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A collector/seller of mostly archtops put it in my hand. I didn't know he had the guitar going into it (and it's not for sale), in the middle of playing about 20 wonderful guitars he's like "oh and here's Herb Ellis' 175." Action was mid-height to maybe a bit high, not too low IIRC but who knows...
L5 is a '54, heavily played then and now, big ole neck on it too.
Barney is a '66 or '67, tone for days!
Byrdland is a '59 refin. I bought it from a parter-outer w/original case. Slowly restoring it with old parts, almost all there (even got cap can centralabs) a few years into it. Final goal...
These are the Les Paul of arches. I've had two over the many years and both, for me, were as at home set up for all weather electric guitar playing as they were for more traditional archtop tones. The last one had longer sustain than almost any other guitar I've owned when set up with lighter...
I've been using the P10R-F, a different variation of the P10R, they sound great to me.
https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/speaker-jensen-vintage-alnico-10-p10r-fender-25w-8
There is this sick sounding room in Madison, Tn (was Club 59, changed names many times, across from the mall) and an equally terrible sounding room in Murfreesboro (old VFW or Elks that used to be a high school). I'd do back to back gigs and it was always the same result, whatever I played at...
When folks think like this it doesn't take long for others to see the pattern that their "opinion" is simply a matter of $$ and thus eventually tune them out. I can't speak for anyone else, but I think plenty of people were equally as passionate about these things at 5K price tags than they are...
Don't know, but I don't hold anyone responsible for checking over a guitar post-buy. Unless you can convince someone to hold one for you, FOMO is a real thing.
That light/shade spot in the neck wood looks funny but I'm not sure it means much, maybe just a reaction. Everything looks normal...
Nice! When I lived in Nashville I picked up this '62 Gretsch in a little shop. It was labeled as a '68 refin, I didn't know anything about old Gretsch guitars other than I liked it and loved the price, they went down from $800 to $600. And, as a sweetener, that "not original" part on it is a...
Even worse, if that's the actual serial # the goldtops before & after are dark backs with black plastics. Should be able to tell the original back color with cavity shots.
Here's a photo (from Abalone Vintage) of a member's '57:
The binding in this era coupled with the workmanship and the tiny frets make the nibs pretty tiny. Sometimes there's almost no nib left on guitars with original frets. It's not unique to Les Paul's either:
There was a burst posted...
That body binding seems thick, maybe it's the angle of the photo but it looks thicker than original to my eyes (edit, could be due to natural finish thus no paint scrap making it look thinner). The neck binding is over modern fretwire so obviously that was replaced. The guitar had to be real...