The Official Vintage Les Paul Parts Thread

[BOBBO]

[BOBBO]

Single line Kluson's on the headstock of a 57 stinger

[decoy205]

1961 Harness

[Chrisman]

why dont the trust rod covers say anything on them

[BOBBO]

Originally Posted by Chrisman

why dont the trust rod covers say anything on them

TRC's from 50's LP standards don't have any writing on them !!!

[Tassel]

Beautiful. This is really interesting

[Mike60]

just got these...

[Laservampire]

Sweet collection man! I'd kill for one of those switchtips!

[weirdotis]

This may have been posted before, but it's worth it to post again.

Gregor Hilden burst - VintageCheckout's Photos- powered by SmugMug

[RocknRollService]

Great stuff !

[mertzy]

Tuners from my neighbors 1958 Custom



Edge wear



Neck Tenon



Case logo



Case Stuff

[nicolasrivera]

WOW great find

[Lowdown]

Originally Posted by mertzy

Tuners from my neighbors 1958 Custom

Whoah!
Those tuners are freaking beautiful! I've never seen any like that before.
What are they? They remind me of the pearl Grover's Ace Frehley has installed on his '69 LPC.

[mertzy]

From what I've been told they are Epiphone tuners that Gibson used, they stamped a line in them to make the "E" into a "G"

The posts are really fat with basically no taper from top to bottom.

[mertzy]

Here's the Epiphone version



From The Vintage Guitar Info Guy at Provide.net

[Lowdown]

Thanx for that mertzy.
Can't believe they went to the trouble of stamping the tail on that "E".
Though does look cool.

[OldGuy]

@mertzy: Very nice pics! I'd never seen those Gibson Tune-O-Matic Bridge instructions before. Because they seem useful, I made an HTML version of them and took a screenshot:

http://img250.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_570lo.jpg

Thanks for posting!

[Laservampire]

Originally Posted by JimmyAce2006

Those frets appear to be original fretless wonder frets, making this a pre-1959 model, right?

Didn't the big frets appear mid '59?

[OldGuy]

Even though I've owned my early '57 Les Paul Custom for over 40 years, it's only recently that I've developed an interest in the features of vintage LPs. Here's a pic taken a couple of days ago of my LP's Bumblebee capacitors:

[img=http://img120.imagevenue.com/loc371/th_99697_1957_Les_Paul_Custom_2PU_Bumblebee_capaci tors_resized_122_371lo.jpg]

It's my understanding that these are the same capacitors that Gibson used in '58 through '60 Bursts. Can somebody with expert knowledge confirm or disconfirm this for me?

Thanks!

[lpcustom69]

Yes, .022 bumblebees.

[OldGuy]

Originally Posted by lpcustom69

Yes, .022 bumblebees.

Thanks, lpcustom69! I thought they were, but wanted some additional eyes on them to be sure.

[JJ Blair]

Originally Posted by OldGuy

Even though I've owned my early '57 Les Paul Custom for over 40 years, it's only recently that I've developed an interest in the features of vintage LPs. Here's a pic taken a couple of days ago of my LP's Bumblebee capacitors:

[img=http://img120.imagevenue.com/loc371/th_99697_1957_Les_Paul_Custom_2PU_Bumblebee_capaci tors_resized_122_371lo.jpg]

It's my understanding that these are the same capacitors that Gibson used in '58 through '60 Bursts. Can somebody with expert knowledge confirm or disconfirm this for me?

Thanks!

My understanding is that you should have these in a Black Beauty.

[JJ Blair]

OK, I decided to take some black light pics of a couple pieces of plastic, which might be useful in helping identify real parts from replica. As some of you already know, old knobs glow under the black light. The new Gibson knobs do not, but the Montreux knobs glow, however, they do it differently. I took some pics to help show the difference. (Also, just to show BCRGreg that black light pics are easy to take, even with an iPhone!)

Here's a new gold top hat knob. No reactance to the UV.



Here's a Montreux gold top hat. You can see some glow in the center, but not really around the numbers.



And this is a '58 black top hat. The center glow is stronger than the Montreux, and the numbers area is reacting strongly. The numbers themselves also seem to glow.



And this is a '60 or '61 gold reflector, just so you can see that it's not just the black background making the different reaction.

[JJ Blair]

And here's something else, plastic wise. The first pic is a a 6,4 nylon nut. It has a definite presence under the UV. The second pic is whatever they were using in 2006. I didn't have any 6,6 nylon to shoot, unfortunately.

[JJ Blair]

Originally Posted by JimmyAce2006

Those frets appear to be original fretless wonder frets, making this a pre-1959 model, right?

Fretless wonder frets were not on Standards. These are smaller frets, but they are certainly not as small as the fretless wonders!

[OldGuy]

Originally Posted by JJ Blair

My understanding is that you should have these in a Black Beauty.

Not in mine. I've got one of the last of the Alnico V/P-90 Customs made before the mid-1957 transition to the 3 Humbucker models like yours. Gibson had already begun using the Bumblebees when they built my guitar (my evidence being that my guitar has 'em!). The only Alnico V/P-90 BB I've seen with a higher 1957 serial number than mine is the one that Alvinfan bought on eBay a few months ago, so I'm guessing that his BB has Bumblebees, too, unless a previous owner removed them.

[JJ Blair]

Old guy, thanks for the clarification. Mine has the type above, but it doesn't have P90s.

[OldGuy]

Originally Posted by JJ Blair

Old guy, thanks for the clarification. Mine has the type above, but it doesn't have P90s.

Interesting, JJ. I was thinking that yours would have Bumblebees, too. I'm wondering now about Alvinfan's Custom. I think I'll send him a PM and ask whether he's checked the control cavity on his '57...

BTW, that blacklight info is good to know. Thanks for posting those pics!

[stonew]

cool

[OldGuy]

Yeah.