Last week, one of the most stunning sunburst Les Pauls I’ve ever had the good fortune to see walked into the Carter Vintage showroom. “Stunner really doesn’t even begin to describe this guitar. It’s literally the Whole. Nine. Yards.
Ok, let’s cut to the chase and do a sunburst Les Paul “Holy Grail” checklist, shall we? Let’s see how far down the road we can get with thing:
- The top: It’s insane. My younger co-workers were throwing around the word, “Sick” quite a lot today. I’ve learned that, “Sick” is today’s equivalent for my generation’s, “Killer.” More about the top in a sec.
- The pickups: Two pair of original double whites. Well, hello boys! That doesn’t happen to often, not too often at all. Neck pickup reads 8.1K and the bridge pickup clocks in at 8.2K. As far as sunburst Les Paul pickups go it doesn’t get anymore sick than that. Those are perfect numbers. Sick.
- The neck: It’s a fairly good sized “C” shaped neck with a wonderful, some would say, “Sick” carve to it. The guitar’s a joy to play. It just feels right.
- The weight: 8.4 pounds. Sick.
- The color: It’s a, “Lemon-drop” top. The fade is the sickest… ever.
- The sound: Sick. So sick. I mean this thing’s seriously totally radically sick. The guitar literally sounds like records.
- The condition: Excellent condition. It’s had the frets replaced a while back and while they were at it the luthier shimmed the nut. The original tuners are in the case and feature a bad case of tooth decay. The original tuners buttons are heavily oxidized, shrunken and very dark brown. The guitar now has a beautiful set of vintage, and non-decayed Single Line/ Single Ring Klusons.
- Provenance: The guitar comes with paperwork.
- Case: A five latch Cali-girl case made by the Stone Company rounds out the ensemble.
A word about sunburst Les Paul tops. Most of them, probably around two thirds of them in fact, are either plain tops without much in the way of figure or “Floor flame” tops that light up a bit when you move away from them. “Floor flame” is an old collectors term for a less than figured, rather plain top. The scant figure only lights up when you put some distance between you and the guitar… ie, you set the guitar on the floor in it’s case to see any action with the guitar’s top.
Some sunbursts, probably about a third of them, are figured. These guitars have tops that have some movement to the woodgrain as you move the guitar around in the light. The remaining small percentage of sunbursts have highly figured Eastern Maple tops. The guitar at CVG right now falls into the later category.
I was looking at the top on that guitar today. The medullary (north and south grain) is all swirly and rather psychedelic to look at. It’s mesmerizing. I got lost in all the character of the top on that guitar. Then I tilted the guitar up on my bench and let it catch some outside light. It TOTALLY lit up. This thing’s flamed to death! One of the most stunning tops on a sunburst Les Paul I’ve ever seen.
Alright, back to the, “Holy Grail” checklist. I think we’ve checked all the boxes with this one. This one rings all the bells. I laughed at the thought that one guitar could be so right. Not all sunbursts are the bee’s knees. I’ve been real lucky over the years to plays some of the most iconic sunbursts on earth. Some of them live up to the hype. You’d be surprised how many don’t. Not all of them are good. Some of them would come away from a matchup against an ‘80s Classic and go limping off into the night, licking their wounds. You play some of them and it’s like, “What’s the big deal? This guitar sounds everything but special.” Not this guitar. All the great ones sound slightly different but they all, as my ol’ pal Tommy Hatcher would say, “Do the dance.” This one definitely does the dance.
A little personal aside and a funny story, if you’ll indulge me for a sec.
As I was looking at the burst today a train came by and stopped on the tracks right outside my window. There was this really strange car, an old Pullman passenger coach, in the line of cars for the train. 99% of the train’s cars that go by the window each day are either full of coal, tank cars with scary warning signs carrying all manner of scary chemicals. Or, they’re stacked with storage cubes on them. This was the first time I’ve ever seen a vintage Pullman passenger coach attached to a train going by my window. It made my mind start to wander. That coach looked like it was made in the 1950’s. I was holding a guitar made in same period. I had this wonderful time-travel daydream about riding to the next gig with that guitar. I was riding in a Pullman car like the one I was looking at. I could almost smell the Tres Flores hair oil in my hair and feel the creases in my wool suit trousers. Those old Pullmans have beautiful stainless steel interiors and I could see them gleam in the sun. I could smell the cigarette smoke in the air. The leather seats in this Pullman club car felt like some sort of long lost quality that we used to take for granted.
A porter came by to tell me that we were on time and would be in New Orleans by morning. He asked me if he could get my anything? I asked him, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, if I could get some bacon and eggs with toast; a beer and a shot of bourbon. He told me he’d have that up right away, it would be $1.25. A buck fifty with tip. I looked at that guitar and dreamed about playing a gig to a packed house and absolutely knocking them dead. With that guitar in my hands I knew anything was possible. A great guitar can really inspire some fun dreams. It was just one of those very occasional, really fun, very vivid, daydreams. Wow!
Then the train moved on. Me and a couple of buddies went to lunch.
Just another day at the Carter Vintage Dream Factory.
Gary Bohannon is Senior Authenticator and Acquisitions for Carter Vintage. If you have a vintage instrument you’d like to sell through CVG, reach out to info@cartervintage.com
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