Les Paul Custom with a rosewood bridge?

[bagman67]

So I encountered my father-in-law's Les Paul over the weekend - a mid-1970's Limited Edition re-issue Custom that mostly replicates the 1954 Custom, a modern reissue of which is pictured here:

Now, there is a key difference between the pictured guitar and Leon's guitar:  Leon's has a rosewood archtop bridge like you'd see on a Super 400. Instead of a tune-o-matic, it has a rosewood slotted bridge with a drop-in bone or ivory or plastic saddle like you'd see on a dreadnought, and a conventional stop tail.  I can't find another like it.  The finish is original, and there are no holes or marks suggesting the guitar has been modified.  He is not the original owner, but he's had it since the mid-1980's and acquired it from a reputable musician.

Anyone ever seen such a thing?

 

[-CB-]

acquired it from a reputable musician.

Up to that point, I thought this was non-fiction......

 

[Superlizard]

I have never in my entire 41 years heard of a Les Paul Custom with a rosewood bridge coming out of the factory stock.

I say "BS".

That's the funny thing with mods... given enough time/decades, the mods themselves will look original.  :laughing11:

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

I've never seen anything like that before.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Have you destringed it?  Most of those bridges are floating.  It may have the original T-O-M post holes underneath if that's the case.

If it is indeed original, maybe it was a custom order or factory one-off. 

 

[bagman67]

acquired it from a reputable musician.

Up to that point, I thought this was non-fiction......

Your point is well taken, but I've known the guy who he got it from since 1977, and he's not a snake.

 

[bagman67]

Have you destringed it?  Most of those bridges are floating.  It may have the original T-O-M post holes underneath if that's the case.

If it is indeed original, maybe it was a custom order or factory one-off. 

I'll be headed down to San Diego in January and will restring and otherwise maintain the guitar - it's been unused for some time.  I'll take some decent photos of what I find. 

 

[erogenousjones17]

Hmm. I'm intrigued...

 

[drewfx]

I've never seen anything like that, and can't find any record of something like that, but Gibson was making some unusual stuff in the late '70's, so it wouldn't entirely surprise me.

The '78 catalog:
http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/gib78.php

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

.....but Gibson was making some unusual stuff in the late '70's, so it wouldn't entirely surprise me.

I'm glad they no longer make unsual stuff. 

 

[Superlizard]

Your point is well taken, but I've known the guy who he got it from since 1977, and he's not a snake.

It's not that the d00d is a snake, but that said rosewood bridge is certainly not stock original.

It's either a mod, or as someone pointed out, a custom piece from the factory.

 

[JaySwear]

no matter what it is it sounds really freakin cool. i can't wait to see some pictures of this thing! the only thing i wouldn't like about it would be that it couldn't intonate properly.

something like this?

 

[bagman67]

no matter what it is it sounds really freakin cool. i can't wait to see some pictures of this thing! the only thing i wouldn't like about it would be that it couldn't intonate properly.

something like this?

Similar, yes - the legs of the bridge have inlaid pearl crosses on them, and the saddle is more completely surrounded by wood, but otherwise, yeah, that's pretty much what it looks like.

 

[bagman67]

Your point is well taken, but I've known the guy who he got it from since 1977, and he's not a snake.

It's not that the d00d is a snake, but that said rosewood bridge is certainly not stock original.

It's either a mod, or as someone pointed out, a custom piece from the factory.

Yep, one or the other, 'cause it's about as far from run-of-the-mill as you can get.  Whichever it is, it's been on there for a loooong time, because both the guitar and the bridge have had the shiznit played out of them.  I think the frets are original "Fretless Wonders" - they are TINY.

 

[AutoBat]

We are now totally ready for detailed pics of this beast.

 

[Jusatele]

in the early 70s you could still custom order a LP from Gibson and they would do stuff at the main factory. I could see a custom build like that.
I have several of those table top style books, you know big picture books for the coffee table, that have classic guitars in them and there are several Gibsons with non typical custom build noted.
I would love to see under that bridge however, to see if it is original or not, AND even if it is a mod, SO WHAT, at least he did not pull an ART MAJOR pinstripe job on it. 

 

[OzziePete]

I, too, can see that this might have been a custom order spec...but WHY? The TOM is a better unit, and those wooden bridges are floating so how are the strings going to anchor? There's usually a tailpiece as well that anchors the strings on most archtops with the wooden floating bridge - or a Bigsby trem..

 

[jay4321]

needs a floyd

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I, too, can see that this might have been a custom order spec...but WHY? The TOM is a better unit, and those wooden bridges are floating so how are the strings going to anchor? There's usually a tailpiece as well that anchors the strings on most archtops with the wooden floating bridge - or a Bigsby trem..

It still has the stopbar just not the T-O-M part.

 

[bagman67]

I am very sad to report that my father-in-law Leon Levy passed away two weeks ago.  Before he left us, he gave me this guitar.  My wife is of course saddened by the loss of her father, but is glad that this axe will remain in the family and will continue to provide a tangible reminder of his abiding love of music.  I, too, am very sad about losing Leon - he was one of my favorite schoolteachers when I was a boy, and the fact that his daughter and I found each other 20-odd years later is a miracle in its own right.  Obviously the guitar is not for sale.

The instrument is a 1972 or 1973 LP Custom Limited Edition repro of the '54 LP Custom.  It is equipped with the staple-style Alnico V single coil in the neck, and a P90 in the bridge, ebony finish, 7-ply binding ,and gold hardware, including, alas, the waffle-back Kluson tuners.  The guitar was originally purchased by another family friend who modified the bridge with the rosewood archtop bridge with bone saddle in the mid-70's to suit his jazz-bo leanings, so the original TOM bridge is long gone.  This family friend gave it to Leon in the late 1980's, and by my reckoning the guitar has had virtually no maintenance apart from string changes (infrequent) since then.  I'm gonna take it in to Gryphon in Palo Alto (Frank Ford's shop) for a soup-to-nuts cleanup and setup, as well as a valuation for insurance purposes.  I'm partial to the rosewood bridge, but I want to retrofit tune-o-matic saddles, and thus make the thing intonate-able.  Right now it's a little dodgy in that regard.

I plugged it into a crappy little Kustom practice amp over the weekend and even in that context, the thing sounds like God His own self.  I'll get the Yama-soldano-ha back from the shop this week and look forward to hearing it really roar.

Peace.

Bagman

Here are photos: