Original subtitles

hi d'sky twins welcome to five wot world

learns to help me get the most music

from the least gear this is the fifth

video in my gear history series the

Gibson Les Paul I'll cover how the

guitar was created features in its

development and players that were part

of all that if you enjoyed the series

don't forget to subscribe and hit the

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Lester William Paul ffice was born in

1915 but by 1938 he changed his name to

a much more showbiz friendly Les Paul

leading a trio on prime-time radio show

he moved from playing acoustic guitars

to various Gibson electric hollow-body

guitars but he was looking for something

else something more that no company at

that point was building I had in mind a

guitar that sustained and reproduced the

sound of the string with nothing added

no distortion no change in the response

said les he started working on his own

at the Epiphone factory on the weekends

was there that he built his famous log

so named for the two-by-four a pine

running down its center Gibson was the

biggest guitar company in the world

so les pointed his sights at Gibson

hoping to get them to produce his solid

body guitar Gibson was founded in

Kalamazoo Michigan in 1902 and it was a

very successful instrument maker and by

the 20s and 30s guitars becoming a

bigger part of the market so Gibson

answered with many new models many of

which Les Paul played in 1944 Chicago

musical instrument company CMI bought a

controlling interest in Gibson and part

of the deal was the CM eyes president

Maurice Berlin moved Gibson's

administrative offices to Chicago where

he could better oversee their operations

was around 1946 that the young Les Paul

was able to arrange a meeting with

Berlin to pitch his solid-body guitar

idea

by all accounts les was listened to

politely but was treated as if the whole

thing was kind of a joke they laughed at

the guitar les leverage later remembered

in the next few years Les Paul would

become famous at the same time he

started to experiment with different

recording ideas including the first

multitrack setup in his garage turned

home studio in Hollywood California

using two tape machines running together

he began to make layered guitar parts by

speeding up the tape he can create high

and fast guitar parts that couldn't be

created on guitar

alone we now take this for granted but

at the time no one had her anything like

multitrack recording before late in 1949

less added Mary Ford both to the act and

to his life marrying her that December

after a number of top 30 records Les

Paul and Mary Ford finally had their

number one hit with a recording of how

high the moon in April of 1951 the duo

appeared on television shows had their

own radio show and eventually had their

own television show from 53 to 55 that

was broadcast from their new lavish home

in Mahwah New Jersey of course across

this time others notably Bigsby and

fender out in California we're also

exploring ideas around the solid-body

electric guitar solid body guitars were

appealing both because they solved the

feedback problem of hollow body guitars

while at the same time being much less

expensive to manufacturer solid bodies

also had the benefits of sustained and

accurately capturing all the variation

of the string the very things that

interested less in solid body guitars

the success of Fender with the Esquire

and broadcaster guitars in 1950

coincided with Ted McCarty being named

as president of Gibson like many

manufacturers Gibson had stopped

building most of its instruments during

World War two

and Berlin had named McCarty in the

hopes of putting the company back on its

feet now there are two versions of the

story of the Les Paul prototype the one

told by Ted McCarty and the one told by

Les Paul himself according to McCarty

seeing the success of the Fender guitars

he put a team of top engineers at Gibson

together including himself to begin to

learn about making a solid body guitar

they recognized that building a solid

body had unique challenges that were

different than the hollow body guitars

they'd been making McCarty said that

they spent about a year working on their

prototype and were reasonably happy with

everything except the amount of sustain

they were able to get he said we thought

we had our guitar and now we need an

excuse to make it so I got to thinking

Les Paul and Mary Ford were riding very

high they were probably the number one

vocal team in the United States they

were earning a million dollars a year

and knowing lesson Mary I decided maybe

I have to show this guitar to them les

remembers it differently

he said the Gibson contacted him in

early 1951 saying that Maurice Berlin

told Gibson management to quote get in

touch with the strange la guitar guy

that guy with the broomstick with the

pickups on it they came around right

away as soon as they heard what Fender

was doing

I said well you guys are a little behind

the times but okay let's go I said that

a meeting was arranged in Chicago with

Berlin others and attorneys and a deal

was struck they quote hammered out the

specifics of the new guitar design then

the research into oh and it began in

earnest end quote

in either case once they had a prototype

in hand a meeting was set at a hunting

lodge near Stroudsburg Pennsylvania in

