McCartney with 1950's leftty goldtop

Tom Wittrock · May 27, 2010

route66guitars said:
Hey everyone.

I didn't sell Paul his Les Pauls. Although he owns at least 5 instruments that were mine at one point he has never bought anything from me.

Linda did buy the 1957 PAF Gold Top for him as a gift. She took good care of him, buying him things he was too cheap to buy for himself.

The near mint lefty '57 with PAFs that I owned was the one Norm Harris had for years. I bought it from him. It is easily one of the best Les Pauls ever built. Too bad it's in a non-working collection now, along with the Stroup Burst and my '53 Telecaster.

Although I've played McEnroe's rather trashed 1959, and McCartney's 1960, the only one I owned was the Stroup Burst (twice), which I originally bought from Albert Molinaro. It was a terrible instrument, with a vertical neck split from overtightening the rod, internal chamber and channel from being built using a right handed body blank, and a weak neck pickup. But she's a looker...

According to Rick Nielson, McCartney's company traded him $10K worth of gear for his 1960 lefty Burst. I had sold several instruments to raise the $10K asking price (this was 1987' after all, and I was still a partner at Voltage). Gruhn was brokering it. When I called to wire the funds, I found out that Rick had pulled it and sold it to McCartney. Oh well, at least I've gotten to play it, and he's put it to better use than I would have.

Gibson built lefties in runs of 4 in the 1950s through mid 1960s. This is true of any model they shipped left handed, guitar or bass. There are four known lefty Bursts, and four known PAF Gold Tops. There are at least 16 lefty P-90 Gold Tops that I've owned or brokered, including one that belonged to Cesar, dating from 1953 - 1958. Two of them having later serial numbers than all four of the PAF equipped ones.

According to official sources over the years, Gibson did not separate out lefty production totals until 1974, with the Les Paul Deluxe.

I hope that is some help. I'll post images I have of them when I get a chance.

Scott Jennings
Route 66 Guitars

Scott, thanks for the excellent and informative post!

I would like to comment on this:
"Too bad it's in a non-working collection now, along with the Stroup Burst and my '53 Telecaster."

Non-working collections helped preserve many golden era violins a few centuries ago. This collector is likely to cherish and preserve these guitars. As for their fate and whether they get played soon, I suspect they will live longer and survive other vintage guitars getting used now.

Tom Wittrock · May 27, 2010

Fred Hullerum said:
If this applies also for the Junior- or TV- Models:
Where are the other three lefthanded DC Les Paul TV guitars that have been made in 1960?

Fred

We are saving them for just the right moment. :ganz :hee

route66guitars · May 27, 2010

Fred Hullerum said:
If this applies also for the Junior- or TV- Models:
Where are the other three lefthanded DC Les Paul TV guitars that have been made in 1960?

Fred

Don't confuse color and appointments with body style. I know of close to a dozen 1960 lefty Juniors and Specials with roughly consecutive serial numbers.

route66guitars · May 27, 2010

TW59 said:
Scott, thanks for the excellent and informative post!

I would like to comment on this:
"Too bad it's in a non-working collection now, along with the Stroup Burst and my '53 Telecaster."

Non-working collections helped preserve many golden era violins a few centuries ago. This collector is likely to cherish and preserve these guitars. As for their fate and whether they get played soon, I suspect they will live longer and survive other vintage guitars getting used now.

I do agree about non-working collections. I am not disparaging collectors. They are the ones who have preserved all of the great works throughout history.

Still, it bothers me a bit that some of the finest left handed instruments in the world are owned by right handed collectors, who couldn't play them for their own enjoyment, even if they were so inclined. But… that's just me.

route66guitars · May 27, 2010

mingus said:
Great background information. Thank you! :salude

What is your source of information regarding the batches of 4 lefty instruments being produced at Gibson during their golden era? IIRC, in the case of bursts, there is one '59 and three '60s currently "known". Do you believe these were all from the same batch?

This is based on conversations with Gibson employees from that era, and 30 years of dealing in lefty vintage instruments. Gibson wouldn't build a lefty until they had an order for 4 of a model. I've spoken with many original owners and authorized dealers who waited years for their lefty orders to be completed. Each were told similar stories of waiting for 4 orders in order to do a production run.

This pattern has repeated over and over, from Barney Kessels to Gibson's Epiphone Sheratons, to Les Pauls and Firebirds. I have never seen a one-off lefty model - meaning the body/neck, not hardware configuration (think Firebirds and Specials/Juniors…), but I have seen several examples where there were 4 with consecutive serial numbers and no further ones surfaced.

This is not to say that I've seen everything, but I started doing this in an era when dealers were more than happy to have me take their lefties off their hands. Those were the days...

Fred Hullerum · May 27, 2010

route66guitars said:
Don't confuse color and appointments with body style. I know of close to a dozen 1960 lefty Juniors and Specials with roughly consecutive serial numbers.

I'm begging you:
Please give us more information about it
and

hotos, please, if you have them.
My 1960 TV has the serial number 0 6423. Is it true that the above mentioned lefties are in the 0 64xx range?

Sven Zade, who lives not far away from my home in Germany, runs the great database www.lefty-guitars.de
He is thankful for any new information.

