I'm back... 56 Les Paul Custom

[BoringPostcards]

Seriously. These people can use the friend/foe feature, can’t they?!
Ugh.

[preservation]

What a shame. It's been stagnant round here since people left, I was hopeful that this could be the start of some more interesting topics of discussion rather than the same old bridge setup, shims threads that are repeated almost daily.
Surely the 4 pages of people welcoming you back says something...

Yeah, it has been really slow. There isn’t much to really read or look at anymore. I’ve been here since before the beginning, but it kind of feels like it has run its course for me. There’s so many of the colorful posters through the years that aren’t here anymore. It’s a weird feeling for me.

It’s been SLOW, but honestly it seems that some of the mods are to blame. I’ve seen them chastise forum members and then childishly lock threads after getting the last word in. Its unfortunate that politics/ideology have seeped into a friggin’ offset guitars forum.

[fuzzjunkie]

I'm off again.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and story. It was nice to share it with you all.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Enjoy your Les Paul. It’s definitely worth sacrificing that baritone and whatever other guitar you have to make room for it even if it’s too precious to play a dive bar with.

[Mechanical Birds]

...but I'm not getting involved in anything political. I don't want that madness in my life. The last 4 months have been stressful. I miss you all and love you.

But I come bearing gifts:





Yes, that is a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Custom. And yes I own it. And yes I am in shock.

***

Storytime:

This week Salparadise went to buy a bass from an old gear hoarder and sent me some pictures via WhatsApp. Among them was pictures of an old Les Paul that the guy "wasn't sure about". To my eyes it looked like an MIJ clone, but could have possibly been an 80s, or maybe 70s, reissue. Turns out that I'd actually met the guy before when he came to my house to drop off an eBay purchase. It also turns out, by some twist of fate, that the old guy was a childhood friend of the father of the drummer in my band!

Anyway, I get to the house and it's floor to ceiling old vintage gear in every room (kitchen and bathroom included). Vintage Oranges, JMPs, Fender Concerts, 60s Gretsch's...everything.

I was here to see the LP though. I took it apart a little, not really knowing what I was looking for, but it was certainly an actual Gibson, only one string on it and tape over the bridge to stop the saddles falling out The old boy remembered buying it on Denmark St a few decades ago and said he tried to find the embossed serial...by rubbing off some paint No serial. Great. A quick check of the Stolen Guitars Database saw all was good, plus the fact he was a known person to people close to me (I have since confirmed my drummers dad was with him when he bought it and remembers him looking for a serial. What a moron).

Anyway, we haggled a price that we were both happy with for what we assumed was an 80s-ish Les Paul Custom and I went my merry way home. Obviously the first thing I did was strip it down.

That's when things started to look weird to me and I started putting pictures online for help, and messaging people I know who know more than me. Piece by piece it started falling into place. The bridge had signs of being older still, the routs were a different shape to the 60s and 70s ones, the tuners weren't metal buttons, but rather pearloid...

"mate, I think that might be a real one"
"fuck off "
"no, seriously"
" Fuck off "
"No, go sit down and message some people"

Cue frantic messaging of Highnumbers, Zhivago, Vintage & Rare in the UK, ATB Guitars... all the people known to be good and knowledgable.

I've now had at least 20 people confirm what it is and it's both exhilarating and stressful in equal measures. Its a very valuable and rare guitar, I know this, but it's also a guitar I've hankered after for a long time. For now my only plan is to enjoy it but at the same time get it physically to a couple of experts for an appraisal for the home insurance.

I paid £2800 for it. And I owe SalParadise a big fucking drink.

So yeah, hey.

Do what you want obviously, and I can’t even say for 100% certain that id do it if I were in that position, but if you end up unloading this for anything even close to what it’s worth (based on Reverb anyway), you might hit up the seller and give him like 5% of your sale price.

Every time I’ve gotten/taken a deal where I knew I was overwhelmingly coming out on top, especially where the seller really doesn’t know what they have, it’d typically take less than 48 hours to start hating myself.

YMMV, obviously, so just a thought.

Having said that, this guitar is an amazing find and the exact situation that everybody on this board and everybody who is actually into guitars in the fucking world has dreams about - the type of deals most of us only ever heard old anecdotes about and assumed were all dried up. Insane prize you have there and goddamn, I can’t even imagine how much of my shit I’d lose upon confirming it is what it is.

Congrats, god damn, just amazing

[JM Convert]

I only check this forum on my lunch at work. As a reward to myself.

I start seeing Johnny S posts and wonder if this was Johnny's original log in or something.

And I was excited because Johnny has more cool, rare, vintage gear pass through his hands than anyone I've ever known. And he customizes everything to his needs and documents it all here.

So I was thrilled he was back as the forum had really slowed down after the last two mass exoduses.

And now he has been chased off again.

Bummer.

Glad you checked back in Johnny and that LP is one hell of a score.

[andy_tchp]

Do what you want obviously[...]

He's already left the forum - again.

OSG being the super friendly/welcoming and really special place on the internet, 'Some people' apparently took issue with him coming back and were incapable of using the board's built in 'foe' function to prevent his posts from being displayed (or just not reading his posts).

Well done whoever you are.

[OffYourFace]

Do what you want obviously[...]

He's already left the forum - again.

