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Way cool. Worked on a couple of those in my life. Never owned one, though.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

That's a pretty sweet guitar. Can't help with the year as I know nothing about dating guitars. As we all know, I stick to dating goats. ba-dum-bum!

Is that an ivory nut by any chance? *googles Fish and Wildlife's phone number*
Just asking out of, umm..curiosity. Nothing else. Really.

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PMoMC

I'm not a expert at old Les Pauls or anything, but with that trapeze tail piece I would tend to agree with you. Not to say It couldn't happen though. I am an expert in WANTING THAT GUITAR for my collection,,,, beautiful!

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Whatever you do DON'T confuse me as an EXPERT, or MASTER, just a self learned trial and error guy. I had to build a dozen guitar before I found out what a "Luthier" even was (????)

"by early 1953 the "wrap around stop bar" tailpiece/bridge combo was adopted by Gibson on the Les Paul Goldtop."

"Earliest seen wrap-around is serial number "3 0995""

and this one probably says it all:
"By 1953 a rhythm/treble plastic surround on the pickup selector switch was added" which I don't see on this one so you are probably right.

Here is where I got this info:
http://home.provide.net/~cfh/lpgold0.html

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Whatever you do DON'T confuse me as an EXPERT, or MASTER, just a self learned trial and error guy. I had to build a dozen guitar before I found out what a "Luthier" even was (????)

Man I love Gold tops!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Loverly!

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Oh man, you shoulda bolted on a Floyd licenced bridge & locking nut & 3 EMG buckers before sending it back out the door!!!!

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If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason. - Jack Handey

Sweet!
I bet the Switchcraft toggle switch still works.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

I'm in lust.......

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

My book describes it as a pre '53.
That guitar has lots of player wear, but it was very well taken care of.
Pretty amazing.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

That's cooler than most things.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

What makes you question the year? I have seen 53's with the trapeze tail and the missing pickup selector surround identical to this. They did make a 53 with the wrap around and the selector surround in 53 too. Gibson had a way with carrying over previous year guitars with the later date serial when they were sold.

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Another day, another dollar.

Looks very cool, Filippo! P-90 Lesters are my favorite incarnation.

Did you use have to replace the nut? If you did, did you use bone, or the original style Nylon?

Also, have you suggested to the customer the option of changing the bridge to either the mojoaxe or Joe Glaser replacements? They don't require any permanent modification to the guitar, and make it a lot more playable

This was in my shop last summer and I believe is a 52 for comparison. This one is very early, in fact I believe it might even be a prototype. Look at the control route.

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Ken

Notice the screws holding the pickups.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ken

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Ken

Reminds me of the corner screws on the "staple" P-90's.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

That CARVE!!!
Any of you carve top guys notice the carve around the fretboard on the picture of the boy playing it? Looks to me like a slightly different taper or maybe lesser neck angle (compared to the more modern ones) to leave that much slope that close to the toggle. Just lighting?
What a beauty.

Filippo, could you make me a copy of that on your Dupli-Carver?

I love the way it was strung up in the first photos.....

That's what Luthier insurance is for and Heritage is highly recommended and has an excellent track record too for being there when and if needed. Heritage policies also include protection from when and if we Luthiers screw-up and say knock it off the bench. For me insurance that specifically addresses potential Lutherie liability AND will be there for you in a time of need is a must have.

One thing that I subscribe to when having a bailment for a valuable instrument is to only talk about it in public after it is gone and safely returned to the owner. I rarely even do that. I also won't mention any instrument unless I have specifically asked to do so and this includes pics as well. Not being critical here or that is not my intent but hopefully helpful in that I lose sleep over concern for some of the stuff that we see as well. It helps me not worry if I know that I am not making it easy for anyone with ill intent and that we are heavily insured.

Pretty cool LP and when I was a kid my best friend's brother has a 53 gold top too. I remember learning the tune Wooden Ships on a 53 LP.

Yeah I completely understand about the sentimental value thing not being covered by insurance. Most of the valuable stuff that we see qualifies as having great, family, sentimental value too - so much so that I think it's par for the course so-to-speak. Sometimes we have a flipper as a client but often it's the under the bed for the last 40 years guitar that has been in one family the entire time.

To my way of thinking even discussing a highly valuable instrument after it's gone may place the next ones at risk too if you get known for having valuable stuff in your shop. So much as I would like to at times post pics, discuss an instrument etc., I just maintain the confidentiality of my clients even in the generic client sense.

Again I'm only mentioning this because you indicated that you may lose sleep or be stressed when you have one of these around. Me too, I can completely relate and I am simply sharing with you what many of us do - keep quiet.

Something else that we do and are doing rather well these days is when we know something highly prized and valuable is coming our way we won't take it in until we have a very clearly defined scope and definition of success AND everything that we need to get to it. This greatly shortens the time that it's in our charge also limiting our liability in terms of time as well. Clients love the fast turnaround as well. Win, win!

Last week I called one guy with a not-valuable instrument because it's been here for months. He actually told me that he was hoping to keep it at our shop all winter because we humidify and he doesn't.... Strange, I don't remember posting a sign about it being OK to store your dead guitars at our place.... He picked it up two days later as promised and also bought two case humidifiers...

Also something else that may help you add value for your own clients is Heritage recently sent us promotional cards to give out to folks with collections and valuable stuff. Not only do they insure Luthiers but I believe that the majority of policies that they write are for expensive collections and/or instruments. So we pass these out where appropriate and I remain surprised how often it does not occur to folks that their valuable instrument may not have jack for coverage with a standard homeowner's policy.

Cool guitar though, brings back memories as well.

Hope this helps.