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btoth76

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Hello George!

 

I must admit the guitar is beautiful. The wiring is nicely arranged, clean job.

 

But...no "Decade"... Also, I like the "Tone" switch on mine. Just by setting the EQ controls lower when the switch is in the second position I can play with a clean tone with an overdriven amp, and by switching to third position I can "boost" up to lead sounds. I miss that feature.

 

I would like to try one - to be honest. It's still has stacked humbuckers. It offers the "Fat-tap" feature (which works great on Gibsons with regular humbuckers). Phase...

 

Wonder what would be the street price.

 

Thank You for posting!

 

Best wishes... Bence

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

I'm in Memphis today. Going to take a tour of the Gibson Factory at noon. Due to the wonder of smart phones, I purchased the final piece of my Low Impedance collection yesterday, a Les Paul Jumbo. More info and pics to follow.........

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Hello George!

 

These times I miss the "+" button.

 

Congratulations! Great guitar! I am very curious how does it sounds through an amp.

 

Best wishes... Bence

 

It sounds pretty good, I just put new strings on it yesterday which makes a huge difference. I've been running it through a keyboard amp mostly, I'll have to try it through the LP-12 one of these days. It has a ton of bass with the Rosewood Back & sides, not to mention the Low Impedance pickup picks up a lot more bass than a piezo pickup, (I would assume!). The "In - Out" switch bypasses the Treble & Bass controls. It sound to me as if both controls are at "10" with it in the "In" position.

In the next couple weeks, I'm going to try to photograph the entire herd of eight. I don't know if I can get far enough away to get them all in in my house. I might try the panoramic mode in my iPhone if nothing else works.

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Here are a few photos of the completed set, I just barely was able to get them all in one shot........ I either need a bigger room or a wide angle lense. [confused]

LowImpHighPerf2_zps63106529.jpg

1970GibsonLesPaulJumbo_zpsfcc02e95.jpg

 

We need a more comprehensive description [rolleyes] !!

 

How do they handle the Lo/High Imp setting on these?

 

Re the Picture:

 

The Personal stands head and shoulders above the rest for its design etc.

 

It remains the nicest Les Paul ever made (IMHO).

 

DG

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We need a more comprehensive description [rolleyes] !!

 

How do they handle the Lo/High Imp setting on these?

 

Re the Picture:

 

The Personal stands head and shoulders above the rest for its design etc.

 

It remains the nicest Les Paul ever made (IMHO).

 

DG

 

Hi Dave,

 

The only way you can play this guitar is with a transformer chord. It is pretty much the same as the Personal & Professional, with the exception of only having one pickup & not having the phase control which requires two pickups. The toggle switch just bypasses the Bass & Treble controls, it sounds to me as if they were on "10" with it in the "Center" position. It only has two positions. Oddly though, it seems to have a much louder output than the Personal or the Professional, it could be due to the hollow body.......... Amplifying flattops was really in it's early beginnings when the Les Paul Jumbo was introduced, I found this article that is attached to put things in a 1969 perspective.

Bob Womack.pdf

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just thought that if you haven't already seen this it might be of interest?

 

It's from 1966 and the guitar has to be therefore a "prototype" of sorts of the LP Personal.

 

Note the Flat Top of the body and the the pickups which, although they are almost certainly Low Impedance, have not yet developed into the now familiar Lo Imp shape.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp4N910QaNY

 

 

 

DG

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  • 3 weeks later...

A while back, when I checked the way the XLR microphone jack was wired on the Les Paul Personal, I decided to try the same thing on my modified chord, I use to plug the "two wire" unbalanced guitars into the XLR jack of my P.A. I also have a keyboard amp that has a low impedance microphone input. On the XLR jack on the Les Paul Personal, pin (3) is hot, Pins (1),(2) & (G) are all soldered together for the ground connection. It works well. I haven't notice any radio noise that I would sometimes get the way the chord was wired before. I'll have to change all of my XLR to 1/4 female adapters if this ends up being the ticket. Anybody have any other ideas on this??

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  • 2 months later...

I have something unusual on my 1970 Gibson Les Paul Personal. It has the normal gold-plated pickup rings, but also has black plastic "Goof Rings." When I looked to see what was hidden underneath the rings I found extra holes. It looks like Gibson had drilled pilot holes at the wrong location for the screws to go into the body and then redrilled the holes at the correct spots. You can tell screws were never screwed into these pilot holes because they are very tiny in diameter, but are almost 1/2" inch deep.

I think the goof rings look pretty good.

post-66984-062338600 1407946806_thumb.jpg

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Nice LP Personal!! They used "Goof Rings" on many of the Les Paul Deluxe's of the same era to cover up oversized pickup routes. I've never seen them on anything else. Your guitar is one of only 370 Les Paul Personals ever produced!!

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Hello Bence and Grog. Glad you like my Les Paul, I think it's a beauty too.

