Twang Gang

Agree with JDGM it was changed for some reason. AFAIK Epiphones are all made overseas so it wasn't like someone at Gibson reached in the wrong parts bin and grabbed an Epi stop bar by mistake. No worries, you can always tell people you changed it out for better tone 🤣. But more importantly let's see some more pictures of that LP Custom, from what I can see it looks like a beauty. And if I had a wife kind enough to get me one of those I would certainly play it more often than to only need a string change every two years - shame on you.

Counting was never my strong suit. I guess it's the two photos that are throwing me off - never heard of a 13 fret 125, but that's all I could see in the photos. I think I am wrong.

I only count 13 frets KSdaddy. Would that mean it could be older? Or newer? - Not an expert on ES 125s.

Go to the Gibson Custom forum on this website, and look at the second post. It details what information you need to send to Gibson for them to figure out what year it would be.

Gibson Brite Wires are back on the market and probably would sound good for what you want to play. Light guage are 10s, ultra light are the 9s.

If you want the tone of the maple/poplar/maple then the 339 is the way to go. Another alternative is the 336 or 356 which are a little more expensive and constructed differently. The back, sides, and centerblock are carved from a solid piece mahogany, then a carved maple top fitted. They have a much different meatier sort of tone from the mahogany but their range of sound is amazing. Anything from screaming Les Paul to 175 of L-5 type jazz tones. CS336 in vintage burst: CS356 Natural:

They would be wired in phase, but don't know the polarity or windings. That is a question for Gibson Customer service, but they will need to know what specific pickups they are, as they may been changed out in the past 50 years by a previous owner.

Very nice find - congratulations and enjoy. Have to agree with you about the '61 zebra pickups, I got a set in a LP Classic recently and love their tone.

That doesn't seem right after a week of wear. I have a LP that is 7 years old (played and gigged a lot) and shows no wear. Pulled out a guitar that I have had for almost 55 years and the frets don't look like that. Granted I may have a lighter touch than you, but cryogenically treated or not that just doesn't seem right to me.

Sorry no help identifying what that might be. Unusual to have a pickguard like that covering up where the second F-hole would normally be. Pickguard is aged and cracked and might be the original?

That L-4 seems a little overpriced for a used axe with buckle rash. Plus it's missing a volume and tone knob! To me the whole concept of dual humbuckers is about blending them for different tones, so they take that away and charge more. The D'Angelicos shown look nice and fairly reasonably priced but I am well supplied with hollow/semi-hollow jazz boxes so no GAS for them. I am not really wanting anything right now, thankfully, and have been considering thinning the herd if I could figure out what to sell. I have been jonesing for a Sweetwater exclusive Twin Reverb that has a pine cabinet covered in wine red tolex, and two Celestion speakers, but have been able to restrain myself so far, as when I play out I don't even use an amp anymore.

First rock band with horns. They have visited my area a couple of time in the past two years, I did not go to see them, but several of my friends did, and they said it was great. Still about 4 or 5 original members I think. They tour an incredible number (about 200?) of days per year for a bunch of old guys.

I'm with Pip on that one. It was pretty incredible both playing at the same time, but when they went to one finger picking the others left hand it got scary!

Not sure how much luck you will have with removing that. It appears the binding material is somewhat porous and the dye from the strap material worked it's way into the pores of the binding. I don't seen any stain on the wood portion of the guitar finish be it nitro of some other lacquer. If no cleaners or compounds work you might try scraping the binding (like they do after spraying the guitar) to remove the top layers of binding that contain the stain. Tricky, but might be a last resort. Good luck

There is a considerable Jewish population in and around Chicago, but I don't think that has much bearing on the Vienna All Beef dog being so popular. That would have more to do with the dominant market share they have in selling wholesale to vendors. Chicago was home to a huge stock market (slaughterhouse) for many years and all sorts of meat and other things (not necessarily desirable) could find their way into sausages and hot dogs. So I think the Vienna all beef just became a way to avoid the unknown. Also there was probably considerable mob influence as the Italians ran the mob and were pretty big in the wholesale food industry and probably advised a lot of small hot dog vendors to buy Vienna brand or they might run into problems. They are kosher, so serving that brand you have it covered for Jews or Gentiles. I don't know what makes a kosher dill pickle "kosher", probably something to do with it's making (using kosher salt perhaps?), but again using that on the dog allows you to serve everyone without reservation. Chicago is a melting pot of nationalities, large Mexican population, Polish, Italian, Irish, Greek, Lithuanian, German, etc. and they used to live together in certain neighborhoods whereas now they are pretty much spread out all over the place. Chicago was never more Irish than anyplace else, but the Mayor Daley (who was in office most of my life), and then his son became Mayor after him for several terms were Irish, and he insisted on certain traditions like dyeing the river green on St. Pats day and the big parade. Once those things get started (and a good excuse for taking off work and drinking) it's hard to stop them so it continues to this day.

