What Makes The 1957 Les Paul So Special?

Transcription Summary:

Nathaniel and Daniel from Chicago Music Exchange are discussing a rare 1957 Gibson Goldtop Les Paul guitar. They highlight its rarity, noting that only 598 were shipped that year. What makes this specific Goldtop even more unusual is that it retains the earlier P90 pickups despite 1957 being the transition year to PAF humbuckers. This particular guitar also features an all-gold finish, unlike the standard Goldtops with gold tops and natural mahogany backs and sides. This all-gold finish may have been applied to cover imperfections in the wood or could have been a special order option. The guitar is exceptionally well-preserved, having been owned by the original purchaser who received it as a high school gift. This owner diligently cared for the instrument, cleaning it regularly, which accounts for its excellent condition with minimal checking on the finish. One of the tuners is an earlier version, original to the guitar and reflecting factory practices of using available parts. Additionally, the Gibson logo is placed lower on the headstock compared to later models, with the tail of the "G" nearly touching the D tuner, indicating an earlier design before logo placement changes occurred. The guitar is described as super resonant, the correct weight, and having beautifully worn parts, all of which contribute to its exceptional nature and desirability.

Full Transcription:
"Hi folks, Nathaniel here, from Chicago Music Exchange, joined by Daniel. We're going to be talking about some of our favorite guitars that are in the vault right now, and we have got this 1957 Goldtop. Well, a Goldtop with a surprise. Yes, a Goldtop plus. You've told me this is a very rare guitar. What makes it so rare? So, um, there are a couple of things that make it rare. Uh, well, first of all, even if it didn't have these special appointments that made it even more rare, I always carry this with me. There you go. It's the very first model in this book, so it's easy to find. But in '57, according to this, this is the shipping total, so they shipped 598. So, as it is right now, right, that alone, that's rare. That's only 598 guitars. But what makes this one stand out even more is that, as you know, and as we've talked about, in '57, you know, that Gibson transitioned to the PAF, the Patent Applied For humbucker, right? The Seth Lover designed humbucker. But that was mid-1957, right? Right. Uh, so in the beginning of '57, actually, it wasn't even mid-'50s. I think it was earlier than that, but for a few months, they were still using P90s. So, this has a 1957 serial number, M, with P90s. And then, on top of that, it has this feature that is extremely unique, and that it's that it's all gold.

So, normally, they're, you know, these are, the tops are gold, but the back and sides are natural. You can see the mahogany, and they rarely did that. Um, some people say that it's because, you know, let's say that this, this piece of mahogany had a knot here, right? Or something like that. And, you know, the quality control people were like, "It looks kind of ugly." They would finish the whole thing gold. Other people say that it was a special order thing, meaning, if you, that was an option, an upgrade option, if you wanted it. Yeah, this guitar is very rare because of those additional things that make it stand out a little bit more. And, on top of that, it was an original owner guitar. We bought it from the original owner who got this as a gift in high school. And that's just such a cool story. Yeah, brilliant. Yeah, but we may never see another one in as good, as well as good a nick as this.

I've never seen another one that was in this kind of nice shape. Yeah, I mean, the front is barely checked. I mean, it's just, it's just kind of uncanny. And, and the thing is, we know why, because I extensively talked to the original owner about it. And it's not like he never played it. He actually played it. He had a band that he would play weekends and stuff like that. And, um, but he just cleaned it. That's one of the things about guitars is that the finish will remain in significantly better condition, um, way, way, way later if you clean the oils and stuff like that off of them. Yeah, this is just one of those lucky ones where the guy, you know, just took care of it. I must admit, I've never cleaned any of my guitars. Yeah, I get it. I, I don't really usually do either. Yeah, um, yeah, this guitar is awesome. It is just super resonant. It's nice and, like, the correct weight. All the parts look so, like, they have wear, but they're so beautifully worn. Yeah, um, it's just taken care of. By the way, one super cool thing is that one of the tuners is different. It's an earlier tuner, and it is 100% original."

That's how it left the factory oh really yeah and it's just you know they had a drawer of tuners and they grabbed tuners and put them on and that low E tuner is an earlier tuner and from the front you can tell from the back I mean if you look you can see that it's a it's an earlier iteration of of that tuner another interesting thing about it is that in ‘57 by the time the humbucker really came out this logo kept creeping up but earlier once had a very low logo where like the the “G” (In Gibson) the G, the tail of the G, is literally touching the tuner, you know, the D tuner. But it kept going up and up and up and up, and it landed up here, you know, eventually. So that's another thing that makes this kind of stand out is how low the logo is. Why would that have changed? Designs just changed, you know? As the guitar evolved, so many things change in these guitars. As you know, the neck angle being one of the main ones. This is finally the neck angle that really works well with this bridge combination, um, because before, when it was more shallow, um, you just had very little room to go, you know, to go down, um. But, and this—when you hold this guitar and when you look down at this guitar, it's like, "Oh yeah, that's the Les Paul thing that you—that everybody recognizes," you know, that is so clearly, you know, coming from the classical instrument world, the orchestral instrument world. But yeah, it's an awesome guitar. I will take it. It's yours. Enjoy."