1953 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop

An early 1953 Les Paul with pots dated for the 5th week of '53. Super lightweight at 8lbs 5oz and impressively resonant with an excellent acoustic presence. Plays great and in original condition excluding a replaced tailpiece for updated and improved playability. An excellent example of a vintage Goldtop! Includes original hardshell case and the original bridge.

Check out the feature from our luthier Tyler in the ECG Newsletter:

"Early Les Pauls, despite their historical significance, have always been and continue to be a relatively tough sell for most vintage guitar enthusiasts. Most new models in their infancy struggle with growing pains and go through a series of tweaks within their first several years of production, some more extensively than others. In the world of guitar design blunders, though, Gibson's wrap-under tailpiece found on early LPs takes the cake for the most egregious. The guitars simply were not playable for most musicians. Many have been permanently altered, and many more simply thrown away over the years, and have only recently been redeemed by the advent of an ingenious aftermarket tailpiece designed specifically for the model. These new tailpieces allow the strings to wrap over the top, effectively making a completely playable vintage guitar out of what used to be a nice-looking piece of midcentury furniture.

Apart from this new tailpiece, this example is entirely original and unmolested. (The original tailpiece is included.) Perhaps the most striking feature of this particular guitar is its astonishing lack of mass, weighing in at exactly 8.5 lbs. This is nearly unheard of for a Les Paul, especially these early models. The result is a tremendously resonant and acoustically loud instrument, again, not at all the norm in '53. Because of their eccentricities, early models were generally either abused out of frustration or kept in their case and forgotten. This instrument was surely one of the latter, the condition is truly hard to believe. If you can put the stigmas of the past aside, this is an excellent vintage Les Paul that can go up against any from Gibson's golden era and can be had for a fraction of the price of a mid-50s model."