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Late '55 Les Paul conversion...I've only seen one of these

jimmi

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Oct 8, 2012
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2,077
Perhaps your guitar may have sounded better before the "scarf repair"? Did the playability also improve after the repair?

footnote: A general observation.... I don't care how good a guitar sounds if it plays like shite. A good example of this principle is a 1952 Les Paul goldtop w/ the trap tailpiece. :dang

Never said it was mine. Just that it sounded awesome and played fine. No idea what it was like before but not sure it could have sounded much better than it did when I played it. A lot of historically significant Bursts that everyone loves the tone from had neck repairs......and a 52 with one of the Glazer styled replacement bridges sound and play great.
 

Rev.WillieVK

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Jul 26, 2002
Messages
9,268
FWIW - I know of a '59 Burst that has had at least 2 re-necks and 2 re-fins, and it was in the top 5 best playing and best sounding Les Pauls I've ever played.

:salude
 

T.Allen

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Sep 11, 2014
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I love the looks of Hogy's red Les Paul! It just looks right. :salude
 

Tom Wittrock

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Aug 2, 2001
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42,567
.... in this original color. Someone back in '55 may have wanted something like a Gretsch and custom ordered this. I've talked about this guitar for years but never had a pic.
red_top.jpg

There is some ledger evidence that Gibson made a group of unusual colored Les Pauls in 1955. Speculation was maybe it was for display at NAMM? Or, to see what dealers thought about something other than gold? Or were they made for another prupose?

And this guitar might have been a special order, from someone who saw the odd colors and asked for this red as a custom order.
Joe Bonamassa's brown 55 Les Paul [and possibly my black 55 Les Paul] seems to have been part of this.

If we could only see [access] the ledger pages. :dang
 

Tom Wittrock

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner
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Aug 2, 2001
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42,567
Here's the brief view of the 1955 page showing a few "custom" colors.

image1.jpeg


I am assuming the viceroy brown is Joe Bonamassa's 1955 brown Les Paul. :hmm
 

marshall1987

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Jan 30, 2005
Messages
3,278
Sure, broken guitars can be repaired and restored. Duh! I never said they couldn't. Hell you can cut an airplane in half, stretch the fuselage, and it will still fly just fine.

And tone is so subjective; one player may like the sound of a a given guitar, and another may not. Most important ingredient in the guitar/amp tone equation IS the guitar player. Lastly, no two people hear exactly the same.

I'm not surprised of tales and boasts regarding the "top-five greatest sounding Les Pauls.....blah, blah......" with re-necks, scarf-joints, broken necks, broken bodies, refinished, etc.; however for each example they cite, I'm sure there are many others that sound and play like crap.

I had read somewhere that Rick Derringer became dissatisfied with the sound and/or playability of his Les Paul after it was refinished in red. He claimed it was never the same afterwards. Joe Walsh sold Jimmy Page his first sunburst 1959 Les Paul Standard back in 1969. Did it sound great? Well yeah! How well did it play with the odd neck shave? Depends on who you ask......:dang

I'll tell you this much, I would not drop a dime on a mangled vintage guitar that had been broken into multiple pieces and glued back together with a fancy re-top. Sorry, not interested. You want one? Go for it! :wah

And I am not the least bit interested in buying a 1952 Les Paul goldtop with the quirky trap tailpiece.
 
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jimmi

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Oct 8, 2012
Messages
2,077
Sure, broken guitars can be repaired and restored. Duh! I never said they couldn't. Hell you can cut an airplane in half, stretch the fuselage, and it will still fly just fine.

And tone is so subjective; one player may like the sound of a a given guitar, and another may not. Most important ingredient in the guitar/amp tone equation IS the guitar player. Lastly, no two people hear exactly the same.

I'm not surprised of tales and boasts regarding the "top-five greatest sounding Les Pauls.....blah, blah......" with re-necks, scarf-joints, broken necks, broken bodies, refinished, etc.; however for each example they cite, I'm sure there are many others that sound and play like crap.

I had read somewhere that Rick Derringer became dissatisfied with the sound and/or playability of his Les Paul after it was refinished in red. He claimed it was never the same afterwards. Joe Walsh sold Jimmy Page his first sunburst 1959 Les Paul Standard back in 1969. Did it sound great? Well yeah! How well did it play with the odd neck shave? Depends on who you ask......:dang

I'll tell you this much, I would not drop a dime on a mangled vintage guitar that had been broken into multiple pieces and glued back together with a fancy re-top. Sorry, not interested. You want one? Go for it! :wah

And I am not the least bit interested in buying a 1952 Les Paul goldtop with the quirky trap tailpiece.


Who said anything about a retop? I don’t think this one was re-topped either. How many repaired vintage guitars have you actually played because the worst (meaning dead sounding and stiff feel) vintage (50s) LP I ever played was absolutely dead mint. In contrast I have played a bunch of repaired ones....some minor, some major.....that were glorious. As a bonus, they were priced accordingly. A repaired/issued guitar isn’t a big deal to me as long as it is appropriately priced if it is a great player.

The 52 trap tail mod is completely reversible by the way. If you haven’t played one you should reserve judgement until you do.
 

JIMI55LP

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Joined
Jun 28, 2005
Messages
1,588
That's my guitar, I did the refin.

Why did I use the old paint? Because I could.

The guitar is a '56 I bought already converted 25 years ago or so. I knew that I would never get rid of it, as it sounds exactly as I like it. Once I find something that's right, I stick with it and pretty much stop looking.

It had an ugly sunburst refin when I got it, and I wanted to change it.

I run a guitar repair/restoration shop, and one day a guy brought in a smashed '58 ES-225 in original cardinal red. The guitar was in very bad shape and not worth the cost of restoration to the owner. So I bought it, specifically for the paint. Red is my favorite color, you see.

I saw the perfect opportunity to my my Les Paul "right". I did scrape off the paint, reformulate and filter it, then spray the Les Paul with it.

I couldn't be happier with the outcome. Just weeks after I finished it, the paint started checking naturally just like it had on the donor guitar. After six months it smelled like an old guitar.

The color is stunning. A bright fire red in sunlight, indoors it has a very faint hint of blue/purple, and in some lighting conditions it looks almost oxblood. Best of all, it feels like an old finish, hard and slick as glass.

My guitar for life.
I'm guessing it must black light as an original??
 
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