You're eyes do not deceive you..... this an all gold 1957 Les Paul with double cream PAF humbuckers!! Absolutely insane, we are pleased to present to you the opportunity to become the new owner this extremely rare guitar!! She's also a very important piece of guitar & rock n' roll history, that forever changed the entire industry!! This is the first year Gibson installed the Seth Lover designed humbucker pickups into the legendary Les Paul! This guitar will surely be a highly prized addition to any guitar collection out there!
The PAF's on this guitar are the rarest of the rare... they have stainless steel pick up covers which only the very earliest made 57' Les Paul's had installed. These pick ups are quite unique, as stainless steel pups are incredibly hard to find and these pups are stickered with the "patent applied for" decal. These humbuckers appear to have untampered solder joints, and all the correct markings, and specs for us to stamp our approval on their validity and they are definitely the real deal. The stainless pick up covers are slightly thinner than their nickel counterparts at 0.021 of an inch in thickness. The reason they are slightly thinner is because the nickel plated covers have an additional layer of copper underneath, that the SS covers don't have. The bobbin mount screws are also SS.... and the top of the cover's have the correct horizontal texture lines indicative of the early SS humbuckers. The decals have the unique, and correct type face Gibson used with the small clear border around the black box. The decal on the bridge is reactive under UV light, and the decal on the neck pick up is non-reactive under UV light, but they are both original real PAF's. Contrary to popular belief there are legitimate PAF's with non-reactive decals. They both have double wire shielded braiding, and the "L" tool marks on the the feet. The pickup rings both have the correct molding signs and the proper "M-69" markings.
We are fully aware that some people don't even believe that the Stainless Steel covers ever even existed on PAF's due to how rare it is for these to turn up! The same people will usually, also nay-say any PAF decal that doesn't react under UV light... That is completely fine with us, we have done very extensive research into every minor detail of this guitar and it's components before listing this very important, and rare guitar! We understand that there is a lot more of easily accessible information about Nickel plated PAF's due to the much larger sample size to critique from.... But.... (drum roll please).... there are also confirmed legitimate Nickle plated PAF's with non-reactive decals under UV light as well. So its not just the elusive SS version that has that unique element occasionally come around. We even went an extra step further on the non-reactive decal PAF in the neck, and sought the expert opinion of renowned PAF expert, to assist in the validity/ or lack there of... The answer was very important to us, because we always strive to make each and every listing as accurate and honest as possible, and they agreed with our research that they are indeed legit PAF. But please see the last 5 photos for yourself to come to your own conclusion, the final photo's show the neck pick up in close detail so that it can be carefully examined for your consideration. **Please note that we will not be willing to break the untampered solder joints for viewing the internal construction**
The all gold finish is a custom color option, and adds to the extreme rarity of this beautiful guitar. Less than 5% of all vintage Les Paul gold top's received the all gold treatment, and it's safe to say that very, very few 57's were made like this. A small handful at most! The finish is original and shows no signs of having any refinish work done to it. There is the perfect amount of light checking throughout the finish as well. On the truss rod cover, it appears many years ago that someone decided to glue a couple of small plastic rhinestones to it, also on the very top of the headstock, there is a small amount of glue residue where possibly more of those rhinestones may have been attached. The fingerboard has some divots from being played over the last 65 years, and under UV it's detectable that some divots had a small amount of filler applied a long time ago. This guitar is absolute shredder, so its makes sense that there is good honest play wear on her, this is a collector's and player's vintage axe!! She plays super fast and effortless! Perfect C profile neck, that feels amazing in the hands, with fast low action, she's an absolute dream guitar that has the perfect mind blowing PAF tone!! Please see our embedded YouTube that is attached to this listing so you can check out how amazing this guitar sounds and plays for yourself. This perfectly balanced guitar only weighs 7lbs 13oz on our scale!! We also have a lot of extra pictures available upon request as Reverb only allows for 25 images to be attached. Every picture you can think to request is probably already taken and can be sent over to you.
The flare base Bonnet knobs are original, Likewise the Kluson Deluxe 1 line, 1 ring patent applied 2356766 tuners appear original as well. The no wire ABR-1 bridge, and tailpiece have all the correct machine markings and indications that they are also original, as well are the studs and strap buttons.
2 of the 4 pot codes can be read and they date to the third week of 1956. The reason the other 2 codes are not available is due to the location of the codes being very, very close to the wall of the electronics cavity, and a mirror cannot be placed in the small gap between that space to read what its says. Visually all 4 pots appear to have the same amount of wear and age to them, with no signs of having been removed in the past.... none of the grounds appear to have been tampered with, which, to us proves the originality on all 4 of the potentiometers. Bleed capacitor added to volume pot many years ago. The selector switch orange ground wire (photo 17) appears to be newer and a replacement for the original ground.
Purchase of this amazing guitar includes the iconic pink plush lined Lifton Cali-Girl 5 latch hard shell case... The leather handle is missing, and the case shows signs of wear that are to be expected for it's age. The very rare case candy is also included (icing on the cake). You get the pack of unused 1950's "Gibson hand made strings", and the hang tag as well as a Gibson guitar and amplifier catalog which was issued from their HQ in Kalamazoo Michigan. The catalog is complete and not missing any pages. This is an extraordinarily complete package, that only needs one thing.... a new home!!
We'd prefer not to ship this guitar, to avoid any possible damage or complete loss of the guitar altogether. However shipping isn't totally out of the question, if you have, and are willing to purchase full insurance through a reputable agency like Heritage, for example, then we would ship it. If you'd like to come in person and inspect this guitar for yourself please contact us ahead of time to make an appointment.
