The WORST thing you could do to a Les Paul?! | Friday Fretworks

Hey guys, I'm Chris B and a very warm welcome to this week's FR frat works and Les Paul conversions Sacriligious top oh m, there are now very few album covers as iconic as jeffb Blow by Blow John's expressive painting Jeff Kier on stage armed with his ox stick with a wraparound tail and two hamburgers that are now growing a little naively. I'm just assuming this was just a regular Les stick that you might have bought off the rack in the past, but of course that's not the case along with Peter. Frampton's Phoenix, these two Les PS are possibly the two most famous examples of lesp conversions, but what the hell a lesp conversion is now, in short, is a lesp that has been modified or converted if you will to the specifications of another lesp surround tailpiece removed instead of a tunatic and a stoptail or P90 routed for humbuckers or gold finish removed instead of a burst finish.

Now, given the recent proliferation of burst conversions, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a fairly new phenomenon, but as the saying goes. There is no

thing

new under the sun, as evidenced by Jeff's Oxford Les pool, which despite having been purchased by Jeff in 1973, would have actually started life as early as 1954. Gold toop, let's throw in P90 and a piece wrap tail before it was routed. An additional route to Essen was added. for the string huers and stuff in Memphis Tennessee, the same goes of course for Peter Frampton's Phoenix, which we're not sure would have started out as a custom 54 or 55 lpol either way it would have had a P90 and a pickup basic on the mast, but at some point before acquiring it in 1970, it was intended for three burgers, but why would you do this?

Why would you go to the extent of heavily modifying a Les Paul when you

could

just go out and buy a new one with the specs you wanted? The answer, of course not, is now important to remember that, as much as the Lespol's status today in day is practically incomparable, this has not always been like this; in fact, it was some

thing

of a commercial disaster that Gibson discontinued only in 1960. Eight years after its introduction in 1952, of course, it was replaced by SG Eric Clapton Keith Richards Mike Bloomfield Peter Green Billy Gibbons Jeff Beck, all of whom acquired bursts in the mid-to-late '60s and laid the foundation for its iconic status.

The problem is that Gibson had stopped making them, so getting one, especially here in the UK, was no easy task; However, in 1968, Gibson responded to all our requests or at least tried to by reissuing the last poor one, but not the one everyone wanted. for a 56-spec P90 gold top and a fairly obscure two-p pick black Lespol guitar, it would actually take them until 1976 before they finally relented and reissued the standard Sunburst LP, but those guitars were a million miles away of the light and lively resin. fewer pores than Gibson was making in the late '50s in 1980, a better attempt would follow with the Heritage series, but in the intervening years it's very easy to see why people resort to a little creativity in wood to try to capture something of that magic. those Golden Era Gibsons and, as such, so many golden Tooplers.

PS from this era, they now exist in a sort of state of limbo, they no longer have gold tops, but also no pops, which is where modern day guitar comes in, this particular group currently on sale here in the Kingdom Joined on 0b guitars for a less than $30k FIV actually started life as a 1956 go toop 2 P90 tunatic bridge, stops next to the tailpiece before being routed for huers, of course, stripped and repainted with a sunb finish by Yuki MCL from pgv player grade vintage again here in the UK now, among the telltale signs that it's not actually a blaster, apart from its somewhat explanatory serial number, is the fact that the cesy isn't as centered, of course, Gibson only focused on the center seam of their maple tops from 1958 onwards, when that seam was visible, of course, until that time it had been covered with gold paint.

Now the grand scheme of 56 to 59 conversions is relatively simple and the only really invasive work required is additional routing for the humbuckers, but of course people have done it. But it didn't stop there, they have tried pretty much everything over the years with varying degrees of success now due to the neck angle problems that plagued Les Pauls in the early 50's. Turning a Lespol into a real blast It is not a simple task and as such, I have played a few examples in the past that have been plagued by structural and gameplay issues. I've actually seen some people try to turn Lespol Junior into bursts which are themselves structurally totally different beasts, but thankfully this isn't one of those examples and it plays incredibly well. well, it also has that characteristic faded pgv color that you may recognize from my Greco, which again, interestingly, was finished by Yuki.

There was also an original paf on the bridge and a clone on the neck. Original 1950's and early 1960's hardware and electronics, and a set. from 1959 Tracks on the tuners, the neck feels like it's been lightly shaved at some point, which, although unexpected at first, isn't really noticeable after just a few minutes of playing and, more importantly, it sounds incredible now, as you can imagine. The motivation behind burst conversions in the mid to late '60s or early '70s may have been practically driven, it wouldn't be long until they became economically driven as burst prices began to skyrocket in the mid-'70s.

In the 1970s, however, peak gold prices remained relatively stable and as such, people left, right and center were attempting to turn a quick buck by turning their gold cap into a bang, even going so far in some cases to try to disguise your work by adding a new Cent to see Maple's cover and a new series. number, there are countless cases of people who have purchased bursts only to discover, a few years later, that they actually have a conversion worth perhaps a tenth of what they had anticipated. It's worth being there, as is the moral question of whether it's right to unnecessarily turn a perfectly good gold cap into a strange gold cap hybrid or amalgam, but fortunately this practice seems to have died a bit in recent years, presumably to in the wake of skyrocketing gold prices, thus denying any real kind of meaningful profit margin for Just thinking about all the gorgeous gold tops that were unnecessarily butchered over the years, especially when my dream guitar has specs of dream guitar 54 or 55.

It's quite sad to say that there are some beautiful conversions that have turned out incredibly well. executed Joe Bonasa, of course, just several, so what is the consensus now, needless to say, if you search online for Les Pole or explosive conversion, you will find many very strong opinions on the subject, or is it a smart way to e inventiveness of obtaining the taste of the Holy Grail. Same wood, same construction, same material, same hardware, same electronics, same pickups, too, for a little extra investment, or it's sacrilege and punishable by spending eternity in Palm Mute Purgatory. I guess I'm honestly leaning towards the latter, but I guess there's a constellation.

As I said, it can be understood by the fact that this practice seems to have disappeared in recent years as gold reaches the highest prices, the AB sword. Like I said, profit margin doesn't really exist anymore, but either way, I guess it's a valuable lesson. and to not be tunnel visionaries like B PA enthusiasts can sometimes be, and to that end, we are going to play now using the exact same track as the beginning of today's video but with a 1955 guitar without those venerated PFS or without that famous Sunburst Finish I hope you agree, it doesn't sound as bad as always.

I'm Chris B. Thank you so much for watching this is Friday Frightworks. Subscribe, hit the bell icon if you haven't already and we'll see you next week. a slightly less controversial episode of Friday frightworks Greetings guys, take care, see you soon a oh a