OSG being the super friendly/welcoming and really special place on the internet, 'Some people' apparently took issue with him coming back and were incapable of using the board's built in 'foe' function to prevent his posts from being displayed (or just not reading his posts).

Well done whoever you are.

We're working on it....

[Pacafeliz]

man shit what happened to this place?

As if the world wasn't shitty enough.
Everybody has become so sensitive and intolerant, makes me sick.

[luau]

man shit what happened to this place?

A really shitty thing happened on 10/7 and reaction to it drove a wedge between both members and mods we all care about and we've been struggling to deal with the fallout from it while also trying to provide the least restrictive place possible that meets the needs of everyone.

That's the best I can do in one sentence. Or was that question rhetorical?

[Dr Tony Balls]

What a shame. It's been stagnant round here since people left, I was hopeful that this could be the start of some more interesting topics of discussion rather than the same old bridge setup, shims threads that are repeated almost daily.
Surely the 4 pages of people welcoming you back says something...

Yeah, it has been really slow. There isn’t much to really read or look at anymore. I’ve been here since before the beginning, but it kind of feels like it has run its course for me. There’s so many of the colorful posters through the years that aren’t here anymore. It’s a weird feeling for me.

It’s been SLOW, but honestly it seems that some of the mods are to blame. I’ve seen them chastise forum members and then childishly lock threads after getting the last word in. Its unfortunate that politics/ideology have seeped into a friggin’ offset guitars forum.

110%. The mods here are rather overzealous.

[Pacafeliz]

man shit what happened to this place?

A really shitty thing happened on 10/7 and reaction to it drove a wedge between both members and mods we all care about and we've been struggling to deal with the fallout from it while also trying to provide the least restrictive place possible that meets the needs of everyone.

That's the best I can do in one sentence. Or was that question rhetorical?

Thnx yeah i was there too.
It was rather rhetorical. But yeah it still makes me sad.

I really loved my first forum, the Plexi Palace (RIP), there was a straight "no politics/religion" policy and we all accepted and adhered to it. No prob.
But i don't wanna open that can of worms again.

I like both parties involved and am just sad that we can't all get along n just talk gear.

[luau]

man shit what happened to this place?

A really shitty thing happened on 10/7 and reaction to it drove a wedge between both members and mods we all care about and we've been struggling to deal with the fallout from it while also trying to provide the least restrictive place possible that meets the needs of everyone.

That's the best I can do in one sentence. Or was that question rhetorical?

Thnx yeah i was there too.
It was rather rhetorical. But yeah it still makes me sad.

I really loved my first forum, the Plexi Palace (RIP), there was a straight "no politics/religion" policy and we all accepted and adhered to it. No prob.
But i don't wanna open that can of worms again.

I like both parties involved and am just sad that we can't all get along n just talk gear.

Yeah, I truly like them both as well. :/

[luau]

Yeah, it has been really slow. There isn’t much to really read or look at anymore. I’ve been here since before the beginning, but it kind of feels like it has run its course for me. There’s so many of the colorful posters through the years that aren’t here anymore. It’s a weird feeling for me.

It’s been SLOW, but honestly it seems that some of the mods are to blame. I’ve seen them chastise forum members and then childishly lock threads after getting the last word in. Its unfortunate that politics/ideology have seeped into a friggin’ offset guitars forum.

110%. The mods here are rather overzealous.

From my point of view at least, we try to allow adults to discuss nearly any topic, and in the past any topic. That inevitably means there will be dust ups that we try to actually moderate. The notion that we've been overzealous strikes me as inaccurate. More recently, since we nearly decided to eliminate the Misc Disc section, we've been tasked to moderate it more closely and we've been trying to do that in order to preserve that section.

You're all welcome to share constructive criticism so we can do better going forward.

[Dr Tony Balls]

The notion that we've been overzealous strikes me as inaccurate.

Well i'll say its about the most sensitive messageboard i've ever been on, at least in my experience. I've had posts deleted for using colorful language, throwing shade at people in the industry, even for mentioning that I can build gear without specifically having something for sale (??).....its a very touchy place. The proof is in the pudding in this thread specifically. "I've been told that my presence back here is likely to upset some people" is egregious. Some opinions were voiced that obviously were not met kindly, a time-out was had, and now some people cant even share the same corner of the internet with that person?? That's a bit much, imo.

[Jaguar018]

Watching how this broader black and white polarized world is all going down on this global scale is amazing and depressing. The only solace I feel these days is that eventually some of the main players in this sad and somehow monetized spectacle are going to die. Now I know that the power vacuum will eventually be filled by some other evil bastards, but I really do think that the charisma and power some of these people have can't be replicated-- it will just take some new person with some new terrible form of evil in a few decades.

Anyone who has been here for more than a few years knows all the repeat questions and issues that come with offsets, and then that broadens out to other guitars, amps, effects, and everything else. The thing that makes(or made) OSG interesting is a few highly opinionated personalities that really like to get into engaging discussions. Most of us just aren't that way-- but we happily cheer them on from the sidelines or engage with them ourselves when the particular topic they are going on about is interesting to us. The problem is that these people get burnt out, or they engage in one topic too many that pushes them over the edge. Blathering away with internet strangers that happened to like a Jazzmaster at some point in their life about topical items is great-- and it's also really easy to step away from.