Being from the Chicago area the Chicago dog is the best for me. Vienna all beef sausage dog, on a steamed bun with green pickle relish, mustard, onions, sliced and quartered tomato, topped off with celery salt and a kosher dill pickle. Putting catsup on a hot dog will land you in jail around Chicago. Now that I've moved to South Carolina I haven't had a good hot dog in 6 years ☹️

Got an email from StewMac offering Gibson strings at a discount (about 50 cents a set - big deal) so decided to try a few out. I ordered a set of the "Humbucker" strings, a set of "Brite Wires" and a set of "Les Paul Signature". Previously I have been using Elixir 10s on almost all my guitars for reference (expensive, bright, but they last a really long time) I put the Humbuckers on my Les Paul Classic which has the '61R and '61T pickups and they sound terrific. Those pickups give a real old school humbucker sound and combined with these strings it really sounds great. The marketing hype on these strings is "the only strings optimized for our genuine humbucking pickup. Utilizing a specially formulated composite core and wrap wire, the design offers a unique magnetic formulation to deliver the best tone from Gibson's famous dual-coil, high output pickups." Don't have any idea what the special formulation of core and wrap might be - but I really like the way they sound. Those of you with the '61 SGs that have the same pickups as my LP Classic should love these and I bet they will sound great on any R8s or R9s etc. with the PAF clone pickups. Highly recommended. 👍👍👍 Next I put the Les Paul Signature strings on my CS 356 which is a semi-hollow body with '57 Classic pickups. This set is a little weird and probably not for everyone, it's a custom gauged set that is: 09, 11, 16, 26, 36, 46. So the G, B, and high E are a light gauge while the other three strings are what you would normally get with a set of 10s. The marketing hype: "Les Paul worked with us to develop these strings. They are wound with pure nickel for a smooth warm tone that delivers a punch when you need it. To ensure the least amount of ambient noise Les specified silk wrapped ends" What I noticed about them is that the B and high E seem much louder and brighter than the other4 strings? If you listen to recordings of Les from back in the day he liked to play way up high on the neck on those strings, so some extra bite would be good for that, but they seem unbalanced with the rest of the set. They are very bright with the '57 Classic pickups and to get the tone I like from this guitar I had to adjust my amp settings quite a bit. Lastly I put the Brite Wires on my L5 that had flat wounds on it and also has '57 Classic pickups. They sound real good, but of course much different than the flat wounds which were sort of a muted jazzy type tone. These give it a much cleaner sound and really makes the guitar come alive a little more - I like them and I can still get a muted jazz type tone by just rolling off the tone controls and the presence on the amp if I want that. Marketing hype: "precision-wound with nickel plated steel to give your guitar a bright, crisp attach with excellent volume and sustain...vibrant tone perfect for virtually any type of music". On Gibson's website they say that every solid body coming out of Gibson USA has these on them when it leaves the factory so if you like the strings on your LP when you first got it, these are the OEM replacement. Gibson "Light" gauge are 10s, if you want 9s order the "ultra-light" StewMac also offered a "Vintage Re-Issue" set, but they were backordered so I didn't bother with trying them. So overall the Humbuckers get 5 stars really sound great with a vintage style HB pickup. Brite Wires also very good, the Les Paul Signature not so much - although may work really well with a LP Recording guitar, or a R6 with P-90s. Hope this helps anyone who has been considering trying the Gibson branded strings.

If you email pictures of the guitar including the serial number to Gibson customer service they might be able to give you some info.

The finish on the body looks to be pretty much toast. I would sand it all down to bare wood and just start over. Might be some nice looking wood under all that other stuff?

Very nice. Sorry I don't have one, so you know more about them than I do. Enjoy 👍

I don't think it was made in the Custom Shop, but that doesn't make any less of a really great looking guitar. The COA would most likely say Custom Shop if that was where it came from, and while the Memphis facility has since closed it's seems pretty clear that is where this guitar was made.

Really cool looking combination of Korina and Koa - I had never seen one before. Do you notice a difference in the tones as opposed to the usual mahogany/maple woods?

A couple of really good looking LPs - congratulations and enjoy them.

I don't think they ever went away. Since 2014 I have purchased 4 Gibson guitars and they were all the highest quality with no defects whatsoever. And I purchased three on-line without the chance to play and inspect them first. Something I would never have done in the past, but having moved to an area far from any music stores with a good selection it was my best option. You don't stay in business for over a hundred years without a quality product.

I saw one of these about 7 years ago on a Ford dealer's lot and asked what it was. The van was assembled in Turkey at that time with an engine put together in Spain. When I asked the salesman about it all he had to say was every one of that they get when they unpack it from shipping they all smelled a little like dog ****. I said "have you ever been to Turkey? The whole country smells like dog ****." Hope you enjoy it and it serves it's purpose well.