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First off, I have been lusting after a Les Paul Custom for years. My first 'real' guitar was a Firebrand Les Paul, and Jimmy Page was my very first guitar hero. You do the math. I have always had a special place in my guitar heart for a LPC, but put it on the back burner for years. I traded off my Firebrand for a more METAL guitar, some pointy Peavey thing (stupid!). From there on, for years, it had to be a metal guitar, Kramers, then Charvels, then Jacksons, and I have stuck with C/J since about 1990. I did stray once, and picked up a 40th re-issue LP. I guess I bought it because it was pretty and dead mint. Well, this thing was a tone-dead boat anchor that would not stay in tune, so much for that, traded it for a SL2H!
So most of you remember how I bought this basket case Charvel strathead, #1505, think blue and white EVH graphic. Well I had it completely resurrected and this drove the original owner (Mike) completely insane. He simply had to have it back at all costs. He offered me insane money for it, and I conditionally accepted, hedging my bets. He was having somewhat of a challenge coming up with the cash, guitar rich/cash poor scenario, sound familiar to anybody here?! Well my bud, Mike, is a die-hard Les Paul man. He has a sick collection of 50's gold tops, and has owned countless other gold tops, juniors, customs you name it. So I gave him the challenge of locating me a LPC, preferably in black (do they make them in any other colors?! ha ha) I would take the LPC (once located)as partial payment for the Charvel. He gets me into this local guitar shop where he works and offers me a 'shopping spree' equivalent to the value of the Charvel. It is just too good to pass up. So I pick a bunch of gear, including a Line 6 HD, a Marshall 4x12, $500 cash, and a sweet LP standard. Standard?? WTF? Well, IMO, it was the best player in the store, and they had nearly 30 Gibsons. She was early 70's vintage, and she had been heavily modified. Mini humbuckers routed out to full size, middle humbucker added, and giant jumbo frets sans the binding over them. She had also been played, HARD, over the years and the neck was discolored and buckle rash into the wood, if playing wear was any indication, this was one of the good ones. Mike knew that I wanted to put on a finetuning tailpiece and a locking nut, so this was the perfect candidate, and I certainly wouldn't feel bad, further modifying this old girl. So I took her home and squeezed some life out of her, for about 1 week.
In the meantime, my wife was hip to all of to all of my wheeling and dealing and rightfully asked that my $500 go into our checking account and that I deposit it. Well getting me to part with guitar money is a tall order, so I told her that if she wanted it, she could deposit it, herself. She never go around to it, so I retained the cash. One week later, Mike calls my wife and emails me with a "Sorry to show you this..." but he had found the perfect LPC for me, perfectly matching all of my specs. Black beauty, great shape, and already outfitted with a TP6 finetuning tailpiece! Sounds like fate to me. So I drop everything and rush to the guitar store, amid my wifes cries of 'Indian Giver!' (sorry, not very PC, I know). See the asking price for the LPC was coincidentally $500 more than the standard. So with both in tow, off I go. I play this amazing machine and immediately fall in love. She plays like a dream, is in great shape and sounds just fantastic. Kind of rare with nickel hardware. So I checked into it and around 1978-1982, Gibson offered nickel hardware as an option, costing $849, versus $899 for the gold! What a bargain! I get the thing home and tear he down to do a set up and realize that she has Duncans in her, Score again! She is very Sykes-esque with the nickel hardware, and I ditched the pickup covers and swapped out the crappy Pearly Gates for a JB. I am a very happy man, right now, I feel that one of my life long guitar aspirations have finally been fulfilled. It just worked out great, that Mike got back his teenage years Charvel, and I finally got one of my formative years guitar dream. Check out the pics and enjoy! Sorry for the long winded story. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
[ February 06, 2004, 01:46 AM: Message edited by: Metalcop ]
So most of you remember how I bought this basket case Charvel strathead, #1505, think blue and white EVH graphic. Well I had it completely resurrected and this drove the original owner (Mike) completely insane. He simply had to have it back at all costs. He offered me insane money for it, and I conditionally accepted, hedging my bets. He was having somewhat of a challenge coming up with the cash, guitar rich/cash poor scenario, sound familiar to anybody here?! Well my bud, Mike, is a die-hard Les Paul man. He has a sick collection of 50's gold tops, and has owned countless other gold tops, juniors, customs you name it. So I gave him the challenge of locating me a LPC, preferably in black (do they make them in any other colors?! ha ha) I would take the LPC (once located)as partial payment for the Charvel. He gets me into this local guitar shop where he works and offers me a 'shopping spree' equivalent to the value of the Charvel. It is just too good to pass up. So I pick a bunch of gear, including a Line 6 HD, a Marshall 4x12, $500 cash, and a sweet LP standard. Standard?? WTF? Well, IMO, it was the best player in the store, and they had nearly 30 Gibsons. She was early 70's vintage, and she had been heavily modified. Mini humbuckers routed out to full size, middle humbucker added, and giant jumbo frets sans the binding over them. She had also been played, HARD, over the years and the neck was discolored and buckle rash into the wood, if playing wear was any indication, this was one of the good ones. Mike knew that I wanted to put on a finetuning tailpiece and a locking nut, so this was the perfect candidate, and I certainly wouldn't feel bad, further modifying this old girl. So I took her home and squeezed some life out of her, for about 1 week.
In the meantime, my wife was hip to all of to all of my wheeling and dealing and rightfully asked that my $500 go into our checking account and that I deposit it. Well getting me to part with guitar money is a tall order, so I told her that if she wanted it, she could deposit it, herself. She never go around to it, so I retained the cash. One week later, Mike calls my wife and emails me with a "Sorry to show you this..." but he had found the perfect LPC for me, perfectly matching all of my specs. Black beauty, great shape, and already outfitted with a TP6 finetuning tailpiece! Sounds like fate to me. So I drop everything and rush to the guitar store, amid my wifes cries of 'Indian Giver!' (sorry, not very PC, I know). See the asking price for the LPC was coincidentally $500 more than the standard. So with both in tow, off I go. I play this amazing machine and immediately fall in love. She plays like a dream, is in great shape and sounds just fantastic. Kind of rare with nickel hardware. So I checked into it and around 1978-1982, Gibson offered nickel hardware as an option, costing $849, versus $899 for the gold! What a bargain! I get the thing home and tear he down to do a set up and realize that she has Duncans in her, Score again! She is very Sykes-esque with the nickel hardware, and I ditched the pickup covers and swapped out the crappy Pearly Gates for a JB. I am a very happy man, right now, I feel that one of my life long guitar aspirations have finally been fulfilled. It just worked out great, that Mike got back his teenage years Charvel, and I finally got one of my formative years guitar dream. Check out the pics and enjoy! Sorry for the long winded story. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
[ February 06, 2004, 01:46 AM: Message edited by: Metalcop ]
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