GUITAR STYLE
Fellow Dallasite Billy White is reading The Substance of Style and writes on a subject near to his musician's heart:
I'm through chapter three now and one thing keeps running through my mind as I've been going along. It's an example of style vs. functionality that kind of dove tails in with something you mention early on as well as a recent item in your web log. That would be the Les Paul guitar. I don't know if you're familiar with the details of that instrument but since I own about thirty guitars, including four Les Paul's I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable.
Anyway, the Les Paul model guitar (today known as the "standard") was first marketed by Gibson in 1952. The basic design featured a maple top on a mahogany body. From then until 1957 it was basically aesthetically the same. As you can see from the links below, while improvement in functionality included a better tailpiece design and pickups, it still retained the same gold sparkle finish on a light brown body and the same trapezoid inlay pattern on the fingerboard.
In 1958, however, a dramatic change took place. They did away with the gold finish and replaced it with a beautiful three-color sunburst finish that really showed off the lines in the maple top. Some of these guitars have amazingly gorgeous wood in them. The picture on the link doesn't do it real justice. Anyway, at the time, these guitars didn't really sell any better than the gold ones. BTW they retailed for about $250.00. As a result in 1961 Gibson did away with them and came out with a complete redesign without consulting Lester. He didn't really like the new ones, so in 1962 Gibson no longer offered a "Les Paul" model guitar and the new design became known as the "SG" or "Solid Guitar". Gibson would not offer a model by that name again until 1968. I should also note that in 1965 Gibson was purchased by Norlin which contributed to the decline in instrument quality but that's another story.
In the interim, as you well know, a certain musical invasion took place and guitars became very popular again. In the mid to late 60's certain guitar slingers with names like Clapton, Page, Beck, Richards and Jones began seeking out the 1958-60 model Les Paul guitars, which they had probably drooled over as poor kids in England, and playing them onstage, on TV, etc. As a result these guitars began to be sought after by other people as well thus creating what is now called the vintage guitar market. Since Gibson wasn't making anything like them anymore they became more and more rare.
In the early 70's Gibson introduced a "Les Paul Standard" guitar but it wasn't anywhere close to the quality, grade of woods, etc. that the old ones were. It wasn't until the mid 80's that somebody finally wised up and went back to the original specs to produce similar quality instruments. I first began pining for a 1958-60 sunburst in the late 70's. Around 1980 or so I had a shot at buying one for $3000.00 but couldn't get my dad to give me the money. That's right, I said $3000.00 and that was in 1980.
Today original sunburst 59-60 Paul's go for upwards or $75,000.00 to $100,000.00. The interesting thing to note is that the 57 gold top models go for much much less. It is the finish and wood grain that run up the price. Functionally the 1957 and 1958 models are practically the same. If you plug them both into the same amp with the same player it's difficult to tell the difference.
Also, in 1954 Gibson introduced the "Les Paul Custom" model which featured an ebony fretboard, mother of pearl inlay and gold hardware. It also had a black finish which showed no wood grain. This was supposed to be the "top of the line" Les Paul. The old customs, however, don't demand near the prices of the 58-60 sunburst models either. It's still that finish.
Over the years I have read and heard many people criticize this market for being so driven by color and appearance. I can remember a column in Guitar Play Magazine a long time ago in which George Gruhn lamented how people were paying three or four times as much for a 58 as a 57 "just because of the color! How ridiculous!" Granted there's more involved here than just the finish including the quality decline under Norlin, etc. but it's still that color and wood grain that fetch the big bucks.
He includes the following illustrative links:
1952
1954
1956
1957
1958-60
1954 Custom
1958 Custom
1961 SG