Gibson Les Paul Signature Early 70s custom restoration Ruby Sparkle

70's Les Paul Signature. Professionally Reconfigured, repaired and refinished.

Weight: 7 lb. 13 oz.

Nut width: 1 11/16" 42mm

Neck thickness:

1st fret: 0.855"

12th fret: 0.995"

From the original owner who restored this very special guitar!
I've always had an affinity for the less mainstream Gibson models, so when I found this partially modified project guitar I had an overwhelming desire to make it better than it ever was.  

LP Signatures have a great body design with a 335's upper half and an extended Les Paul shaped cutaway. They never achieved the popularity of either, mostly because of the extremely clean low impedance pickups that didn't appeal to most players in the 70's.  You can't simply replace them with humbuckers or P-90s because Gibson used unique pickups and routing.

Despite their quirky  electronics, these guitars are rare and quite valuable, so you don't want to make irreversible modifications to an original model.

If only Gibson would have made a Les Paul Signature with a set of PAF humbuckers and a Les Paul control layout . . .

I was fortunate to find an already modified version on ebay.  Previous owners had already replaced the original low impedance electronics and stripped the finish.  Because the pickup cavities had been enlarged, a "back to stock" restoration was impossible.  This was a unique opportunity to make the LP Signature model that never existed, but definitely should have. I decided to make it, in my opinion, better than original.

The guitar was completely stripped, inspected and repaired by a former Gibson Custom Shop builder who now owns and operates NTL Guitar in Nashville.  He did an exceptional job of repairing past modifications and making everything structurally solid and playable including repairing and rerouting the pickup cavities, and doing a full refret with modern 6105 wire.

I then sent the guitar to the best guitar finisher in the business, ROWYCO Kustoms in North Carolina for the absolutely beautiful Ruby sparkle paint.

I added a set of vintage Gibson T-Top humbuckers, which were lightly wax potted and topped with a rare lightly used set of 70's embossed Gibson logo covers. New hardware and a professional set-up completed the transformation.

New parts include:

• Tone Pros Kluson Style tuners
• Custom "Ruby" truss rod cover
• Hand cut and polished bone nut
• Dunlop Strap Buttons
• Mojo wiring and electronics
• "Harmonica" bridge
• aluminum lightweight tailpiece

Includes the original case which is well used, but fully functional.