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2001 Historic Reissue 1954 Les Paul Black Beauty w/Bigsby

Matty G

New member
Joined
Jan 10, 2021
Messages
7
"It was twenty years ago today Gibson made this guitar to play."

Fact is, I bought this guitar initially as I was attracted to the aesthetic then OF COURSE, the way it played . . . like silk!

Recently a friend bought a book for me; 2000 Guitars, The Ultimate Collection. It peaked my curiosity about my guitar, not ever really having thought about its' historic nature.

So, I jumped feet first down the proverbial rabbit hole. Long intro to the question(s), eh?

For the record my guitar is confirmed as a 2001 Historic Reissue of the 1954 Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty and is #117 of an unknown number of guitars in the run.


  • How can I find out the number of guitars in this run? I cannot imagined there are many.
  • I've searched all over the net. There appears be ZERO Original or 2001 Historic Reissues of the 1954 Black Beauty with the Brass Bigsby. What I have determined is the Bigsby was not introduced to the Black Beauty until 1957? Is this good or bad info??
  • This reissue also has brass/gold machine heads that match the brass/gold Bigsby.
  • Was this run, regardless of the number of guitars produced, fixed with the same Bigsby and Machine Heads?
  • The machine heads on the original guitar were made of ivory? Certainly not brass.
  • The pickups are original issue black P90s BUT the three way switch is black instead of beige or tan.

If anyone can lend clarity on these or other details regarding this guitar it would be appreciated. This is all a matter of curiosity only. Please stay safe & well in these times! Thank you.

20210110_123920.jpg20210117_112508.jpg20210119_142630.jpg20210119_142559.jpg
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 6, 2018
Messages
44
Very cool guitar. The first incarnation of black beauties are some of my all time favorite guitars. 2001 seems like it could be a good reissue year? Curious as to the neck profile on yours. I would love to find one with a slimmer profile, playing originals from the 50's, one notices much more manageable and less clunky neck profiles. I had an LPB3 57 historic and had to unload it because the neck was so unwieldy. Anyway, to some of your questions, 50's BB's shipped with waffleback tuners, Grovers and wafflebacks with the plastic tips as well. (not made of ivory ever.) And the parts are gold (plated), not brass. Bigsbys were a factory option that required a special order. There are examples of originals with the bigsby, certainly. So, yes, your version of the reissue has what could have been factory original parts for a 53-early 57 LEs Paul Custom. The Grovers probably would've been on a later version, but maybe not. The one thing you learn about Gibson is the consistency of inconsistency. Enjoy the guitar. Don't sweat "historically accurate" stuff. The better question is do you love it, is it inspiring? The stuff that is more pertinent that is wrong on pretty much every reissue are going to be caps, pots, wiring, the way the pickups are manufactured and the neck profiles, bridge, tailpiece, etc... in general.
 

jrgtr42

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Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
2,308
I used to work in a place selling guitars around that time, and man, we couldn't give those '54 RIs away. 57 (goldtop and custom,) 58, 59, 60, no problem, but no one wanted the P90 / staple combo.
Of course, now, I'm really interested in that setup, but I can't find any at a reasonable price.
 

Matty G

New member
Joined
Jan 10, 2021
Messages
7
Very cool guitar. The first incarnation of black beauties are some of my all time favorite guitars. 2001 seems like it could be a good reissue year? Curious as to the neck profile on yours. I would love to find one with a slimmer profile, playing originals from the 50's, one notices much more manageable and less clunky neck profiles. I had an LPB3 57 historic and had to unload it because the neck was so unwieldy. Anyway, to some of your questions, 50's BB's shipped with waffleback tuners, Grovers and wafflebacks with the plastic tips as well. (not made of ivory ever.) And the parts are gold (plated), not brass. Bigsbys were a factory option that required a special order. There are examples of originals with the bigsby, certainly. So, yes, your version of the reissue has what could have been factory original parts for a 53-early 57 LEs Paul Custom. The Grovers probably would've been on a later version, but maybe not. The one thing you learn about Gibson is the consistency of inconsistency. Enjoy the guitar. Don't sweat "historically accurate" stuff. The better question is do you love it, is it inspiring? The stuff that is more pertinent that is wrong on pretty much every reissue are going to be caps, pots, wiring, the way the pickups are manufactured and the neck profiles, bridge, tailpiece, etc... in general.
Thanks for the info and profile.

Yeah, diving into these things really is like jumping down the rabbit hole. I sort of wondered about the machine heads, I thought they may be gold plated BUT I didn't want to be pretentious. Fact is, as mentioned I bought it for it playability and aesthetics. Which brings me to your question, yes, indeed I do love it and play it quite a bit these days. Especially with the unfortunate lockdown here is S. Cali.

It makes sense that the bigsby came into play, sorry for the pun, "53 early" as my ax was issued as a Historic 1954 BB.

