RedPlated
Well-known member
2023 was a legendary year. Lots of progress with building / modding amps. And finally found the Les Paul I’ve been after.
Big thanks to @SBlue for finding this one and giving me a heads up. He’s been a great person to talk to regarding vintage gear and is extremely knowledgeable in that realm.
This Les Paul is a 1952 goldtop with all original finish. So rare to find. It also had the original P90’s, electronics, pots, pick guard etc… never any breaks. I picked it up from John Ladas at Black Magic Guitars. Great guy to deal with. This particular guitar had been converted to 56 spec with a tune o matic and stop tail before I bought it. Also had been nicely re-fretted.
I made a road trip up to San Jose to inspect/ play it. I had never played one before and couldn’t believe how nice the neck felt. It is nowhere near a “baseball bat” like so many people say. It’s smaller feeling than my Historic Makeovers R9. The Brazilian board on this is the darkest I’ve ever seen.
While I was at John’s, he brought out a shoe box full of original 50’s PAF’s, including 3 double whites. I picked out a killer pair, an 8k 1958 factory sealed neck and a 1959 double white bridge that reads a nice and hot 8.7k.
The guitar with P90’s was really cool. But I needed humbuckers. And my goal was a 52/57 conversion. Plus, the neck hadn’t been reset so it still had a shallow angle.
I asked around and found out Jim Weyandt at Jam City Guitars is the #1 guy for these conversions. I sent it in to Jim and he reset the neck, from 2.3 to 4 degrees, routed it for humbuckers and corrected the bridge angle which was off a bit.
Got the guitar back last week and I’m absolutely floored. It was good but now it’s great. Plays effortlessly, rings out acoustically and the PAF’s are incredible. It weighs around 8lb 4oz…super light. Hard to believe this guitar is 72 years old!
I’ll attach some before and after photos and a link to the build photos from Jam City.
https://app.photobucket.com/u/boogieongtr/a/07b3229c-a4b0-4b4a-b060-311ee0defc08
Big thanks to @SBlue for finding this one and giving me a heads up. He’s been a great person to talk to regarding vintage gear and is extremely knowledgeable in that realm.
This Les Paul is a 1952 goldtop with all original finish. So rare to find. It also had the original P90’s, electronics, pots, pick guard etc… never any breaks. I picked it up from John Ladas at Black Magic Guitars. Great guy to deal with. This particular guitar had been converted to 56 spec with a tune o matic and stop tail before I bought it. Also had been nicely re-fretted.
I made a road trip up to San Jose to inspect/ play it. I had never played one before and couldn’t believe how nice the neck felt. It is nowhere near a “baseball bat” like so many people say. It’s smaller feeling than my Historic Makeovers R9. The Brazilian board on this is the darkest I’ve ever seen.
While I was at John’s, he brought out a shoe box full of original 50’s PAF’s, including 3 double whites. I picked out a killer pair, an 8k 1958 factory sealed neck and a 1959 double white bridge that reads a nice and hot 8.7k.
The guitar with P90’s was really cool. But I needed humbuckers. And my goal was a 52/57 conversion. Plus, the neck hadn’t been reset so it still had a shallow angle.
I asked around and found out Jim Weyandt at Jam City Guitars is the #1 guy for these conversions. I sent it in to Jim and he reset the neck, from 2.3 to 4 degrees, routed it for humbuckers and corrected the bridge angle which was off a bit.
Got the guitar back last week and I’m absolutely floored. It was good but now it’s great. Plays effortlessly, rings out acoustically and the PAF’s are incredible. It weighs around 8lb 4oz…super light. Hard to believe this guitar is 72 years old!
I’ll attach some before and after photos and a link to the build photos from Jam City.
https://app.photobucket.com/u/boogieongtr/a/07b3229c-a4b0-4b4a-b060-311ee0defc08
Last edited:
