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1974 Les Paul Standard?

soulbrojcs

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Apr 14, 2009
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939
I'll trot this out again. If one '74 is good, surely two are twice as good:
bobnbobsm.jpg

Now the juicy details: Mine on the left is dead stock with the wine color you see in the pics above. My bandmate's on the right has no pickguard, the bridge PU has no cover, the Klusons were replaced with Grovers, the reflector knobs were replaced with speed knobs, and the color is the classic dark tobacco sunburst. Interestingly, mine has nylon saddles, his had metal. I was running through a 1965 Gibson GA55RVT Ranger 4x10" (The Kalamazoo Super Reverb). I jumpered it and it was sweet. Pedal board had an EH LPB-2 boost, volume pedal, and an EH Small Stone. I added an Echoplex soon after. My buddy has a '65 Fender Super. We're playing a dual lead here. Pic is from '78. Apologies for the repost but soulbrojcs might enjoy. And...

ddboblpsm.jpg

Live shot with me playing the tough in a '50s band. That is the only shot of the guitar's headstock that reveals the small script. Check out the bass bi-amp rig behind me: a Fender PS300 for the lows with three 1x18" cabs and an Ampeg SVT-VR for the highs with a 4x12" cab. Yummm! I was running through the same Gibson Ranger as above with a '65 Princeton Reverb on top as a backup.

Bob
Checked out your site... loved it!!! tried to Email you from there but it was a no go...
 

Bob Womack

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2,191
There are "X" characters appended to my email name at head and tail to prevent spambots from snowing me under. Just remove the Xs. Thanks!

Bob
 

jimmyace2006

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Dec 24, 2007
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actually it was later. Shipping ledgers show 1 for 1975

My formerly owned 1968 Les Paul Standard Gold Top with crown inlay, serial number 514290 is listed in this scan of the Gibson shipping ledger as a "LP Std" shipped on 11-20-68.

GC6805-1-1.jpg


GC6809-1.jpg





Larry Meiners' Gibson Shipment Totals book shows 1,224 shipped in 68 and 2,751 shipped in 69 (though I wonder if any of those were Deluxe models). Other than the 1958 reissue which was really a 54 reissue, there were 2,218 shipped in 1974.
 

Wilko

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tell me about 1968 Standards!

They became Deluxes in early 1969. The model designation was not official until 1 tobacco shipped in 1975 and a buttload in '76 and later. Many were shipped from 71-75 with factory routed humbuckers.

I've had my share of 68s. Love 'em.
 

jimmyace2006

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tell me about 1968 Standards!

They became Deluxes in early 1969. The model designation was not official until 1 tobacco shipped in 1975 and a buttload in '76 and later. Many were shipped from 71-75 with factory routed humbuckers.

I've had my share of 68s. Love 'em.

Not official? How about this? It is the brochure that came with my 1968 Les Paul Standard. Looks very official to me. :2cool


6801a.jpg




And if Gibson wrote "LP Std" on the shipping ledger, that is pretty official as well.
 
Last edited:

DHBucker

Active member
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Jul 18, 2007
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2,367
Wow... beautiful!!! that's what I'm talking about... ;-)

Looks like a three piece top along with the pancake on this one as well as the multipiece necks....Good enough for Ace was good enough for me back then!
 

Bob Womack

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Looks like a three piece top along with the pancake on this one as well as the multipiece necks....Good enough for Ace was good enough for me back then!
It is a pancake body and three piece top, as well as a three-piece mahogany neck. When they moved LP production to Nashville and started the "official" revival of the "Standard" line (large script), the guitars had a three-piece maple neck, metal tuners, and a metal jack plate, as I recall.

Bob
 

Wilko

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Not official? How about this? It is the brochure that came with my 1968 Les Paul Standard. Looks very official to me. :2cool

And if Gibson wrote "LP Std" on the shipping ledger, that is pretty official as well.


You don't need to tell me about 1968. I was joking.

After 1968, there was no regular "Les Paul Standard" listed officially until '75/'76.

There was the Standard '58 which we all know was a totally different guitar.

Here are my last three '68s that went last year:
three_68s.jpg
 

jimmyace2006

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You don't need to tell me about 1968. I was joking.

After 1968, there was no regular "Les Paul Standard" listed officially until '75/'76.

There was the Standard '58 which we all know was a totally different guitar.

Here are my last three '68s that went last year:

Do you mean after 1969? I also have had two 69 LP Standards made before May of that year.

Larry Meiner's book lists the Standard (not the 58 reissue) as coming back in 74. And I have seen a bunch of them - not Deluxe Standards. So I have to wonder where he is getting his info. And if those 1974 LP Standards were not officially Standards, what were they? The were not Deluxes.
 

Wilko

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I, and many others refer to the '68 model as that even though they went into early '69. None were humbucker guitars. The Deluxe came out with mini-humbuckers. Check the late Sixties Les Paul site for more specific info on those guitars.

Gibson referred to them all as Deluxes and that was on most of the truss rod covers, though many anecdotally report having small script engraved "Standard" covers. In '75 they were called Deluxe on the oval sticker.

Gibson, Gruhn's, Bacon, Wheeler, etc list '75. IIRC.

