Hey talljohn the lefty

[BrianGWN]

talljohn, greetings!, I saw your post in the "forum limited edition guitar" thread. I thought I would touch base with yet another lefty around here. Besides Sean and lefty there is also myself and NBlair, maybe even others.
Just curious but what did you end up getting from Dave's ?, I think you mentioned a goldtop. A while back he had new '54 and '56 LH goldtops, was it one of those? spin

 

[Sean]

Could be the '54 we tried in Arlington, that was nice

 

[talljohn]

Brian, Sean, lefty and any other sinister individual. I ended up getting the 54 RI. My lovely wife bought it for me as a birthday/Xmas present (Gotta love a woman who loves a Goldtop). It is divine!!. I was initially concerned about intonation probs but the beauty played great right outta da box. This is the first guitar I've ever had with P90s and so far I love it. Can get some real retro Setzerish stuff with it and my AC30. Just a plain, simple, beautiful guitar with no bells and whistles. Slightly more battish neck (almost Tele-like) than my Elegant (which still has top dog position in the stable). I was only able to play it for a couple of weeks before I had to leave for work. Can't wait to get back home at the end of February and crank the girls up. Thanx for asking. tj

 

[BrianGWN]

Hey TJ, that almost certainly had to be the one that Sean and I fondled ;\ for a bit at the Arlington 2001 show. DaveR had a '54 and '56 reissue LH goldtops, the '56 main difference being a stop tail and ABR bridge. Enjoy that '54 reissue, I know someone who once had an original LH '54, that guitar is now in the hands of some fairly serious LH gear collector somewhere in the New York area...

As to the part about "My lovely wife bought it for me as a birthday/Xmas present", gawd damn does she have a sister or even a good friend that's available? :lolspin Man, I have heard a few of these stories, a couple of times around this forum, damn I sure hope you are treating her right!

By the way, I believe our unofficial guitar police Fred who is partial to a nice P90 wrapover '54 style LP gave that '54 RI a thumbs up in Arlington. See Fred?, the "let's not have me hog all the cool LH 'Pauls" karma worked, that one ended up in the hands of someone who now drops by around here... The guitar gods are pleased... :lolspin

 

[BrianGWN]

Tallj, I almost missed:
>>Slightly more battish neck ... than my Elegant (which still has top dog position in the stable). <<
Do you mean a Les Paul Elegant?, in LH? Please do elaborate, I've only come across a LP Elegant in LH on two occasions, once at SouthPaw and the other some time ago at IndoorStorm. Does yours maybe happen to be one of those? What style of finish is it?

...Still shaking my head on that wife comment... :dude

 

[Sean]

Small world or what?!

I quite liked the sounds of your guitar, lovely crystal-clear-but-warm tone, very cool

 

[talljohn]

Brian...I'm going to jog your memory here. Do you remember a thread on HCGF about 9-10 months ago regarding a Buzz Feiten retrofit on an Elegant? I believe you were GWN at the time and you and several others helped me make the decision to "tweak" my Elegant. Geez...what a player it is now! I don't think I've ever had a more comfortable neck in my hands and it is effortless to play and keep in tune (it's one of the butterscotches that Jimmy Duncan sold me about 3 years ago). Absolutely one of the winners from the custom shop...versatile and beautiful.

You and Sean are correct in that the 54RI is sweet and I'm just beginning to realize that it has a special sound all of it's own. As I mentioned earlier, I haven't had time to really stretch out with it yet...but it is definitely a keeper.

And finally NO! (LOL) my lovely better half has no sister! She called me up in late November and said, "Start looking for a new guitar -- I'm not going to wonder what you want this year -- I already know -- get another Les Paul!" I found the Gtop at Dave's the next day. The other shoe will drop soon...her birthday is coming up. My wallet is on fire! :smokin tj

 

[Sean]

Wow, a partner that *understands*, congratulations

 

[BrianGWN]

Talljohn and Sean, hee hee, good banter!
Tallj, I visited Houston and was at SouthPaw back in January 1999 and at the time he had one Elegant amongst the LP stash. I recall it was a kind of butterscotch amber beast with a figuretop, think it had Grover tuners, and had the circular Custom Shop inlay/logo thing on the front of the headstock. That one had me thinking for a while. It may be a long shot but with your mention of "about three years ago", it sounds like it's at least possible we could be talking about the same guitar.

By the way, as to
>>I was only able to play it for a couple of weeks before I had to leave for work. Can't wait to get back home at the end of February and crank the girls up<<
I was just curious as to your general location (USA, North America, other?), just to try to stay generally informed and in touch with the fellow lefty brotherhood out there and all. ;\
"End of February"? :eek If your guitars are going to be abandoned for a while hey send them to Sean or I for safe keeping for a while, no prob! You shouldn't neglect the "girls". :lolspin

 

[lefty]

Don't listen to them, TJ

n,L..|y export your guitars to the frozen north or to cold & rainy Blighty? Send 'em to me, and I'll take good care of them here in sunny California :lolspin

Good to have you on the Forum, TJ.

