1956 Les Paul Gold Top

[plexi50]

I have hesitated to make known my latest find in the guitar world.

It has been in the case for at least 35 years as the imprint of the back control panels are basically stamped in the case itself.
Early 1956 had the barrel knobs. Not top hat knobs. It has the slight green tint you would see in the laquer finish on an angle.

It is in excellent condition with the rare dark brown finish on the body the neck. Brown back plate panels. The pots date to late 1955.

The tuners are grovers and not original but who cares???

The P90 pickups sound astounding. The setup that has been done is perfect.  (Edited)

[TIMBO]

Good work, I know a couple of Ben Franklin's would you be prepared to swap...............

[Platefire]

Naw! Can't Be

[plexi50]

M

[Ritchie200]

wow... that is a beaut!  I dont know too much about LP's but I thought the "pointer pots" only came with the tophat knobs?  My experience with LP's are old Jr's and a horrid mid 70's model that went out of tune just by looking at it...  That would be a great guitar to play!  Congrats!


Jim

[jjasilli]

Congrats! 


I've got a '69 reissue.  Nice guitar but the reissues weigh a ton!  I bought it in '73 when it was just a used guitar. 

[Jim Coash]

That guitar looks nearly identical to the one I had.  Same case, coloring, inlays, dark wood back, stop tailpiece and cream colored pickup covers.  The only thing I changed was replacing the original tuners with Grovers just to keep it in tune better than the originals which I sold with the guitar in a baggie.  It played and sounded superb.  I traded it for a Carver M-500 power amp in 1982.  A man walked in carrying the case, asked if I took trades and when he opened the case on the counter top I just told him to pick out whatever amp he wanted.  Before he walked out I had the presence of mind to ask him if he had an amp for it.  The next day he returned with my Fender Twin Reverb and took home a pre-amp.  I sold the guitar for a lot of money.  The amp is still mine, totally re-furbed, and the most awesome Twin I have ever heard.  Jim

[Ritchie200]

Smells a little Skunky to me.....




Jim

[Willabe]

That guitars tone on the sound clip is very good indeed!

Smooth, warm, round, full, got plenty of harmonics coming through, some bite but not piercing on the lead PUP, I like it!   

Bet it sound great for playing slide.


                  Brad     

[SILVERGUN]

Yeah plex,,,,sound great!!
I'm real happy to see the joy it brings!
 
I've tried not to fall in love with the one's I'll never be able to touch,,,,but this is makin it tough!
 

Im calling this the BLANK ZONE. I started to play the gold top and my mind went blank. The best part is at the very end.

They are the best moments...just that it takes you there.
I don't really remember any of my best playing moments except for people telling me I was in "THE ZONE" and some cloudy recollection of partially losing consciousness. 
 
 
 
 

[Platefire]

Back in the early 70's when a Les Paul was my dream guitar I ordered what I thought was the top of the heap, a Les Paul Custom Black Beauty. They didn't stock it at the music store and had to order it. It took a while for it to come in and in the mean time the shop keeper offered me a Gold top Les Paul with P-90's just like this one in this thread that they had in stock because I was getting impatient. I played on it a little but didn't accept that and waited until my custom came in.

That custom turned out to be the biggest headache of a guitar I ever had. I couldn't get it to intoneate or play in tune correctly. Not being as good of guitar tech as I am today, I was completely dependent on them to correct it and they couldn't. So I had to give up on it and they talked me into swapping even for a new strat and Deluxe reverb amp.

On hind site---boy I wish I would have went for the goldtop. IMHO it looks better than a Black Beauty any day of the week. Can't say about the operation because I've never played one but seeing this one sure makes me think of that old decision I made back in the 70's.  Platefire

[plexi50]

Here is some actual playing tone of it. The amp is a 5E3 running through a 1973 Traynor 212 cab with older plain old eminence speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cY0bEeXlYY

[Ritchie200]

So I had to give up on it and they talked me into swapping even for a new strat and Deluxe reverb amp.

I'd say if they had offered you just the Strat you would have been taking them to the cleaners!    How could you go from such a perfect guitar (Strat just to make sure there is no confusion...) to a t......t.......te......ta....  AHHH, I cant say it!!!!


