were the prototype Les Pauls produced

Mike's Music

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Aug 22, 2001
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271
IMO, the authority on this subject is Robb Lawrence . He has personal knowledge of the actual prototype guitars (the tobacco sunburst ones). If there is one man still alive who can speak to this, it is he. Perhaps he will weigh in here.

I talked with Rob at length a few months back, hope he checks in.
 

Mike's Music

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Aug 22, 2001
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271
Mike, it's in "American Guitars" by Tom Wheeler in the Gibson section. There is a lengthy interview with both Ted McCarty & Les Paul, both recounting their memories on how the Les Paul guitar came about. Both stories are wildly different & make for very interesting reading. I just checked the Ted Mc Carty interview, & he said, and I quote "I am sure it was 1950 when we signed the agreement". Referring to the contract they drew up at the hunting lodge, at The Delaware Watergap, the same day Les & Mary saw the first prototype. Check it out!:salude

Yes, I remember that , I will revisit it. It makes since that it would be 1950. I always thought it was likely because of the Taper on the early ones.
 

JIMI55LP

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Jun 28, 2005
Messages
1,588
And not all unbounds had this squared rectangle rear cavity as Gibson introduced the clover shaped cavity while still producing the unbounds. They also changed away from the diagonal screw mounted bridge P90 which changed the wire channel angle from the rear cavity to the treble side instead of crossing the center of the pup route.
 

59Cherrytop

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Jul 15, 2001
Messages
122
IMO, the authority on this subject is Robb Lawrence . He has personal knowledge of the actual prototype guitars (the tobacco sunburst ones). If there is one man still alive who can speak to this, it is he. Perhaps he will weigh in here.

Howdy! I have been writing an article lately about the birth of the Gibson solidbody guitar featuring the Ranger from 1950 and the documented sharp cutaway, maple top guitar from 1951 I featured in my Les Paul Legacy Vol 1. Just ran across this post that was started in 2007 back while I was in book production. I am now laying out the Gibson books for Hal Leonard

I first found and photographed the guitar in Kalamazoo during a 1972 guitar safari while interviewing Julius Bellson, Ted McCarty and Walt Fuller. The fellow who had it went to work for Gibson and sold the guitar to a lady named Nancy. Eventually she brought to Marin county, California and my friend Larry Cragg (guitar tech for Neil Young) snapped some pics of it for Guitar Player Magazine.

In our interview, Ted had talked about showing Les & Mary one of the few sharp cutaway prototypes at band leader Ben Selvin's (Yes, We Have No Bananas) hunting lodge in 1951. Les told me he didn't like the sharp cutaway and wanted to use his new trapeze tailpiece. Gibson's factory mechanical man Larry Allers had worked out the arch design by then. Just as production began with the bookmatched maple guitars, Les asked them to paint them gold (bronze in the lacquer).

Like other prototypes, they ended up in the Gibson morgue/wood pile. This guitar was saved by an employee and left in his closet until 1969 when a young kid's mom bought it for him. Over the years it was refinished and modified with Humbuckings with a stop tailpiece. The guitar is much like a solid version of their 3/4 size ES-140 jazz guitar with a 24 7/8 scale length (I wish they had continued). We had it restored a few years later in 1983 in Southern California to the state it is in now.

In the next month I plan to set up a Los Angeles guitar shop (outdoor) gathering for those who are curious to see, hear and play this historical instrument.
 

Del

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Feb 10, 2002
Messages
320
Same here link will not work
best to post the pics on the forum
 

roxrob

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Joined
Mar 15, 2003
Messages
221
Ive got both of Robb Lawrences books...published in 2008. Loads of info, pictures, interviews etc. These will answer a whole load of your questions.


Regards


Roxrob
 

59Cherrytop

Member
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Jul 15, 2001
Messages
122
Going to start a new thread on this 1951 prototype. The uploader doesn't seem to work with these jpgs. Tried five times to get them going. Can't find a link here at the Forum to explain their uploader process. Anybody has the answer, please let me know.

To be contined. Thanks for your patience.
 

djcmusician

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Apr 29, 2015
Messages
263
here it is....ha ha

ba4454d4-3599-4536-b834-99b49e33b2b0.jpg
 
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