frettedamericana | 6 years ago

1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard PAF Gold Top, Mahogany
Single cutaway solid body. This guitar is very similar to Dickey Betts 'Goldie'. One of the very early 1958 PAF Goldtops, this guitar weighs just 8.40 lbs. and has nice, fat nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Solid mahogany body with a solid carved maple top. One-piece mahogany neck with a wonderful medium profile, and Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 22 original thin frets and inlaid pearl trapezoid (crown) position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and "Les Paul Model" silkscreened in gold. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover. The serial number "8 1791" is inked-on in black on the back of the headstock. The top of the guitar has single-ply cream binding and the fretboard has single-ply cream binding. Individual single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with single-ring tulip-shaped Keystone plastic buttons (stamped on the underside "D-169400 PATENT NO."). Two PAF humbucker pickups (double-black) with outputs of 7.33k and 7.83k. Both pickups with the small rectangular black label on the underside with "Patent / Applied For" in gold lettering. The cream neck pickup mounting ring is stamped on the inside "MR491" and "M-69 7" and the cream bridge pickup mounting ring is stamped on the inside "MR490" and "M-69 8." Single-layer cream plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout plus three-way pickup selector switch on upper bass bout. Gold plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs. The potentiometers are stamped "134 649 & 134 701" (Centralab December 1956 and January 1957). Two original "Bumble-Bee" capacitors. With the original black plastic control cavity plates. ABR-1 non-retainer Tune-O-Matic bridge with metal saddles and separate stud tailpiece.

This incredible guitar was re-finished by Tom Murphy in 1995.

This is one of the very last of the Les Paul Gold Tops, we have seen Gold Top serial No. "8 2700" and we know from Yasuhiko Iwanade's book The Beauty of the 'Burst that serial No. "8 3096" is a 'burst which is now owned by Slash. This guitar plays, sounds, and looks phenomenal, and is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. Housed in the original Gibson "Stone Case Co. Brooklyn N.Y.") brown five-latch hardshell case with pink plush lining (9.00). Included with the guitar is the original brown leather strap; the original Gibson folding hang tag with "Les Paul" stamped in blue; the original "Humbucking Pickup Adjustments" sheet; the original "Instructions Tune-O-Matic Bridge*" sheet, and also three original tags: "Sonomatic Strings", "Professionals Attention" and folding "Gibson Les Paul Model".