2013 Gibson Les Paul Tribute '52 Reissue "Heavy Relic" Electric Guitar

This one has a complicated story. It began its life as a perfectly-clean 2013 Les Paul '52 Reissue "Tribute" model -- meaning it had the P90s and trapeze/bridge combo tailpiece installed... plus Mr. LP's signature on the pickguard and face emblazoned on a natural-tint headstock face.

At some point, someone did a pretty faithful "relic" job to the guitar and even had the headstock refinished black with the proper gold Gibson decals fit to it. It looks like it came that way. The finish is heavily weather-checked throughout and has a ton of flaking topcoat on the top as well as lots of faux (and not-so-faux) scratching and wear throughout. It does look old and well-used. There are "buckle wear" areas on the back that are a little... contrived? ...but the overall look is faithful to a vintage guitar. It has that classic Gibson crackle to the finish.

A customer of mine had 30th Street Guitars remove the tailpiece/bridge contraption and fit a normal stop/wraparound bridge with studs instead. This was done nicely and the bridge itself was imperceptibly compensated on its top edge to help with the unwound-G/wound-D portion of it play in tune. The bridge itself is aluminum (rather than brass or steel) and so lightens-up the guitar a bit and sounds lovely (I love aluminum bridges on electrics -- very fundamental/lively). The knobs are also replaced (with more-relic'd ones) and the pickguard is a replacement Gibson "historic" part as well. All of the original hardware is safely stowed in the case, though.

As far as playing it and how it sounds? It plays like a dream -- quick, easy, fast, relaxed -- and sounds like you'd expect an old P90-toting LP to sound... aggressive, twangy when you want it, raunchy when you want it, and full. It'll do rockabilly, rock, jazz at the neck if you clean it up and roll the treble off a bit, and country twang at the bridge if you dial-in your setup correctly. Unlike the later-style LPs with their humbuckers, a P90 LP still has that rowdy snarl of earlier driven guitar sounds in spades.

Repairs included: none -- just a quick restring and setup.

Setup notes: the neck is straight, the truss rod works, and it plays spot-on with 1/16" action overall at the 12th fret. Strings are 46w-10 gauges.

Scale length: 24 5/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 7/16"

String spacing at bridge: 2 1/16"

Body length: 17 1/4"

Lower bout width: 12 7/8"

Waist width: 7 1/4"

Upper bout width: 9 1/8"

Side depth at endpin: 2" + top arch

Body wood: mahogany

Neck wood: mahogany

Fretboard: rosewood

Bridge: non-adjustable wrap-around, but compensated

Neck feel: slim C-shape, ~12" board radius

Condition notes: it's been relic'd -- so the finish has been destroyed in all the right ways. The topcoat (clearcoat) is flaking on the top here and there and there's lots of induced wear all over.

It comes with: an original hard case, all the removed original hardware, and old documents.