late 51 or early 52 Les and Mary were

there to record in the quiet isolation

of the woodsy setting McCarty and his

team brought the first prototype to show

it to les les also recalled that this

was the first time he got to handle the

prototype neither less nor McCarty could

remember for sure but they believed the

prototype brought to that meeting was

very similar to the earliest production

model except that it may have had a

traditional Gibson tailpiece and a

separate bridge before leaving they

worked out an exclusive contract for Les

and Mary to endorse the new guitar if

they were seen publicly playing any

other guitar they would forfeit all

monies and with that that Gibson Les

Paul model was born the guitars were

shipped to the case maker in April and

to Les in late May some dealers began

receiving guitars as early as June in

1952 the summer NAMM show was scheduled

to be held in New York and the official

release of the guitar was set Gibson

hosted a pre named clinic at the Waldorf

Astoria nearby the idea was that

professional musicians were not allowed

to attend name at the time we'd get to

see Gibson's latest instruments but

especially the new Les Paul model

electronic guitar the new Les Paul GA 40

amplifier was also unveiled host the

famous names visited the suite to see

the guitar Tiger Hanes Mondello and

George Barnes among them the guitar

combined a solid mahogany body joined

with a carved maple top the darker tone

mahogany wood the maple cab gave the

guitar deep tones but also a bright edge

respectively most the other features

found on the new Les Paul model could be

found on other Gibson guitars at the

time too p90 single coil pickups two

volume and two control controls had been

on the l5 c ES and super 400 CES models

the single cutaway and glued in mahogany

neck were long-established features the

crown fretboard inlays had appeared on

an es 150 model in 1950 and the scale

length of 24 and 3/4 had been used on a

number of Gibson acoustic guitars as

well

already remembers that they decided to

do a carve top guitar because they knew

the fender didn't have any carving

equipment at the shop down in California

making it clear that they were setting

their sights firmly on fenders new solid

body competition Gibson had made a

special guitar for less to present to a

terminally ill patient he'd met at a

hospital appearance this was most likely

the inspiration for the new gold table

color scheme for the first Les Paul's

they're now something we all take for

granted the iconic gold finish was

created by mixing bronze powder with

clear nitrocellulose lacquer there was a

mistake on the earliest units tailpiece

and neck angle the neck had been

designed with too slight an angle this

meant that the strings were almost flat

on the body and Gibson was unable to use

its standard hardware in response to

this problem Gibson had to use the

tapley's contrary to the way it was

designed instead of wrapping the strings

over the top where they would have made

the action too high they had to wrap

them underneath and this meant the stain

suffered and it wasn't possible mute the

strings with your palm incredibly there

were perhaps a thousand guitars built

this way before the issue was corrected

les immediately pointed out to Gibson

that this was unworkable during 1953

Gibson switched from the original

trapeze bridge to a new specially

designed single bar shape bridge

tailpiece the stop bar that mounted to

the top of the body using two height

adjustable studs the unit did its job

providing improved intonation

adjustability and sustain the neck angle

was also corrected in short it became a

much more playable and satisfying

instrument the guitar was the success

and to put that into perspective

Gibson sales numbers for that year show

that they shipped 1278 es 175 s but 2245

Les Paul's on the heels of the new

guitars success

Gibson issued two new Les Paul models

the custom and the junior in 1954 the

custom was outfitted with an ebony

fingerboard gold-plated hardware x n--

ding and black color was a more

expensive guitar than the gold top

according to Les Paul he chose the color

because it made his hand stand out when

he was playing a black guitar on stage

wearing a tuxedo

unlike the gold top the custom was an

all mahogany guitar something that les

preferred because he gave the guitar a

mellower tone the custom was promoted as

the fretless wonder due to its use of

low flat fret wire different from that

used on the gold top the custom also had

a new

pick up in the neck position it was

nicknamed the alnico based on the

aluminum nickel cobalt mixed with iron

alloy used in the magnetic pole pieces

the pickup was designed by Seth lover

who had returned to Gibson after working

for the Navy during the war he said that

he was charged with creating a pickup

that was louder than the Gibson p90 and

settled on the rectangular magnets

simply because they were different than

all others at the time these staple

magnets also left more room to fit

screws for adjusting a pickup pipe

between the pole pieces the pickup never

caught on and lover blamed players who

had to adjust the pickup too high

deadening the vibration of the strings

and a custom also brought with it the

new tune-o-matic bridge used with a

separate bar tailpiece patented by

McCarty the new bridge was the first to