We thank you very much for checking out our listing. Please feel free to reach out and contact us any time with any questions or inquires. If you you'd like to have any additional photo's or videos made, and sent over to you we are happy to get that made that happen. Have a great day!
The PAF's on this guitar are the rarest of the rare... they have stainless steel pick up covers which only the very earliest made 57' Les Paul's had installed. These pick ups are quite unique, as stainless steel pups are incredibly hard to find and these pups are stickered with the "patent applied for" decal. These humbuckers appear to have untampered solder joints, and all the correct markings, and specs for us to stamp our approval on their validity and they are definitely the real deal. The stainless pick up covers are slightly thinner than their nickel counterparts at 0.021 of an inch in thickness. The reason they are slightly thinner is because the nickel plated covers have an additional layer of copper underneath, that the SS covers don't have. The bobbin mount screws are also SS.... and the top of the cover's have the correct horizontal texture lines indicative of the early SS humbuckers. The decals have the unique, and correct type face Gibson used with the small clear border around the black box. The decal on the bridge is reactive under UV light, and the decal on the neck pick up is non-reactive under UV light, but they are both original real PAF's. Contrary to popular belief there are legitimate PAF's with non-reactive decals. They both have double wire shielded braiding, and the "L" tool marks on the the feet. The pickup rings both have the correct molding signs and the proper "M-69" markings.
We are fully aware that some people don't even believe that the Stainless Steel covers ever even existed on PAF's due to how rare it is for these to turn up! The same people will usually, also nay-say any PAF decal that doesn't react under UV light... That is completely fine with us, we have done very extensive research into every minor detail of this guitar and it's components before listing this very important, and rare guitar! We understand that there is a lot more of easily accessible information about Nickel plated PAF's due to the much larger sample size to critique from.... But.... (drum roll please).... there are also confirmed legitimate Nickle plated PAF's with non-reactive decals under UV light as well. So its not just the elusive SS version that has that unique element occasionally come around. We even went an extra step further on the non-reactive decal PAF in the neck, and sought the expert opinion of renowned PAF expert, to assist in the validity/ or lack there of... The answer was very important to us, because we always strive to make each and every listing as accurate and honest as possible, and they agreed with our research that they are indeed legit PAF. But please see the last 5 photos for yourself to come to your own conclusion, the final photo's show the neck pick up in close detail so that it can be carefully examined for your consideration. **Please note that we will not be willing to break the untampered solder joints for viewing the internal construction**
The all gold finish is a custom color option, and adds to the extreme rarity of this beautiful guitar. Less than 5% of all vintage Les Paul gold top's received the all gold treatment, and it's safe to say that very, very few 57's were made like this. A small handful at most! The finish is original and shows no signs of having any refinish work done to it. There is the perfect amount of light checking throughout the finish as well. On the truss rod cover, it appears many years ago that someone decided to glue a couple of small plastic rhinestones to it, also on the very top of the headstock, there is a small amount of glue residue where possibly more of those rhinestones may have been attached. The fingerboard has some divots from being played over the last 65 years, and under UV it's detectable that some divots had a small amount of filler applied a long time ago. This guitar is absolute shredder, so its makes sense that there is good honest play wear on her, this is a collector's and player's vintage axe!! She plays super fast and effortless! Perfect C profile neck, that feels amazing in the hands, with fast low action, she's an absolute dream guitar that has the perfect mind blowing PAF tone!! Please see our embedded YouTube that is attached to this listing so you can check out how amazing this guitar sounds and plays for yourself. This perfectly balanced guitar only weighs 7lbs 13oz on our scale!! We also have a lot of extra pictures available upon request as Reverb only allows for 25 images to be attached. Every picture you can think to request is probably already taken and can be sent over to you.
The flare base Bonnet knobs are original, Likewise the Kluson Deluxe 1 line, 1 ring patent applied 2356766 tuners appear original as well. The no wire ABR-1 bridge, and tailpiece have all the correct machine markings and indications that they are also original, as well are the studs and strap buttons.
2 of the 4 pot codes can be read and they date to the third week of 1956. The reason the other 2 codes are not available is due to the location of the codes being very, very close to the wall of the electronics cavity, and a mirror cannot be placed in the small gap between that space to read what its says. Visually all 4 pots appear to have the same amount of wear and age to them, with no signs of having been removed in the past.... none of the grounds appear to have been tampered with, which, to us proves the originality on all 4 of the potentiometers. Bleed capacitor added to volume pot many years ago. The selector switch orange ground wire (photo 17) appears to be newer and a replacement for the original ground.
Purchase of this amazing guitar includes the iconic pink plush lined Lifton Cali-Girl 5 latch hard shell case... The leather handle is missing, and the case shows signs of wear that are to be expected for it's age. The very rare case candy is also included (icing on the cake). You get the pack of unused 1950's "Gibson hand made strings", and the hang tag as well as a Gibson guitar and amplifier catalog which was issued from their HQ in Kalamazoo Michigan. The catalog is complete and not missing any pages. This is an extraordinarily complete package, that only needs one thing.... a new home!!
We'd prefer not to ship this guitar, to avoid any possible damage or complete loss of the guitar altogether. However shipping isn't totally out of the question, if you have, and are willing to purchase full insurance through a reputable agency like Heritage, for example, then we would ship it. If you'd like to come in person and inspect this guitar for yourself please contact us ahead of time to make an appointment.
We thank you very much for checking out our listing. Please feel free to reach out and contact us any time with any questions or inquires. If you you'd like to have any additional photo's or videos made, and sent over to you we are happy to get that made that happen. Have a great day!
This item is sold As-Described
This item is sold As-Described and cannot be returned unless it arrives in a condition different from how it was described or photographed. Items must be returned in original, as-shipped condition with all original packaging.