Page 61 - Guitar Classics Magazine - The Les Paul Bible 2019

THE UK’S FIRST LES PAUL

the old guitar is still going to sound better. It’s the
wood, and not all of them were made with the same
wood. Mine has earthy reddish Honduran mahogany,
but sometimes, the colour looks more gold and those
don’t sound as good. The earlier P-90 Goldtops tend
to have the gold-colour mahogany, and even if you
stick a couple of PAFs on them, they still don’t come
up to it. ’58s tend to have the red mahogany and
most of them sound really good, even if everybody
wants a ’59,” Cosmo contends. “The Keith Burst and
the ‘Greeny’ both have the red mahogany and they
were all made close together in the 9-2000 batch –
definitely the best by far, apart from a few ’58s.”
We wonder if Cosmo regards weight as a factor?
“Heavier ones sound a bit harder,” he observes, “which
is fine if you want to play metal, but I prefer lighter
ones. I don’t believe Bursts sounded this good when
they were new, because I feel the wood fuses over the
years and gives you that harmonic effect. Some think
it’s the PAFs, but I think it’s the wood. Just listen to
the tone when it’s unplugged, that says it all.”
Despite being able to lay his hands on such stellar
vintage instruments, pragmatism must occasionally “I DON’T BELIEVE BURSTS SOUNDED
prevail – and Cosmo sometimes plays a Les Paul THIS GOOD WHEN THEY WERE NEW,
replica, crafted by a renowned builder to his specs.
“I picked out every piece of wood on that guitar,” BECAUSE I FEEL THE WOOD FUSES
Cosmo points out. “It’s based on the Tommy Burst
specs and even has the same asymmetrical neck OVER THE YEARS AND GIVES YOU
profile. It’s got 50s PAFs, pots and Bumble Bees. The
bridge is a 1960 ABR-1, because the retaining wire THAT HARMONIC EFFECT”
makes sense and it has a vintage tailpiece, scratchplate
and knobs. The rings are his own replicas. I have to
say, it sounds better than a lot of real Bursts. I have to
look down sometimes to see what guitar I’m playing. binding in the process, the only other solution is to ABOVE Cosmo’s love of Bursts
With that one, it’s easy to forget.” take the ’board off a scrapped ’55 or ’56 Goldtop, has brought him into contact
if you can find one. It has to be from those years, with many of the most famous
VINTAGE TROUBLE because those ’boards are the only P-90 models with examples of the breed
Our time with Cosmo concludes with a topic that’s the right length.
OPPOSITE
seldom discussed among originality-obsessed vintage- “My luthier Andy Warnock has also had to pop The original sales
guitar enthusiasts – namely that we are dealing with glue under the ’boards of several Bursts and Goldtops documentation from the
very old guitars and many are showing signs of wear because the ’boards are about to fall off,” Cosmo Tommy Burst shows it was
and tear. “What I’ve noticed in the last 10 years or so recalls, as he relates a cautionary tale for any one of the irst two such
with a lot of vintage Les Pauls, is that the fingerboards prospective vintage Les Paul buyer. “I remember we guitars in the UK
have been so badly shot during various re-frets that first spotted this problem many years ago. It was a
it results in insufficient clearance between the strings guitar that I’d had re-fretted a couple of times and it
and pickups when trying to set a comfortably low just wasn’t playing right. Andy started tapping on the
action,” Cosmo explains. “You can usually tell how ’board and realised that it was moving. He slid a
much has been taken off the ’board by the amount of blade under one end and the ’board just popped right
brownness showing through the inlays. Some guitars off, with the binding intact. He reglued the ’board
have ended up with uncomfortably high action, just and the guitar was perfect. When you’re looking at
for the strings to clear the pickups. Other than back- any vintage Gibson, you might just want to check
veneering the original ’board and losing the original that the ’board is still firmly attached…”

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