offer individual intonation adjustment

for each string by 1955 the new bridge

would find its way into the gold top as

well on the other end of the line the

jr. was aimed at beginners it was simply

a more cheaply made Les Paul though the

outline was the same the junior had a

flat top and a solid mahogany body was

outfitted with a single p90 pickup a

single volume and tone control dot

markers graced an unbound rosewood

fingerboard it has a traditional yellow

to brown Gibson sunburst finish and the

stop bar tail piece the 1954 pricelist

had the custom at $325 the gold top at

225 and the junior at just $99 1955 saw

the introduction of the Les Paul TV

essentially a junior with a new finish

that is variously referred to as natural

limed oak and lime mahogany there are

many theories on where the TV name came

from none of which have much basic

direct evidence but one I've heard most

is that the finish was designed to stand

out in black and white television

broadcasts of the day the problem with

this theory is that if you were big

enough to be on TV you'd likely have

been playing a goal top or even the Neo

all-black custom but it's also possible

that it was simply trying to capitalize

on the Les Paul and Mary Ford TV show

running at the time and the final member

of the Les Paul family the special was

also introduced in 1955 basically a two

pickup version of the junior with the

new TV style finish the guitar listed in

the 55 catalog for 182 dollars and 50

cents in the next year gives him release

a 3/4 sized version of the guitar with a

scale length too much a shorter 22 and

3/4 for quote youngsters or adults with

small hands and fingers back in the

electronics lab at Gibson Seth lover had

been charged with finding a way to cut

down on the hum

interference of the p90 pickups he got

to thinking about the choke coil found

in amplifiers which helps eliminate the

hum coming from the power transformer

lever remembered I thought if we can

make humbucking chokes why can't we make

humbucking pickups and with the idea

firmly in place he began building

prototypes the humbucking name comes

from the pickups ability to cancel or

buck the hum of a single coil alone in

simple terms a humbucking pickup uses

coils with opposite magnetic polarity

wired together so that they are

electrically out of phase the result is

the cancelling of the hum and hence it

gives you a wonderfully clear and

unobstructed tone it doesn't just cancel

the hum but as we take for granted now

gave us a completely new sound lever

added a metal cover to further cut down

an interference from fluorescent

lighting etc they consider using

stainless steel for this but they

couldn't solder it so they settled on

German silver an alloy of nickel copper

zinc for its high resistance the

original prototypes didn't have

adjustable screws but the guys and sales

asked for that because it would give

them something else they could talk to

dealers about so they were added before

they went into production and finally

lever decided to mount the pickup so the

screws in the neck were closest to the

fingerboard and the screws in the bridge

were closest to the bridge lover would

later admit that he made this choice for

purely decorative purposes alone gives

us started using the new pickups in

early 1957 replacing the p90s in the

gold top and custom models the custom

was changed to a three pickup guitar

with the new humbuckers of course these

earliest humbucking pickups are highly

regarded and sought-after today

designated as patent applied for or PAF

indicated by a small sticker on the back

of each pickup now Lover's was not the

first humbucking pickup design and it

became a challenge during the patent

process to clarify the uniqueness of his

design lever applied for the patent in

June of 1955 and it was not granted

until July of 1959 one might assume that

this would then outline the PAF years

but in fact the stickers were added to

the pickups as late as 1960 two years

after the patent was granted it's

believed that Gibson did this so it'd be

harder for its competitors to find the

new patent on file and use the

information there to create their own

versions so they continued to use the

stickers to imply that the patent was

still in process and dragging their feet

about the actual patent stamp on the

back of the pickups until 62 even when

they did begin putting a patent

around the sticker it was for a bridge

patent that they have already held

further attempts to make it hard to

track down the official drawings I love

this stuff despite the almost magical

law with which PAF's are regarded lebra

was adamant that the later versions are

essentially the same the only difference

being that on the gold-plated versions

they lose a little high end due to the

additional plating over the metal covers

because gold is a very good electrical

conductor say also the Les Paul's

reached their peak in 56 and 57 with the

jr being by far the biggest seller at

3129 units in 56 despite the growth in

interest in solid body guitars they were

still by far the minority in the

marketplace and players were slow to

adopt them still the flashy new gold

tops looked great on stage and

television Muddy Waters guitar slim

Freddie King John Lee Hooker and

rockabilly star Carl Perkins were all

pictured playing gold tops during the

50s 1958 saw big changes all around the

jr. jr. 3/4 and TV models were changed

to a double cutaway design a new cherry

red finish was added to the jr. Gibson

tweaked the finish that they called

cream into a yellow or hue the double

pickup special was offered in both the

t.v cream finish and the new cherry red

we know that the first standard model or

bursts were shipped on May 28 1958 they

had them ready for that summer's NAMM

show in Chicago the sales of the gold

top model has started to slip so in an

attempt to excite the market

Gibson switched to a new cherry sunburst

finish for all the guitars this new look

only lasted until 1960 these years and

guitars constitute the bursts that are

seen as the apex of Les Paul

construction and are so wildly

collectible today

unlike when it was covered by the opaque

gold with the new finish the maple tops

could be seen the builders at Gibson had

to be more conscientious about matching

the two sides of the maple top this is

referred to as book matching because you

sliced through the center of a piece of

wood and then open up like a book so the

grain is shown on symmetrical on both

sides gives it a doneness on the backs

of their art op guitars in the past

often using highly figured wood for that

purpose figure is the term for more

interesting grain either flame or

quilted and some of the 58 to 60 burst

have these more desirable tops this

figuring is also referred to as

fiddleback curly or Tiger maple each

piece of wood is unique and how deep the

flame is through the

Eastwood determines how it will look

once the top is carved since Les Paul's

hadn't been selling that well they were

not a high priority at Gibson to receive

the fancier pieces of maple so many of

the bursts have pretty plane tops if a

burst has a fancy top then it was more

by chance than by design the new cherry

burst standards were listed for two

hundred and forty seven dollars and

fifty cents in the 1958 catalog the

original burst finishes all faded to

varying degrees over time sitting in

shop windows playing out in smoky clubs

or simply sitting at home between

sessions

all these factors affected how much the

finish faded the red in the finish in

particular faded to varying degrees in

the burst and on the back and necks of

the guitars all of this leads to the

wide variation we see in the finishes of

58 to 60s guitars today all of the

bursts started out as Cherry verse but

sometimes the red lightened and

sometimes it darkened over time

producing what we now call the famous

lemon burst iced tea burst or a dark

burst only 1450 bursts were built

between 1958 and 1960 and they have

become the most expensive vintage

guitars on earth ironically at the same

time they were not great sellers it was

only in the mid late to late 60s that

players began to seek out these years of

the combination of humbucking pickups

and quality of finish that would prove

such a potent combination for high

volume blues rock when finally detail of

this era is that players began removing

the covers on the humbucking pickups to

enhance the treble response when they

did so they found that the bobbins were

sometimes of different colors most often

black but sometimes white the bobbins

for building pickups were sourced from

huge plastic and the distributor Eastman

Chemical ran out of black 10a plastic

that they used to make the bobbins so

they substituted white plastic for a

while Gibson kept right on building

pickups using all white or black and

white or zebra bobbins across this

period then covering them up with the

nickel covers when players are removing

the covers speculations circulated about

which color combinations were the best

pickups

Seth lover found this debate pretty

funny and attributed differences in tone

to many variables but certainly not to

Bob in color sales of the standard model

had dropped to just 434 guitars in 1958

and when the new finish was introduced

there was a small increase in sales to

643 and 59 but it fell back again in

nineteen

60 Gibson had added a third expansion to

the Kalamazoo factory and it was clear

that they needed instrument sales to

help justify and pay for this expansion

looking at their sales figures they

decided it was time to completely

redesign the Les Paul lineup they

abandoned the traditional single cutaway

carve top guitar and moved to a new flat

top double cutaway SG or solid guitar

style from 1961 to 63 these guitars were

referred to as Les Paul's and are now

usually called SG Les Paul's the Les

Paul name was then dropped from the SG

not simply because at best most of us

have been told that les hated the new

design rather because Les Paul's

endorsement deal had run out also

Les Paul and Mary Ford were in the

process of getting a divorce and les

didn't want to sign a new endorsement

deal that would bring extra money into

the negotiations later les did say that

he didn't care for the design of the new

guitar there were many things he didn't

like about it from the body shape and

the thickness to the neck thickness and

the neck joint still he honored to the

end the agreement and was pictured with

a new guitar for promotion but he

continued to play his live performances

with his older guitars there were three

models selling 6,000 units total between

61 and 63 from the new wing of the

factory there was the SG Les Paul jr.

