Les Paul Custom Goldtop

At last the missing piece for my Les Paul goldtop collection has arrived. Ain’t she a peach? I have several ‘collections within the collection’. One of these micro-collections happens to be a lefty goldtop finish Les Paul from each series of Les Paul’s that Gibson makes.

Click Here for a really big picture of this beauty

As I shopped for an LP from each series it came to my attention that only in the LP Custom series is a goldtop finish not an available option. That means for righties too. Thus my little quest took on a bit more significance as I could hope to acquire an ax that even righties don’t have made available to them without a custom order.

It took but a call to Steve Mesple at Wildwood Guitars of Louisville, Colorado to greenlight the one-off custom order. About 10 months later she was in my hands blasting out my favorite rockin’ blues riffs.

Wildwood is a Gibson Super Dealer and Mr. Mesple is the driving reason why. A true gentleman and friend to the lefty player I urge you to call Steve for any fantasy ax you may have in mind. He made my Johnny A lefty a reality and has inquired about diverse Gibson Custom Shop guitars that I wanted to have built. In fact, it was Johnny A himself that steered me to Steve and Wildwood when I e-mailed him personally to inquire about finding a lefty Johnny A Signature model.

Not only is this the only goldtop LP Custom anyone seems to recall – from Gibson’s Custom Shop employees to the folks at Wildwood - but also notice that the back and sides are finished in Gibson’s sexy oxblood like on the Jeff Beck Signature LP..

Truly droolworthy no?

   I had inquired about using nickel hardware instead of gold but declined when I found it that it would be several hundred dollars more to make the change to the less expensive nickel. Go figure. With the Gibson Custom Shop any deviation from the standard specs and appointments results in a firm extra expense. I wasn’t sure I’d appreciate the gold hardware that is standard on LP Custom’s. Rather than order nickel hardware I opted to get 2 sets of speed knobs, one set gold and one set black. For now I’m more than satisfied with the black speed knobs to set it off. I haven’t decided whether to drill for pickguard installation but as you can see in the pix the black multi-ply pickguard helps set off and define this as a true LP Custom.

 And that’s exactly how she plays and sounds! The ebony fretboard of a Custom is where the magic is made in my opinion. The harder surface of ebony gives each note a ringing, bell-like quality that sets it apart from any LP with a rosewood board. This also helps in string to string articulation with more full bodied chords and crisp comps.

She weighs in at about 9 ½ pounds so the weight for sustain is there in all its heavy glory. The pickups are standard for the Custom series – a 490R in the neck slot and a 498T in the bridge. After so many years of frustration watching righties have access to every ax under the sun I get a special kick knowing this is only possible for a right hander if they go through the same one-off process.

Well, I did say that this was the missing piece to my LP collection didn’t I? It would be more accurate to say it’s the creme-de-la-crème of the group as I’m still on the search for a lefty goldtop LP Supreme and the LP Traditional/Standard. Anyone out there happen to have one? Know of one? Ever seen one? Feel free to e-mail or call if you have any leads. Enjoy the pix!