Dorothy Goldtop Restoration

[frater106]

One of the first Gibson Les Pauls ever made – now owned by Jared James Nichols – has been fully restored

The single-cut – nicknamed Dorothy – had been heavily damaged in a tornado in Washington, Illinois in 2013

www.guitarworld.com

I could hardly even believe this could be restored!! How cool?!

 

[nuance97]

One of the first Gibson Les Pauls ever made – now owned by Jared James Nichols – has been fully restored

The single-cut – nicknamed Dorothy – had been heavily damaged in a tornado in Washington, Illinois in 2013

www.guitarworld.com

I could hardly even believe this could be restored!! How cool?!

I followed along with the restoration on Instagram. Really cool

 

[LuthierVandross]

Interesting... I’m sure I’m not the first to notice... but interesting. Kinda looks like the suntan and tailpiece matches Mary’s old Goldtop...

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Beyond cool!

 

[warprider]

I'll be the first to say it, but did they really drill it for a bridge with anchors/posts? Christ.

 

[cmjohnson]

I'll be the first to reply: Given the situation, I would have. It's no longer an original relic, it's a repaired guitar. A fixed bridge position rather than a trapeze taipiece is dramatically superior for stability of tuning and intonation and makes it a more useful musical instrument.

It's not like a Floyd was installed...

 

[bbaug14]

I'll be the first to reply: Given the situation, I would have. It's no longer an original relic, it's a repaired guitar. A fixed bridge position rather than a trapeze taipiece is dramatically superior for stability of tuning and intonation and makes it a more useful musical instrument.

It's not like a Floyd was installed...

I agree, but why not an ABR-1 or the like? Why an actual wrap tailpiece? I’m not knocking it, I just want to understand why they did it.

 

[warprider]

I'll be the first to reply: Given the situation, I would have. It's no longer an original relic, it's a repaired guitar. A fixed bridge position rather than a trapeze taipiece is dramatically superior for stability of tuning and intonation and makes it a more useful musical instrument.

It's not like a Floyd was installed...

Since a new neck was going on and the angle wouldn't be an issue i'd have gone with the bail tailpiece.

It's just another ugly modded guitar now.

 

[ARandall]

Well, thanks for your opinion on the matter.

 

[bierz]

For those that follow the value of vintage guitars, what would you put the value of this thing at? From the stories I've read it seems that the granddaughter of the original owner gave this away to someone who then gave it to Jared. Great home for a cool guitar and he likely paid a bunch for the restoration, but I can't help but wonder if that lady got the short end of the stick here.

 

[lowatter]

Since a new neck was going on and the angle wouldn't be an issue i'd have gone with the bail tailpiece.

It's just another ugly modded guitar now.

I'd rather see it usable and playable. What else should be done with it? The entire neck was missing so it's not original now anyways. If the original body would be displayed in a plexiglass display box without any restoration done to it, is that the solution?
As far a saying it's "ugly", I'd give my left nut for it! Seriously.

 

[VictorB]

Shit, I would have went full 56 on it if it were up to me.

 

[redking]

I'm curious how they would get enough break angle over the wrap tail bridge - they must have added some neck angle I'm guessing?

 

[LuthierVandross]

If you’re on Instagram, there is some info from the luthier; the neck question is explained there. I myself don’t have IG, but have a friend that does and I’ve been getting all the info that way. Here’s some words from the luthier:


jw.restoration Dorothy - 1952 Les Paul Tailpiece

Had a couple of questions asking why we went this direction with the tailpiece..

It would be great to know the early history of this particular guitar.. but unfortunately, that seems lost to time. However, the guitar itself tells you something of how it was setup through wear and fading/aging.

You can clearly see where a short tailpiece had been situated based on the tan or shadow lines left on the top of the guitar. Probably something along the lines of a shortened es-125 tailpiece, etc. Thia certainly isn't the only very early 52 non-trapeze LP with a tailpiece and bridge setup similar to this. Makes you wonder if Les Paul himself had something to do with it.

We thought Mary Ford's LP setup was pretty cool - and we had an already modified es-350 tailpiece available.. so I went ahead and fabricated a fixed tailpiece based around Mary's guitar setup and the tan lines on Dorothy.

In my humble opinion, this setup changes the acoustic nature of the guitar considerably - and, by extension - the amped sound as well, given how much tone these old p-90s pick up from the body vibrations.

Obviously, this setup was good enough for Les and Mary, so.. good enough for Dorothy as well.

Again, a personal opinion, I do believe the wraparound bridge, mounted to the body via studs and inserts, is the superior bridge option, even if you never have any intention of using it as a wraparound.

 

[LuthierVandross]

Also the section he had on how he did the neck with pics is interesting too!!


jw.restoration Dorothy - conservation vs. restoration

I've had a few questions ranging from why did you keep this, why wasn't this done differently, why doesn't this match that more closely, etc etc..

And.. well, I don't think there's necessarily a right or wrong answer as to how one approaches a repair.

But, speaking with Jared before we dug into this, we agreed that the story - the history - was just as important as the body itself. So we wanted to balance restoring and repairing the instrument with conserving what the guitar had been through to end up here and in this condition.

Heavily aging the new neck and other parts that had been missing? Off the table. The guitar didn't survive a tornado intact. To make it appear as if it had? It would be disrespectful to the instrument and to the experience of those in Washington IL.

So we approached it much like art conservation.. we added things where they were missing and in keeping with what you might expect a normal 52 to look like - but when you get up close and personal, there's no question as to what's new and what's old. That, in itself, tells a story - even if you don't know anything about the history of the guitar.

Of course, that's more difficult and time consuming than just, say, slapping a new neck on. Fitting the original heel to the new neck? That's tricky on a completely different level.

And, for those who are curious? No power tools here. Not that there's anything wrong with that, per se. Just not the type of craftsmanship that interests me. Nearly every tool I used from blank to finished neck is in these pics.. save for a Dremel used to do the inlay and a bench top bandsaw to cut out the initial neck shape.

That should also serve as a reminder.. you don't need a lot of expensive tools to do this work correctly. Don't let that stop you if building a guitar is something you're interested in trying.

 

[greens]

For those that follow the value of vintage guitars, what would you put the value of this thing at? From the stories I've read it seems that the granddaughter of the original owner gave this away to someone who then gave it to Jared. Great home for a cool guitar and he likely paid a bunch for the restoration, but I can't help but wonder if that lady got the short end of the stick here.

Yeah this seemed a little suspect to me too. The pickups alone are worth $1000-$1200. I think the body was probably worth a few grand more even damaged. I question whether the granddaughter realized this when she decided to just give her grandfather's guitar away - if that is in fact what happened.