CoreyT
PRS Addiction
A woman at work knows that I am into guitars big time, and a few weeks back she informed me her father who is around 77 or so had an old Les Paul that was gold colored.
It was given to him a decade ago from his mother in-law, and it was given to her many decades ago when she was younger and playing guitar.
I asked her to get me some pics of it, and she went over there and they took some and brought into work some printed out for me.
What I saw next I knew it was not a newer one, this had that horrendous trapeze bridge on it.
Her father thought it might be something from the 60s, but I took my own pics earlier this week when she brought it into work for me to see.
I posted them on the Gibson forum and I was informed there that it was the first year Les Paul, a '52.
You can see my SE gigbag in the background, and also my SE Custom 24s lower body hanging from a Hercules wall mount on the side of the cabinet.
Some thought it may have been a reissue done up, but another guy there had me take off the back plate as only 52s had a square hole for the ground wire to go through.
I contacted Gibson Customer Service on the phone and sent him some pics, and he later called me back and informed me indeed it was a genuine '52 Les Paul.
Another clue was the headstock angle as the '52 angle would match up with the lower body of the guitar, where as later ones the angle would go past the lower body severely.
I may be the first to have ever pulled off the control cavity cover.
Original case too.
In good shape these fetch $12K to $25K on Reverb.com
Someone at some time had stamped into the wood AMS6262 on the back perhaps for identification purposes.
Gibson and a link I looked at by Premier Guitar said no 52s had serial numbers on them.
http://www.premierguitar.com/articl...al-vs-1953-gibson-les-paul-serial-no-3-0602-1
Only in '52 did they have that trapeze bridge and they dropped it for '53 via the info in the article above as the trapeze bridge had the strings up to high, and intonatiing the guitar is very hard.
I can confirm as I used my Polytune 2 tuner at work and all the strings were in tune, but when I fretted a chord it sounded horrendous.
Her father has agreed to take it to my local PRS dealer who I called and asked if he and the tech I take my guitars to wanted to work on a piece of history.
Of course he said yes!
The pots need cleaning, the tuners are very hard to turn, so they need to be lubed.
They could be replaced with modern vintage tuners but this would cut down the value too much.
Having that stamp on the rear already devalues it some.
The Gibson CS guy said what saves this guitar is that no one touched the front of the headstock, it is all vintage.
My dealer will also do the best setup on it without changing anything out.
And no polish or wax on this, only a good wipe down with a damp rag.
Will also have him check for any stickers or ink in the P90 cavities when he pulls them out for perhaps any clue as to what number this is for how many were built in '52.
Here are a few pics of me from yesterday holding this piece of history.
If not for this guitar, there would be no PRS singlecuts, Tremonti or Bernie Marsden guitars (or Bernie's Beast), or countless other singlecut shaped guitars from other manufacturers.
I could feel the mojo from holding it this past week at work.
If only it could speak and tell all who has played it, perhaps Mr Page.
I gave my coworker some links to send to her father for a lighted guitar display cabinet that you can mount to a wall.
This thing is meant to be treasured and displayed for others to see.
He wants to start playing again, and I told her to ask my dealer about a PRS SE guitar, perhaps a SE 245 or a SE Bernie Marsden.
I guess he also has a vintage Gibson amp at home too.
This guitar had been stored up in him and his wife's attic for a few years.
Who knows how many other countless vintage guitars are locked away somewhere begging to be let out and be played one more time or put on display for others to see.
I have no idea how many '52s were made, guess I will have to contact Gibson again to see if they have a number for me unless my dealer turns up something.
He use to be a Gibson dealer years ago, but dropped them when they told dealers they had to carry a certain amount of inventory at all times.
Here is a short video of me playing it at work through my Blackstar ID15.
The cell phone did not pick up the volume very good, but that is good thing, as it sounded bad.
The guitar was so hard to play with the strings up high and the intonation way off.
