Page 113 - Guitar Classics Magazine - The Les Paul Bible 2019

VINTAGE BENCH TEST

KEY FEATURES
PRICE £8,995
DESCRIPTION Solidbody electric guitar. Made in the USA
BUILD Mahogany body with maple cap, set mahogany neck
with short tenon joint, bound ebony ingerboard, block markers OPPOSITE The pearl inlays
and 22 frets on the headstock have
HARDWARE Vintage Kluson tuners, ABR-1 bridge become more golden with
with retaining wire, stop tailpiece time and the Gibson logo
ELECTRICS 2x Patent Number humbuckers is a missing-dot example
FINISH Black nitrocellulose
SCALE LENGTH 624mm/24.6" ABOVE Plenty of inish has
NECK WIDTH 43.4mm at nut, 52.04mm at 12th fret worn away from the back
DEPTH OF NECK 21mm at irst fret, 25.5mm at 12th fret of the neck, revealing that
STRING SPACING 5.09mm at nut, 51.93mm at bridge Gibson sprayed black coats
WEIGHT 4.68kg/10.31lbs over clear lacquer
CONTACT ATB Guitars
atbguitars.com LEFT Forearm wear marks
add to this guitar’s
considerable character

Custom down to a fairly specific timeframe. This
guitar has the step rout cut into the maple, so it was
made after January 1969, but there is no evidence
of a ‘pancake’ layer. Furthermore, there is no volute
or ‘made in USA’ stamp. On that basis, this was
probably on Gibson’s production line sometime
between February and May 1969.
The guitar’s black lacquer has shrunk sufficiently to
reveal a join line in the maple top that’s about 15mm
to the side of the bass tailpiece post, but it’s probably
the only part of this guitar that hasn’t changed colour

THE LES PAUL BIBLE 113