The Gibson Les Paul Deluxe: A Short History...

[RhinestoneStrat]

Here's a new video from five watt world explaining everything you ever wanted to know about the Gibson Les Paul Deluxe guitar which came out in 1969.

 

[jb_abides]

Keith was remiss. He failed to mention the best 70s Deluxe color, Blue Sparkle!

 

[jimmi]

Keith was remiss. He failed to mention the best 70s Deluxe color, Blue Sparkle!

View attachment 28829

No way that is a 70s guitar with that top carve

 

[jb_abides]

No way that is a 70s guitar with that top carve

Yeah that's a reissue, I chose it because the dark background blends with the site theme and that helps ease eye strain! And most vintage ones have greened over a bit.

The point being made is the 70s Blue Sparkle finish color should be cited by 5WW in his history.

Here's one from '75...

 

[jimmi]

Yeah that's a reissue, I chose it because the dark background blends with the site theme and that helps ease eye strain! And most vintage ones have greened over a bit.

The point being made is the 70s Blue Sparkle finish color should be cited by 5WW in his history.

Here's one from '75...

View attachment 28835

Some of the 70s colors were cool. Most of the burst finishes..especially from about 75 onwards, were not. I have a nice very early 70s LP with a figured 2 pc top and nice late 1960 burst finish but those were rare. The video does somewhat explain some of the questionable choices made during that time but what I don’t get is why marketing “MBA” types didn’t give the public what they wanted and just charge more fir it which is ultimately what happened.

 

[jimmi]

One of the “good ones”. Good sounding guitar. Good neck. Not heavy. I wonder if it was a special order.

Shows what they could have done all the way
through the 70s had they really tried.

 

[jb_abides]

The video does somewhat explain some of the questionable choices made during that time but what I don’t get is why marketing “MBA” types didn’t give the public what they wanted and just charge more fir it which is ultimately what happened.

That's a question for the ages: 'Why Norlin, why!'

Not to say they didn't produce some good ones, I am not a Norlin hater.

Keith rightly cites the revolving door created in the wake of the Norlin - CMI merger, and points to similar 'management by beancounter' behaviors elsewhere in the industry... we all know about Fender CBS.

I experienced the same mentality againa and again throughout my career: going private to public ownership via stock, or via start-up M&A. It's the same old song and dance in every enterprise across all industries, not constrained to musical instruments.

And while HJ may have been another MBA-type and certainly ended up beancounting and straying from core competencies while on business safari, at least at from onset he appreciated Gibson's history and mission enough to get things re-focused on what made them great to begin with. He upheld the legacy to a large extent. Plus, he put HIS money in from the start to save the business from ruin. Too bad success, coupled with debt and poor strategy overcame the best laid plans and intentions.

KKR still retains a bad rap amongst jingoists given their MO during the go-go LBO Junk era; however, they now espouse and have a decent track recond over years of reinvigorating and strengthening to leave behind something of quality. They've learned a bit. Or at least a little. Probably because they can profit more upon exit by polishing rocks into gems than squeezing juice from a fruit and leaving just the husk, and as sellers they the eventual buyers are more savvy.

 

[jb_abides]

View attachment 28837One of the “good ones”. Good sounding guitar. Good neck. Not heavy. I wonder if it was a special order.

Shows what they could have done all the way
through the 70s had they really tried.

And nice top.... Thankfully Pete T didn't get that one to mar or thwawk on the ground!

 

[RhinestoneStrat]

Speaking of Pete T...here's one of my favorite tunes played on his wine red LP Deluxe getting marred by a cymbal and thwawked to the ground.

 

[Bob Womack]

A few things that must be understood about Gibson and the LP:
1. The LP was not popular during its original run so Gibson discontinued it. They understandably went into the reissue era on the cheap, not knowing whether or not it would pan out or pay off for them.
2. Over its initial run, the LP never had a standard configuration. It literally changed every year. When they decided to reissue it, there was no template for them to follow. They thrashed around for five years, answering the various configuration requests piecemeal. That's when the Deluxe was created using the Epi humbuckers as a response to the cry for humbucker pickups. They eventually got the basic target that the public wanted in 1973: large humbuckers, ABR-1 with stop bar, sunburst finish (the Kalamazoo small script LP Standard). Even at that point it was special-order only. The "Standard" model didn't become official and enter the catalog until 1976 and the move to Nashville.
3. The sonic trend for the period was towards increased sustain and manufacturers tried to accomplish this by increasing density and rigidity in guitar systems. We were moving that direction in the 1960s and Santana's Abraxas, with all his sustained guitar, arrived in 1970. The cross-banding or "sandwich body" was introduced to increase the rigidity of the body and yield sustain. Around the same time they introduced the "Mark" acoustic series, attempting to increase sustain there. It was a flop.

Bob

 

[Jethro Rocker]

Very interesting history.
Mine is a 73 with lots of cool checking and cracking finish.

 

[jimmi]

A few things that must be understood about Gibson and the LP:
1. The LP was not popular during its original run so Gibson discontinued it. They understandably went into the reissue era on the cheap, not knowing whether or not it would pan out or pay off for them.
2. Over its initial run, the LP never had a standard configuration. It literally changed every year. When they decided to reissue it, there was no template for them to follow. They thrashed around for five years, answering the various configuration requests piecemeal. That's when the Deluxe was created using the Epi humbuckers as a response to the cry for humbucker pickups. They eventually got the basic target that the public wanted in 1973: large humbuckers, ABR-1 with stop bar, sunburst finish (the Kalamazoo small script LP Standard). Even at that point it was special-order only. The "Standard" model didn't become official and enter the catalog until 1976 and the move to Nashville.
3. The sonic trend for the period was towards increased sustain and manufacturers tried to accomplish this by increasing density and rigidity in guitar systems. We were moving that direction in the 1960s and Santana's Abraxas, with all his sustained guitar, arrived in 1970. The cross-banding or "sandwich body" was introduced to increase the rigidity of the body and yield sustain. Around the same time they introduced the "Mark" acoustic series, attempting to increase sustain there. It was a flop.

Bob

I disagree on point 2. There was clearly a demand for the later Lp spec and the earlier PAFs on records with Clapton et al. Outside a couple, all of them were using PAFs, not P90s (which are great). I really don’t see how that could have been mistake in what the public wanted.

The pancake bodies ? I have heard all kinds of reasons why. Hard to know the true story. I have 1 very early version pictured above and after I took out the 300k pots, it is a good little guitar. Very good really.

 

[S. Weiger]

View attachment 28837One of the “good ones”. Good sounding guitar. Good neck. Not heavy. I wonder if it was a special order.

Shows what they could have done all the way
through the 70s had they really tried.

Real nice one. Is it a mid 70's born with full size 'buckers?

 

[jimmi]

Real nice one. Is it a mid 70's born with full size 'buckers?

This one is fairly early. Hard to say because of how the serial numbers ran during this time. Either a 71 or 73 according to the ranges when I put them in the look up.

Was originally a deluxe but the routes look great. Interestingly,there are portions of the body where the Cherry has completely faded. A member of another forum posted a ‘74 where the top was faded. I always thought the color would not fade from this era but I guess it still will.

 

[SpringySound]

I enjoyed the video. Tom Scholz’s Les Paul wasn’t a deluxe though. The deluxe wasn’t a model designation in 68.

 

[Bob Womack]

I enjoyed the video. Tom Scholz’s Les Paul wasn’t a deluxe though. The deluxe wasn’t a model designation in 68.

Yup. He got a '68, kept the neck pickup, and substituted a bucker in the bridge position. He also stripped it, and that started a trend. As I recall, he's got a backup as well.

Bob

 

[gary buff]

Not to derail the thread but if anyone's looking for one....factory full-sized HBs (I checked with Gruhn) and looks like a mahogany neck...they've had a pile of Deluxes lately and still show a few on the site. No affiliation, etc.

Gruhn Guitars

guitars.com

 

[Bob Womack]

Not to derail the thread but if anyone's looking for one....factory full-sized HBs (I checked with Gruhn) and looks like a mahogany neck...they've had a pile of Deluxes lately and still show a few on the site. No affiliation, etc.

Gruhn Guitars

guitars.com

Looks tweaked to me. The actual body, minus the finish, looks normal. The six-digit serial is normal for '74. The weight is in range! The gold paint in the serial and "Made in USA" was typical of Gold Tops and the back of the headstock looks like there is older, darker color around the edges as if a smart refin cookie decided not to disturb the front and stopped at the edge of the back. If that is the original finish it was custom-ordered because natural didn't appear until 1976 and Nashville and a reaction to... Tom Scholz's stripped '68! Wrong TRC - that was from another model. The case is post-1975, thus not original for 1974. The large 'buckers are confusing. They didn't come on the Deluxe and the gold finish didn't come on the Standard. Hmmm...

AND a bonus: a sticker on the back of the headstock from "The Guitar Shop," ie. the "Chapman Highway Guitar Shop," Knoxville, TN, my hometown. That's the shop where I bought my first decent electric guitar, a used Epiphone ET-270, back in '73. I pulled that sticker off my guitar, pronto. Interestingly, that shop was the authorized Music Man amp dealer for the area.

Bob

 

[Bob Womack]

Looks tweaked to me. The actual body, minus the finish, looks normal. The six-digit serial is normal for '74. The weight is in range! The gold paint in the serial and "Made in USA" was typical of Gold Tops and the back of the headstock looks like there is older, darker color around the edges as if a smart refin cookie decided not to disturb the front and stopped at the edge of the back. If that is the original finish it was custom-ordered because natural didn't appear until 1976 and Nashville and a reaction to... Tom Scholz's stripped '68! Wrong TRC - that was from another model. The case is post-1975, thus not original for 1974. The large 'buckers are confusing. They didn't come on the Deluxe and the gold finish didn't come on the Standard. Hmmm...

Having an unmolested '74 Standard the price makes me feel good.

AND a bonus: a sticker on the back of the headstock from "The Guitar Shop," ie. the "Chapman Highway Guitar Shop," Knoxville, TN, my hometown. That's the shop where I bought my first decent electric guitar, a used Epiphone ET-270, back in '73. I pulled that sticker off my guitar, pronto. Interestingly, that shop was the authorized Music Man amp dealer for the area.

Bob

 

[gary buff]

FWIW Gruhn says from '72 to '75 you could order a LP Deluxe with factory full size humbuckers and it came with "Standard" on the TRC which may have been what happened here except the TRC got switched at some point.