Trying to identify a 70s Gibson Model

[urlkonig]

In the late 70s Gibson made a semi-hollow Gold-topped guitar that was smaller than a 335, and had offset cutaways. I think it may have had the Les Paul name involved somehow, though that would have been its only relationship to the smaller, solidbodied LPs.... I think the pickups had cream plastic covers...

Does anyone remember this curiosity, and what its model name was?

 

[erksin]

Yep - a Les Paul Recording model...

 

[urlkonig]

Thanks - I saw someone playing one of these recently, and have been trying to run one down ever since. Wonder how many were made.... I see the more common, les paul shaped recording models with the large black plastic covered pickups all the time... These semi-hollow models just seem to have disappeared...

 

[Chrome Dinette]

I think it's not the Recording that was hollow with offset cutaways. It had a name like Les Paul Personal, I think.

 

[urlkonig]

Hmmmn... I don't think that's it either -- there's one of those on this page:

http://users2.ev1.net/~jimbobwan/guitar/lpp01.htm

I've been looking for some compendium site for all Gibson electrics, but haven't stumbled upon anything yet...

 

[Unburst]

That one is a Les Paul Signature.

Like this:

http://www.jmskn.com/gbsnLPSig.jpg

 

[Phil M]

Sounds like the Signature, like Unburst says.

I always wanted to find one.

 

[urlkonig]

The very one! Thanks unburst! Now that I know what it is, I might be able to search for one a bit more efficiently...

 

[erksin]

Yep it's a Signature - sorry, went off the top of my head...

Those pups are low impedance Lawrence-designed units, right?

 

[Myron Stratis]

I got an old Les Paul Signature in sunburst. The weird thing is that I cannot track a serial number on the guitar???? Anyone got one with a serial? If yes, where it is???

 

[Unburst]

Originally posted by erksin
Yep it's a Signature - sorry, went off the top of my head...

Those pups are low impedance Lawrence-designed units, right?

They are low impedance, not sure who designed them.

I believe they made some with regular pups too.

 

[george4908]

I had the (possibly dubious) distinction of owning three of these -- two guitars and a bass. They're offbeat, but pretty cool. The guitars initially used the oval-shaped low impedence 'buckers as seen on the LP Personal and LP Recording, but with cream covers. They quickly changed to a switchable (via separate input jacks) low/high impedence pickups that were rectangular, roughly the size of minihumbuckers (still cream colored); most of the ones you'll find are like these. In addition to a standard three-way, volume and tone, they had an in-out phase switch and a rotary three position parametric EQ. All very state of the art for the '70s. The EQ postions could be described more or less as thin, medium and fat. I left mine on medium 90% of the time. But overall, this was a very versatile guitar and if you could only have one guitar, you could do a lot worse. The pickups were fairly low gain, though, even in Hi-Z mode.

Most LP Signatures were goldtop, but some bursts were available. They're quite comfortable to play as the neck is set deeper into the body than on a 335, i.e., not sticking quite so far out into left field. The deeper cutaway on the treble side took care of the upper fret access rather well.

Quality during this era was generally spotty. Quite a few Signatures will be stamped with a "2" beneath the serial # on the headstock, indicating a finish flaw of some kind. The serial # may also appear on a label inside the f-hole, I forget.

Of the two Signature guitars I had, the goldtop was clearly better than the burst (wish I had that one back). I forget which was which, but one had a maple neck and the other a mahogany, which must have accounted for the difference. Signatures, like 335s, can also vary in weight quite a bit.

But the best of all was the bass Signature, of which I was the original owner circa '75. That was a killer instrument and I would still have it if it hadn't been stolen many years ago, alas. I still keep a lookout for it, a beautiful and very rare ice tea burst.

 

[Myron Stratis]

Originally posted by george4908
I had the (possibly dubious) distinction of owning three of these -- two guitars and a bass. They're offbeat, but pretty cool. The guitars initially used the oval-shaped low impedence 'buckers as seen on the LP Personal and LP Recording, but with cream covers. They quickly changed to a switchable (via separate input jacks) low/high impedence pickups that were rectangular, roughly the size of minihumbuckers (still cream colored); most of the ones you'll find are like these. In addition to a standard three-way, volume and tone, they had an in-out phase switch and a rotary three position parametric EQ. All very state of the art for the '70s. The EQ postions could be described more or less as thin, medium and fat. I left mine on medium 90% of the time. But overall, this was a very versatile guitar and if you could only have one guitar, you could do a lot worse. The pickups were fairly low gain, though, even in Hi-Z mode.

Most LP Signatures were goldtop, but some bursts were available. They're quite comfortable to play as the neck is set deeper into the body than on a 335, i.e., not sticking quite so far out into left field. The deeper cutaway on the treble side took care of the upper fret access rather well.

Quality during this era was generally spotty. Quite a few Signatures will be stamped with a "2" beneath the serial # on the headstock, indicating a finish flaw of some kind. The serial # may also appear on a label inside the f-hole, I forget.

Of the two Signature guitars I had, the goldtop was clearly better than the burst (wish I had that one back). I forget which was which, but one had a maple neck and the other a mahogany, which must have accounted for the difference. Signatures, like 335s, can also vary in weight quite a bit.

But the best of all was the bass Signature, of which I was the original owner circa '75. That was a killer instrument and I would still have it if it hadn't been stolen many years ago, alas. I still keep a lookout for it, a beautiful and very rare ice tea burst.

Great info, thank you! Mine is a sunburst with a maple neck, it feels very "vintage", love it! I would love to find some more info on those weird plastic pickups. Is a mini-humbucker (by Seymour Duncan) a direct replacement?

 

[george4908]

>>Is a mini-humbucker (by Seymour Duncan) a direct replacement?

Don't know, but here's a Seymour Duncan page with the dimensions of the minihumbucker:

http://seymourduncan.com/products/dimensionpages/sm-1.shtml

You'll to measure the Low/High impedence pickups to see if they would be a direct fit.