Gibson Les Paul Standard 530622 (1968)

Resurrection? Rejuvenation? Restoration? Whatever you want to call it, this 1968 Gibson Les Paul Standard was worth the work!

If we could sum up our experience in restoring this Les Paul in one word, it would be... dedication.

We knew we had good bones the moment this old LP came into the shop. Routed for humbuckers decades ago, wearing a mixture of new and old parts, stripped of its original Goldtop finish and stained to match the panels of a Grand Wagoneer. It was a confused guitar that had lived quite the life, but even strung up and played acoustically, it had that 1950s Les Paul "thing", whatever that is. Guitarists who've played 50s LPs know what we're talking about.

What became a 1+ year long endeavor bore some pretty incredible fruit! This '68 lives again, as an homage to its predecessors a la 1957 and merged with what the reissues offered players in the late 60s. This is one of the earlier style builds of '68 as well, with all of the build features that make vintage guitar enthusiasts go wild. A small headstock with a one piece neck and long tenon for starters, and a one piece Mahogany body with nice center seam Maple top. The Rosewood fingerboard is gorgeous too!

This guitar rode close to the edge of '68 shipments based on its serial number, and we were able to confirm that it shipped out of Kalamazoo on December 19, 1968. We enlisted the super talented luthier Thomas Rodriguez (of whom we represent with his very own guitars) to take on the task of some some restorative work to the body and giving it a fresh Goldtop finish. Thomas repaired some tear-out of a couple of potentiometer routs, filled and re-drilled the DIY humbucker routs done long ago, and also tidied up the control cavity cover edges that were prevously thinned out during finish stripping.

After all this great work was completed, the guitar was sent just 90 minutes east of Thomas's Staunton, Virginia workshop to Josh Grove (also known as Protocaster) in Richmond. Josh meticulously aged this guitar by hand before sending it back up to the Northeast. Once here, our talented repair staff begain piecing it back together. Original Kluson tuners and the old ABR-1 went back on the guitar, a vintage stopbar and studs were added along with vintage reflector knobs, and the rest a combination of great parts from MojoAxe and pickups from the highly respected and super talented Jim Rolph.

The results quite honestly exceeded our expectations. This LP is a monster of a guitar, with a neck profile that leans more 1958 than 1968. That woody honk we found it had in its earliest days with us just came to life in a whole new way via Rolph '58 Pretender pickups.

It's not a guitar for purists, but what it does offer is a truly great vintage player for the person who wants to. just. play. the. guitar. It's one of the most loving conversions/restorations you'll ever encounter.