On a slightly different note, if it turns out that we can't get a left handed version of the Les Paul Forum guitar (if it happens), I'm about 90% sure that I'm going to order a lefty Authentic sometime this year. Assuming that no one else has ordered one before that, would that cause Gibson to make a run of them?

 

[talljohn]

BWaa lefty...my girls are pretty particular. They love the south Texas heat. I don't think that they'd appreciate being fondled by any hams but my own. But thanks for offering:lol2.

Brian...I work a month in South America and then have a month at home on the Mexican border. Undoubtedly the butterscotch that Jimmy had is the one that I bought -- it matches your description. I guess I have traded 4 or so guitars with Jimmy over the last 7 years or so. Probably will continue to do so.

Anyway...glad to be a member of the lefty brotherhood. Lefty...keep us updated regarding the historic. I hate to even mention a new guitar to my bride at the moment...she's already been so generous. tj

 

[BrianGWN]

Talljohn, good stuff.
>>the south Texas heat<<
In that case if you happen to not be around during later March (or possibly October) just send them up to Dallas to big Ed and some of us will keep them company for a while. ;\

>>work a month in South America<<
I stepped foot in that part of the world for the first time last summer, I attended a wedding in... Bogota Columbia.. yeah that was different.

>>the butterscotch that Jimmy had <<
I had a quick look this morning at a few of the Jan1999 pics I took. That Elegant was a deeper tint than like a lot of the current '58 LP reissue "Butterscotch" finishes, more a kind of amber or a hint of a brown shade sneaking in there. The figure to the top was fairly thin across the guitar but with a very slight chevron, the chevron mostly noticeable in the area between the bridge tailpiece and the edge near the strap button. It had Grovers and covered pickups, abalone (or whatever that is) fingerboard inlays. I tried that along with various other 'Pauls, a great plaintop '58 reissue, a few big neck '57 golds, production Standards and Classics, some older 70s and 80s... It is now only a faded blur in my memory but I do recall it was a multiple-day drool fest hanging around that place. ;\

 

[BrianGWN]

lefty, >>going to order a lefty Authentic sometime this year... would that cause Gibson to make a run of them?<<
There's no way to know entirely for sure about what may go on behind the Gib cloak of darkness, but as we discussed previously around here it just doesn't make sense for them to make only the one if they decide to make any at all. Whether it would be due to the overhead of the tooling setup changes or the possibility that a wood defect could turn up, I figure they would have to attempt to make at least "a few".

As to the idea of a lefty version of a forum guitar, it may not be unthinkable if maybe three or four minimum were requested as part of that whole deal... maybe... Well if Davepaf can dream about the Patriots winning the Super Bowl or Red Sox winning a World Series, then we can dream a little too! :lolspin

 

[talljohn]

Glad I don't live in Houston!!

Brian...I almost hate to go to Southpaw. Jimmy seems to get his fair share of my disposable income. Over the years I've traded in a 78 SG Special and a 68 Custom shop Strat and bought 4 guitars from him -- McCarty, Elegant, Heritage 550, and an MIJ Tele. He rules the lefty world. It's a good thing I don't live in Houston or I'd be begging on the street. Everytime I go there I understand how the righties feel when they go into a good shop...severe gas pains occur immediately after entering. tj

 

[BrianGWN]

I could handle the Houston thing...

:lolspin :haw I've done one deal with him for a '94 LP Classic Prem Plus, and have been tempted by various others. He had a variety of neat stuff when I was there first time in Jan1999. I remember as I first walked through the front door I just laughed in disbelief for about 45 seconds solid, wondered out loud if it was all done with mirrors... I spent a fair amount of time on day one just doing a photo shoot. I ended up spending time there a number of days, one day was Gibsons LPs, one day was Gibson other, one day was Fenders, one day was Heritage and other, maybe part of another day for acoustics, and so on... Hey how about some of those Heritages, with the matching sunburst on the pickguards??

On one day he had a new shipment show up from Brian Moore, one of his latest solid body electric models, with those piezo transducer pickups in the bridge saddles for the acoustic tone and SD hums for the electric, plus stereo wiring and a "Y" patch cord. I was the first to put hands on it, we got it connected up with two amps and could pan from the acoustic tone to the rock grit, got a Rush "Farewell to Kings" thing going... ;\ It was a blast...

