'77 Les Funk

[badform]

I haven't posted here in forever-and-a-half, but something came along that was worth sharing...

I've been recently trading in some gear to Atomic Music in Beltsville, MD for store credit. Nothing special, just stuff that I haven't touched in years and has been traditionally hard to sell. Anyway, they were having an anniversary blowout sale, and I came home with this:



It was sold as a 1972, but according to the serial number it's a 1977. I'm happy enough for the price I got it for that the difference in year doesn't matter to me.

It's been heavily gigged, has the battle scars to prove it, and was apparently played by someone who sweats salt water and acid, based on the corrosion and condition of all the screw heads and bridge parts on this thing. About half of them are so rusty and useless that I can't even get a screwdriver on them.

I'm going to call it the Les Funk. It's heavy, beautiful, sounds good, and plays great! The first night I had it, I just sat and noodled for seven hours or so getting acquainted with it.



Immediately I noticed the bridge (ABR and Mustang love child?) and the Gibson TP-6 tailpiece. I'm guessing the thought was more mass = more tonz. This is how I bought it. Now that I've intonated it, I'm pretty sure an ABR-1 will do the trick, if I choose to go that route. I really dig the look of this thing, but it's a touch on the muddy side, and I think an aluminum stop-tail would brighten it up noticably.



The TP-6 tail isn't being use for any fine tuning. And those string retainers are FUNNNN-KY and corroded. I'm not even sure how functional that thing is anymore.

Under the hood seems normal enough. I have to figure out how to date the pots and see what's up there...



The neck pickup is MUCH louder than the bridge, and the screws are f'd up enough that I can't use the height adjustments. But the sounds it makes are fantastic on both pickups. I haven't pulled them yet to see what they are, but they seem to be the stock GIbsons.

Anyway, I can't wait to get home and play this thing some more. I'll post again once I decide get into making things like the pickup adjustments functional again.

[Pacafeliz]

Oh holly that's a NICE one! Congrats!!!

[somanytoys]

Very nice, even with the bit of work that it needs. Nice wine finish, too.

I'd love to get a 70's Paul one day, traditional or standard.

Great get. Enjoy.

[garyfanclub]

Love to hear about Atomic scores here; maybe my favorite music shop on the East Coast!

Congrats, beautiful LP! A definite road warrior!

[panoramic]

i can't wait to have a meet up with this guitar man. I've never met a 70's les paul i didn't love

[badform]

i can't wait to have a meet up with this guitar man. I've never met a 70's les paul i didn't love

Haha, I hope you dig it. It's not as nice as the goldtop right now, but it's got potential to be better.

[panoramic]

i can't wait to have a meet up with this guitar man. I've never met a 70's les paul i didn't love

Haha, I hope you dig it. It's not as nice as the goldtop right now, but it's got potential to be better.

i can help you get it into form if you want

[badform]

i can help you get it into form if you want

It's cool. I'll hit you up. First thing is to replace all the rusty screws. Then decide if I want to swap out the bridge/tail for something more traditional.

In the meantime, I'm just going to play it like it is.

[zhivago]

Very cool guitar!

My love of Les Pauls is no secret, and this one looks great..almost a birth year guitar as well for me.

[cmatthes]

LOVE Atomic! I was out of town over the weekend, so missed the Anniversary Shindig, but probably for the best...

My best Atomic score was a Black, bound & crowned, 4-digit Hamer Standard (#0150)...for $499 out the door, w/case. I traded it to my brother for some really great stuff, and he sold it for $4,500 soon after.

I found out later when going through the log books that it had been ordered by Joe Perry. Even weirder, that I had also owned Brad Whitford's old 1979 Standard in Cherry Sunburst, #0137.

[BoringPostcards]

I love it. 70s Gibsons are fine enough for bands I listen to, so what ever.

[badform]

LOVE Atomic! I was out of town over the weekend, so missed the Anniversary Shindig, but probably for the best...

My best Atomic score was a Black, bound & crowned, 4-digit Hamer Standard (#0150)...for $499 out the door, w/case. I traded it to my brother for some really great stuff, and he sold it for $4,500 soon after.

I found out later when going through the log books that it had been ordered by Joe Perry. Even weirder, that I had also owned Brad Whitford's old 1979 Standard in Cherry Sunburst, #0137.

How random is that?!!? You owned guitars that were owned by Perry *and* Whitford? I *LOOOVVVEEEEEE* that black Hamer. I'd have gone nuts for that.

I'm still sitting on a bunch of store credit. I'm going to unload some more clutter and see what they have then. Last time, they had a Bandmaster Reverb, and a blackface Bandmaster that would make a good companion to my '65, but then I'd be turning into Panoramic. Heh.

[MattK]

Damn. I have no interest in Les Pauls but I wanted that as soon as I saw it.

[badform]

Update!

I've been playing the heck out of this thing, but my need to have my stuff functional is overriding my love of it's vibe.

I've got replacements for just about every screw and spring on this thing. I just need to figure out how to get the old rusty screws out of the pickup rings. I might have to drill into them and then hope I can back them out once the bit is in(?). Hmmm. Once I get the pickup rings off, getting the pickup adjustment screws out is no problem.

The TP-6 tail is mostly non functional at this point. I could only get one of the fine tuners to budge. Maybe once I get it off of the guitar, I'll see if I can't get it to work. As it is, I'm thinking it'll sound more open and articulate with an aluminum tail.

The 15th fret is a little wonky. It still works okay so long as I don't try to bend.

Panoramic and I played it through his bandmaster and 1x15 cab. That sounded pretty damn good. I don't know what pickups are in it, but they do the job for me. I think the bridge pickup is too far away from the strings currently, and I hope that'll have more definition once I'm able to adjust it up.

[somanytoys]

Very nice, I hope you’re able to remove the screws without much trouble. I bought one of those kits for doing that, it helps but somehow, doesn’t work as easily as it does in the commercial... (it’s probably me, I’m not the best at that stuff).

I know what you mean, after I switched pickups out on a guitar, I had to go ahead and swap the broken switch out soon after, even tho I didn’t really switch the pickups much. It just bugged me, but I’m glad I did it now.

Let us know what kind of pickups they are when you change everything out. I imagine all of the replacements & improvements will make it sound even better, especially thru Pano’s nice amp.