NeoConMan Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 I would like to welcome a new member to the forums. Dilbert is from Boston and came aboard seeking advice to repair, no, resurrect his Les Paul Custom. Not trying to embarrass him or single him out in any way, but here's his thread if you wanna feel his pain; http://forums.gibson.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=26170 Anyhow, that got me thinking about all the horror stories I've heard over the years. People do some unspeakable things to their Gibsons, I've seen a few of these myself. My dealer in Phoenix has a white early 60's SG hanging in the store. I can't remember for sure which way the guitar started life - left or right-handed. Anyway, sombody swapped it by drilling out the body and relocating the pots to the top of the body. Flipped everything over and strung it the other way. Well, they restored it to its original configuration with plugs filling all the extra holes. Cool piece, but it certainly looks like a Jr. High wood shop experiment. Thad, the guy who used to own Precision Guitar (Gibson Authorized Repairs) was telling me about the beautiful Les Paul he installed a Kahler tremolo on in the early 80's. Not a customer's guitar, it was his own! Hey, everybody wanted trems in the early eighties.... #-o Anybody have any similar stories to share? This could be a great learning experience for everybody who loves guitars, especially Gibsons. (We'll try not to laugh....) I'm gonna try to dig up some pics of a few I've seen to post here. What do you guys have? Sanded necks? Maybe a real '55 Goldtop routed for humbuckers? Crazy headstock breaks/repairs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 From the past don't know the details but some creative fixes and Stanleys famous smoker And my Favorite of all time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deepblue Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 OMG! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jannusguy Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 OMG! no sh*t! it, it's alive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketman Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 I always think about this picture (note this is a real '59 Les Paul!): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deepblue Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 You know a Les Paul with a Bigsby creeps me out just as much as these pics do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbonesullivan Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 I was at a music store once like 15 years ago where they had a 57 gold top... that some idiot decided needed floyd rose locking nut, so they drilled two holes through it, chiseled out some of the neck joint, and put on a locking nut. Mind you they never put the floyd rose on, just the nut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundergod Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Not a les paul or even a gibson... but my bands rythm guitarist bought an american deluxe strat and before playing it and giving it a chance to prove herself he went and "upgraded" all 3 pickups, drilled the pickguard for 4 mini lever switches that would let him take the 3 pickups out of phase and make them single coils (out of single sized humbuckers, so really thin sound), he then went ahead and sanded all the shine out of it, then he burned some parts with a lighter so that the finish came completely off in those parts. Then he continued sanding it. Sanded the neck, changed the bridge and nut to normal strat bridge and nut (6 screw bridge, plastic nut instead of the 2 point floating bridge and roller nut). He now has bought a USA telecaster in hopes of "upgrading and hotroding" it in the same way. What do you guys think? Should I ask Neo to send me some firepower to take him out of his misery? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Natural Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Not a les paul or even a gibson... but my bands rythm guitarist bought an american deluxe strat and before playing it and giving it a chance to prove herself he went and "upgraded" all 3 pickups' date=' drilled the pickguard for 4 mini lever switches that would let him take the 3 pickups out of phase and make them single coils (out of single sized humbuckers, so really thin sound), he then went ahead and sanded all the shine out of it, then he burned some parts with a lighter so that the finish came completely off in those parts. Then he continued sanding it. Sanded the neck, changed the bridge and nut to normal strat bridge and nut (6 screw bridge, plastic nut instead of the 2 point floating bridge and roller nut). He now has bought a USA telecaster in hopes of "upgrading and hotroding" it in the same way. What do you guys think? Should I ask Neo to send me some firepower to take him out of his missery? "Upgrading and hotrodding"? How about we take him out of OUR misery! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAS44 Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 <shields eyes> holy lord. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundergod Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 "Upgrading and hotrodding"? How about we take him out of OUR misery! When I asked him why he didn't just buy one of those cheap road worn strats he answered "I wanted a deluxe" WTF man!!!??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Natural Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Well, it's HIS money, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shnate McDuanus Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 There's this one professional guitarist who took a nice Les Paul and added some ugly red arcade-buttons as kill-switches! I don't remember his name, hold on...I think it was something like "Chicken Pail Hat Guy." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Natural Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikko18 Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 I always think about this picture (note this is a real '59 Les Paul!): I actually think the double cut away looks pretty cool like the that. But why oh why would you do all that to and actuall 59?!?!?! Dx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauline Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 From the past don't know the details but some creative fixes and Stanleys famous smoker And my Favorite of all time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichCI Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 Stanleys famous smoker I think that's Ace's. But either way, when you have KISS money and hacking up a guitar so that smoke pours out if it is part of what got you that money, you can afford to buy another one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky4 Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 This is my Jr I bought on eBay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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