Grog

On first glance, it looks odd. The Ripper had a set neck while the Grabber & G3 had a bolt-on neck at the time. The 3 screw TRC looks Asian built.

If it is stamped, it could be a 1974. Gibson went to an oval decal in 1975 that lasted until they changed to a stamped 8 digit number in 1977.

I have both a 1967 EB-2C & a 1967 ES-335C that had the orange oval sticker missing. The EB-2 was ordered without a hand rest & the ES-335 was ordered custom with a Bigsby, it has a “CUSTOM” TRC. I assume that, at least in 1967, if you ordered something different they skipped the orange label & just stamped a FON inside the body. Anybody else run into this?

The newest VG Price Guide is one way to get an idea of value, along with watching what a guitar actually sells for on Reverb, Gbase & eBay. https://imgur.com/9k7X8jG Yours has been modified to the point that it will be worth less than it would have been if it were original.

These folks may know a bit more than most guitar shops. They have been dealing in left-handed guitars for years...... https://www.southpawguitars.com/

I have two published shipping total books, they only go up to 1979. There is no mention of left handed guitars, at least in the ES-330s.

I was under the impression that Memphis built hollow bodies came with that TRC. Now that Memphis is closed down & hollow body production has resumed at Nashville, they likely are no longer using it..... My two ES Les Pauls both had it in 2015 & 2016.

I’ll give it a try..... https://i.imgur.com/mZewfsgl.jpg It takes me there, but acts like there is something wrong......

Same thing happened to me. Do we have to do something different to post photos from imgur?

2006 Melody Maker Les Paul.

The L-5S has the same body shape & uses that truss rod cover. The cases are interchangeable. [img]https://i.imgur.com/9wfdivN.jpg[/img]

Gibson changed the design through the sixties and into the seventies. This era they tried changes to lower production costs & many were not too well received. My 1972 EB-4L used the same basic body & is slightly different than yours. The neck heels evolved quite differently through the years also. [img]https://i.imgur.com/NEhzGqwl.jpg[/img]

My book lists the serial number as either a 70, 71 or 72. With the embossed pickup, I would date it as a 1972. You can remove the back plate and see if you can read any of the pot codes. It should be similar to 1377248. 137=CTS, 72=year manufactured 1972 & 48= week of year manufactured. This will help verify the year. It can’t be any older than the pots.

Thanks. For whatever reason, I limited my amp collecting to this era.........

I believe that they were called HC-12 cabinets. They were a larger cabinet for the GSS-100 amp. I have only seen one before. Here is a shot of my amp with the more common, smaller 2-10 speakers. Over 40 years ago, I had an empty set of these smaller cabinets that had one 12” speaker mounted at a 45 degree angle with a smaller horn or speaker also. They must have had several less common versions. These, along with the GSS-50 combo amp were Gibson’s 2nd attempt at marketing a solid state amp in the middle to late sixties. They had one combo amp in the Crestliner Series.

The Les Paul Signature had a jack in both places. Low Impedance on the bottom & high on the top.

The Shure A95U works well as is, but you need an unbalanced male XLR to 1/4 mono chord to go with it. Hosa makes a chord that I’ve bought in the past. The Les Paul Personal actually has a stereo jack for an output jack. The tip is guitar & the extra contact is for the mic if I recall correctly. Mine came with the same chord that was shipped with the Les Paul Professional, but I’ve seen a part number for a different chord that likely came with some of the Les Paul Personals. I’ve never seen one & all of these original chords are hard to come by. I’ve bought a “Y” chord adapter to split off the mic & guitar signals, but the mono chord works fine if you don’t use the mic. My Les Paul Professional was modified with a mic transformer soldered internally also. Gibson changed the schematic in 1975 to show a transformer internally for either the Personal or the Professional. Like Dave Gould always stressed, the shortest chord possible on the amp end gives you the best result.

Must be original! I would imagine without the varitone switch that they left the big choke out also.............

The slotted headstock narrows it down quite a bite. My book says it started late 1969, it didn’t last too many years. A lot of people converted an EB-0 to an EB-3 by adding the second pickup & a toggle switch. I’ve never seen one come from the factory with a toggle switch thought it could have been altered. If you can see one of the pot codes, that will help narrow it down. 1376942 (example), 137=CTS, 69=year pot manufactured & 42=week of year manufactured.

I had never seen one before, (like most people!). I run into one in a local pawn shop. After a while it started to grow on me in an odd way. I went to pick it up and was told that it was just purchased by Beck’s road manager. It was quite a while before I would run into another one that I would eventually buy. Justin Meldal-Johnsen years later sold some of his basses on eBay, his 20/20 was in the lot. I asked another ex Gibson employee (Randy Lenard?) on another forum if he remembered it. He said that it came and went like a flavor of the month without much interest.

The Gibson 20/20 is a very rare bass, designed by Ned Steinberger after Gibson acquired his company. They weren’t very popular & not many were made. Members of “The Last Bass Outpost” blog have discussed this bass in great detail. Several of us own them. We believe that somewhere between 50 & 100 were produced. I think it’s closer to 50. Also, “The Gibson Bass Book” written by a member of the Last Bass Outpost is an excellent source of info on this bass.

Like Dave F said, it lands somewhere between 1970 - 1975. You could pinpoint it a little closer if you could read one of the pot codes with a dental mirror or a WiFi Borescope etc..... Example of a pot code 1377234. 137=CTS (manufacturer), 72=year pot was produced & 34=week of year produced. The 2021 VG Price Guide lists it at 1970-1979 Various colors. Low-$2,600 High-$3,350. Going by that, pinpointing the exact year won’t impact the value between 1970-1975. You can also watch eBay & Reverb to see what they actually sell for. The tuners were changed from the original Kluson tuners to Schaller tuners. This could lower the value a bit.

I still have my ‘68 12 string. I’m not much of a 12 string guy, but it was too good to pass up at the time. It has nylon saddles.........

I was just on a quest for an L5-S case. The L6-S & L5-S are the same size & use the same case. They don’t pop up often. I was finally able to buy a recent L6-S case on eBay about a year ago. A Les Paul fits in a L6-S case but a L6-S doesn’t fit in a Gibson Les Paul case. I bought a Gator single cut-a-way case for a Les Paul Jr DC Bass. The dimensions were a bit larger on this case than most LP cases. It does fit in this case but it is a bit snug. It should work for a L6-S.

I’ve had the same problem with the 2019 Les Paul JR Tribute DC Bass & Guitar. Also with a newer Gibson case for a 1973 L-5S. In both cases, a 3/4 piece of styrofoam worked perfectly. I bought a pack of (5) 14” X 4’ from Menard’s for about $7, enough to fix about 25 cases......... I tucked a towel under the body of the guitar for a few months, no more!