Fred

Fred Hullerum · May 27, 2010

route66guitars said:
Still, it bothers me a bit that some of the finest left handed instruments in the world are owned by right handed collectors, who couldn't play them for their own enjoyment, even if they were so inclined.

I hope you take comfort from the fact that I play my baby regularly at home and on stage.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfLrIqa02Sc

Fred

route66guitars · May 27, 2010

Fred Hullerum said:
I'm begging you:
Please give us more information about it
and hotos, please, if you have them.
My 1960 TV has the serial number 0 6423. Is it true that the above mentioned lefties are in the 0 64xx range?

Sven Zade, who lives not far away from my home in Germany, runs the great database www.lefty-guitars.de
He is thankful for any new information.

Fred

Thanks for the link. I wasn't aware of this site. I'll go through the file cabinets and look up serial numbers to submit.

I'm going through 30 years of images and scanning negatives and slides, as time permits. I'll be posting them to my site. (The 1959 Special I owned forever is featured in the Bacon Les Paul book. They own that image, I don't...)

route66guitars · May 27, 2010

Peponski said:
Preserving aesthetics and neck breaking... "Disk locks... What else?"

Well, he dropped the Burst once in concert when the strap came off. I'm sure these were Keith Smith's idea following that incident, not Paul's.

route66guitars · May 27, 2010

mingus said:
Great background information. Thank you! :salude

What is your source of information regarding the batches of 4 lefty instruments being produced at Gibson during their golden era? IIRC, in the case of bursts, there is one '59 and three '60s currently "known". Do you believe these were all from the same batch?

I didn't really answer your question…

The 1959 is definitely not from the same run as McCartney's and the Stroup Burst. Both of those were built using right handed mahogany blanks, which were already routed for the control cavity and wiring channels. McCartney's is a factory Second, and the Stroup is a disaster of guitar building on several levels.

The 1959 is a full left handed instrument, and has routing typical of the lefty PAF Gold Tops I've had and seen.

This means there are likely more lefty Bursts out there. Or were in 1959 and 1960, anyway.

Dire Wolf · May 27, 2010

This means there are likely more lefty Bursts out there. Or were in 1959 and 1960, anyway.

Shazam! I did mention that beat Lefty 60 Burst in Buffalo back in 1977; we haven't seen or heard of the last Lefty Bursts! :biggrin:

RAB · May 28, 2010

wow, Sir Paul has sure got those PAFs on his Burst adjusted low...must be going for more of a clean rhythm sound as opposed to doing screaming solos?

guitarvoodoo · May 28, 2010

Fred Hullerum said:
Sven Zade, who lives not far away from my home in Germany, runs the great database www.lefty-guitars.de
He is thankful for any new information.

Fred

Wow, cool about that site! Didn't know about it. I must contact him with info & pics about my lefties.
I have several lefty guitars/models he doesn't have there.
I saw he has one of my photos up. An '81 Ibanez.

/GV

Elliot Easton · May 28, 2010

good to see you here, scott!

route66guitars · May 28, 2010

Elliot Easton said:
good to see you here, scott!

Thanks Elliot.

I've been a forum member forever, but it seems my participation in this thread has doubled my number of posts.

It's nice to have others fill in the gaps in my knowledge, and jog my memory, both...

Steve Craw · May 28, 2010

Remember this one Scott? You sold it to me in 1992. I stupidly sold it in Dallas later that year, and it was sold again before returning locally to a friend who sold it back to you, then you sold it to Alex A, who sold it last year, Whew! Elliot Easton confirmed that it was the one he got from Bun E. Carlos.

route66guitars · May 29, 2010

Steve Craw said:
Remember this one Scott? You sold it to me in 1992. I stupidly sold it in Dallas later that year, and it was sold again before returning locally to a friend who sold it back to you, then you sold it to Alex A, who sold it last year, Whew! Elliot Easton confirmed that it was the one he got from Bun E. Carlos.

Yes, I loved that guitar. I owned it for several years.

I do know the current owner.

mingus · May 29, 2010

route66guitars said:
I didn't really answer your question…

The 1959 is definitely not from the same run as McCartney's and the Stroup Burst. Both of those were built using right handed mahogany blanks, which were already routed for the control cavity and wiring channels. McCartney's is a factory Second, and the Stroup is a disaster of guitar building on several levels.

The 1959 is a full left handed instrument, and has routing typical of the lefty PAF Gold Tops I've had and seen.

This means there are likely more lefty Bursts out there. Or were in 1959 and 1960, anyway.

Interesting. Thanks!

RAB said:
wow, Sir Paul has sure got those PAFs on his Burst adjusted low...must be going for more of a clean rhythm sound as opposed to doing screaming solos?

I assume you've never seen Paul play his burst live? He has no problem making that guitar scream. :salude

Dire Wolf · May 30, 2010

Still, it bothers me a bit that some of the finest left handed instruments in the world are owned by right handed collectors, who couldn't play them for their own enjoyment, even if they were so inclined. But… that's just me.

I think we lefties share your sentiment, Scott. What are the most reveered lefty guitars in the possession of these righty collectors?

route66guitars · May 31, 2010

Re: McCartney with 1950's lefty goldtop

Dire Wolf said:
I think we lefties share your sentiment, Scott. What are the most reveered lefty guitars in the possession of these righty collectors?

Here are the two most relevant to this forum, back when I owned them.

McCartney with 1950's leftty goldtop

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