Jim

[Jim Coash]

Born and raised in Kalamazoo was/is a window of opportunity for guitar players.  Much like being from Fullerton, CA or in New York near Martin.  All my life I have heard stories of amazing scores made at garage sales and church bazaars.  Five years after I took that 1967 Goldtop  on trade I took a 1977 Blonde Les Paul Custom in for a home audio system in the $1200 range.  That instrument remains in the family and is my older son's main player.  He was too intimidated by the Goldtop to even take it out of the house.  We both knew how much it was worth.  The 1977 was built at 225 Parsons Street shortly before Gibson closed the doors in town.  It has the total gold package with beautiful inlays in the head stock and neck.  It sounds and plays nearly the same as the Gold top did and is still pretty valuable but not like that older Les Paul.  When I broke my orange Framus off at the nut during a gig I knew it was time for a guitar I would love.  My teacher let me borrow his Gibson SG, which was very much like Zappa's but with a gloss red lacquer finish.  I fell in love with it.  My only concern was its durability.  I was warned that it was the most serviced model in the Gibson line.  Lots of frets but rather weak at the neck/body joint, especially for string benders like me.  I was trying to swing a Les Paul financially when another friend offered me his ES-335 Cherry.  I just could not pass up the deal and it was a great player.  I was foolish to let it get away.  When I could afford it I went to see my friends at Heritage about an H-150.  I bought a black one.  Then one day I was looking through the "second" rack and saw a gorgeous H-555 in butterscotch translucent on flamed maple.  I finally had to ask why it was in that rack.  It wasn't stamped "2" and I could not see a thing wrong with it.  It was loaded, including gold hardware.  One of the workers pointed out that it was "triple bound" instead of the usual two layers.  That was done to cover the flaw but then it was an oddball.  I convinced them to label it a C (custom) or S (special) and let me have it in exchange for a sound system for the shop.  It is truly a "one of a kind".  I have the only Heritage H-555C ever made!  Jim

[Platefire]

Plexi50, it sounds great clean and distorted. Your Blessed to obtain such a rare Vintage Beauty in such Great Shape. We celebrate with you 

Jim, I will say it for you tele Don't you feel better now! To answer you question, I have a strat I like very much. It comes down to what feels most natural in you hands and what you feel most at home with. Leo got it right the first time 

Jim Coash---I've never laid hands on a Heritage but always wanted to. Sounds like you swung a good deal on a one of a kind. You was talking about the 335 you let go that you wished you had kept. I also had a Cherry Guild Starfire I played for a couple of years that was a fine ax, I wish I had kept. Oh the ones that got away! Platefire

[Ritchie200]

My fall in love guitar story was when I road my bike to a not so local music store (about 15 miles) and they had a Dan Armstrong clear guitar.  They had all of the pickups for it and the sales guy told me they were not going to make them any more (not true...), so it will be an instant collector!! (not really true...)  He offered it to me for $350.00.  I had just bought my first Marshall 50 watt (small box) stack and I was out of money.  That guitar and I were one....  It weighed a ton and I played it through a oh-so-crappy solid state amp.  Yet it sounded so good and played flawless.  It was just effortless.  We were meant to be!  I pedaled home as fast as I could (because the salesman said it would not last long at that price!!!) and BEGGED my dad to give me a loan.  This would have been around '71-'72 so that was a lot of money.  My dad told me to cut some more lawns and shovel some more snow, just like I did to buy the Marshall....  But Dad, you don't understand!!!!!!    Good advice that I didn't appreciate at the time, but do now.  That music store went out of business a few months later and I never saw another Dam Armstrong until the reissues came out.  By then I was well into my Strat infatuation.


Jim, please don't get me wrong as I kid around a lot here.  I have played many a fabulous Gibson.  I think one of their best guitars was the LP Jr's.  You could drop them, leave them out in the rain, in the trunk of your car, etc., etc... and they would play like the day you bought it.  Leslie West has a soft spot for them!  I also had an SG that played fantastic, but as you noted, I know how Pete Townsend did the SG whammy bar effect without a whammy bar.....  I'll bet you could find all sorts of treasures in the Gibson trash bin behind the shop back in the day!


