NGD!! 1976 Norlin Les Paul Custom!!!

glpg80 said:
Thanks man!!! Yessir - a little over actually!

It’s in excellent condition and the dark wine red Norlins are in more demand than the tomato red colors in the late 70’s into early 80’s because it’s basically a Cantrell signature guitar. There’s not many around that aren’t all beat to hell, and those are have a listing price in the $4.5k range. It was listed at close to $7.5k. A similar quality Norlin sold for $10k.

You can find Norlin maple neck LPCs but if you want a clean one they come at a premium!
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Congrats bro! I know ya been wanting one for a while. When I was in my early teens {long time ago} I bought a 76 Wine Red Custom from my teacher that was all original. Looked almost identical to yours except this had gold hardware. I put on a flush mount Kahler, Dimarzio X2N and changed the tuners... then sold it a year later for $425, which was $25 more than what I paid. ...WHO KNEW..??!!! haha... play that bad boy in good health bro!
 
Average price seems to be 3500-4500 except some whacko sellers that want 8k for a 1980 goldtop. You got a nice clean guitar and maybe you bumped the market up on norlins, I just havent seen anyone pay 6k or over for a norlin thats all. Youre young it will accumulate value. To a guy my age 76 is not vintage but it is to someone else.
 
How are the maple necks vs mahogany? Always wanted a maple but they’re quite pricey. Nice to see your going to play it, case queens are no way for a guitar to live.
 
panhead said:
Average price seems to be 3500-4500 except some whacko sellers that want 8k for a 1980 goldtop. You got a nice clean guitar and maybe you bumped the market up on norlins, I just havent seen anyone pay 6k or over for a norlin thats all. Youre young it will accumulate value. To a guy my age 76 is not vintage but it is to someone else.
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I agree average price is about that range, but you’re getting guitars with holes drilled in them, non original pickups, belt buckle rash, dents in the neck, just general players condition. I know because I have one of those too - still a killer guitar. But a clean condition 76 will fetch a price above market, and Cantrell color combinations are in high demand, and on top of it all, 75 was the first year of wine red. Not many years after they changed to a tomato red color, so not many are the darker red.

Just a few months ago KillerGuitar Jason listed his 75 wine red for $5500 in the classifieds here. Whether you and I like it, the markets $6k for a clean one especially with a 3 piece maple neck :dunno:

After it’s gone through and correctly brought back to life it doesn’t matter because it’s not going anywhere. I’ve been wanting this exact specification for a long time and the markets only continued to increase. I’m stoked and can’t wait to get it back to life :rock:
 
Chubbs said:
How are the maple necks vs mahogany? Always wanted a maple but they’re quite pricey. Nice to see your going to play it, case queens are no way for a guitar to live.
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Maple necks add a snap to the tone that mahogany doesn’t. Mahogany necks fill out the mids and they’re very tonally pleasing, but they lack an aggressive grind. I have both but do prefer maple necks.

Just got back from a long discussion with my luthier. It needs:

New Jescar SS frets. Stock ones are shot and nothing is left
New bone nut
Two new cut saddles that are bad
Doing 12”-14” compound radius like I did on my 85.
Lots of love on the ebony fretboard. It’s dangerously dry.

I expect to get it back around the first week of October.
 
phil b said:
Congrats bro! I know ya been wanting one for a while. When I was in my early teens {long time ago} I bought a 76 Wine Red Custom from my teacher that was all original. Looked almost identical to yours except this had gold hardware. I put on a flush mount Kahler, Dimarzio X2N and changed the tuners... then sold it a year later for $425, which was $25 more than what I paid. ...WHO KNEW..??!!! haha... play that bad boy in good health bro!
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Thanks Phil! Yep I’ve been craving one for a long time - they’re beautiful guitars and I don’t feel like I could give a RR alpine white one proper justice. Definitely dream guitar level once it’s been properly restored to players condition again by a professional.

Hate that you sold it for that price, I feel like you could have done a bit better in this market but it’s only a hunch 😂
 
glpg80 said:
Maple necks add a snap to the tone that mahogany doesn’t. Mahogany necks fill out the mids and they’re very tonally pleasing, but they lack an aggressive grind. I have both but do prefer maple necks.

Just got back from a long discussion with my luthier. It needs:

New Jescar SS frets. Stock ones are shot and nothing is left
New bone nut
Two new cut saddles that are bad
Doing 12”-14” compound radius like I did on my 85.
Lots of love on the ebony fretboard. It’s dangerously dry.

I expect to get it back around the first week of October.
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Didn’t even think of a compound radius… you give me very expensive ideas
 
Chubbs said:
Didn’t even think of a compound radius… you give me very expensive ideas
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The 12-14” radius is slight but on a 24.75” scale it’s an insane improvement on upper fret action with jumbo frets. Highly recommend it!
 
That is so beautiful and simply amazing I had a pancake body 76 not a custom but it was a tone monster and heavy as hell you got a good weight on yours. Congratulations!
 
glpg80 said:
The 12-14” radius is slight but on a 24.75” scale it’s an insane improvement on upper fret action with jumbo frets. Highly recommend it!
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When you flatten the radius up top, how do you compensate with a bridge that you can’t adjust the action individually on each string ?
 
paulyc said:
When you flatten the radius up top, how do you compensate with a bridge that you can’t adjust the action individually on each string ?
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The saddles are cut at various depths (or are supposed to be) for proper contour. Most have them the same depth though - which correlates to a flat radius up top. It basically means better/more consistent action across the entire neck string to string and easier big bends.

With jumbo frets I’ve found the slightly flatter radius up top helps keep stock contact height across the neck too. I thought of it for my 85 and it came out wonderfully.
 
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