Guest Mister C Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 Good day everyone! I've just picked up a Christmas gift and was hoping I could receive some help identifying this guitar. I was informed it was a 1970 Gibson Les Paul Custom in all original condition except for the strap buttons. The serial number is 686324 with the words "Made in USA" stamped below it. The pots are engraved NUBLE 052300KΩ. Here are some pictures I've taken: http://i.imgur.com/3cyBT3J.jpg http://i.imgur.com/BiaMBG9.jpg http://i.imgur.com/QrcDjmG.jpg http://i.imgur.com/XGmC2Un.jpg http://i.imgur.com/v25Pwlb.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Gozry4U.jpg http://i.imgur.com/pqEAC6i.jpg http://i.imgur.com/gWqIGvL.jpg http://i.imgur.com/jp8JEHZ.jpg http://i.imgur.com/lQhFHsi.jpg http://i.imgur.com/TM7Ra1E.jpg http://i.imgur.com/fQurgLj.jpg http://i.imgur.com/pZdVyGw.jpg http://i.imgur.com/BM8Gf63.jpg http://i.imgur.com/02Fyaog.jpg Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mister C Posted December 27, 2016 Share Posted December 27, 2016 Woops, the pots are actually engraved with "NUBLE O54300KΩ" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grog Posted December 28, 2016 Share Posted December 28, 2016 Nice Les Paul!! Congrats!! The main thing that sticks out to me are the pots. To me they look changed. Here is a photo of my 1974 Les Paul Custom control cavity. Here is a photo of a pot from my 1969 LP Deluxe.......... 1376929. 137=CTS 69=1969 29=week of the year the pot was produced. This is typical of almost all Gibson of this era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mister C Posted December 28, 2016 Share Posted December 28, 2016 Thanks for the quick response! I'm actually not quite sure if these are the original pots. Your suspicion does answer quite a few of my questions though. When I had first seen these pots, I was wondering why they had never matched the engravings on other Les Paul pots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mister C Posted December 28, 2016 Share Posted December 28, 2016 I've just checked the pots again and the only engravings on the pots are the words "NOBLE 054300KΩ A=A" The other pot follows the same pattern e.g. "NOBLE 15A500KΩ..." followed by "A=B" Unfortunately, the other 2 pots were obscured by the wiring and positioning. My best guess would be that they also follow the same pattern of "NOBLE ****00KΩ A=C" and "NOBLE ****00KΩ A=D" The top of the pots do not have any engravings like yours. I hope I'm not asking for too much, but does this obscure the possibility of this being a 1970 model and more possibly a 1971, or 1972? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capmaster Posted December 28, 2016 Share Posted December 28, 2016 What I noticed is that the ABR-1 bridge is mounted the wrong way. The plating wear shows it obviously has been that way for a long time. The ABR-1 bridge would say she has been made before Gibson changed to the Nashville bridge in 1974. Noble pots have been used widely for guitars but I don't know if Gibson ever used them. At least I never have seen one with Noble pots stock. Anyway, for many years they were the most-used replacement pots around here. It seems like short-shaft pots were used for yours, not very likely to happen at Gibson I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btoth76 Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 Hello and welcome to the Forums. This is the important picture. Small volute means 1969. Bence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btoth76 Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 Compare it to the huge volute used on Gibson Les Pauls between 1970 and 1982: Bence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mister C Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 Thanks for the reply! Concerning the small volute, I was under the impression that the volute on 1969 Les Pauls were extremely small, smaller than the one in my picture. There's also the "Made in USA" stamped into the back of the headstock – wasn't it first introduced in 1970? I'll try to get a better picture of the volute once I'm back home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mister C Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 I definitely see what you mean by the smaller volute when compared at the same angle. I'm not that well-informed of the design history of Les Pauls, but I've read on the forums that there are some 1970s models without volutes and also some with small volutes. In 1969, Gibson had introduced a miniature volute on some of their models, but wouldn't this fact coincide with the small volutes produced in the 70s? If so, then wouldn't a small volute just indicate a range between 1969 – onwards? Sorry if I'm nitpicking at the details, just a bit curious about these guitars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mister C Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soultrain65 Posted October 3, 2019 Share Posted October 3, 2019 On 12/28/2016 at 12:12 AM, Guest Mister C said: I've just checked the pots again and the only engravings on the pots are the words "NOBLE 054300KΩ A=A" The other pot follows the same pattern e.g. "NOBLE 15A500KΩ..." followed by "A=B" Unfortunately, the other 2 pots were obscured by the wiring and positioning. My best guess would be that they also follow the same pattern of "NOBLE ****00KΩ A=C" and "NOBLE ****00KΩ A=D" The top of the pots do not have any engravings like yours. I hope I'm not asking for too much, but does this obscure the possibility of this being a 1970 model and more possibly a 1971, or 1972? Noble pots were used on some Gibson models i.e. Sonex. I have an original set of dirty fingers with all wiring intact and original with the Noble pots. 3B500K vol and 05A500K tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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