I also remember back in the 60's and early 70's there were a lot of heroes that did not come home alive from Vietnam.  That meant there were a LOT of name guitars for sale cheap as the parents just wanted any reminders gone.  If these guitars could talk.


Jim

[Jim Coash]

I found a very basic Gibson Melody Maker, which had a thin solid body, one black plastic P-90 near the bridge, a simple soap bar tailpiece, basic Gibson machines, a dotted neck and painted logo in dark red stain that I carried as a spare for several years.  As you say, I could always rely on the guitar, even out of the trunk in February when I needed a player.  I wish I had it back but one of my nephews begged me for a guitar telling me he wanted to learn to play.  He had it a month before it was stolen.  By then he had taken up drums.  Jim

[alerich]

What is the market value these days for a guitar of that vintage? I ask because I'd be flipping it in a heartbeat. I loathe P90 pickups and can't bring myself to carve up vintage instruments if I can make a good profit flipping them.

[Jim Coash]

The value of any guitar is simply what a buyer is willing to pay.  That has varied wildly over the years.  For a while, Asian buyers were paying exorbitant money for American guitars.  That changed as the economy did.  It was also true for American made audio components, most notably, McIntosh items.  I did not plan to sell the 1967 Gibson Goldtop.  The people at the Heritage factory had seen it, confirmed its authenticity and showed me the "signs" that needed to be there.  They had to remove the neck pick-up to see the joint just to confirm its pedigree.  There were other signs including the numbers on the pots under the access cover, the type of caps used, the serial number, of course and the materials used in construction.  It was a chance occurrence when someone approached me about selling it.  I asked my son if he cared that I sold it and that was when he told me he preferred the blond 1977 guitar and was afraid to use the goldtop.   Suffice it to say that when I took that instrument in on trade for a Carver M-500 power amp I had less than $500 invested in it.  I sold it for more than 25 times that.  I will always miss it, hanging on my living room wall, but that money allowed me to pay off some old debts, do some nice things with my wife and hang two new Heritage guitars in its place.  Today I believe those two instruments are worth at least as much as the gold top.  Someday I expect they may be worth much more, depending on what happens to Heritage.  Jim

[alerich]

The value of any guitar is simply what a buyer is willing to pay.

I have a strong suspicion that George Gruhn pens very few appraisals that conclude with the phrase "What a buyer is willing to pay".

[HotBluePlates]

The value of any guitar is simply what a buyer is willing to pay.

I have a strong suspicion that George Gruhn pens very few appraisals that conclude with the phrase "What a buyer is willing to pay".

Yes & no.

For vintage guitars, "what the buyer is willing to pay" mostly only holds true in moving the price upwards; if I walk in a shop, see a guitar priced at $10k and say I'm only willing to pay $500, the price doesn't become $500.

But Gruhn (and other dealers) know and understand what is popular in the market and what has fallen out of favor (even if popular before). So Gruhn knows what th market as a whole is "willing to pay" and also how that might be different in the U.S. vs Japan, for instance.

What is a 1959 LP Standard worth? I played one once right after the owner came from Gruhn's. Tuners were replaced with Grovers (typical) and it had plenty of honest playing wear. What is the price for it today? Hard to say because lately sellers seem to not be posting that info (at least on the web), but you can bet north of $200k, and maybe very much more. In 2000, Gruhn appraised the guitar at $65k, because that was what the market would bear at that time.

Is that Les Paul intrinsically worth more than a house? No, but there is a very small available supply of them and a lot of people with deep pockets around the world wanting to own one. That drives the price up & up whenever one is made available for sale.

So Gruhn says, "whatever the customer will pay" indirectly when he appraises. Especially in the cases of guitars/amps which once were hot commodities but the market has fallen on them and the prices dropped.

