RCEinMA Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Trying to confirm information on this Les Paul Standard that I just acquired. I have found references to it being called the "Blonde Beauty" which was built in limited numbers in 2007. It is chambered ... weighs about 8 lbs. Burstbucker pickups. Three piece maple neck (which is unusual) is flamed. Top of the body is highly flamed maple. Back is mahogany. All hardware is gold. Searching the 'net results in some conflicting information, so I thought maybe a Gibson guru here might know what the real story is behind this guitar. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 . Seem to remember a thread about those, MF/GC call those Premium Plus. That 3 piece flame maple neck - maybe a MF/GC exclusive from 2007. Not sure about the pups. Here - http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/14946-2007-les-paul-standard-premium-plus-blonde-beauty/ . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM2112 Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Pretty guitar indeed!!!! I'm wondering if the top is Koa wood? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCEinMA Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 Pretty guitar indeed!!!! I'm wondering if the top is Koa wood? It's maple. Probably more figured than some ... almost "curly maple". I think the lighting in the room when I took the pictures makes it look a little darker than it really is. BigKahune .. thanks for the info and link. RCE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM2112 Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 It's maple. Probably more figured than some ... almost "curly maple". I think the lighting in the room when I took the pictures makes it look a little darker than it really is. BigKahune .. thanks for the info and link. RCE The darker color is what made me think it might be koa. Awesome guitar regardless of whether it's maple, koa, or whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToneBaron Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 These are beautiful guitars but be careful, a few of them I have seen have warped necks! Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCEinMA Posted October 10, 2012 Author Share Posted October 10, 2012 These are beautiful guitars but be careful, a few of them I have seen have warped necks! Enjoy! Interesting comment. I owned a guitar shop that sells mid to higher-end guitars from major manufacturers plus some high-end custom built guitars. The shop also does repairs and setups on acoustics and electrics. During my tenure, I've seen literally thousands of guitars come through the shop and we at least checked the setups ... or did a complete setup .. on every one. The Blonde Beauty guitars have 3 ply maple necks which is quite uncommon on a regular production level guitar ... acoustic or electric. In fact, it's the only non-custom built electric guitar I've ever seen with a multi-ply neck. I work with a luthier friend who has been building acoustic guitars and some electrics for 37 years. He (and most higher-end custom guitar builders) use multi-ply necks on their guitars due to the inherent strength and stability of the mult-ply neck design. A neck made of a single piece of mahogany or maple is much more susceptible to warp-age than a multi-ply neck of the same or different wood types. Obviously, multi-ply necks are much more expensive to manufacture, so you don't see them often in normal production models. The attached picture is the back of the headstock and upper neck of a custom built 12 string acoustic that has a 5 ply neck. It was done with mahogany/maple/walnut/maple/mahogany sections. Different wood types are used for cosmetic purposes ... the multiple plys are for strength and stability. This is a $7,000+ guitar built by the luthier I work with. (It also has Brazilian Rosewood back and sides which adds to the cost). We've checked the neck on the Blonde Beauty using a three contact point dial indicator that we use to set the neck relief profile. You can also use this tool to check for warp-age or a "twist" by measuring the neck profile at the high "E" side, the middle of the fretboard and the low "E" side. The neck on the Blonde Beauty is perfectly flat from side to side. For comparison, a one piece neck on a new Gibson Les Paul, SG or a Fender Strat or Tele will often have a twist from one side to the other of .005" ... sometimes more. That amount of warp-age doesn't affect a thing in terms of playability and is well within normal specs. I've seen some older electrics with a neck twist of .015" from side to side. Really doesn't affect anything as long as the intonation has been set properly along with the proper neck relief and action adjustments. I get a big kick out of people who hold a guitar up and sight along the fretboard with their eyeball, looking for a twist or for the amount of neck relief. Sure, you can see a major twist or a back bow in the profile. But we set the neck profile to a .004" relief typically. Your eyeball can't resolve the difference of .010 (which is too much relief) and .004" which is ideal. I've seen customers use the "eyeball" sighting technique on a guitar and then announce that the neck is "bowed". I'll then take the guitar, put it on the test stand and actually measure it, showing the customer the results. The eyeball sighting technique is prone to optical illusion and isn't really an accurate method to check necks. Here's the picture of the 5-ply neck/headstock: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piscium Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 Very beautiful guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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