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The best vintage looking 1990 Les Paul!!!


nicolasrivera

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Very sweet! Many congratulations on your find.

 

What pups does she have?

 

By the way, if you find yourself at a loose-end sometime (unlikely, with that guitar...)you should check out the post on the subject of 'pole-piece screw orientation' and keep us informed! Some prefer - - - - - -, some l l l l l l , others swear by / / / or / / /.........

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Very sweet! Many congratulations on your find.

 

What pups does she have?

 

By the way' date=' if you find yourself at a loose-end sometime (unlikely, with that guitar...)you should check out the post on the subject of 'pole-piece screw orientation' and keep us informed! Some prefer - - - - - -, some l l l l l l , others swear by / / / or / / /.........[/quote']

 

 

It was found that it REALLY doesn't do much at all. Mine came stock ------, and I don't care to change it.

 

Oh Btw that guitar looks beat to hell, but is still a lovely les paul, but love it and dont give it any abuse. Also thats one crazy headstock going on, almost looks disease ridden. All in all, Amazing Les Paul, and you have one unique guitar my friend.

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It was found that it REALLY doesn't do much at all. Mine came stock ------' date=' and I don't care to change it.[/quote']

 

I agree. My tongue was in my cheek a little.

 

I, too, tried the - - - - - - and l l l l l l variations just for fun (it only takes a minute, after all) and could hear no difference but put mine back to it's 'as bought' setting in any case.

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This natural finish relay shows how unrealistic Tom Murphy aging is' date=' i thought it looked so cool, but after getting this baby it show me how difficult, expensive and time consuming will be if some one tries to mimic this natural aging. [/quote']That isn't really natural aging, believe me I know, to me it looks like a bad first attempt at "self-aging" or, whoever owned it before, took it from a really hot place into a very cold place, here is how I know

 

1. The check lines on the body and headstock, typical naturally aging lacquer doesn't crack into tiny squares, and peel/pop off (unless subjected to extreme hot and cold temps), it usually divides into long flowing lines.

 

2. The color of the clear-coat, it is wayyy!! too dark to have been aged over time. I've been around new and vintage Gibson LPs/SGs my whole life (26 yrs), and I've never seen an LP that aged that much in that short amount of time.

 

Don't get me wrong, it is a very beautiful guitar, and you are a lucky man for scoring it for such a low price, but IMHO, it has been aged by hand somehow.

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That isn't really natural aging' date=' believe me I know, to me it looks like a bad first attempt at "self-aging" or, whoever owned it before, took it from a really hot place into a very cold place, here is how I know

 

1. The check lines on the body and headstock, typical naturally aging lacquer doesn't crack into tiny squares, and peel/pop off (unless subjected to extreme hot and cold temps), it usually divides into long flowing lines.

 

2. The color of the clear-coat, it is wayyy!! too dark to have been aged over time. I've been around new and vintage Gibson LPs/SGs my whole life (26 yrs), and I've never seen an LP that aged that much in that short amount of time.

 

Don't get me wrong, it is a very beautiful guitar, and you are a lucky man for scoring it for such a low price, but IMHO, it has been aged by hand somehow. [/quote']

 

I wouldn't be so quick to say this amount of checking and 'ambering' is not possible in 19 years.

 

The checking may not be 'the usual' type but that isn't to say it has not occurred naturally. Neither is it, by any stretch of the imagination, a '...bad...' attempt.

 

As I've posted before, the following snaps were taken eight months after I bought my instrument which was, at the time of purchase, in 'perfect' condition.

 

My guitar has almost never been out of one room, never mind being gigged up and down a country with such diverse weather systems as can be found in the USA. I am quite willing to believe that, were the owner not to treat an instrument such as this 1990 LP with a kid gloves approach whilst out on the road, the result could be as seen; especially if the travels were to stretch from Monterrey to Mayo.

 

Secondly, the ambering is certainly less than I've seen on younger blonde Telecasters which have spent their lives playing in smoky venues. My own father was a pipe smoker and the staining effect of tobbacco smoke can be extreme if not removed on a regular basis. If the owner wasn't too bothered about keeping his "workman's tool" highly polished then why would it not be this dark?