I dropped by for one day last October before going to the Arlington 2001 show. He had one from that batch of LH 1992 Wallace reissue LPs, very nice looker, player, and great tone. He had three new Class 5 LPs, I almost don't want to mention the one in tangerine burst because if I won a lottery tomorrow that guitar would probably be the FIRST thing I would grab! ;\ A lefty friend up here (who drops by this forum) saw the pics and remarked something about "How did you manage to get out of that place without that guitar???" hee hee.

Damn LH G.A.S, it's probably worse that right handed G.A.S. How did you put it?, your "wallet is on fire"...

 

[Sean]

Hmmm, this place sounds like fun! Maybe next time...

 

[talljohn]

Southpaw makes me crazy!

I´m trying to remember the last time I was in there. I think it was about a year and a half ago...when I got my McCarty. I walked in the door with the 68 CS Strat and Jimmy looked and me and said, "OK!, I want that guitar. You stole it from me when you bought it!" (I paid $2200 for it...and it was pristine -- not quite Lake Placid but a mauvish metalflake beauty!). He had called me about a week after I bought it (in '98) and offered me $2900 for it...said he had a stratnut who wanted it. I declined selling it back to him...but I was too scared to take it outta the case for fear of the deadly scratch monster. Finally decided that I couldn't handle the pressure and wanted to get it gone. Finally PRS came out with lefties and I had to have one...so we did the deal straight up. He also had some of the most beautiful 6120s on the face of the earth at the time and I almost wavered in favor of one of those monsters -- whew!! I have to go back to Houston in October for some training classes and am sure I'll cruise by. He's always got a story to tell...nice guy. It is always a rush going into the store...geez I undergo sensory overload! tj

 

[BrianGWN]

Talljohn, ahh man deep breath... hee hee.

So you got a McCarty? When I there in Jan1999 that was just around the time the PRS was coming out with the lefties, they were formally unveiled at the west coast 1999 NAMM. I recall overhearing Jimmy on the phone negotiating with PRS. I later ended up grabbing (from somewhere else) a LH Custom 22 that was made in later Jan99 just in time to be sent to that NAMM show as a backup guitar. It has the NAMM markings on the back of the headstock, decked with all the features, new for 99 raspberry finish, 10top, birds, trem bridge, gold hardware, ebony tuner buttons. It went back to PRS after NAMM, was then slated to go oversees to a Japan music industry show but PRS maybe got some other stuff ready in time for that and instead released that guitar to one of their major dealers in March or April... I just happened to be talking to them the day it showed up, I was in the right place at the right time... ;\

As to Southpaw and Jimmy, once you get to know his approach and his style then he's not so bad. Joey one of the others there is also a fairly good guy. At one point I had either the Wallace reissue or one of the Class 5 wailing a bit and Joey stopped whatever work he was doing at the front of the store, came over, and sort of asked "Whoa! which guitar is that??". He mentioned how Jimmy and another LH staff Larry can play some, but it was not that often that he got a chance to hear someone really put some of the guitars through their paces so to speak...

I've heard a few lefties say they accept/acknowledge that SP is targeting a niche market, smaller volume of business, so he isn't gonna want to offer quite the deal you might get at a much bigger dealer that is selling to the mainstream right hand market and only sells the occasional odd lefty, higher volume lower margin business. The idea is that SP is one place you can go and pick up a serious LH guitar TODAY, not ordered and hope it shows up in three months or so, grab something TODAY, for some that is worth at least something...
Centre City Music in San Diego trys to keep some cool LH Gibsons on hand, they are another good one to deal with.

TJ, if you have plans to be around Houston next October, the fall Arlington show tends to be around mid month or slightly later, I would guess for 2002 it would be the weekend of Oct 19/20. If you are going to be around then hey it would be cool to hook up, I could maybe get to Houston mid-week a few days before that weekend.

Sean, I've mentioned the Houston thing before, it might be a day (or more) of really goofy dizzying lefty mayhem! If coming in for one of the Dallas shows, we could book the add-on Dallas to Houston flights and dive right in.
:dude

 

[talljohn]

Gotta go there!

Sean...Brian is absolutely right. All lefties should make a trek to Southpaw. Greatest collection of left-handed musical instruments I've ever seen -- gits, basses, mandos, and I think he might even have a banjo or two. Neat place...and only a 4-5 hr. drive (one way) from Arlington if you don't wanna fly.

Brian...I have made plans on two separate occasions to go to the show and something has come up each time. This year I plan (again!) to go...hope that I can. The closest I've come so far is the Arlington pictures someone posted on the site -- too damn many guitars to imagine.

I'm very happy with the McCarty...and it probably gets about a third of my playing time. Funny thing I noticed after I bought it -- it is not a good "sit-down" guitar for me -- can't get comfortable. But when you stand up, it just naturally falls into place. Of course, my body just might be crooked too. tj