Memphis lawyer who bought a used 1987 Les Paul Standard from Taylor's Music in 1996?

Ok, I know this is a LONG SHOT but here’s what I’m wondering. I owned a wine red flame top 1987 Gibson Les Paul Standard that I bought new from Strings-N-Things in 1987 but ended up having to sell it for financial reasons back in 1996. I put the guitar on consignment at Taylor’s Music (across from Huey’s) on Madison Ave. in Memphis. It is my understanding that the guitar was sold to a Memphis lawyer. I was told quite some time later that the lawyer had it stripped down and re-finished to a cherry sunburst. I have no idea what the lawyers name is or if he frequents this forum BUT I’m hoping that this lawyer will see this post and might have some pictures of that guitar AFTER the re-finish. I’m NOT looking to buy it back because I’ve got two other Les Paul’s that I’m happy with. I simply want to see some pictures of the finished product. It is also my understanding that the lawyer sold this guitar at a guitar show in Nashville about a year or so after he bought it from Taylor’s so there is no telling where that guitar is now. Here are some photos from when I owned it:

Hi Godin,

Apologies for the massive thread Necro but was wondering if you could repost the pics as the links look as if they're expired (or let me know if you ever found the guitar). The reason I ask is because I've recently bought an 87 Les Paul Standard, which im told was originally wine red and was refinished somewhere in Memphis in the early 90's before finding its way to the UK via a well known guitar dealer. The story of it being sold in 96 at a show would fit this description.

I'd been searching around as the previous owner said there'd been some discussion about the guitar online and came across this post in google.

Basically I bought it as I'd been looking for a birth year guitar to put away for my boy when he's older and I've always loved LP's, plus this has a fantastic top imo and plays perfectly. My dad was born in 59 so if he'd done the same it would have been nice!

Picture of the guitar in its current state is below. The grain pattern is pretty unusual so I'm sure if the pics are still around and its a match it should be easy enough to identify.

Best regards

OP may be long gone, but welcome to the forum. Nice guitar, congrats.

Thanks,

Hopefully he's still lurking around here somewhere!, Most 87's i've seen weren't nearly as flamey as this one so to be able to potentially put together the history of the guitar would be pretty sweet!

Hi EcO. Yes, I'm still here. THANKS so much for responding!!! That is a great looking guitar you've got. I never found my old wine red Les Paul. I don't have pics immediately available on "this" computer but I do have some at work and will try to post them tomorrow. I'll try to find the serial number of it if I can, although I suppose it could have been changed at the time of the refinish. Unfortunately, my old pics are not really clear so it may not be real easy to identify whether yours is it or not. Would be very cool it if turns out to be the same guitar. Cool of you to do that for your son. I'll post some pics as soon as I find them.

Here are some pics of my 1987 Les Paul.

https://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u64/KSMITH-64/1987 Les Paul_6.jpg
https://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u64/KSMITH-64/1987 Les Paul_2.jpg
https://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u64/KSMITH-64/1987 Les Paul_1.jpg

Hi EcO. I found the serial number to my 87 Les Paul and sent it to you in a private message. Let me know if it's a match. Thanks.

Gutted!

For anyone who's been following, after checking the serial nr, my guitar was made on the same day, same plant, but the production number was +24 from Godins

Nuts to think they were both refinished to sunbursts to show off the flame top though, maybe they just had some great maple in that day!

If im honest i'm a little disappointed it wasn't the same guitar as it would have made a pretty cool story, but its been interesting none the less!

On inspection there are a few subtle differences in the top but a bigger one was that I was told when I picked it up, the pickups are Tim Shaw's and original to the guitar but mine are nickel covered rather than black bobbins on the op's. Does anyone know if this was an option from the factory or just random on the day of building?

Ok, for anybody else who has been following this post, the mystery of whether Ec0's 1987 Les Paul was the same guitar that I was looking for in my original post, that question has been answered. It appears that they are NOT the same guitar per the serial numbers and some other cosmetic differences, however, they were actually both built ON THE VERY SAME DAY back in 1987 in the Nashville plant!!!

I have to admit, I was really hoping that it was the same guitar. It's wild how the two stories are quite similar with the refinish in Memphis on both guitars. I told Ec0 that this has given me new interest in trying to find the lawyer who originally purchased my guitar back in 1996 and see if he has any pictures of when he had it refinished. (Hmmmmm....maybe he did this with multiple "wine red" Les Paul's from that time frame!!??!!)

By the way, i had replaced the original pickups in mine so that's the reason for the black bobbins. My originals were NOT Tim Shaw pickups. A buddy of mine had a 1985 Les Paul XLP from this era with Tim Shaw pickups in his and they sounded different than mine and were stamped Tim Shaw. Those pickups sounded great in his.