with a cherry finish the SG Les Paul

Standard in cherry and the SG Les Paul

Custom in white once the contract with

Les Paul expired there were no guitars

labeled Les Paul from 1964 to 1967

of course the SG went on to make famous

tones in the hands of many Clapton

turned to using an SG with cream Pete

Townsend wielded SG specials and set the

record for volume at the live at Lee's

concert with one in hand

Tommy Iommi wielded a left-handed SG

model and Black Sabbath an Angus Young

of ac/dc would go on to rekindle a later

generations love of the SG Les Paul

guitar sales in the US peaked in 1965

and yet again to gradually fall

thereafter for the rest of the decade

Ted McCarty left Gibson in 1966 by 1965

the British driven blues rock guitarists

were looking for the instruments used by

their Black American heroes at the front

of this way was Eric Clapton playing a

burst that he'd acquired in May of 1965

while he's playing with John Mayall &

the Bluesbreakers he was inspired by the

album cover of Freddie kings let's hide

away and dance away where King is

pictured with a gold top the B

record and so nickname because Clapton

is shown reading the British comic

magazine Beano on the cover was released

in July of 1966 it launched the Les Paul

into a cranked martial sound that was

about to define an era Clapton found his

use sunburst in almost new condition in

a shop at London he said I never really

found one as good as that again the

guitar was stolen in 1966 around the

time he was starting rehearsals with

cream the many guitarists have claimed

to be Clapton's original over the years

trying to match photographs to tops and

backs it has never been found

Clapton's use of a burst sent players

scrambling for the older guitars as the

old style standards hadn't been in

production since 1960 Clapton played a

number of standards in the years

following the theft of that first guitar

ii ohe bought in 1966 from Andy Summers

who would later go on to form the police

it was on this guitar that he recorded

the cream hit I feel free

using his woman tone a singing

distortion with the tone rolled back but

sustaining in a way that at first you

might not even recognize it as a guitar

other famous players in the mid-60s

reasoning Les Paul's Keith Richards

bought one wealth on tour with the

Rolling Stones in the States an

in-demand session guitarist Jimmy Page

was playing a three pickup custom around

London Peter Green replaced Clapton in

the Bluesbreakers and got a standard in

1965 and went on to famously use that

guitar on the early Fleetwood Mac

records also inspired by Clapton Jeff

Beck bought a burst in February 1966

when he was still playing with the

yardbirds

you can hear that guitar a 59 according

to Beck purchased used at summers in

London on the yardbirds album Roger the

engineer Beck went through a few

standards until acquiring in 1972 an

early fifties Goldtop that had been

converted to a two humbuckers and

refinished in a very dark brown finish

which Beck liked to referred to as

oxblood this is the guitar used and

pictured on the classic blow-by-blow

album in 1974 back in the US Mike

bloomfield with the Paul Butterfield

Blues Band and then electric flag was

making a name on a Les Paul as well

Bloomfield famously played a Telecaster

early but switched to a p90 Goldtop

which can be heard on the band's

east-west album when Butterfield toured

in England in 1966 Bloomfield got the

seat got to see both Peter Green and

Eric Clapton playing their Bucer

equipped first inquired a burst in May

of 67 and played it with the electric

flag at the Monterey Pop Festival he

commented about the players at the

festival quote all of us were playing

the same model guitar

and quote Billy Gibbons also cut the bug

from the back of the be no record and

started searching after opening a show

for the Jeff Beck Group Beck spoke to

Gibbons of his love of the Les Paul and

Marshall combination in the summer of

1968 Gibbons found his story burst which

would later be named pearly gates he

contends that his pearly is an

extraordinary example of the 1959 that

all the factors came together by luck to

create that special guitar on that day

at the factory

dude all this demand prices of older Les

Paul's were starting to climb and

finally Gibson was moved by the demand

as well meanwhile Les Paul himself had

been very quiet over these early years

of blues rock but had recently released

Les Paul now in 1967 the release ended

up coinciding with a new era of

endorsement between Les and Gibson at

the start of their reissue of Les Paul

guitars gibson decided to release the

previously rare to pick up Les Paul

Custom in black and the gold top with

p90s with a two pneumatic bridge both

models were brought to the NAMM show in

1968 Les Paul himself appeared at the

show to perform in the new guitars

gibson press at the time stated okay you

win we are pleased to announce that more

of the original Les Paul Gibson's are

available the line forms at your gibson

dealer the first run of 500 guitars 400

gold tops and 100 customs start at the

same time as the NAMM show as orders

poured in they ramped up to producing

100 Les Paul's a day the only mystery

seemed to be why they had decided to

offer the p90 version instead of the

much more sought-after humbucking

guitars beginning in 1969 CMI was being

acquired by another company and over

time that new big company became Norlin

industries the name created by combining

the name of the two company presidents

Norton Stevens and Maurice Berlin this

change is remembered by employees of

Gibson at the time as a move from the

tools of instrument manufacturer wood

