Carlos Santana's Les Paul Custom

This 13-inch-wide 1961 "Polaris White" Les Paul SG Custom weighs just 7.40 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Solid Honduras mahogany body with bevelled edge, one-piece mahogany neck, and ebony fretboard with 22 frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl five-piece split-diamond inlay. Five-digit serial number ("18818") stamped on the back of the headstock. Two-layer (black over white) plastic truss-rod cover. Individual Grover Roto-Matic Tuners with half-moon metal buttons. Three original Gibson "double-black" PAF humbucker pickups with wonderfully balanced outputs of 7.75k, 7.76k, and 7.79k (all with small rectangular black "Patent Applied For" labels on the underside). Small three-layer plastic (white/black/white) cover between the neck pickup and the neck with "Les Paul CUSTOM" engraved in black. Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with four screws (the pickguard has been signed in pencil by Carlos Santana). Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on lower treble bout. The potentiometers have been replaced and are stamped "137 7522" (CTS MAY 1975). The two capacitors across the tone pots have also been replaced and are stamped "6PS-S22+-10%/.022 600DC." Original black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with metal saddles and separate stud tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. A small amount of belt buckle wear on the back of the guitar, a few small chips on the edges, there are six small holes on the top of the guitar by the strap pin where the sideways Vibrola was removed, the gold plating on the hardware is a little tarnished, especially on the stud tailpiece. Overall, this forty-five-year-old piece of American history is in remarkably fine condition (8.75), with no cracks or repairs or refinishing to any part of the body. Housed in Carlos Santana's special 1973 Gibson Artist Series Paisley case with chocolate brown plush lining (9.50).

Carlos Santana had the cumbersome "sideways" vibrato tailpiece professionally removed and a stud tailpiece fitted. He also had the potentiometers and the capacitors changed in 1975 (for that very special Carlos Santana sound). The middle pickup cover has been replaced with a nickel-plated pickup cover and the two height adjustment screws have been replaced as well. The other two pickup covers are gold-plated, but due to the aging of the gold hardware this hardly shows. (Many players took the pickup covers off of PAFS to get a slightly more "raw" sound and this is the reason that Carlos at one time had the middle pickup coils "exposed.") On the bridge pickup, the treble side height adjustment screw has been replaced. Carlos also had the guitar refretted with medium width and very low frets which show wear exactly where you would expect it, i.e. especially around the higher frets.

With a Letter of Authenticity, dated May 7, 2005, on Guts and Grace Music SANTANA MANAGEMENT letterhead. "This certificate is your assurance that the 1964 [i.e. 1961] Gibson Les Paul 'Custom' Guitar, serial #18818 was owned, played & signed by Mr. Carlos Santana. The guitar is from Carlos Santana's private collection." Signed by Adam Fells, Personal Assistant to Mr. Carlos Santana. With a photograph of Carlos Santana holding the guitar.

The Gibson Artist Series cases were introduced in 1973. There were three versions: Black and Oxblood for the Les Paul and Paisley for the SG. Because they were very expensive, very few people could afford them. The Black and Paisley cases do show up from time to time, but they are extremely rare.

"Considering all the Les Paul models as a whole, sales declined in 1960 after a peak in 1959...[and] by 1961 Gibson had decided on a complete re-design of the line in an effort to reactivate this faltering model. The company had started a $400,000 expansion of the factory in Kalamazoo during 1960 which more than doubled the size of the plant by the time it was completed in 1961...One of the first series of new models to benefit from the company's newly expanded production facilities was the completely revised line of Les Paul models. Gibson redesigned the Junior, Standard and Custom models, adopting a new, distinctly modern, sculpted double-cutaway design. The 'Les Paul' name was still used at first, but during 1963 Gibson began to call these new models the SG Junior, the SG Standard and the SG Custom...The transition models -- those produced between 1961 and 1963 -- had the new SG design but the old Les Paul names, and these are now known to collectors and players as SG/Les Paul models...SG-style solidbodies have attracted a number of players over the years, including John Cipollina, Eric Clapton, Tony Iommi, Robbie Krieger, Tony McPhee, Pete Townshend, Angus Young and Frank Zappa" (Tony Bacon, Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, pp. 134-136).

"The restyled LP Standard pioneered the ultra-thin SG body-style which was gradually fitted to most Gibson solid bodies during the early 60s, hence the commonly accepted SG/Les Paul Std moniker. The earliest samples were built in the latter part of 1960 and therefore display inked-on serial numbers on the back of the headstock…No less than four different vibrato tailpieces can be found on the SG/LP Standard. The original 'sideways' Vibrola with a mechanism cast in light alloy was phased out in early 1963 and is primarily associated with 1960-62 models. Before 1963, however, the model was also available with either a short Bigsby unit or Gibson's short Vibrola" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, pp. 209).

"Approximately 950 SG/LP Customs were made until the Les Paul markings were abandoned in late 1963, including nearly 500 guitars in 1961 alone. Although this is not necessarily related to the change of designation, few SG Customs (130) were shipped in 1964" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, pp. 204).

According to Larry Meiners's Gibson Shipment Totals 1937-1939, only 513 SG Customs were shipped in 1961 (p. 12).