One of the First of the Re-Introduced Les Paul Gold Tops.

1969 Gibson Les Paul Standard Gold Top.

This January 1969 Les Paul Standard has one-piece mahogany body with single cream binding and a maple top with gold finish and weighs 9.90 lbs. One-piece mahogany neck with fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches, a wonderful fat profile and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Early long tenon neck joint but with the wider headstock. Rosewood fretboard with 22 original jumbo frets and inlaid pearl trapezoid position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and gold silk-screened "Les Paul Model." Individual Kluson Deluxe 'double-line' tuners with double-ring Keystone plastic buttons and "D-169400 / Patent No." stamped on the underside. Serial number "558420" stamped into the back of the headstock. Two-layer black over white plastic truss-rod cover with two screws. Two P-90 pickups with really hot outputs of 7.78k and 8.24k. Original cream plastic pickup covers, both stamped "UC 452 B" on the underside. 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. Gibson Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with nylon saddles and separate stud tailpiece. The pots are stamped: "137 6850" (CTS last week of December 1968) and the two capacitors are the black cylindrical Sprague "Black Beauty" type. This is one of the earliest 68/69 GoldTops with a typical '59 Les Paul neck that is to die for! There is a small area of 'greening' on the top where the players arm has rested. There are also a few small 'dings'/marks on the edges. Overall this wonderful Forty-four year old Les Paul Standard is in exceptionally fine condition (9.00+) condition. One of the best examples that we have seen. Complete with the original Gibson 18 page hang-tag booklet, an original guitar cord and a set of original Gibson strings Housed in the original Gibson four-latch, shaped black hardshell case with orange plush lining (9.00).

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).