Neil Finn's LP

[rickym]

Saw Crowded House last month. Finn's LP through his AC30 was fabulous. I don't know if the mini-humbuckers were the reason it sounded so good. His pedalboard is sparse. Just can't get the event & sound outta me head!

I really dug his sound enough to consider minis in my LP.

[2manyGuitars]

There's an extra set of "mounting rings" around the mini-humbucker rings. It may have originally been a humbucker equipped LP that has had minis installed, or may be an actual Deluxe that was routed for humbuckers at one time.

[Lester B. Flat]

Originally Posted by 2manyGuitars

There's an extra set of "mounting rings" around the mini-humbucker rings. It may have originally been a humbucker equipped LP that has had minis installed, or may be an actual Deluxe that was routed for humbuckers at one time.

No, those are original "goof rings". They were put on some early Deluxes.

[BCRGreg]

Goof rings cover the edges of the routes, wear the worn tooling tore up the maple a bit. Gibson was too cheap to buy new router blades, so they made the rings instead.

[2manyGuitars]

Well, I guess it's true that you learn something new every day. Thanks for the info.

The Finn bros./Crowded House are fantastic!!

[Anchorman]

Hey; same guitar tech

[Liam]

Saw Crowded House last month. Finn's LP through his AC30 was fabulous. I don't know if the mini-humbuckers were the reason it sounded so good. His pedalboard is sparse. Just can't get the event & sound outta me head!

I think Neil Finn is probably the reason it sounded so good. I last saw him with his own band on the One-Nil tour about 6 years back and it was about the best thing I've ever seen. How the hell a gig with about 3000 people there can feel that intimate I will never know. A major talent, but with no airs and graces, and quite obviously does it because he loves it. Don't expect the experience to fade in your memory too quickly!

AC30s also sound pretty amazing with full size humbuckers. Bernard Butler always got a great sound out of his. But minis, gotta love them!

[BobbyK]

I just finished listening to the albums I have of theirs... I just go on a binge sometimes... co-incidence that I just saw this thread.
Good to see some Americans into some music from down under. (Neil Finn calls the band Australian, if any New Zealander is reading this... haha)



I really like his tone, I guess more his playing... it was never stereotypical (to me)

The best Les Paul I've ever played was a 71 goldtop (I haven't played many pauls, though)

complete with goof hiders!


Thanks so much for posting the pics, BTW.

[rickym]

Anytime BobbyK! I've been a fan since the Split Enz days. First saw them in '92. He had 2 AC30s on stage. This time he had 1 with a tweed Fender Deluxe (either re-issued or an oldie). The sound is unforgettable. So rich.

The actual concert was posted on YouTube the following day. Whoever posted it was way in back, the quality is still very good. I was in the 5th row so we got the stage sound - awesome.
Crowded House - Fall AT Your Feet Orpheum Theatre Los Angeles, CA pt2

[goldtop0]

Okay guys do any of you know what sunburst LP Neil is using.
I've seen a pic of it and it's a lemon/honey burst.........Historic or vintage, any of you guys got the low down on this?

[single cut 54]

Originally Posted by goldtop0

Okay guys do any of you know what sunburst LP Neil is using.
I've seen a pic of it and it's a lemon/honey burst.........Historic or vintage, any of you guys got the low down on this?

Hi goldtop, can you post a picture of Neils Burst please, or tell me where I can find the picture that you saw.Thanks.

[EEF13]

where could you buy good rings? lets say you wanna put a single coil in a les paul

[goldtop0]

Originally Posted by single cut 54

Hi goldtop, can you post a picture of Neils Burst please, or tell me where I can find the picture that you saw.Thanks.

I came across it last night while searching on the web and will need to retrace my steps.
Some guys here in NZ say it' a '59 so it's well worth checking out, that's what got me going.

[goldtop0]

Turns out(as I kind of expected) that young Neil's got a very nice Historic.
One of the more informed blokes on our local guitar forum here in NZ chipped in saying he knew the LP.
For the life of me I couldn't find that pic again though

[Tycho]

I saw them too, in Toronto. (In fact I'm wearing my CH '08 t-shirt right now!)

Neil is proof that you can do interesting things with the LP without just using the same old standard LP tones (much as we all love those). I remember being really surprised when I first realized he mostly used LPs.

