• Guys, we've spent considerable money converting the Les Paul Forum to this new XenForo platform, and we have ongoing monthly operating expenses. THE "DONATIONS" TAB IS NOW WORKING, AND WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY DONATIONS YOU CAN MAKE TO KEEP THE LES PAUL FORUM GOING! Thank you!

1991 Artiste Guitar Mystery, Black Beauty, possible celebrity connection???

jonnysixstring

New member
Joined
Sep 10, 2015
Messages
2
Hi All, I am calling on the knowledge of the forum members here to help unravel a little mystery. I have a LP Custom Black Beauty, I chased this guitar for 17 long years as it was previously owned by a college friend........heres where things get sticky! My college buddy insisted he bought this guitar from a London Guitar shop, and the previous owner had in fact been a certain curly haired, LP toting early 90's guitar god! story goes his management had cut him off of cash so he traded the guitar to buy drugs and booze. I think you all know who I am talking about, and I am sure you all agree that this is far fetched to say the least!

I am lucky enough to have some connections to this player and have been successful on two occasions getting pictures in front of him, both times his reply has been "Could have been mine, I have no memory of the early 90s"

The eagle eyed among you will spot from the serial number that the guitar dates as a custom shop 94 57 RI, problem is I have knowledge of this guitar prior to 94, and I have letters from Gibson dated Feb 92 relating to my friend trying to confirm its back story. Recent correspondence with Gibson has dated the guitar to 91, and they have confirmed it was indeed built for an artiste, they can not/will not confirm who though.

Also on the back of the headstock it has printed "Promotional Not For Resale" I have had this checked out also, and this is not B stock due to finish issues, there are no other markings relating to this, so basically it seems to have been made for an artiste, just who is the mystery!

Any help or advise much appreciated, not looking to sell as this is an awesome guitar, up there with my 68 Goldtop and 64 Custom SG! I have changed the pickups as they were the awful early 90's ceramics and sounded awful, obviously still have these and the scratch plate.
image1.jpgimage2.jpgimage3.jpgimage4.jpg
 

jonnysixstring

New member
Joined
Sep 10, 2015
Messages
2
What indicates this is a 1994 R7?

And, is the top maple or mahogany?

:hmm

The reply I got from Gibson states it was this, but when I told them I have letters from them dating to 92 they looked at it again and said most likely 91, they were still playing with serial numbers at that point on pre custom shop guitars. I believe (but I am no expert) the first number is the year being copied (7 for 57, 8 for 58 etc) the next number is the year 4 for 94, and the. I can remember whether it’s number of guitars or month. Anyhoo that is the system for the first custom shop guitars not pre custom like this weird anomaly. On top I have no idea or way of checking without scraping finish or shielding, tonally its a weird one as wouldn’t surprise me if mahogany, but still has a nice sparkle to it, but that could be the ebony board?
 

Madhermit

New member
Joined
Aug 13, 2018
Messages
10
To see if the top is maple, take out one of the pickups. You should see the bare wood making a sandwich of the two layers of wood, and possibly a book match seam on the top layer. Post a picture of the pickup cavity if you aren’t sure.
 

Big Al

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
14,537
The serial is correct for 91 pre Custom Shop. The first number for yom. It isn't a 54 RI, unless it was later routed for humbuckers, which is odd as they made humbucker models then and no one would order a 54RI so they could rout it when they could get a humbucker twin pup 57RI. They did not use ceramic pups on RI's but rather an alnico 59 RI pup.


Of course there is all the classic British smoke and mirror dance around story too.
 
Top