A Fine Original Les Paul Custom

This 13" wide, January 1962 "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, one-piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and inlaid pearl trapezoid position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl five-piece split-diamond inlay. Five-digit serial number ("42738") stamped on the back of the headstock. Black plastic truss-rod cover with "Les Paul" engraved in white. Individual Grover Roto-Matic Tuners with half-moon metal buttons. Three original Gibson PAF humbucker pickups with balanced outputs of 7.83k, 7.80 and 7.73k. The bridge pickup has a black label ("Patent Applied For") on the underside. Three-layer plastic (white,black,white) pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on lower treble bout. The potentiometers are stamped "134 6043" (Centralab October 1960). Black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic non-retainer bridge with metal saddles and Gibson sideways Vibrola tailpiece. All hardware gold plated. Apart from some minimal checking on the back of the neck this wonderful example is in exceptionally fine and totally original condition. Complete with the original instruction sheet in its envelope. Original Gibson black "faultless" hardshell case with orange plush lining (8.75).

"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).