Word on the street was Les Paul Standard. That's what I called mine even though it said deluxe on the sticker. I personally changed the trussrod cover to say "Standard"
 

Bob Womack

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The reason they are referred to as "not being part of the official line" is because for years no-one acknowledged that they existed at all. If you check Bacon & Day, they don't list anything before 1976, if I remember right, unless they list the one from 1975. As a result, these guitars a) weren't on anyone's list but Gibson's, and they weren't talking, b) had all sorts of hardware hooked on them and even different headstock logos, and c) are easily distinguished form the Nashville-built, hard-tooled "Standard" line. I went shopping in Tennessee for a used LP in '77 and even then could easily differentiate between the Nashville Standards and the previous by the Nashville's natural-finish maple necks, larger Standard script, chromed metal jack plate, metal tuners, and a bunch of new finishes.

The '74 and '75 Kalamazoo Standards were Standards, they just fell off the historic record for a while.

Bob
 

jimmyace2006

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I, and many others refer to the '68 model as that even though they went into early '69. None were humbucker guitars. The Deluxe came out with mini-humbuckers. Check the late Sixties Les Paul site for more specific info on those guitars.

Gibson referred to them all as Deluxes and that was on most of the truss rod covers, though many anecdotally report having small script engraved "Standard" covers. In '75 they were called Deluxe on the oval sticker.

Gibson, Gruhn's, Bacon, Wheeler, etc list '75. IIRC.

Word on the street was Les Paul Standard. That's what I called mine even though it said deluxe on the sticker. I personally changed the trussrod cover to say "Standard"

Your nomenclature is different than mine. For 68s, I require proof of them being 68. The way that you are naming them, it means there were more 68s, which lessens the value of true 68s since you increase the supply by adding in early 69s. I am quite familiar with SW's LSLP site. I have studied the guitars in hand - having owned one of the first 68 LPCs and 3 GTs, shopped many, many more.... as well as other internet info. For me, with there having been 1,224 Standards shipped in 68 and over 2,700 shipped in 69, there must be definite proof of it being a 68. It is even more important when looking at LP Customs since there were only 433 shipped in 68. So to be one of the few, there has to be a 1 piece body, 1 piece neck, no volute, no made in USA stamp, logo with open b and open o and dotted i, long neck tenon, 1968 routing in the control cavity, a 1968 serial #, pots dated before 6850, P90s (Standard only) small head stock (Standard only), and 1950s wiring (caps connected to lower lug on tone pots as opposed to modern wiring that started in January 1969 in which the caps were connected to the middle lug on the tone pots). There are various other land mark features but those are the big ones IMO. I know that the LPs made in January 1969 will match all of those items except for the serial number being a 1969 and the pots will probably date to 6850-6852 and the modern wiring in the control cavity........For those made in January 1969 it may not affect the value much. But for those made after January 1969, there tends to be a cliff in value unless the guitar is practically like new.

But for the 1974 models, I have seen MANY that did not have Deluxe on them anywhere; blank truss rod cover....IMO, these are the true Standards. Again, Larry Meiners got his info from somewhere; and Gruhn contributed to his book. The Deluxe always says Deluxe; a few special order Deluxe models came with full sized humbuckers and a Standard truss rod cover with Deluxe stamped on the back of the head. On some of those, the original route inside the pickup cavities was for mini humbuckers & enlarged at the factory for full sized humbuckers - and in those cases they had to add 2 small pieces of wood into the corners of the pickup cavities for the wood screws of the larger pickups. Some of them started out with the correct routes. But the Standards had the original big routes in all of them since the mini humbuckers were never an option on those guitars. For the Standard Deluxe that was originally routed for larger pickups, there is virtually no difference between that guitar and a regular Standard. But for the Standard Deluxe that had original mini humbucker routes, those are seen as less desirable than a true Standard because the routes had to be changed & wood added for the screws.
 

Wilko

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Where do you get that there were 2700 standards made in 69?

There were a buttload of Deluxes made. Maybe 500 max of the small headstock classic '68 designed model.
 

jimmyace2006

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Where do you get that there were 2700 standards made in 69?

There were a buttload of Deluxes made. Maybe 500 max of the small headstock classic '68 designed model.

Yeah, I agree that the number probably includes mostly Deluxes. I got the number out of Larry Meiners Gibson Shipment Totals book; I believe I mentioned it in an earlier post - that I think that number (2,751?) probably includes a lot of Deluxe models. I believe his page on Deluxes starts with 1971. So I think he probably combined them with Standards in 1969 and called them Standards for 1970.
 

TheBloodhound

Member
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Dec 6, 2007
Messages
126
You let these babes go? How come?!??!!
You don't need to tell me about 1968. I was joking.

After 1968, there was no regular "Les Paul Standard" listed officially until '75/'76.

There was the Standard '58 which we all know was a totally different guitar.

Here are my last three '68s that went last year:
three_68s.jpg
 

freesailor

New member
Joined
Feb 12, 2018
Messages
1
Hi everybody! I have just found an interesting one for sale. It is very nice. It's a factory 2nd. The odd thing is it's a 4 piece top... Never seen that before....
 
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