The neck is ebony and very low profile. The action is so, so smooth, really like silk. Frankly it may outclass my playing ability. I consider myself a very good acoustic player and a very average electric player. I've posted a couple more pics for you to check out if you are interested.

Anyway, again thank you for the enlightenment. Be well & be safe!
 

Matty G

New member
Joined
Jan 10, 2021
Messages
7
I used to work in a place selling guitars around that time, and man, we couldn't give those '54 RIs away. 57 (goldtop and custom,) 58, 59, 60, no problem, but no one wanted the P90 / staple combo.
Of course, now, I'm really interested in that setup, but I can't find any at a reasonable price.
Yeah, crazy how that works some time. I bought mine in January of 2001. Gotta tell you I love playing it and I simply think it is a very handsome guitar. The serial number is 4 1117. Evidently it means 4= 1954 the 1 = 2001 Then 117 is the number in the run. I cannot imagine they ran a lot of them. But at the moment it remains one of the great unanswered questions of the universe! :cool:

Thanks for your reply. I've posted a couple more pix for you to check out if you are inclined.
 

AA00475Bassman

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Apr 26, 2016
Messages
3,769
Welcome to the Forum beautiful R4 I owned a couple 72's the Historic's are hands down a better guitar .
 

Matty G

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Jan 10, 2021
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7
Thanks for the comment. Of course, the aesthetics is what first drew my attention to it BUT THEN, I played it . . . at that point I was whipped! Stay well and stay safe.
 

Matty G

New member
Joined
Jan 10, 2021
Messages
7
My friend from Sweetwater warned me, Matt, don't go down that rabbit hole . . . did I listen, noooooooo!

Jumping in feet first being led down this path, then that path only to turn around to see I was right where I started. Huh??

With this being said, here is what I have found, in a nut shell with me being the nut, regarding the Reissue of the Historic 1954 Gibson Les Paul Black
Beauty, the original v the reissue.

(disclaimer - all historical info credited below, all opinions mine)

In 1953 Mr. Paul says, blah, blah, blah and he is presented with the very first non-gold top LP Custom guitar, #3 or The Black Beauty. Made to his specs by
friends/luthiers this guitar, from that moment forward was his workhorse.

The Black Beauty was used for many of his musical appearances, including the Listerine Hour, (where people washed out their mouths with Listerine while
listening to Les play his guitar) but more importantly to experiment on, to transmogrify, morph into whatever advances his most brilliant mind came up with.

That was the very abridged version describing the birth of the Black Beauty.

Here are some "hard"ware facts:

The pickups were a P-90 in the bridge position and an Alnico V pickup, newly designed by Seth Lover, in the neck position. The 2001 Historic Reissue has
pretty close to the same configuration in the neck and bridge positions..

The machined heads were originally Kluson Tuners. Those were changed over to Grover Rotomatics in 1958. The 2001 Historic Reissue has the Gold Plated
Grover Rotomatics.

The bridge was Gibson's new ABR-1. The 2001 Historic Reissue has . . . an ABR-1.

I think the Bigsby was added in 1957 as it seems the 1957 models are the first to show them in production.

WHEN Les Paul actually added it to #3, his 1954 BB has yet to be ascertained by me, do you know?? If you do, please contribute!! Tks.

AND speaking of the Black Beauty, when having it made LP requested that "it look like a tuxedo." Then in a later interview when asked about the high gloss
of the black he reportedly replied, paraphrased, "so that you can see fingers playing the strings." Okaaaay.

Oh yeah, and in decoding the serial numbers of the later reissues, the first digit is the Historic year . . . 4 = 1954 7 = 1957 . . . then there are spaces
and a single digit, this digit represents the year it was reissued, 1 = 2001 2 = 2002, finally the last three digits represents the number of the
instrument in the run, in my case it is 117 meaning the 117th guitar in that run. So, blah.

There is so much info about the 1954 Black Beauty . . . BUT I am still in search of specific answers to the following questions:

How many guitars in the 2001 Historic Reissue of the 1954 Black Beauty were there? Where might I go to find that info? After all, it was only "twenty years
ago today that Gibson made my guitar to play."

How many of them had a Bigsby, how may did not, did the entirety of the reissue have a Bigsby?

One question/observation that puzzles me and is meant for all y'all aficionados, experts, amateur and guitar interest hobbyists, "What is the apparent
appeal of the 1957 Gibson Les Paul Custom Black Beauty over any other year's models?" Simply curious as to what you might think.

*Sources for my information come from: Wikipedia, Guitar Mag, Gibson Les Paul Forum (thanks group), Music Mag (sorry cannot remember its' correct name which
is why I paraphrased the quote from it). ^o^

This is what comes from too much time on one's hand during the LA Covid-19 Lockdown!

Hope this was enjoyable for you to read. Any and all info regarding the 2001 Reissue of the Historic 1954 Black Beauty would be appreciated!

Please stay well & safe. Thanks for any responses.

Matt aka Matty G
 
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