[Jim Coash]

I have often lamented my long gone guitars, sold when I needed money for far less than they would be worth now.  The same is true for amps and a lot of stereo equipment.  On the other hand, most of the items I sold would be worth nothing in today's market.  My interest in quality instruments has always been the driving force.  Some of the items I own now are worth quite a bit but not what they would be if someone famous had owned or played them.  That factor is irrational to me.  Owning a Gibson "Lucille" or a Fender "Blackie" played by B.B.King or Eric Clapton would be intriguing and a very good investment but I am most interested in real players not art.  I do proudly display my collection in the house and my collection of posters, neon signs and other artifacts from the rock and roll era always brings admiration from those who see them.  My wife is quite surprised to see instruments on "Antiques Roadshow" and "Pawn Stars" and point to one of my prized possessions in the realization that the one worth so much money looked to be identical to mine.  Of course, looks can be deceiving and a Les Paul owned by Les Paul would be valuable for that reason alone.  I have certainly coveted plenty of guitars over the years and on a few occasions almost had my hands on some of them.  Usually I was either outbid or simply reached the end of what I could afford.  I never stop looking.  On a few occasions I have found something really cool at a bargain price.  Jim

[Ritchie200]

Yeah I hear you.  The "famously owned" collectables can be tricky.  I had the chance to buy a Major that Ritchie Blackmore had used for years.  He had it in the MKII, MKIII, Rainbow, and MKII/MKV Reunion years.  It was also the one that got blown up at the California Jam and tossed off the stage, then repaired, and then re-covered in white tolex for the late Rainbow years.  My obsessive Ritchie Blackmore obsessed self was saying YES!!!!!!    My wife standing next to me with a club was giving me the evil eye....    After all, we still need to make a few more house payments.  Would it be the ultimate in cool for a lifelong fan like me?  Hell yes!!!!  But what am I going to do with it?  Show it to my friends?  Take pics of it to post online to brag and hope nobody figures out where I live?  Maybe after I win the lotto.  I've got other fish to fry before I go.  Also, at some point these relics become irrelevant.  The obsessive fans become fewer and fewer until nobody really cares. Or, the value drops significantly.  I remember seeing an episode of Beverly Hills Pawn where some guy brought in Ray Manzarek's organ that he recorded Light My Fire with and toured with.  He had all the documentation to prove it was the real deal.   I'm thinking this has to bring $30K, $40K, maybe more!  What history!!  Well they brought in some Musical instrument collector/appraiser who said it was maybe worth $3K to $4K tops to an avid collector.  I was stunned!  I have a soccer ball that Rod Stewart kicked off the stage that I caught with my face back in the 80's.  I had a girl offer me $100 for it at the end of the concert.  Once again my wife gave me the evil eye.  Now it's worth....our memories!


I think the classic and rare instruments and amps will always bring big bucks.


Jim

[alerich]

Yes & no.

So Gruhn says, "whatever the customer will pay" indirectly when he appraises.

With all due respect, while you can certainly infer whatever you wish from a Gruhn appraisal it will always include a dollar figure based on what the average customer is paying at the time of the appraisal for an instrument of that vintage, condition and perhaps provenance. George doesn't get extra points for overestimating the current market value of the items he appraises. That's what I was asking about. I thought it was a fairly straight forward question but in light of the responses it cultivated perhaps it is not. My guess is that most of George's appraisals are for insurance purposes, anyway.

I saw a 1956 Goldtop Les Paul remarkably similar to the one in the this post on Craigslist in Nashville this weekend for $32K. I don't know how market accurate that price is, though.

[Jim Coash]

Every time I visited the Heritage factory I felt close to history.  The men who worked there told amazing stories about the great performers using instruments made in that building whether bearing the Gibson or Heritage name.  More than once I saw an instrument that had a famous name on the tag.  The Heritage H-550 I own was in a rack right next to a similar one with the name "Ted Nugent" on it.  I also saw several others from both the rock and roll genre and country.  I am sure I sat in the same chair playing various guitars where many notable players sat.  The Beatles, Stones, Clapton, Beck, Page, Roy Clark and so many others visited that factory a some point.  One day I met Dan Brown seated in that chair.  There were some autographs on the wall, signed posters and various company literature.   They had a rack of instruments that went back many years, some were prototypes, like the bass I have, some were instruments exchanged for one reason or another by famous players.  Les Paul and Mary Ford were frequent visitors during the 50s and 60s.  B.B King requested his signature guitar, "Lucille" be made from an ES-355 without "F" holes to help control feedback.  The H-440 flat top guitar I owned and then passed on to my son was a "special order" for a well known country star but was not delivered because they made two and the other guitar was deemed the better of the two.  It is a true "one of a kind" instrument and they stopped making them soon after.  Jim