SOLD! - 1956 Gibson Les Paul Standard Goldtop P90 ABR-1

This killer 1956 Gibson Les Paul Standard Goldtop has been through all sorts of battles and somewhere in it's hard earned life it ended up in a barfight and the headstock broke in half straight in the damn face!
 
Instead of replacing the neck or the headstock with a new overlay making the break invisible from the front, we decided to leave it as is. Just as the Japanese would do when a precious porcelain object would break and needed repair. This practiced is thousands of years old and named Kintsugi. "Kintsugi is the Japanese practice of repairing fractures in porcelain with varnish or resin powdered with gold. It follows that the breakages and repairs form part of the history of an object and should be shown and not hidden. By manifesting it's transformation, the scars beautify the object."
 
Living in an era in which people just throw away anything that is not anymore to their liking, this is a refreshing point of view....
 
Anyway, back to the the guitar. The headcrack was repaired (re-checked and re-glued by our luthier) and the front and back of the headstock were oversprayed, as was the back of the neck. The original finish still glows underneath the overspray and the serial number is clearly visible. The neck has a superb feeling '59 profile that plays effortlessly all over the board with a nice low action and a smooth refret. Tuners and tuners bushings are high end repro's, screws and trussrod cover are original.
 
The gold finish on the front of the body is original and has an amazing craquelé all over with the finest checking you've ever seen! The flame maple top shines through the gold finish on the upper armrest part and under UV light it glows up nicely showing correct fading under the bridge and stoptail. The pickguard and bracket are repro, the switch, switch tip, Rhythm/Treble toggle switch plate, P90's, pickup covers, ABR-1 bridge, posts, thumbwheels, studs, Gold Top hat knobs, backplates etc are all original, the stoptail is a small seam lightweight 1950's Les Paul Custom part on which the gold has mostly tarnished and worn off. The pots are matched and all original dating to week 20, 21 and 22 of 1956 (134620 134621 134622) and have the original bumblebee capacitors. The back of the guitar had a replacement piece of Mahogany inserted which looked horrible. We decided to restore the back and to finish and age it in All Gold so it matches the look and feel of the guitar and hides the woodwork.
 
Oh yes, almost fortgot. It plays and sounds just great! The neck pickup sounds open, warm and sparkly full with harmonic overtones. The neck has a proper trebly quack to it, perfect for soaring leads and rock. Both pickups are very well balanced. The weight is perfect for a Les Paul and you can play this bad boy all night long!
 
Comes in an original 50's Gibson Les Paul Brown case with pink plush interior.