I have a little guitar museum in Arkansas and it's a favorite of mine.

Here are a couple of more photos and a YouTube video.

 

1970 Gibson Les Paul Personal demonstration on YouTube

 

I've only had my Les Paul Personal for a little over a year, but it's quickly become one of my favorites also. My wife & I spent about three days in Arkansas last April. It would have been fun to see your museum had I known about it!

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I've only had my Les Paul Personal for a little over a year, but it's quickly become one of my favorites also. My wife & I spent about three days in Arkansas last April. It would have been fun to see your museum had I known about it!

 

Grog,

Next time you are in the area, do come by and see my guitar museum. I wouldn't suggest someone make a special trip from out of state, but if you are driving though central Arkansas then drop in.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Found this 1970 Personal abandoned in a Pawn America. Am now obsessed. Not your standard Rock guitar but the possibilities seem endless in the recording studio.

 

 

post-67431-097375700 1410194014_thumb.jpgpost-67431-084446900 1410194013_thumb.jpgpost-67431-055110100 1410194230_thumb.jpgpost-67431-090925000 1410191524_thumb.jpg

 

 

Really appreciate the informational sites mentioned in the forum. Had found most of them in my searching around the net for more info but it's nice to see them mentioned as good resources.

 

Hope to find more time soon to test out the XLR mic cords I got from Full Compass and Guitar Center for the Guitar -> Transformer part of the run to the amp. So far it seems to work OK. Had to replace the orginal cord that goes between the Transformer and the amp due to age.

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Found this 1970 Personal abandoned in a Pawn America. Am now obsessed. Not your standard Rock guitar but the possibilities seem endless in the recording studio.

 

 

post-67431-097375700 1410194014_thumb.jpgpost-67431-084446900 1410194013_thumb.jpgpost-67431-055110100 1410194230_thumb.jpgpost-67431-090925000 1410191524_thumb.jpg

 

 

Really appreciate the informational sites mentioned in the forum. Had found most of them in my searching around the net for more info but it's nice to see them mentioned as good resources.

 

Hope to find more time soon to test out the XLR mic cords I got from Full Compass and Guitar Center for the Guitar -> Transformer part of the run to the amp. So far it seems to work OK. Had to replace the orginal cord that goes between the Transformer and the amp due to age.

 

That was one hell of a find for a Pawn America!! It looks to be in near mint condition from what I can tell from your pictures Congrats!!! I really gave up looking for cool vintage guitars at pawn shops years ago, not much has shown up for years. Now I'm going to have to start watching again. Do you mind me asking what they were asking for the guitar??

 

I ran into this episode of Pawn Stars when a Les Paul Professional walked in, even the expert seems a bit baffled to me...........

http://www.history.com/shows/pawn-stars/videos/1969-les-paul-guitar

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Hi Grog,

 

It was surreal seeing it there, especially in a Pawn America where you'd think everything would be picked over and priced outrageously. I must have came across it almost immediately after it got there. They were asking $1399. I didn't argue much even though at the time I was unfamiliar with what it was. But a few minutes on my phone searching clued me in that it had to be worth more than that.

 

It really is in amazing shape. No fret wear, no major dings or scratches at all. The only metal corrosion was a little bit on the neck pickup ring between the pickup and the neck. All electronics work and it even had the original low/hi impedance transformer. OHSC in very good condition.

 

 

Pretty confident that it shipped in 1970. Not sure how long it took Gibson to put them together but it has 3 pots from mid to late 1969 and one (unfortunately I guess) from the 14th week of 1970. Gibson seemed to corroborate that it could have been being built in 69 and shipped in 70 but who knows. I think that pot from 1970 pretty much tells the story. I knew the serial number 892xxx could be difficult place in that era. Gibson did verify there were 370 made between 69 and 73. 2 in 69, 222 in 70, 95 in 71, 49 in 72 and 2 in 73. Do you or anyone in this forum know how many Professionals shipped and when?

 

May not find another deal like that ever, especially in a place like that, since these days there doesn't seem to be anything flying under the radar any more. It motivates me to stay open to looking hard wherever I may be.

 

Based on a few vintage guitar buyers I've emailed they'd take it pretty quick for $1800 or so and attempt to resell somewhere between $2200 and $2600. So that Pawn Stars clip you gave the link to sort of supports that pricing. I think the Personal model has a few advantages over some of its siblings but I'm biased and would hope it'd go for more.

 

I guess I could understand if these never really took off value wise because it is so specialized. But then again it has so many interesting features, such high quality craftsmanship, from what I can tell a stupendous neck and such low production numbers who knows where the value may go. I guess it turning 50 in a couple of years won't hurt either.

 

I threw together a web site after gathering together what info I could find so far about the Personal and the Recording Series in general. https://sites.google.com/site/lespaulpersonal/home Looking for feedback especially if I've misstated anything. It's still a work in progress.

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