Rare mid-seventies Les Paul Custom
With a Maple Fretboard

One of the very first of the rare 'Maple Fretboard' Les Paul Custom's. This very unusual guitar weighs 10.50 lbs. and has a fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Three-piece mahogany/maple/mahogany "pancake" body, three-piece mahogany/maple/mahogany neck with a medium profile and with a small and unobtrusive volute at the top of the neck. Maple fretboard with 22 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. The top of the guitar has seven-ply binding, the back of the guitar has five-ply binding, the headstock has five-ply binding, and the neck is single-bound. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl five-piece split-diamond inlay. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover with "Les Paul Custom" engraved in white. Small oval decal on back of headstock with "Les Paul - Custom / Made in USA / "00118579" in gold lettering. Individual "Gibson" Grover Roto-Matic tuners with bell-shaped metal buttons. Two Gibson humbucker pickups with outputs of 7.43k and 7.68k. Each of the pickups is engraved on the underside "PAT NO. 273,842" and both are also stamped in black "MAR 24 1975". The potentiometers are stamped "137 7605" and "137 764X" (CTS Feb and Nov-Dec 1976). Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout plus three-way pickup selector switch on upper bass bout. Fifties style black plastic "Speed" knobs with white markings and metal tops. Gibson 'Nashville' Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with metal saddles and separate stud tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. This guitar is in excellent plus (9.00) condition, with just a small amount of belt buckle rash on the back and a few small marks on the side and the binding. There is some very minor tarnishing of the gold-plated hardware on the pickup covers. Housed in the original Gibson black hardshell case with red plush lining (9.00).

It would appear that this guitar has been expertly re-fretted with the same gauge fretwire that Gibson used in the mid-seventies. The maple fretboard combined with the mahogany body give it a slightly brighter attack than a standard Les Paul Custom. The sustain and high-end crunch are massive.

The maple fretboard Les Paul Custom was offered as an option between 1977 and 1979, with 467 guitars shipped in 1977, 250 in 1978 and the final 66 in 1979 making a total of just 783 of these ever produced. This guitar with it's late 1976 serial number is most certainly one of the very first of these 'rare birds' ever made.