PRE NAMM back to the aXtion! 1953 Gibson Signed Les Paul 01316

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"Message in a Bottle...from the Original owner" - An All Original 1953 Les Paul

Signed in Black Marker on the Top "Keep Rockin' / Les Paul".



This totally original lightweight Les Paul Standard Gold Top weighs just 8.20 lbs. and has nice, fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Solid mahogany body with a gold-finished solid carved maple top, one-piece mahogany neck with a wonderful thick thick profile, and Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 22 original thin (.070) frets and inlaid pearl trapezoid (crown) position markers. Serial number ("3 1034") inked-on in black on the back of the headstock. The top of the guitar has single cream binding and the fretboard has single white binding. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and with "Les Paul Model" silk-screened in gold. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover with three silver (half-inch) initials "G.E.H."affixed to top. Individual single-line "no-name" Kluson Deluxe tuners (stamped inside "2356766/PAT APPLD.") with single-ring tulip-shaped Keystone plastic buttons. Two very hot P-90 pickups with cream plastic covers and outputs of 9.28k at the neck position and 9.07k at the bridge. Single-layer cream plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout plus three-way pickup selector switch on upper bass bout. '53 (1/2 inch tall) gold plastic barrel-shaped "Speed" knobs. The potentiometers are stamped "134 317" (Centralab, April 1953) and the two original capacitors are stamped "Grey Tiger Type GT 452 .02 MFD 400 VDC." Combination "wrap-under" trapeze bridge/tailpiece. This fifty-eight-year-old "time-capsule" is in near mint (9.25) condition. There is some very fine finish checking on the back, but virtually nothing on the top. There are a few miniscule surface indentations on the back, one small scratch/indentation (one inch long) on the top on the bass bout, a few small scratches on the treble side (near the jack input) and some slight edge wear to the headstock. The frets are original and show a minimal amount of wear. Overall, this guitar is without a doubt one of the finest and most original examples that we have ever seen. This is one of the earliest "Les Paul's" to actually have a serial number, but what is unusual about this particular example is the neck angle, which is just like a late '53 "stop-tail" and therefore makes this a really playable guitar -- truly unusual for a 'Trapeze-Tailpiece' guitar... and - it's one of the best sounding P-90 Les Paul's we have ever heard! Housed in its original Gibson brown four-latch hardshell case with pink plush lining (9.25).