GASing for a Les Paul Custom Black Beauty

[VC4Ever]

What production years should I be looking for. I am just GASing right now for one but probably won't pull the trigger unit the Canadian Dollar gets better which really sucks.

 

[Steinmetzify]

Dude they're all gonna be good guitars, even the Richlite if you're into it. Had a bunch, loved em all. Play a few to get a good idea and rock the fuck out. Seriously, there's nothing like a LPC.

Buy used, new prices are fucking RIDICULOUS.

 

[VC4Ever]

Awesome. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[barnesjd]

Go Norlin, man. They are beasts. No weight relief. Neck volute. I love mine.

 

[smdb]

Go Norlin, man. They are beasts. No weight relief. Neck volute. I love mine.

not a solid body guitar. pancakes are for breakfast. not guitars!
No weight relief on a 57 RI black beauty either, and you get the long tenon.

They stopped the pancake body after 77 or 78. I have two 79 standards and neither are pancake bodies. They are very solid awesome sounding guitars.

 

[barnesjd]

They stopped the pancake body after 77 or 78. I have two 79 standards and neither are pancake bodies. They are very solid awesome sounding guitars.

Fact. My '80 gold top is a single slice of mahogany.

Fact 2: '57 RI also has the long tenon ftw.

Fact 3: Norlins are about half that price.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Go Norlin, man. They are beasts. No weight relief. Neck volute. I love mine.

not a solid body guitar. pancakes are for breakfast. not guitars!
No weight relief on a 57 RI black beauty either, and you get the long tenon.

Meh. Cork sniffer attitude alert. My Norlin pancake LPC is thick and juicy. Love it.

 

[barnesjd]

Meh. Cork sniffer attitude alert. My Norlin pancake LPC is thick and juicy. Love it.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Go Norlin, man. They are beasts. No weight relief. Neck volute. I love mine.

not a solid body guitar. pancakes are for breakfast. not guitars!
No weight relief on a 57 RI black beauty either, and you get the long tenon.

Meh. Cork sniffer attitude alert. My Norlin pancake LPC is thick and juicy. Love it.

sort of. I love All les pauls, but Im just leading the man to a safer investment as well. Can you Norliner's chill the f out?!

We're pretty chill, man. Just gotta call out guitar snobbery when it rears it's head.

 

[Faxanadu]

Hi Guys.
Can you guys school me on this please:
I'm looking for used LPC BB since months now on the local market, that I can try before I pull the trigger.

I keep seeing some owners that say their's is with maple cap/top, others that say Carved Mahogany top. All seem to have a mahogany neck with Ebony fingerboard.

Can you experts confim that LPC BB is an all Mahogany guitar or there are variations ???

Thanks in advance.

Buy the way, Merry Christmas to you all.

F.

 

[barnesjd]

Sorry, gotta keep a high standard of excellence over here.

None of that stuff matters nearly as much as the pickups, wiring, and hardware, all of which are crap in all eras of LPs. Gotta figure in the cost of swapping all that out, which makes those custom shop RI's even less appealing. You're messing with a more valuable instrument.

 

[barnesjd]

Hi Guys.
Can you guys school me on this please:
I'm looking for used LPC BB since months now on the local market, that I can try before I pull the trigger.

I keep seeing some owners that say their's is with maple cap/top, others that say Carved Mahogany top. All seem to have a mahogany neck with Ebony fingerboard.

Can you experts confim that LPC BB is an all Mahogany guitar or there are variations ???

Thanks in advance.

Buy the way, Merry Christmas to you all.

F.

My guess is they've made them with and without maple. The original BB and the RIs are gonna be mahogany all the way. You can see on Gibson's BB page that they don't once mention maple.

If this matters for you, then check the pickup cavities and remove a tuner. Maple is a very light tan and mahogany is a dark reddish wood. If there isn't too much black finish sprayed in these areas, you'll easily be able to tell what it's made of. Unfortunately there is usually too much finish in there.

 

[fretout]

I've owned quite a few BBs, and I would narrow them down based on their era. If you're talking about no weight relief, long neck tennons, or ABR-1 bridges, those are only offered on some "reissue" LPCs. The "standard" LPCs have "Swiss-cheese" weight relief, short tennons, and Nashville bridges. Exceptions do exist, but they are rare.

In the most recent years (from 2012 - current), the quality is much improved over "standard" LPC BBs. The paint issues and binding flaws are much less common, and the necks seem more stable and have less issues with badly cut nuts and intonation issues. The only drawback for me personally is the lack of Ebony fretboards. I like them and Gibson doesn't offer them on "standard" LPC BBs.

