• Guys, we've spent considerable money converting the Les Paul Forum to this new XenForo platform, and we have ongoing monthly operating expenses. THE "DONATIONS" TAB IS NOW WORKING, AND WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY DONATIONS YOU CAN MAKE TO KEEP THE LES PAUL FORUM GOING! Thank you!

Binding bleed on original bursts?

bluesroom

Active member
Joined
Jul 17, 2001
Messages
443
Did the original bursts have bleed into the binding from the neck? As dramatic as the historics? And if so how do they look now? Does it go away? Thank you
 

TrueVintageGuitar

Active member
Joined
Feb 24, 2021
Messages
72
The bleed does seem rather exaggerated on the reissue LPs compared to the small sample set of Bursts I've been able to personally hold. Here's the only picture I have of the binding on the 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard I had recently. I don't remember seeing any binding bleed, but there could have been some. There certainly wasn't as much as the historics have. I took this picture to have a record of which direction the magnet polarity was facing (south to strings here) because I couldn't remember reading what the standard direction was anywhere. I wanted to compare it to a '60 ES-345 I had to see which pickup denotes a stereo guitar in a Gibson (since the magnet polarity would be opposite of the standard direction).

The second picture shows the bleed of the dye into the neck pickup ring. So there is some truth the dye bleeding into areas, just not as dramatic as it does into the binding on reissue guitars.



 

poor man's burst

Active member
Joined
Oct 3, 2010
Messages
421
I think that actually, the bleeding was rather the red dye in the first dyed finish coats bleeding into the clear finish coats over the bindings rather than the dye bleeding into the binding itself. The solvent contained in the clear coats disolving the dyed under coat during and after spraying, both melting together to a certain extand.
 

bluesroom

Active member
Joined
Jul 17, 2001
Messages
443
As far as the bleed subsiding on a new historic — that’s not the case in mine. I’ve been playing it hard since 2017 — and it justs keep getting darker, lol. It really never bothered me before, but it’s very dark now and I can’t help but ask is it happening more now because the process is different?
 

DANELECTRO

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 24, 2003
Messages
6,318
Here's a mint condition 1964 335 (not mine) which demonstrates that the vintage finishes did bleed. This guitar was played a bit when new and then tucked away in the case for the rest of its life.

64335PinkBinding1b.jpg


64335PinkBinding1c.jpg


64335PinkBinding1a.jpg


64335PinkBinding1d.jpg
 

Big Al

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
14,537
The bleed was apparent on both of mine which had strong color still, (unfaded), in the 70's. I saw it a lot on cherry Specials and 3xx models. It is pigment migration into the clear coat and will wear away with play.
My y2k R9 had it bad and as it was my primary guitar, I played it away in less than a year, along with most of the color from neck and back where it rubbed against me, something my vintage guitars did not do.
 
Top