[Red Baron]

Be interesting to know when/where he bought that goldtop... I sold mine (a Deluxe with goof rings) to a shop the late 70's - and Gibson Les Paul's were pretty scarce in that area (I lived close to the Finn Brothers at the time).

Btw those mini humbuckers can sound incredible... I especially like them on hollow body guitars.

[goldtop0]

I would suspect that he picked it up overseas.It's has a crazy crazed top and is well worn in.
In the '90s Norm Weir's son(Weir's Music- Hamilton) had a big headstock 70s Deluxe that they'd bought off a local farmer,he said at that time that he was keeping it and apart from that I've only ever seen two other Deluxe's here, one '68 owned by a local muso/store owner Eddy Pausma and the other by another muso/gingle writer Larry Killip ,I think his is a '68 also.

[rickym]

Here's Neil's Historic:


According to another forum, Neil has 2 goldtop's: the first is a '68 that's in the pics I posted. I think you can see Tim Finn playing it at the end of the "Message To My Girl" vid from Split Enz. So he's had it at least that long. The second is a 70s Goldtop with goof rings as well. Also with a creme switch ring.

[goldtop0]

Thanks for posting that pic of his Historic rickym,that's the one that a few of the people on our local gat forum were misinformed about!!

[Red Baron]

Neil claims one of his goldtop's is a '68 but he is misquided.

Steve, those other 2 Deluxes would also have to be from late '69 at the earliest because that's when they were introduced.

[goldtop0]

Originally Posted by Red Baron

Neil claims one of his goldtop's is a '68 but he is misquided.

Steve, those other 2 Deluxes would also have to be from late '69 at the earliest because that's when they were introduced.

Chris the '69s are small headstock aren't they? and the 70/71 onwards were large h/stock?

[Red Baron]

No they changed to the large headstock in very early '69 and continued 'experimenting' throughout the year until they ended up with the mini humbucker Deluxe later that year.
I've only ever heard of 2 small headstock 69's (one is owned by Wilko)... it's very rare to find a '68 spec guitar built in '69.

[goldtop0]

Yes thanks for that Chris. I've been a little confused here and sorted it out last night when I looked up that era(68-70) in The Les Paul book by Tony Bacon.
Looks like I got my wires crossed between the '68 GTs and '69 Deluxe's, now I'm sorted.
Both Eddie and Larry(as in a previous post above) have '68/69 GTs with the other reference to Weir's Deluxe being correct.

[Red Baron]

Moonweasel's site is an excellent source of information on late 60's Les Paul's...

1968 Les Paul and 1969 Les Paul Serial Number Information

Two Live CDs are MUST HAVES:
Neil Finn "7 Worlds Collide" and
Tim Finn "Together In Concert:Live"

If you do NOT have these you must be leading miserable lives!!

[SilverhammerNZ]

My Gold Top is a 1969!

Hi, happened upon this thread...(Local - New Zealand - references follow) I bought my Les Paul Gold Top from Lewis Eady (local importer in Queen St, Auckland NZ) in 1969. Sometime ago I put stuff on the net and put the date as 1968....I got it wrong by a year. My Gold Top Youtube vid is also wrong.

This was one of six (4 to 6) gold tops to be imported by Lewis Eady I believe, I know that Dave Russell from The Invaders (local heroes) bought one at the same time. His and mine both had/have P90 pickups, I presume the rest did too. This was one of the first "Reissue" shipments into NZ. Funnily enough they weren't as fussy back then re making them totally authentic, mine had black top hat knobs for example, not the gold looking type you see now. Almost as if they used up parts that were available. Along the way I painted mine sunburst then later black, then I broke the headstock off the neck...the guitar fell backwards and "snap!!". A very good friend of mine did a superb repair job, but he had to make a whole new top end of the neck including the headstock...he veneered the original headstock front onto the new headstock and very cleverly dovetailed the assembly into the old neck. It's a fantastic repair but in the process I lost the original headstock which of course had the serial number on it! Damn!

Eventually I restored the guitar back to a Gold Top and replaced some hardware but the pickups, wiring and the scratch plate are original. I played this guitar several times a week for over 35 years, I've had to put filler into depressions in the fretboard, if I hadn't restored it it would have been long gone. The necks on these 60's models were always weak, nowhere near as stable as 2000 models, have to chase the tuning sometimes but it's an awesome guitar and I still have it and play it on all my recordings now.

Larry Killip

[SilverhammerNZ]

Here it is back in 1969.

Larry