I've had a bunch of great BBs made between 2002 and 2007. I had a few from 2008-2011, and many of them had finish flaws (highly visible seams on the maple top, uneven binding, orange peel in the paint), and I noticed more incorrectly cut nuts on this era than any other era. From 2012-current, the quality is much better, but I prefer Ebony fretboards, so...

I like BBs that have the features of the originals (long neck tennon, no weight relief, ABR-1), so I gravitate towards the 68s, but some of the Ebony RIs are chambered, and it can be difficult to tell if it's hollow or not since the weight of the 68s varies quite a bit.

A lot of cork-sniffers avoid the Norlin era LPCs due to pancake bodies and neck volutes, but these are some of the best "bang for your buck" of all the LPCs, but the prices on these are increasing at an unreasonable rate, IMHO, but deals can be found.

TL;DR: IMHO, look for an LPC made between the years of 1992-1998 or 2002-2007.

 

[fretout]

Hi Guys.
Can you guys school me on this please:
I'm looking for used LPC BB since months now on the local market, that I can try before I pull the trigger.

I keep seeing some owners that say their's is with maple cap/top, others that say Carved Mahogany top. All seem to have a mahogany neck with Ebony fingerboard.

Can you experts confim that LPC BB is an all Mahogany guitar or there are variations ???

Thanks in advance.

Buy the way, Merry Christmas to you all.

F.

This depends on your definition of a "Black Beauty". The term used to mean the very early LPCs from 1957 and older. Some peoples definition of Black Beauty means the guitar MUST be black and must have 3 humbuckers pickups, while others consider any Ebony LPC of any era and any construction a "Black Beauty".

People that are referring to Mahogany body with Mahogany top LPC BBs are speaking about the 57RI (humbuckers) or the 54RI. To my knowledge, these are the only all-mahogany LPCs. Personally, I like the LPCs with Maple caps more, but to each their own.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Mr. Willy]

Go Norlin, man. They are beasts. No weight relief. Neck volute. I love mine.

not a solid body guitar. pancakes are for breakfast. not guitars!
No weight relief on a 57 RI black beauty either, and you get the long tenon.

Meh. Cork sniffer attitude alert. My Norlin pancake LPC is thick and juicy. Love it.

sort of. I love All les pauls, but Im just leading the man to a safer investment as well. Can you Norliner's chill the f out?!

We're pretty chill, man. Just gotta call out guitar snobbery when it rears it's head.

Sorry, gotta keep a high standard of excellence over here.

Not me. It's pure mediocrity for this guy. If you heard me play, I'm sure you would agree.

 

[barnesjd]

SO true. I change ALL the stuff anyway. new pickups/wiring, All faber parts. refret and new nut/tuners.

I've not used Faber, although it was on my list to consider when I fixed up my gold top. I went with Callaham and I've been very pleased.

 

[Faxanadu]

Hi Guys.
Can you guys school me on this please:
I'm looking for used LPC BB since months now on the local market, that I can try before I pull the trigger.

I keep seeing some owners that say their's is with maple cap/top, others that say Carved Mahogany top. All seem to have a mahogany neck with Ebony fingerboard.

Can you experts confim that LPC BB is an all Mahogany guitar or there are variations ???

Thanks in advance.

Buy the way, Merry Christmas to you all.

F.

This depends on your definition of a "Black Beauty". The term used to mean the very early LPCs from 1957 and older. Some peoples definition of Black Beauty means the guitar MUST be black and must have 3 humbuckers pickups, while others consider any Ebony LPC of any era and any construction a "Black Beauty".

People that are referring to Mahogany body with Mahogany top LPC BBs are speaking about the 57RI (humbuckers) or the 54RI. To my knowledge, these are the only all-mahogany LPCs. Personally, I like the LPCs with Maple caps more, but to each their own.

Merry Christmas!

Thanks guys for all this knowledge about "Black" LPCs.
The one I am looking at currently is a 2005 Ri 57, all mahogany long tenon with Burstbucker PUs and ABR-1 bridge, Ebony fingerboard...
The guy who is selling it right now is telling me it is all original specs, no mods are whatsoever...

I will go and try it anyway but can you guys tell me if it's a good one or not ???

Thanks.
F.

 

[Rick Lee]

If I could get a 57 RI Black Beauty from the custom shop for a good price I would buy it immediately without touching it, but thats the only one I would do that with.

The local GC has one for either $2400 or $2700. It's pretty clean, but I hate those 50's style necks.

I got a three pup classic that I converted to look like a Custom.

Before:

After:

Final:

 

[jlb32]

I love my 2005 LP Custom. Great guitars. Can't go wrong IMO whether you go for the standard model or one of the reissues. I've had both and kept the standard one. Just sounded and played better to me personally.