"Murph"

1957 Gibson Les Paul "TV" Special.

This 1957 12 3/4-inch-wide electric solid body weighs just 7.30 lbs. Solid mahogany body, one-piece mahogany neck with a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches, a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches and a wonderful thick profile. Bound Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 22 original small frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and "Les Paul Special" silk-screened in gold. Single-line Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Serial number "7 7276" inked on in black on the back of the headstock. Two hot P-90 pickups with outputs of 8.38k and 8.03k. Original black plastic pickup covers, each one stamped on the underside "UC-452-B / 2". Five-layer black over white plastic pickguard with four screws. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout, plus three-way pickup selector switch on upper bass horn. Black plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs. The potentiometers are stamped: "134 701" (Centralab January 1957). Original intonation-adjustable combination wrap-over bar bridge/tailpiece. A previous owner has added his name "MURPH" on the bass side of the top in 1 1/2 gold with black outline letters. Had it not been for the addition of these letters we would have given this guitar a near mint rating. There is some minimal belt buckle scarring on the back (nothing through the finish) and one small 'ding' on the back of the neck behind the 4th fret. Otherwise the guitar is near mint and we will safely give it a (9.00) exceptionally fine rating. Housed in its original Gibson three-latch, brown 'Aligator' softshell case with brown felt lining (8.50).

"In 1955, Gibson launched the Les Paul TV, essentially a Junior but with a finish that the company referred to variously as 'natural', 'limed oak' and (more often) 'limed mahogany'. Surviving original TV models from the 1950s reveal a number of different colours, with earlier examples tending to a rather turgid beige, while later ones are often distinctly yellow. Today there is much debate about where the model's TV name came from...One such theory says that the TV name was used because the pale colour of the finish was designed to stand out on the era's black-and-white TV screens. This seems unlikely, not least because pro players appearing on television would naturally opt for a high-end model...Others say the guitar followed the look of fashionable contemporary furniture, where the expression 'limed' was used for a particular look. Certainly Gibson promoted the Les Paul TV as being 'the latest in modern appearance'. There's also been a suggestion that 'TV' might be a less than oblique reference to the competing blond-coloured Telecaster made by Fender. But in fact the name was coined to cash in on Les Paul's regular appearances at the time on television on The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show. This was effectively a sponsored daily ad for a toothpaste company, for which the couple signed a $2million three-year contract in 1953. Gibson reasoned that if you'd seen the man on TV, well, now you could buy his TV guitar. Following a reader's enquiry to Guitar Player in the 1970s, a Gibson spokesman confirmed that 'the Les Paul TV model was so named after Les Paul's personal Listerine show was televised in the 1950s'" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul, p. 28).

"In 1955, the original line of Les Paul models was completed with the addition of the Special, effectively a two-pickup version of the Junior, finished in the TV's beige colour (but not called a TV model -- a cause of much confusion since). The Special appeared on the company's Spetember 1955 pricelist at $182.50" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul, p. 29).

The Gibson shipping records show that out of a total of approximately 700 Les Paul TV Special models made between 1955 and 1958, only about 275 TV Specials were shipped in 1957.