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How a beat up early 1969 LP Std became "The Swan" The Story of 53774X

FlyingFred67

Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
131
Hi LP Forum Fellows,
thought I might share this with you!
In early February 2015 I could get hands on a very early 1969 Les Paul Standard Goldtop
Still a small Headstock Guitar with 68 Specs such as a one piece Body & Neck.
The guitar was heavily modified though:
It was converted to Humbuckers, the Gold Top was refinished and a former owner tried to "Stratify" it,
giving it some odd Body Contour Routings. Also it had a big Stereo Input field routed in the lower Body Side
But the neck was great with no Breaks or repairs, the back still had it´s original finish and hey this thing was really a bargain.
I immediately brought this poor Les Paul to my favourite Luthier Mathias Schindehuette who removed the refinished Goldtop for me without sanding it.
Well what we found below the finish was not very amusing too: It had a filled third PU routing and a Battery compartment routing under the pick guard area...So I decided ok this would be the perfect Burst Conversion candidate. I found a very old piece of Flamed Maple and decided to do a re-top. After 5 Month of great restauration work of Mathias I got the guitar finally yesterday. Well what I can I say ?
First of all thanks to Mathias Schindehuette for an outstanding work, Robin Walter for help in Electronics and Detlef Alder for the pics and the support! Enjoy:
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corpse

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 9, 2007
Messages
4,876
That is a besonderes schon piece of maple. Great top.
Yes- sometimes the decisions are hard- there is nothing else left to do but retop.
 

Progear

Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2014
Messages
652
Very Very Nice Fiddle, I real like the color ... Enjoy ... :hank
 

Reno_1ted

Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2014
Messages
665
Really nice! How does it play and sound? Were the holes all refilled before retoping or does it have some chambered space?

The perfect candidate for a retop
 

Ed Driscoll

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
4,691
That looks awesome -- I love the 'Burst coloring as well. First class! :dude:
 

FlyingFred67

Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
131
Really nice! How does it play and sound? Were the holes all refilled before retoping or does it have some chambered space?

The perfect candidate for a retop
It sounds awesome very resonant and is also on the Lighter side for a LP Std from that period (4,09 Kg = 9,02 lbs)
The neck has a perfect wide and chunky profile great playing feel.
I put a set of late 57 early 58 Long magnet PAF´s in which are perfect match for this Les Paul.
All Holes in the Mahogany Body had been refilled with old Mahogany so no weight relief in this case.
 

Reno_1ted

Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2014
Messages
665
It sounds awesome very resonant and is also on the Lighter side for a LP Std from that period (4,09 Kg = 9,02 lbs)
The neck has a perfect wide and chunky profile great playing feel.
I put a set of late 57 early 58 Long magnet PAF´s in which are perfect match for this Les Paul.
All Holes in the Mahogany Body had been refilled with old Mahogany so no weight relief in this case.

Superb. A nice choice of pickups !
 

FlyingFred67

Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
131
Ok here we go...The first 2 Shots show the guitar fromn the first owner before the guy I bought it from had routed it for Humbuckers. Unfortunatly I forgot to make a shot in that state before I started the restauration....
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And after starting to remove the refin Gold finish the catastrophy came out:


To be continued...
 

FlyingFred67

Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
131
THE RESTAURATION PROCESS OF Burst Conversion 53774X
After having made the decision that a retop would be the only way to save the wounded lady,
the first challenge was to remove the long tenon neck without creating any damage to the guitar.
(If you want to see the pics big just click on the thumbnail)
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This is how a detached original 68/69 LSLP long tenon neck looks like:
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Next step was to remove the poor old maple top and to fill the holes with old Mahogany. It was interesting to discover that this late small Headstock Feb/March 69 Gold Top already had the Maple "Sandwich" Layer right under the Body Binding (see 2nd Pic):
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To be continued
 
Last edited:

FlyingFred67

Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
131
3rd and last part

THE RESTAURATION PROCESS OF Burst Conversion 53774X

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Fortunatly we found a very old plank of nice North American Flamed Maple still uncut:
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Starting the Nitro Cellulose lacquering process. First I wanted to make it Cherry like 9 0875 on page 158 of the Beauty of the Burst Book, but as the top has such a nice grain I decided to try a faded Honey Burst instead. The cool thing was that I had the possibility to check colors of some original 1958-60 Burst LP´s in Detlef Alder´s Guitarpoint which had the advantage that I didn´t had to take burst book pictures as the guitars look different in "person". (Cam Pics always show the red much more intense..) I choose a faded 1958 and I think it turned out pretty well on my conversion:
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At the end I put a set of 1962 Centrallab Pots with 2 original 59 Bumble Bee 0,22 MFD Caps in the electronic cavity and took a pair of late 1957 early 1958 long magnet PAF´s that were in my beloved 67´Flying V for over 10 Years before. The result is an amazing sounding Les Paul Standard which is pretty light (perfect "Burst" weight 9,02 lbs) and comes pretty close to some of the original Bursts I had the chance to play.

Thanks again to the great Luthier Mr Mathias Schindehuette who also provided the pic documentation above and Mr. Robin Walter who did the electronics work plus finally Detlef Alder who threw in his experience and some of the rare existing original Bursts for reference.

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Progrocker111

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 10, 2003
Messages
4,013
Great photos and procedure. :yah

Interesting, that there is even on early 69 the extra maple layer just under the maple top. I always thought that it first appeared in mid 69, not earlier. :hmm
 

Reno_1ted

Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2014
Messages
665
Great thread! Thanks for sharing the pictures. Ended up with an amazing looking guitar.
 

FlyingFred67

Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
131
Great photos and procedure. :yah

Interesting, that there is even on early 69 the extra maple layer just under the maple top. I always thought that it first appeared in mid 69, not earlier. :hmm
Yes I thought the same but as I have seen hundreds of original Guitars disassembled in the past 3 years I have learned that everything has happened and is possible specially during the transitional periods. It´s the same as my January 1969 Les Paul Custom # 534478 which has a transitional (shorter) Neck Tenon and I have seen LP Customs up to Serial 561xxx (Around May/ June 69) that still have a long Neck tenon. Not anything written in the literature is always 100% true and safe.
 

moonweasel

New member
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
9,427
The extra layer of maple is truly bizarre. Shows up when the cavity route change happened in early 69. Ages ago if I recall correctly, someone at the LPF measured the thickness of the mahogany, and it was the same in 68 into early 69, and the maple just goes on top. So weird. Would add extra time and money to production, and why? A mystery. :)
 
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