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First L.P reissue

jubelo

New member
Joined
Oct 30, 2001
Messages
92
The first Les Paul that could have been a fairly accurate reissue was a 56 goldtop, which came out in 1968. I had a chance to buy one of these in the late 1980s. in player condition for $900. I turned it down because of a collapsed bridge(foolishpicky me ). Does any LP lover know why Gibson chose a 1956 GT to be their reintro of the Les Paul guitar, in an era of top players(Bloomfield. Green, Page, Kossoff,Allman , Simmons. et al) who gave wide exposure to the 58 to60 LP sunbursts for the most part. The burst with humbuckers would have been the obvious choice to reintroduce the SC Les Paul guitar back in 68. JUBELO








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BobbyS

New member
Joined
Oct 9, 2001
Messages
761
Well, it's a great question and one that has perplexed the guitar playing world ever since. I'm sure part of the reason would be the idiots at Norlin (who had just taken over Gibson) didn't have a clue which model LP was coming into vogue with Rock superstars at that point. It's also been claimed that Gibson actually had some leftover 50's Goldtop bodies which were routed for P-90s, though this has been disputed by some in the know. I had a 68 goldtop for awhile and it was a great guitar. Other than the wide binding in the cutaway and the slightly different Gibson inlay, it was very similar to a real 56. It of course didn't take Norlin very long to totally screw it up with the introduction of the Deluxe which had a pancake body, mini-humbuckers and useless neck volute.
Another guitar to look out for is the 72 era Les Paul 58, which is actually a very nice repro of a 54 goldtop complete with stud bridge. I'd love to have one of those.
 

Mickey D

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2001
Messages
14
Just a couple of guesses on my part:

1) they reissued the Custom at the same time with Humbuckers, they might have thought to reissue 1 with P-90's and one with humbucks.

2) Until the late 60's and early 70's the original burst's had never really been successful. Norlin could not have predicted that Zeppelin would arrive in '69 and were taking a conservative approach. Plus I think they were trying to get rid of those old creme covered P-90's for which they had no other use.
 
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