1956 Gibson Les Paul Standard. 1959 Conversion. Continuing the discussion about modified Goldtops.

[RAG7890]

Surely that was re-topped?

That is what I was thinking.

 

[RAG7890]

As a side comment to Conversions which I don't have an issue with, if the Guitars are stuffed anyway, I never understood why some would take a good P90 Wraptail or '56 & convert to Humbuckers.

I have been fortunate enough to own (& still own) some particularly great Sets of Vintage PAF's & while great, my 1958 P90's are IMHO beyond awesome..............IMHO.

I know of quite a few perfectly good Vintage P90 Les Pauls that have been converted.............first hand, by famous Guitar players, not hearsay.

End of the day though if it is someone's Guitar then it is really their business & not mine.

 

[d1m1]

This is my 1952 Scott Lentz conversion. It was not my intention to get a '52 but it was cheap. All original with case. In the later 1990's there were very few '52's around that I saw. I did this guitar as a one time shot at a conversion. I can never do this again and this one came together in all the best ways possible. I paid $1265 for the guitar and sold the knobs, tuners, pickups, wiring harness, tailpiece and case for $1400. Over time with assistance from my good friend Randy Peterson all 50's parts completed the guitar. When I purchased them the double creme PAF's were $3000 for the pair. It was a non-issue guitar but it was done for myself and will never be for sale. If I ever do consider selling I have at least three buyers in line. I am confident one phone call and this would be gone. Been playing this for 20 years.

wow great guitar. is this a retop?

 

[Bill Hicklin]

Since I haven't met anyone who paid punitive money for a conversion, I'm going to suggest that most people are doing it for themselves from guitars they bought at a reasonable price. They also purposefully LOOK for issues guitars.

I think the percentage heavily leans towards "issues" guitars.

If there was a REAL profit motive behind taking perfectly good Goldtops and hacking them up, we would know who was doing it...because they would be converting many guitars.

Can anyone even point to a Goldtop that was 100% legit that got hacked up? I'm not sure I can...

But the devil is in the details- is 100% the safety threshold for a Goldtop? What "issues" condemn it to conversion surgery? I'm not sure I'm on board with "the tuners aren't original, guess it's gonna be a Burst now."

 

[viking20]

Who cares what you think?

 

[eric ernest]

I'm not sure I'm on board with "the tuners aren't original, guess it's gonna be a Burst now."

Never heard of anyone converting a vintage Goldtop over such an inarguably small detail.