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Vintage LP Standard when new vs Historic

iloveguitars79

New member
Joined
May 24, 2018
Messages
12
I've recently gone down the wormhole of replacement plastics for my '08 R9 and in doing so have learned a bit about "bone white" vs cream. Is it true original late 50s pickguards were originally a bone white color? I can't find any old pictures of les pauls where it's definitive. Any newer pics, the guard has aged and I really can't tell..

I've also found that original switch tips where actually white, which aged to the brownish color you see now. Which begs the question - if non-VOS "True Historics" and the like are a near perfect modern representation of a new 1959 LP, why are the switch tips not white?
 

brandtkronholm

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
I've recently gone down the wormhole of replacement plastics for my '08 R9 and in doing so have learned a bit about "bone white" vs cream. Is it true original late 50s pickguards were originally a bone white color? I can't find any old pictures of les pauls where it's definitive. Any newer pics, the guard has aged and I really can't tell..

I can't tell either.

I've also found that original switch tips where actually white, which aged to the brownish color you see now. Which begs the question - if non-VOS "True Historics" and the like are a near perfect modern representation of a new 1959 LP, why are the switch tips not white?

The original switch tips were and are lightly amber colored, though they did grow darker over time (UV light). Gibson began using white switch tips sometime in 1961 give or take a few months.

Here's a good link with loads of info: http://www.guitarhq.com/tips.html
 

iloveguitars79

New member
Joined
May 24, 2018
Messages
12
I can't tell either.



The original switch tips were and are lightly amber colored, though they did grow darker over time (UV light). Gibson began using white switch tips sometime in 1961 give or take a few months.

Here's a good link with loads of info: http://www.guitarhq.com/tips.html




Thanks for the info, but.....[FONT=verdana,arial,helv,helvetica][SIZE=-1] from that article, the author states:

- "I believe that the switch tips are in fact Catalin and started out more of an ivory white/soft yellow and discolor (became more yellow) over time"[/SIZE][/FONT]
 

AJCR

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Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
124
Pickguards (and every other 'sheet' plastic item) are a cream colour. But they are light cream, not some of the yellower cream colours that crept in during the standards of the 90's and onwards.
The ivory/bone colour was for the injection moulded items.......so the pickups rings were that colour, and indeed the cream of the bobbins during 59 was the same colour.
 

corpse

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Joined
Jun 9, 2007
Messages
4,876
GT uncovered.jpg

Sorry to do a pic this way- note the nice look of these plastics. In person they are identical- no difference.
 

one

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Joined
Jun 21, 2019
Messages
10
Seems to me that whatever the original color, the "aged" (imitation) switch tips being bought just get more and more amber -- excessively so. It's like relic-ing; it just gets more obvious and extreme year after year until we're seeing caricatures of actual old guitars. Apparently, nobody wants a reissue that looks like a carefully maintained guitar. With all the crazing out there, it looks like there was a brief ice age sometime in, say, 2010, and all the Les Pauls on earth got frozen.
 

corpse

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 9, 2007
Messages
4,876
Seems to me that whatever the original color, the "aged" (imitation) switch tips being bought just get more and more amber -- excessively so. It's like relic-ing; it just gets more obvious and extreme year after year until we're seeing caricatures of actual old guitars. Apparently, nobody wants a reissue that looks like a carefully maintained guitar. With all the crazing out there, it looks like there was a brief ice age sometime in, say, 2010, and all the Les Pauls on earth got frozen.

Dat
 
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