I am touched that I got to hold and play this historic instrument, and my coworker and her father realize what he actually had sitting up in his attic.
It was given to him a decade ago from his mother in-law, and it was given to her many decades ago when she was younger and playing guitar.
I asked her to get me some pics of it, and she went over there and they took some and brought into work some printed out for me.
What I saw next I knew it was not a newer one, this had that horrendous trapeze bridge on it.
Her father thought it might be something from the 60s, but I took my own pics earlier this week when she brought it into work for me to see.
I posted them on the Gibson forum and I was informed there that it was the first year Les Paul, a '52.
You can see my SE gigbag in the background, and also my SE Custom 24s lower body hanging from a Hercules wall mount on the side of the cabinet.
Some thought it may have been a reissue done up, but another guy there had me take off the back plate as only 52s had a square hole for the ground wire to go through.
I contacted Gibson Customer Service on the phone and sent him some pics, and he later called me back and informed me indeed it was a genuine '52 Les Paul.
Another clue was the headstock angle as the '52 angle would match up with the lower body of the guitar, where as later ones the angle would go past the lower body severely.
I may be the first to have ever pulled off the control cavity cover.
Original case too.
In good shape these fetch $12K to $25K on Reverb.com
Someone at some time had stamped into the wood AMS6262 on the back perhaps for identification purposes.
Gibson and a link I looked at by Premier Guitar said no 52s had serial numbers on them.
http://www.premierguitar.com/articl...al-vs-1953-gibson-les-paul-serial-no-3-0602-1
Only in '52 did they have that trapeze bridge and they dropped it for '53 via the info in the article above as the trapeze bridge had the strings up to high, and intonatiing the guitar is very hard.
I can confirm as I used my Polytune 2 tuner at work and all the strings were in tune, but when I fretted a chord it sounded horrendous.
Her father has agreed to take it to my local PRS dealer who I called and asked if he and the tech I take my guitars to wanted to work on a piece of history.
Of course he said yes!
The pots need cleaning, the tuners are very hard to turn, so they need to be lubed.
They could be replaced with modern vintage tuners but this would cut down the value too much.
Having that stamp on the rear already devalues it some.
The Gibson CS guy said what saves this guitar is that no one touched the front of the headstock, it is all vintage.
My dealer will also do the best setup on it without changing anything out.
And no polish or wax on this, only a good wipe down with a damp rag.
Will also have him check for any stickers or ink in the P90 cavities when he pulls them out for perhaps any clue as to what number this is for how many were built in '52.
Here are a few pics of me from yesterday holding this piece of history.
If not for this guitar, there would be no PRS singlecuts, Tremonti or Bernie Marsden guitars (or Bernie's Beast), or countless other singlecut shaped guitars from other manufacturers.
I could feel the mojo from holding it this past week at work.
If only it could speak and tell all who has played it, perhaps Mr Page.
I gave my coworker some links to send to her father for a lighted guitar display cabinet that you can mount to a wall.
This thing is meant to be treasured and displayed for others to see.
He wants to start playing again, and I told her to ask my dealer about a PRS SE guitar, perhaps a SE 245 or a SE Bernie Marsden.
I guess he also has a vintage Gibson amp at home too.
This guitar had been stored up in him and his wife's attic for a few years.
Who knows how many other countless vintage guitars are locked away somewhere begging to be let out and be played one more time or put on display for others to see.
I have no idea how many '52s were made, guess I will have to contact Gibson again to see if they have a number for me unless my dealer turns up something.
He use to be a Gibson dealer years ago, but dropped them when they told dealers they had to carry a certain amount of inventory at all times.
Here is a short video of me playing it at work through my Blackstar ID15.
The cell phone did not pick up the volume very good, but that is good thing, as it sounded bad.
The guitar was so hard to play with the strings up high and the intonation way off.
I am touched that I got to hold and play this historic instrument, and my coworker and her father realize what he actually had sitting up in his attic.
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