52 Goldtop ... Spike!

Tom Wittrock · May 10, 2018

Here's a beautiful, first version 52 Goldtop that I sold at Dallas.

The owner built his own vibrato and bridge to replace the original tailpiece. It was mounted with cork padding and did not leave an imprint.

And he had his nickname engraved on the vibrato ... Spike!

It had the original receipt [not shown, for privacy reasons] from Jenkins Music in Wichita Kansas.
It also had the guitar's hangtag.

And, it had the original case hangtag for the Faultless 535 Les Paul case.

It played and sounded great and was a fine collector's AND player's guitar. :dude:

goldtop0 · May 10, 2018

Good to see Tom..........and that's a pretty good deal you gave him on the case too......only $39.50:lol

Tom Wittrock · May 10, 2018

So, it was $210 + $39.50 = $249.50 Add 2% tax [$4.99] and the total was $254.49.
Late September, 1952.
I was 8, going on 9 ... months old. :spabout

moonweasel · May 10, 2018

goldtop0 said:
Good to see Tom..........and that's a pretty good deal you gave him on the case too......only $39.50:lol

NOT a good deal. $366.18 in today's dollars!!!

Gibson used to charge a fortune for cases back in the day. Was the same in the late 60's. This Goldtop would be $1971.74 in today's dollars without its case.

latestarter · May 10, 2018

moonweasel said:
. This Goldtop would be $1971.74 in today's dollars without its case.

I’ll take it. Happy to pay shipping too, but maybe we split the CITES fees?

latestarter · May 10, 2018

Tom Wittrock said:
Here's a beautiful, first version 52 Goldtop that I sold at Dallas.

The owner built his own vibrato and bridge to replace the original tailpiece. It was mounted with cork padding and did not leave an imprint.

And he had his nickname engraved on the vibrato ... Spike!

It had the original receipt [not shown, for privacy reasons] from Jenkins Music in Wichita Kansas.
It also had the guitar's hangtag.

And, it had the original case hangtag for the Faultless 535 Les Paul case.

It played and sounded great and was a fine collector's AND player's guitar. :dude:

And what a cool as thing that he built his own trem! Good to hear it is a great player too. Spike shoulda had a Patent done!

ourmaninthenorth · May 10, 2018

What an extraordinarily beautiful guitar that is.

Thanks for posting Tom. :salude

Chef Greg · May 10, 2018

+1 ... very cool & nice one!!

Frutiger · May 10, 2018

Very cool guitar and cool hang tag too - I've never seen one with the 'OPS' section and without the guarantee at the bottom. :salude

Tom Wittrock · May 10, 2018

moonweasel said:
NOT a good deal. $366.18 in today's dollars!!!

Gibson used to charge a fortune for cases back in the day. Was the same in the late 60's. This Goldtop would be $1971.74 in today's dollars without its case.

I'd say that case price today would be a bargain ... a super clean 1952 Les Paul case for only $366.18!!

And you might also note ... in 1959 the rectangular Fender case cost more than the shaped Gibson case. :ganz

Gibsongt · May 10, 2018

Nice guitar Tom! I like the nametag on the case! Does is say Spike too?

Tom Wittrock · May 11, 2018

Gibsongt said:
Nice guitar Tom! I like the nametag on the case! Does is say Spike too?

No, but he did have some stick on letters saying Spike on his 65 BF Princeton Amp. :ganz

MapleFlame · May 11, 2018

Was this a recent sale Tom?

Tom Wittrock · May 11, 2018

MapleFlame said:
Was this a recent sale Tom?

At the Dallas show last weekend.

JIMI55LP · May 11, 2018

Tom Wittrock said:
At the Dallas show last weekend.

The strangest thing is that Witchita was selling an "unbound" in late Sept. 1952? I guess they didn't have a very big sales run on the Gibson GTs there as this was 3 months after release dates. Very nice custom trem.

Tom Wittrock · May 12, 2018

JIMI55LP said:
The strangest thing is that Witchita was selling an "unbound" in late Sept. 1952? I guess they didn't have a very big sales run on the Gibson GTs there as this was 3 months after release dates. Very nice custom trem.

I have seen so many guitars that were sold [new] well after their build date, that I hesitate to guess the reason. There are many possibilities.
This was Jenkins Music with 6+ branches around the Midwest and maybe Wichita was a "lessor" store in that chain. I think Kansas City MO was the headquarters. They were also in Topeka, KC Kansas, Tulsa and others.
Maybe a salesman hoarded it until forced to buy or put it back on the for sale rack.
Who knows.

If Gibson would release its old logs and ledgers to public view, we might have better ideas. :rolleyes

goldtop0 · May 12, 2018

I heard that Leo got wind of this new boy on the block and paid 'em all not to display 'em:wah:lol

JIMI55LP · Jun 5, 2018

My thoughts were more along an unbound being sold months after the wide release of the bound models with all the changes? I'm not thinking most at that date would be thinking they wanted to older model since I see so many altered to look like newer models? Very nice looking unbound with close attention to preservation with low impact on the reversible alterations! Thanks for sharing the photos.

AtomEve · Jun 10, 2018

One of a kind! Love teh personal touch.

52 Goldtop ... Spike!

Tom Wittrock

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner

goldtop0

Well-known member

Tom Wittrock

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner

moonweasel

Active member

latestarter

Well-known member

latestarter

Well-known member

ourmaninthenorth

Well-known member

Chef Greg

Active member

Frutiger

Active member

Tom Wittrock

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner

Gibsongt

Member

Tom Wittrock

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner

MapleFlame

Well-known member

Tom Wittrock

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner

JIMI55LP

Well-known member

Tom Wittrock

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner

goldtop0

Well-known member

JIMI55LP

Well-known member

AtomEve

Les Paul Forum Member