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Mary Ford Les Paul SG on Pawn Stars!


RUSHian

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Did anyone watch Pawn Stars last night? Mary Ford's nephew brought in her white SG Les Paul Custom! Amazing piece. He also had contracts, and letters signed by Les Paul. They gave him $90,000.00 for the collection. I wonder how much it would go for in an auction?

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Well, the guitar is legit, and I was trying to get a discussion about how much Mary Ford's Les Paul could be worth? I'm not a big fan of reality TV (I agree it is all staged- heck even Antique Road Show is staged), but you see some cool items.

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I too think the show is staged...but that doesn't take away from the fact there there are some really cool things that pass through the shop.

 

And yes...I saw Mary Ford's Les Paul SG..... I think it's worth every penny of $100,000! (it's been featured on album covers, after all!)

 

200.jpg

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I saw that episode last night and almost fell off the couch. Missed the early part where Les Paul's nephew brings in the axe; started watching when that guy comes in to validate the signature. That guitar was beautiful. Shame to see it sell for so much. Yeah, I know it is a piece of rock & roll history. Some rich dude is going to be very happy.

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They also said Les Paul was very unhappy with the SG design,and didn't want his name on it.

 

That is true. Thank the flying spaghetti monster Gibson decided to keep the model even after Les Paul rejected it.

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That is true. Thank the flying spaghetti monster Gibson decided to keep the model even after Les Paul rejected it.

Hold your horses, some say Les Paul only said that because of his and Mary's divorce. If he sponsored the SG then she would of gotten money as well due to the divorce, so no one truly knows the whole story if he really meant it or not.

If he disliked it then why did he do so many early promos of it? Makes no sense and Les wasnt really a greedy a guy.

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Some of you guys are killing me. Complaining about segments being staged. Right, just like every other reality show out there. Come on.

 

I saw the episode and thought it was really interesting, especially the guitar, but also all the docs the guy had. The guitar had that same old SG problem - busted out jack. Damn that hurts. And a pretty crappy repair job from the looks of it.

 

BTW, in 1960 Les actually said he didn't like the SG and asked Gibson to remove his name from the guitar. Les was pissed Gibson did this without his knowledge and he parted from Gibson in 1960. Les and Mary separated in 1962 and the divorce wasn’t finalized until 1964. Do the math.

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Some of you guys are killing me. Complaining about segments being staged. Right, just like every other reality show out there. Come on.

 

I saw the episode and thought it was really interesting, especially the guitar, but also all the docs the guy had. The guitar had that same old SG problem - busted out jack. Damn that hurts. And a pretty crappy repair job from the looks of it.

 

BTW, in 1960 Les actually said he didn't like the SG and asked Gibson to remove his name from the guitar. Les was pissed Gibson did this without his knowledge and he parted from Gibson in 1960. Les and Mary separated in 1962 and the divorce wasn’t finalized until 1964. Do the math.

Still does make sense why he was seen with the guitar...

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Hold your horses, some say Les Paul only said that because of his and Mary's divorce. If he sponsored the SG then she would of gotten money as well due to the divorce, so no one truly knows the whole story if he really meant it or not.

 

I agree with this.

 

That's the version of the story related in Gil Hembree's 'Gibson Guitars : Ted McCarty's Golden Era 1948-1966' and there is more details recounted by those who knew the real story at the time for me to believe it. I think it was Ted McCarty and Les Paul who were central to the whole deal that resulted in his name being allowed to disappear at the end of the original 10-year endorsement contract signed by both sides.

 

If anyone wants it typed-up here I can track it down tomorrow A.M.

 

PM me.

 

P.

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Guest farnsbarns

Yep, all the books written by guys who were around site the dodgy divorce deal. SGs had Les' name on them through 61 too.

 

Les claimed lots of things including the fact that he designed the LP. In reality it is fairly evident that Ted's version where he took a fully built prototype to show Les at his cabin is true. Les hated the badly designed trapeze which was eventually reworked as he was right but Ted maintained that Les had no other input.

 

I'm firmly in the dodgy divorce deal camp.

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I believe the divorce scenario could be true - but Les insisted long after Mary Passed away that he hated the SG. He did, however, mention during a tv show I'd seen once (it was some sort of tribute to him featuring EVH and a long list of others) that he did regret having his name removed from the SG since it has become one of the best selling models ever... said if he knew then what he knew now he'd never have done it. lol

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I'm surprised I've not seen this discussed...How much would Les' first Les Paul sell for? Or any of his main guitars? He must have had a 59. Probably brand new untouched in it's case still.

If Gibson gave him a '59 in '59 the first thing he would have dome would be to mod it.......

 

P.

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If Gibson gave him a '59 in '59 the first thing he would have dome would be to mod it.......

 

P.

 

It wouldn't have mattered if it was Les himself that modded it. In fact from a cash point of view it would be worth more.

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No links, but I can recall a while back when one of his alleged guitars was on EBAY.

 

Along with that, came the knowledge that at one point, he was robbed. More difficult, it had been so long since he 'visited' these guitars, he was unable to say when it was.

 

So, because of this, it makes it impossible to have provenance. And as Mr. LP has stated and others have confirmed, he was constantly modding them. So, the guitars in films and pics would not look the same.

 

Not to say they aren't out there, but finding one and being able to recognize it and prove it is a tall order.

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On the off topic, who designed the LP: I think everyone is telling the truth.

 

Firstly, EVERYTHING about it is the same as Gibsons before it, EXCEPT for the solid body. Apart from that, there is not a feature or detail that wasn't already designed and used on previous Gibsons. In fact, even the choice of woods.

 

So, when it comes to Mr.LP's version, that he designed every thing on it, perhaps from HIS point of view he did. The color, the bridge, etc. And being given samples for approval, he might think of himself as designing it. And, after all, he DID come up with the solid-body concept. He brought them the idea years before, which they did NOT do at the time. I can see where he could think of all this as himself being the designer.

 

So, while Mr. LP might have viewed Gibson as finally building something he had asked for, and perhaps even thought they were using his idea, SOMEBODY had to engineer it to build it. Somebody had to choose the woods, the features, size, scale, pups, etc. Gibson brought him finished samples. It is clear that Mr. LP was not present for that, and he even states himself they brought him finished guitars for approval.

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Yep, all the books written by guys who were around site the dodgy divorce deal. SGs had Les' name on them through 61 too.

 

Les claimed lots of things including the fact that he designed the LP. In reality it is fairly evident that Ted's version where he took a fully built prototype to show Les at his cabin is true. Les hated the badly designed trapeze which was eventually reworked as he was right but Ted maintained that Les had no other input.

 

I'm firmly in the dodgy divorce deal camp.

 

I have a guitar player interview somewhere in which Les himself confirmed that, although he wasn't totally sold on the SG, the main reason he dropped the naming deal was so it would not be distributed as marital property in the divorce. I've read that the carved top was entirely a Gibson idea, and they chose it simply because the had machinery for wood carving that Fender didn't have, and they thought it would differentiate the brand. Many of the personal models Les Paul used in his career had flat tops.

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