Happy Belated Burstday

[pinefd]

Thanks again, so much, for all the nice comments, guys!

Wow! Just read this thread for the first time. Not up to your standards??? Talk about sandbagging! That thing is just perfect!!!

Nice to meet a fellow golfer here! Thanks, trmckn!

Frank i just looked at your guitar again ---great looking guitar --nice color and clean--clean.I wish you all the best with it you will never forget it if it is your first.The guitar could not have gone to a nicer guy.Enjoy your new beauty you deserve it.MIke B.:salude:salude:salude

Thanks so much, Mike. Coming from you, that's a very nice compliment. And FYI, the guitar isn't nearly as clean as the pics show. It's hard to make all the dings and scratches show up in the pics, but I'll do my best in my next post!


Frank

 

[esmin]

Hey Frank, any characteristics of the tone or playing feel of the '59 that you might want to share?

What are the readings on the Pickups?

thanks!

 

[bugman4214]

WOW Frank,, That looks great all finished. I was there the day frank bought it and he asked me to keep it under my hat. it was hard but I am glad its out now for all to see. I sure do miss seeing you guys at the Philly show. I am coming home for thanksgiving and going to philly to see the ABB but I will just miss the guitar show. Congrats again my friend,,,,,,,,

 

[pinefd]

Ok, guys, a number of you have requested some more detailed photos of this guitar, both on and off-line. Sorry it’s taken a while to get to this, but I finally had a chance to take, process and upload some more photos, so I can finally share them with you. And I guess one of the nice things about having a guitar like this that's been around the block a few times, is that I'm not afraid to dissect it a bit...as opposed to having a minty, big flame, museum quality example that you wouldn't want to mess with.

First, is just a new shot showing the guitar with the pickguard removed:

Next up, I had mentioned recently that Scott Lentz had done some work on the guitar. One of the things he did was to re-plug some old Grover holes that someone did a real butcher job on. He had to carefully route out the old plugs, which itself was quite a challenge, and re-plug with some matching wood. Then re-drill and finish. And not only did he do the finish work on these plugs, but the job he did on matching the color and blending the finish with the rest of the neck and back of headstock is nothing short of amazing.

Anyway, I removed a random tuner to show one of his re-plugs. And believe me, all the other plugs came out just as nice, if not nicer than this one.

Other work that Scott did to the guitar included touching up some of the finish in the transitional areas between the original finish and where work was done to the neck during the neck shave. My thanks to Scott…a new member here, BTW…for an amazing job.

Ok, now on to more detailed pics of the guitar. I'll start with the top carve. The top carve is something that’s very difficult to photograph accurately, but I’ve tried to capture some of the features of the carve on my guitar in this series of pics. But please note that since these guitars were originally mostly hand made, the top carve from one guitar to the next will vary.

First is another photo showing the overall contours and waist area, as seen from the other side of the guitar (sans pickguard):

Here are a few pics showing the pickup plane. On mine, you can see that it’s not all that flat. I know some guitars from this era are much flatter in this area. I guess that was the job of the person (or persons) operating the slack belt sander, to put the finish contours onto the top...and that varied from guitar to guitar.

And in these photos, you can see the contours in some of the re-curve areas:

To be continued...

 

[pinefd]

Ok, next up are pics of the neck pickup cavity and neck joint:

Here’s the neck joint/pickup cavity, plus a good view of the pickguard “shadow”:

And since we have the pickup removed anyway, here’s a shot of the underside of the pickup, along with the neck ring. Note the crack in the ring (with the poor repair), and the pink from the burst that stained the ring.

Ok, moving along, here are some photos of the control cavity from different angles, and the toggle switch cavity. Note how rusty the pots are. According to some experts in this area, including Rick Norman (aka Dr. Vintage), there was a batch of pots used in ’59 that had very little, if any plating on them. And because of this, they tended to rust very easily, depending on how much humidity and moisture they were exposed to.

And to finish us up…for now…a couple of headstock/TRC shots (and no, the nut does not appear to be original to the guitar):

Well, that’s all for now!


Frank

 

[Joe Ganzler]

Frank - That's all well & good - but can you show us some DETAILED photos?:lol

 

[pinefd]

Frank - That's all well & good - but can you show us some DETAILED photos?:lol

I'll get right to work on that, Joe!

Oh, and one tiny detail I forgot to mention:

Weight: 8 lbs., 10 oz.


Frank

 

[Black58]

:3zone

 

[kharrison]

Thank you for the detailed pics....what a great guitar. The pickguard shadow is amazing :3zone

 

[Classic71]

Thanks for sharing! :salude

 

[MapleFlame]

Thank you for the nudes.

 

[keef]

Jeebus - that's better than real porn.

Thanks for the great shots - superb work from Scott Lentz, too!

 

[pit_s_xroad]

Hi

i think I know this guitar now better than my own guitar... :2cool :rofl
extremely nice shots... and muchos gracias for sharing your gem here... :3zone

all the best to you and your Paul... :salude

PIT... :biggrin:

 

[stephan_l]

Very interesting pictures with the ruler on the top. thx for sharing and congrats. Great guitar :3zone

 

[Todd Louis]

OoOoOoOohhhh.....

 

[Electric Lloyd]

:3zone GREAT pics!
Thanks for sharing!:salude

 

[pinefd]

Thanks once again for all the nice comments, guys! And I promise...no more pics for a while.











































Ok, I lied...just one more:

Frank

 

[mbowen]

FRANK -super clean Goldtop is it a 55-56-or very early 57?i POSTED MY 1956 A WHILE AGO AND IT IS CLEAN BUT NOT AS NICE AS THIS ONE --EXCELLENT--Mike B:batunk:bat

 

[pinefd]

FRANK -super clean Goldtop is it a 55-56-or very early 57?i POSTED MY 1956 A WHILE AGO AND IT IS CLEAN BUT NOT AS NICE AS THIS ONE --EXCELLENT--Mike B:batunk:bat

Thanks, Mike! It's a '55...but it's actually a refin (by DJ). Here are a couple of threads on it:

http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=176682
http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=171890

And BTW, I just caught that old '57 you posted on the other thread. That guitar is (was) amazing!


Frank

 

[mbowen]

Thanks, Mike! It's a '55...but it's actually a refin (by DJ). Here are a couple of threads on it:

http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=176682
http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=171890

And BTW, I just caught that old '57 you posted on the other thread. That guitar is (was) amazing!


Frank

Thanks Frank that is the cleanist one i ever owned sorry i let it go but you have to live and eat or get a burst.Love your 55 it looks great .If you follow my old route after the first burst you need another ---and another--I remember selling 12-14 nice vintage guitars to get a real curly BURST.Good luck and enjoy your new beauty.MIke B.