One of the First of the "New" Les Paul Standards

Weighs 10.40 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of over 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Solid mahogany body with single cream binding, maple top with gold-top finish, one-piece mahogany neck with wider headstock, and rosewood fretboard with 22 frets and inlaid pearl trapezoid position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and gold silk-screened "Les Paul Model." Individual Kluson Deluxe tuners with double-ring Keystone plastic buttons. Serial number ("540973") stamped into the back of the headstock. Two P-90 pickups with balanced outputs of 7.51k and 7.66k. Cream plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout plus three-way selector switch on upper bass bout. Gold plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with nylon saddles and separate stud tailpiece. The pots are dated: "1376901" (first week of January 1969). According to the Gibson shipping ledger, this guitar was shipped on 04/16/69. The neck had a split at the heel where the neck joins the body of the guitar, which has been expertly repaired by Terry Mueller. The only evidence of the repair is a thin line going around the neck at the heel. The integrity of the guitar is unaffected, and it is a super player with a typical '59 Les Paul neck that is to die for! Apart from some surface wear on the back of the guitar (on the bass side) and a few tiny marks on the back of the neck, this wonderful thirty-six year old Les Paul Standard is in excellent plus (8.75) condition. Housed in the original Gibson black hardshell case with orange plush lining (8.50).

This guitar is actually the Gold-Top "Fifth Version" (1968-1969): "Based on 'Third Version' (bridge and separate tailpiece), but wide binding in cutaway. Confusingly referred to in Gibson literature as 'Standard' model" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul, p. 134).

"Gibson decided to re-introduce the relatively rare two-pickup Les Paul Custom, and the gold-top Les Paul with P90 pickups and Tune-o-matic bridge...Gibson formally launched the two new models at the June 1968 NAMM trade show in Chicago. The company's pricelist from that month shows the two revived Les Pauls for the first time: the Custom is pitched at $545 and the gold-top at $395. Throughout this period Gibson in their literature called the gold-top a 'Standard' model. This was rather confusing since they had never officially referred to the gold-top as anything but a 'Les Paul Model' or 'Les Paul Guitar' during the 1950s...Les Paul was at the NAMM show to promote the new guitars for Gibson by doing what he's always done best -- playing the things...Gibson's press advertisement publicizing the revived guitars, headed 'Daddy of 'em all,' admitted that Gibson had virtually been forced to re-introduce the guitars: 'The demand for them just won't quit. And the pressure to make more has never let up. Okay, you win. We are pleased to announce that more of the original Les Paul Gibsons are available..." Soon after the summer '68 NAMM show, production of the new Customs and gold-tops was started at Kalamazoo. [Gibson president Stan] Rendell says that the first run, which took 90 days to get from wood shop to stock room, was for 500 guitars: 400 gold-tops and 100 Customs. 'And by the time we had that started, CMI wanted 100 a month of the gold-top and 25 a month of the Custom, and before we were finished with that we were making a hundred Les Pauls a day. That's out of a total of 250, 300 instruments a day.' Gibson clearly had a success in the making" (Tony Bacon and Paul Day, The Gibson Les Paul Book, pp. 36-37).

"Gibson changed their neck construction around 1969, moving from traditional one-piece mahogany to a stronger three-piece laminate, and on to three-piece maple around 1974 for even greater strength. From about 1969 they added a so-called 'volute' to the back of the neck just below the point where it becomes the headstock -- a sort of triangular 'lump' that theoretically reinforces this notoriously weak spot. Another change made to minimize problems in the same area was introduced at this time, when Gibson slightly decreased the angle at which the headstock tipped back from the the neck. Such seemingly practical changes did nothing to enhance Gibson's reputations among traditionalists" (Tony Bacon and Paul Day, The Gibson Les Paul Book, p. 40).