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Two LPs with the same serial number


Tim Plains

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kink (aka Rod) is/was a respected forum member at MLP and LPF. he is also a pickupwinder- the popular Skatterbranes PAFs are his. at some point he sold a 2003 Historic LP Braz R0 #0 3XXX to delawaregold (Artie). he then sold a R0 with the same serial number to another LPF member. this member recently posted it on ebay, advertising it as a Braz R0. the guys at MLP and LPF caught on, particularly Mike60 who knew that Artie owned the guitar with serial number 0 3XXX.

 

to make a VERY long story short, Kink took a G0 and stripped it. he then took it to RS Guitarworks and had them refinish it and put the serial number in question on the guitar; he told RS that it had "senitmental" value. Rod then sold the refin G0 to the LPF member representing it as a 2003 Brazilian rosewood Les Paul 1960 Reissue. obiviously, these guitars command a serious price premium because of the Braz. The buyer knew that the serial number lined up with the Braz R0s and trusted Rod- which was common as he was a respected authority on gibson les pauls and ebay as well. Rod has since refunded the buyer's money. he has been absent on both MLP and LPF since this happened. and the day the story broke, he announced on his website that he was DCing making his pickups. hmmmm.....

 

the moral here is to be very very careful when buying a used Les Paul, even the guy who is the most respected can be a conartist. i'm sure i'm missing some details, but that's the gist of it.

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Thanks Fenn! That's basically what I was looking for.

Glad to hear that guy got his money back.

The thing that surprises me is RS agreed to putting a different s/n on the guitar. They shold know better' date=' right?[/quote']

 

 

thats kinda the knee jerk reaction, but after reading ALL of the threads, this thing is pretty common. i guess people change the serial numbers all the time on LPs and guitars in general. HM chimed in and said if they do it, they stamp the original number in the cavity and document for both themselves and the buyer what the original number was, what the new number is, that it was changed and why.

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Yep refinish and re-necked guitars get weird fast, it would be a shame if it was on purpose as a con. As time and changes are made though the original serial numbers get weird and not just on guitars the same issue sometimes happens on rebuilt guns and even car vin numbers or anything else with numbers in a replaceable area. I have a limited edition 200 made Gibson LP that the custom shop numbered wrong and then issued two of the same number missing one number completely took 3 months to get it straightened out and luckily the other guys guitar was renumbered and my numbers all matched but I still got a letter from Gibson explaining it in case a question ever came up.

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