files and machines to the tools of slide

rules and calculators for solving any

problem cost cutting was the prime

motivation of this new era as one would

expect this led to quality issues in the

guitars from 1974 on change is made to

the guitars models were driven more by

profit than by the demands for musicians

Les Paul's from the 70s are generalized

as being heavier than those that came

before or after this was due to two

factors first the mahogany that Narellan

was buying at that time was much heavier

than the earlier would likely due to an

attempt to save money later the body

construction was changed from

traditional maple cap on mahogany or all

mahogany

to a sandwich of two layers of mahogany

in the body with a thin layer of maple

in between they said it was designed to

strengthen the body but it also allowed

Norland to buy thunder pieces mahogany

and still be able to use it for guitar

bodies it's possible to see this thin

layer of maple in the body of a late

70's Les Paul there was shrinking at the

wood joints of the sandwich pieces and

there were complaints from players and

dealers in the end the extra cost in

manufacturing led to the discontinuing

of the sandwich also around 1969 Gibson

moved from a traditional one-piece neck

to a three-piece mahogany and in 1975 to

a three-piece maple neck both intended

to increase neck strength and 69 Gibson

also added a volute to the back of the

neck where it joints the headstock a

chunk of wood this was designed to add

meat to the famously fragile neck joint

the angle of the headstock was also

decreased slightly in the mind of

players all these changes were going the

wrong direction as they longed for the

fit finish and specs of the old guitars

in 1969 the Les Paul deluxe took the

place of the gold top standard in the

first new model Les Paul in 14 years

this was in response to the dealers

asking for a humbucking equipped

standard preferably in the sunburst

finish like the ones Clapton in

Bloomfield were using the deluxe was the

result of the factory being told that

they had to produce a humbucking guitar

without being given any money for

retooling so they had no choice but to

use the p90 routed bodies and find a

humbucking pickup that would fit Gibson

had purchased Epiphone in 1958 and he

moved Epiphone production to Kalamazoo

over the intervening years Epiphone had

long made mini humbucking pickups and

Gibson was able to fit them into the new

Les Paul deluxe guitars unless Paul went

back to working with Gibson he brought

his fondness for low impedance pickups

with him and in time he convinced them

to offer two models the Les Paul

professional and the Les Paul personal

with these pickups the Les Paul personal

model was a copy of a guitar of lesses

that had many modifications made beside

his favorite low impedance pickups the

dark brown mahogany color of both

guitars probably made them less

appealing than the bright color and

stage conscious era was looking for one

of the few famous players that use the

professional model was Terry Kath of

Chicago as the 60s came to a close

demand for old Les Paul's continued to

climb Robert Fripp of King Crimson

bought a 50s Les Paul Custom in 1968

Jimmy Page began regularly using his

burst onstage with Led Zeppelin and the

band's music became equated with a Les

Paul and Marshall stacks Page raved not

just about his new favorite guitar but

also about Les Paul the guitarist

telling interviewers to check out less

his recordings from the 40s collecting

the old guitars gained real steam in the

70s

George Grune wrote an important piece

about the collecting market in a 1975

issue of Guitar Player magazine the

article stated there are now more people

looking for Les Paul's than any other

electric guitar adding that the 58 to 60

guitars were by far the most desired in

1972 Gibson responded to this interest

issuing a short run of a Les Paul Custom

54 limited edition this is the first

attempt to reissue an old-style Les Paul

had a p90 bridge and an alma co staple

pickup at the neck the guitars carried a

serial number with a Nellie at the

beginning interest in sorting out the

history and models led to Tom wheelers

1974 the guitar book and was followed up

by Andre de Schwarz 1981 Gibson

electrics being published

Gibson built a new factory outside of

Nashville in an effort to both keep up

with demand for guitars and avoid the

stronger labor unions up in Michigan

this new factory required an entirely

new workforce be trained to build

guitars so key staff were imported from

Kalamazoo to try to do this though

originally it was thought that both

factories would be kept kalamazoo

building electrics and Nashville

building acoustics the new acoustic

model they'd hoped to build the

Nashville failed miserably in the

marketplace and so it was decided to

move Les Paul production down to the

Nashville plant

Nashville was set up to run large

batches of single models and the Les

Paul Custom and Les Paul deluxe models

along with a few other solid body

guitars running through that system in

1975 Gibson released the Les Paul notice

the emphasis in the name on the word

the' a limited edition with

exceptionally fine woods some of the

parts that would have been plastic on

the regular model were hand carved from

rosewood including the pickguard pickup

surrounds backplate control plate and

cook truss rod cover the bodies and

necks were fancy maple and they had

finger boards with exotic inlays of

ebony and rosewood much of the custom

work was done outside the Kalamazoo

factory by luthiers dick and Donnie

Schneider and a vector from Gibson less

