Gibson Les Paul Custom Ebony 1969. Very Good Vintage Used Condition 7/10.

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Weight: 9.8lbs

Introduced at the summer 1968 NAMM show Gibson re-issued the ’50s style Les Paul Custom. The guitars proved to be an immediate success and are now a timeless design classic featuring in the Gibson lineup to this day. This mid May/June ’69 model with some earlier features is no exception and sounds, looks and feels fantastic.

After the Les Paul Custom re-introduction in the summer of 1968, Gibson began to ramp up production and in turn made various subtle updates to these models in the first two years they were made ’68-’69.

This particular Les Paul Custom likely left the Kalamazoo factory in May/June ’69. Serial # 801XXX. It retains some early ’69 features, such as the one piece mahogany body with maple cap and the long neck tenon route in the neck pickup cavity. Likely a use-up of early ’69 bodies. A one piece mahogany neck with ebony fretboard is present with no volute and no made in USA stamp. The transitional neck tenon is visible in the pickup cavity. 2x original Patent number pre T-Top pickups are fitted alongside 4 x original CTS pots dating to the 52nd week of 1968.

The guitar has general play-wear along with various small dings and scuffs to the body neck and headstock as you would expect on a used vintage guitar. There is lacquer checking throughout. Everything remains structurally sound with no breaks. A small professional repair to the inlay on the headstock fascia has been carried out. It looks as though the inlay was perhaps damaged or fell out (a fairly common issue with 60’s and early 70’s Les Paul Customs). A new inlay section has been put back in and carefully re-lacquered (see image). The binding has yellowed which is common.

The hardware is in working order but does show wear to all of the gold plating. The bridge and tailpiece are original to the guitar. The original bridge has sunk slightly which is very common and will be replaced with a genuine Gibson Historic VOS example and the original included in the case.

The pickup covers have previously been removed. There is no evidence of the pickups being rewound or messed with in any way, presumably a previous owner’s preference for the uncovered look/sound. We have reinstalled the covers but not re-flowed the solder. The solder on the pots looks to be mostly untouched with one pickup solder re-flowed. The bridge pickup surround has also been replaced.

The guitar has been fitted with original 1960’s Grovers by a previous owner back in the 70’s. A sensitive re-fret has also been carried out, again presumably in the 70’s. The “wonder frets” fitted to these guitars from the factory were commonly removed in favour of a larger fret to allow for bigger bends.

When it came to us this particular example was missing a pickguard, case, switch tip, strap buttons and capacitors. It has been a labour of love to get this guitar back up to its former glory. It’s new owner wont be disappointed!

We had Dan at MojoAxe in the USA custom make and hand age us a period correct pickguard using historically accurate material to our exact specification. We sourced period correct modern replacement Sprague black beauty capacitors from “Luxe” in the USA which are made on the same machines as the originals were. An exact clone of original black beauty capacitors and re-assuringly expensive too! The switch tip is a hand aged genuine Gibson example, as are the strap buttons. The case is a new historic yellow lined Lifton case sourced directly from Gibson. Period correct but brand new and will offer much better protection for your investment. The bridge will be replaced with a genuine Gibson Historic VOS example and the original included in the case.

The guitar is original aside from:

– Refret, Nut, Minor repair to inlay, Bridge pickup surround, Switch tip, Pickguard & Bracket, 1960’s Grovers, Case, Capacitors & Bridge (original included).

Guitar will be well packed and sent fully insured or hand delivered. Thanks for viewing!

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