1955 Special with brown guard,covers,&knobs

[jimi55lp]

I read in the 1955 Gibson sales book copy listed in The Gibson Les Paul Book by Tony Bacon & Paul Day on page 14 labled QUOTE "Outstanding Value in a Solid Body Guitar The new Les Paul Special solid body Electric Spanish Cutaway Guitar incorporates the features that have made the Les Paul Model famous-tone, versatility, slender neck and low, fast action-with a moderate price. The appearance is rich and attractive...solid Honduras mahogany body and neck finished in limed mahogany shading...contrasting brown ROYALITE pickguard and unit covers...nickel plated parts...22 frets, bound rosewood fingerboard with pearl dot inlays." I just wanted to know if anyone has ever seen a 55' Special with brown rear covers with brown knobs and pickguard? I'm also not sure what Gibson meant by "Electric Spanish Cutaway Guitar" I'm very parcial to the 55' models as you may have noticed, but I've never seen a Special in any year with Brown covers, guard, and Knobs? I did a search on Google for ROYALITE and found a PDF listing Fender and Gibson guitars with plastic parts made with Royalite, and it said that some of the earliest 1955 Specials had this treatment. I've never heard about or seen one before having read this today.

[dwagar]

my old 55 Special had a neck like a 2x4. I don't think I've ever seen one with a brown pickguard. I wonder if it's a misprint? Or if the 'brown' was so dark it just appears to be black?

[Nodnerb]

Nope, never seen or heard of it either.

[jimi55lp]

I have a couple of the 55' Specials, and my earliest one has a 5 layer guard thats cut in reverse with the thickest white layer in the second from the top possition instead of the second from bottom like all my other Specials, but all my Special guards are 5 layer black/white. I've never seen or heard of a brown plastic setup on a TV Special and also thought it was a misprint in Gibsons 55' catalog, but the Royalite site on Google said some of the earliest 55's had this treatment. I guess they could have picked this color dressing up from the Gibson catalog also without actually having seen one, but I thought the forum might be one of the better places to try asking about this phenomenon.