than 100 the Les Paul's were made they

were sold for $3,000 an astronomical

price for a new guitar at the time but

not far off with the old Les Paul's for

starting to fetch in a vintage market in

the mid 70s a standard model with a

burst finish and full sized humbuckers

was still missing from the Gibson

catalog it could be special ordered from

Gibson though and around this time a

dealer in Memphis strings and things

ordered a run of 25 guitars with

custom specs very close to those of late

fifties bursts and finally in 1976

Gibson added the standard back to its

price list at 6:49 a sunburst model with

full-size humbuckers but these

instruments still did not echo the

original sufficiently to lure buyers

away from the search for a vintage Les

Paul Gibson reissued both the single and

double cutaway Les Paul special in the

mid 70s as well due to the snoring

prices of the original standards the

specials had real appeal for players the

sound of the p90 pickups and the

responsiveness of the guitars made them

attractive Leslie West had used a junior

in his band Mountain Mick Ralphs played

a junior in the band Matta Hoople and

then again in bad company later on Bob

Marley played a to pickup special in the

Wailers and late seventies punk

guitarists reveled in the rawness of the

flattop Les Paul's Nick Jones of the

clash and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols

were seen sporting specials in 1979

Gibson R&D department started building

prototypes for the new line of Les

Paul's these would be the Heritage

series Tim Shaw

worked on the project and remembers

there were our first stab at asking

questions like what's the best this

guitar ever was are we building it like

that now and if not why not though they

encountered resistance from management

they worked hard to keep the project

going the team used a sample of a 1954

pattern for the carving of the top and

they went with a three-piece mahogany

neck they dropped the volute and they

tried to more closely replicate the old

pickup specs finally they chose

prefigured tops and these became known

as the new heritage series Les Paul's

Bruce Boland then of R&D convinced

Norland to put the heritage guitars in

the product line these wouldn't be

standard production guitars but would

instead be listed as premium and limited

editions not even on the company press

list two heritage models were launched

in 1980 the standard 80 and the standard

80 elite the elite differed in that had

an ebony fingerboard a one-piece neck

and a quilted top in 1981 the heritage

standard a word model was added and

awarded to dealers that had stuff

stocked or sold to regular heritage

models the year before the Heritage Line

only lasted a couple years but they were

very important in illustrating the way

Gibson had begun to think about building

guitars using their own history as a

guide at this time

Gibson began to move away from some of

the questionable features that had

they'd added to the production guitars

in the 70s the volute was removed and

they went back to a one piece mahogany

neck in 1983 there was a limited run of

Les Paul Standard 82's

distinguished from their heritage

tarz by their one-piece neck and by the

fact that they were built up in

kalamazoo as we saw already some stores

have begun special ordering short runs

of the more late 50s correct Les Paul's

a store in Red Bank New Jersey guitar

trader approached Gibson with a plan

they would collect the specs of what

they considered a proper reissue of a

sunburst standard and Gibson would then

use those specs to build the guitars to

it though the guitar trader folks

thought that they were working on an

exclusive deal with Gibson in the end

Gibson sold some of the resulting

guitars to top dealers in Texas and

California as well best estimate is that

53 of these reissues went through guitar

trader at the time guitar trader

announced the new guitars with great

fanfare and even promised to install 50s

PAF pickups subject to availability

which ended up being about the first 15

Attar's they selected each top

themselves from Woodstock at the factory

the guitars listed for $1,500 at the

start but quickly rose to $2,000 at the

same time guitar trader had an original

59 with a flame top for sale at $7,500

Brad Whitford of Aerosmith took delivery

of one of the first guitar trader flame

tops the deal would only last about two

years but it would set the stage for

Kalamazoo becoming a custom shop before

there was one building the custom runs

of 25 to 100 guitars but by July of 1983

Gibson had decided to close the

Kalamazoo plant their gonna collapse in

the instrument market in general and

competition from Japanese companies was

taking an increasing piece of the market

share though some managers were offered

position Nashville plant manager Jim

Delarue Marvin lamb and JP moats left

Gibson rented a part of the old factory

and started heritage guitars the company

continues to build guitars to this day

in 1983 using some leftover figured

walnut and maple the plant in Nashville

put together a guitar dubbed the 1983

special spotlight this was a run of some

200 guitars but it's important because

it was the first to carry a Custom Shop

logo on the back of the head stock along

with an 83 to denote the Edition number

all of this success with the short run

reissues had led Gibson to start to

release early style guitars a standard

and a goal top in the wake of the

heritage series and the guitar trader

run Gibson was now trying to do this

right with these new models based on the

best of the old Les Paul's

these guitars came with flame maple and