 

The sheer amount and very fine scale of some of the checking would require an incredible amount of time and skill to create. If you look at the gentle curve of the lacquer between some of the lines it's fairly certain that these lines have not just been scored using a 'Stanley-knife' blade - Mr. Murphy's tool of choice. Why do all this when the instrument is going to being sold so cheaply? Not to impress his audiences at his gigs.

 

You may well have a great deal of experience of vintage instruments; it's possible you may well be correct in this case; but you are not, I respectfully suggest, infallible. The fact that you, personally, have never come across such distress is not, in its'self, proof of faking.

 

 

lo-res_MG_8166detail.jpg

 

lo-res_MG_8165.jpg

 

03Maplehorn.jpg

 

04Mahoganyhorn.jpg

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I wouldn't be so quick to say this amount of checking and 'ambering' is not possible in 19 years.

 

The checking may not be 'the usual' type but that isn't to say it has not occurred naturally. Neither is it' date=' by any stretch of the imagination, a '...bad...' attempt.

 

As I've posted before, the following snaps were taken eight months after I bought my instrument which was, at the time of purchase, in 'perfect' condition.

 

My guitar has almost never been out of one room, never mind being gigged up and down a country with such diverse weather systems as can be found in the USA. I am quite willing to believe that, were the owner not to treat an instrument such as this 1990 LP with a kid gloves approach whilst out on the road, the result could be as seen; especially if the travels were to stretch from Monterrey to Mayo.

 

Secondly, the ambering is certainly less than I've seen on younger blonde Telecasters which have spent their lives playing in smoky venues. My own father was a pipe smoker and the staining effect of tobbacco smoke can be extreme if not removed on a regular basis. If the owner wasn't too bothered about keeping his "workman's tool" highly polished then why would it not be this dark?

 

The sheer amount and very fine scale of some of the checking would require an incredible amount of time and skill to create. If you look at the gentle curve of the lacquer between some of the lines it's fairly certain that these lines have not just been scored using a 'Stanley-knife' blade - Mr. Murphy's tool of choice. Why do all this when the instrument is going to being sold so cheaply? Not to impress his audiences at his gigs.

 

You may well have a great deal of experience of vintage instruments; it's possible you may well be correct in this case; but you are not, I respectfully suggest, infallible. The fact that you, personally, have never come across such distress is not, in its'self, proof of faking.

 

 

[img']http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp254/pippy59/lo-res_MG_8166detail.jpg[/img]

 

lo-res_MG_8165.jpg

 

03Maplehorn.jpg

 

04Mahoganyhorn.jpg

I wasn't implying that it was indeed "faked", but that type of checking can result from two things; A. The previous owner (being a professional musician) played a gig in a very warm place, and then took the guitar out in the cold, or B. The guitar was in a very cold place and then rapidly heated. I'm not trying to argue about whether or not it has been "hand-aged" I was just offering an opinion, but one other thing that I forgot to mention is the back of the guitar. Usually on LPs, the back doesn't check as much as the top (where most of the string tension is concentrated)...well not to that extreme anyway, giving some validity to my hot and cold theory, and the place where the sticker was is another clue, my uncle has a vintage '61 SG/LP that was heavily aged (serious road warrior), and the previous owner, had it plastered with stickers, but they didn't stop the finish from checking underneath. Like I said, I'm not trying to say that this guitars finish is fake, but in my experience with guitars old and new, when I saw the pics, and found out that it was from the '90s, I got kind of suspicious. It is very beautiful though! Great score!

 

Note: When I use the term "Hand-Aged", I'm also referring to unnatural or rapid aging.

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I agree totally with the temp change thing.

 

The other factor which was the suggested, and most likely, cause in the case of my guitar was changes in humidity. This is also highly likely in the case of an instrument which has been gigged regularly.

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What a gorgeous guitar you have !

 

Even if the aging (that I find so beautifull) is not natural (I mean this guitar has underwent lots of temp changes certainly), you have a perfect aged-looking guitar that make Tom Murphy 's work incomparable...

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