{"id":605300,"date":"2023-02-06T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T20:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/06\/a-bargain-58-les-paul-special\/"},"modified":"2023-02-06T14:02:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T20:02:00","slug":"a-bargain-58-les-paul-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/06\/a-bargain-58-les-paul-special\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bargain \u201958 Les Paul Special"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sometimes, the easiest route to vintage tone and playability is by finding a guitar that\u2019s had a refinish, or other mods that haven\u2019t disturbed its musical essence. These are called \u201cplayer\u2019s\u201d or \u201cplayer-grade\u201d guitars in the vintage market, versus \u201ccollector\u2019s guitars,\u201d which are unaltered from their original state. This month\u2019s featured instrument, a 1958 Gibson Les Paul Special<\/a>, is a player\u2019s guitar\u2014and I\u2019m that player.<\/p>\n

The Les Paul Special has a deep lineage. The original Les Paul model, which came to be known as the Les Paul Standard<\/a> in 1958, debuted in 1952. Two years later, as the line diversified, the Les Paul Custom<\/a> arrived, as well as a student model called the Les Paul Junior. The Junior was the first slab-mahogany-body Gibson, with additional cost-saving measures evident in its single pickup, unbound fretboard, lack of binding, and plain dot neck markers. It sold for $99.50, versus the princely $225 price tag on the Standard, making the Junior the most affordable guitar in the 1954 Gibson catalog.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A year later, enter the Special. It also has a slab mahogany body, but upped the ante with two soapbar P-90 pickups, a Les Paul-style control set of two volume and two tone dials plus a 3-way toggle, a Tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece (a combo Gibson debuted in 1953 on the Super 400), a wide \u201950s-style fretboard, and a 1-piece mahogany neck with binding along the rosewood fretboard. The model came finished in TV yellow, and from 1955 to 1958 it featured a single cutaway. Priced at $179.50 in 1958, the Special was intended as an intermediate-level 6-string, nestled between the Junior and the original Les Paul. By 1959, the Special\u2019s core design was changed to a double-cutaway and remained that way until a single-cutaway edition called the \u201955 Les Paul Special was reissued in 1974. Today, the Les Paul Special still remains part of Gibson\u2019s product line.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Long after someone had refinished this month\u2019s featured guitar down to its mahogany body, I purchased it in the mid-1990s at Cambridge Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The only other modification was the replacement of the original Kluson tuners with Schaller\u2019s, also done by a previous owner. And, of course, there\u2019s a story.<\/p>\n

I first saw this guitar on consignment inside a glass wall case. At the time, I did not have a slab-style Gibson, and it immediately spoke to me. I also did not yet own a P-90-equipped guitar, which amplified that voice. Honestly, I was afraid that if I played it, I\u2019d fall in love and need to shell out the $1,200 asking price. Months passed, and it sat in the wall case, teasing me every time I made my frequent visits to the shop. One day, the inevitable happened: I asked to play it. I plugged into a couple Fenders and a Marshall combo and was struck by how comfortable the 12″-radius neck felt and how sweet the guitar sounded through a Fender Deluxe, and<\/em> how spanky and barking it was through a Marshall with low-to-moderate gain, thanks to those P-90s. The term \u201cbite\u201d was coined for this guitar. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThat day, I walked away \u2026 but in the ensuing weeks I literally dreamed about this Les Paul Special.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

That day, I walked away \u2026 but in the ensuing weeks I literally dreamed about this Les Paul Special. And then, a check for the first band profile I wrote for Rolling Stone<\/em>, on Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw\u2019s brilliantly edgy rock outfit Come, arrived. Clearing it with my wife, Laurie, I went to Cambridge Music with that check in my pocket. I explained to the shop\u2019s co-owner, Dennis Keller, that if the consigner would agree to a price of $1,000, tax included, I would cross the street to my bank and bring back cash. Miraculously, the consigner agreed, and about a half-hour later I hit the subway with that refin Special in a black plastic \u201cchainsaw\u201d case with the Gibson logo on its side. I felt like a courier, escorting home a million bucks.<\/p>\n

This \u201958 Special is worth something in the neighborhood of $4,000 or a little less today. Similar single-cutaway Specials with the original finish, depending on road wear, are selling for between $13,000 and nearly $18,000. But I\u2019m not jealous. This guitar is a flagship of great playability and classic, slab-body Gibson tone, and, due to that, this Special has paid back my initial investment with every trip it\u2019s made to the studio and stage for nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Ted Drozdowski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, the easiest route to vintage tone and playability is by finding a guitar that\u2019s had a refinish, or other mods that haven\u2019t disturbed its musical essence. These are called \u201cplayer\u2019s\u201d or \u201cplayer-grade\u201d guitars in the vintage market, versus \u201ccollector\u2019s guitars,\u201d which are unaltered from their original state. This month\u2019s featured instrument, a 1958 Gibson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":605301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25749,534,850],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bargain","category-financial","category-special"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}