gold tops respectively also in 1983 the

Les Paul Studio was introduced

stripping off the binding to lower costs

they came up with a cheaper Les Paul

Ruspoli named the guitar after

thought realizing that nothing was more

associated with less himself than the

recording studio was in the price list

in the summer of 83 for $699 $300

cheaper than the next carve top Les Paul

in the line the model went through a

number of changes the first run of

guitars had an alder body but a problem

applying the finish to the all that

resulted in quick change to the usual

mahogany and maple combination soon

after the new bodies were about an

eighth of an inch thinner than the

standard Les Paul's lowering weight and

production costs lately bound body

version came out in 1984 and was

produced for a couple of years as the

studio standard by 1987 some studios

were made with ebony fingerboard along

with the traditional rosewood depending

on availability and cost to Gibson

manufacturing early models had died

inlays but by 1990 the Les Paul crowns

were being used again by 1985 Norlin had

decided to sell Gibson off the last of

their instrument divisions to go the

deal was closed in January 1986 and

Henry Jessica wits

David Berryman and Gary zubowski

purchased the entire Gibson operation

for what was later disclosed to be five

million dollars the three had gone to

Harvard Business School together in the

late 70s Henry was a guitar player and

had a long love for the Gibson brand he

became president and Berryman became

vice president for finance and

accounting but the 80s weren't a great

time for traditional shaped guitars and

it was a tough time to take on the most

historic guitar brand in the country

Henry worked to mend Gibson's

relationship with Les Paul himself

understanding the importance to the

company and just when things were

looking bleak in the time of super

strats and star-shaped guitars Along

Came Guns & Roses in 1987 with Appetite

for Destruction and there was slash

standing out on the edge of stages

wielding a Les Paul doing his best

impersonation of Jimmy Page meets Joe

Perry ironically slashes Maine guitar

for that record was a copy of a 59

purchased for him by the band's

management company luthier Chris Darragh

had made the copy slash set of the

guitar I ended up in the studio with

this Les Paul replica and that was my

main guitar for the beginning of the

first Guns N'Roses tour later I got

another replica made by someone named

Max I had those two on the road for the

first year Gibson had taken custom

orders for one-off guitars since the

1960s and in the early 80s a small

custom operation was started in a corner

of the main plant in Nashville finally

the present Custom Shop was founded in a

building near the plant in night

93 staffed with master level luthiers it

became its own entity within the company

at first it continued to do much the

same one-off and custom orders along

with limited runs for dealers who wanted

the late 50s correct specs on their Les

Paul's they wanted the narrower

headstock the thinner binding at the

cutaway the correct depth at the top

carve while the prices of the original

burst continued to rise a small behind

market develop for reissues from those

golden years it's around this time that

the company's custom art and historic

dividend came into its own it's also

when JT ribble off and Tom Murphy at the

Custom Shop got the go-ahead to start

collecting the minutiae that would go

into the new reissue specs they went

about measuring 25 different standards

from the 58 to 60 era they quickly

realized of course they were all a

little different for example after years

of measuring guitars they found that the

neck angles varied from as much as five

and a half degrees to four degrees with

four degrees being the most common they

pulled all their measurements together

and decided on what they thought was the

best of all of them ribble I've realized

it got to the point where we wanted to

be more of a replica rather than a

reissue Gibson R&D built two prototypes

and they took them to be displayed at

NAMM in 1993 those two guitars ended up

going to slash and Bryan Adams the

realization that they were trying to

replicate rather than emulate the

original guitar along with having

collected the building talent necessary

at the Custom Shop was the breakthrough

that was so long awaited reissue after

reissue model was rolled out copying

down to the tiniest detail the guitars

of the year being reissued add the

famous Custom Shop relegate to the

instrument and you might well wonder how

you can tell the reissues from the

originals well from 1993 onwards the

reissues all carry an ink stamp in the

control panel are nine four standard 59

are eight for this 58 are zero for the

60 are two for the 52 etc they've gone

on to also do runs based on the famous

guitars of Billy Gibbons Jimmy Page

Peter Green Mark Knopfler Paul Kossoff

Eric Clapton and Joe Bonamassa among

them and that moment of success seems as

good at place as any to end our tale for

now along with lots of internet research

to excellent books helped in pulling

this video together the Gibson Les Paul

the illustrated history of the guitar

that changed rock by Dave hunter and the

Les Paul guitar book by Tony bacon both

are linked in the description below and

finally I'd like to thank Dave Onorato

of dojo guitar repair in Atlanta he has

over 30 years of experience with

finished guitars and is my final

fact-check for these videos if you

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thanks for being a part of the 5 watt

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