SOLD! - 1971 Gibson Les Paul Custom Black Beauty 3PU 3 pickup

This is an original 1971 Les Paul Custom Black Beauty with no cracks or repairs other then a very professional repaired heelcrack and a refret.
 
The Patent Number Sticker Pickups, bridge, stoptail, plastics, case etc are all original to this guitar. The waffleback tuners are replaced for Grovers but the originals are in the case with the screws, together with the patent no. bridge and the original frets. 
 
All pot's are original and date to 1971. One pot was changed (original in the case) for a push/pull so you can engage the middle pickup in any configuration at any volume level: neck/middle/bridge seperately, neck and middle together, bridge and middle together, neck and bridge together like in the classic Les Paul setup, or all systems go with all pickups activated in full blast. Just like Jimmy Page's Custom when he was a session musician in the early days of his career. If you want we can even set it up with a Bigsby B7 Tremolo + Vibramate! Talking about a versatile guitar... It's loud, rings like a bell and rocks like there's no tomorrow!
 
Jimmy Page's Black Beauty Les Paul Custom was famously used at the Royal Albert Hall concert January of 1970 and on many many studio recordings Page was asked to step in as a hired hand. The guitar was stolen shortly after and only in recent years recovered. For 40 years Page insisted the three pickup Black Beauty was the best Les Paul guitar he'd ever played, and an even better guitar than his much more famous No.1 and No.2 he used non stop during the rest of Led Zeppelin's days.
 
In 1976 another Englishman played and recorded live what has been thought to be one of the finest live rock albums ever. He played the concert with his 1954 customized Les Paul with 3 humbucking pickups. In 1980 that guitar was on a cargo plane in Venezuela which crashed just as it tried to take off. The guitar was not destroyed in the crash, as had been believed. It was ferreted off by a pragmatic local, who then sold it to another local man. It took thirty years for the guitar to find it's way back to Peter Frampton, where he could make it come alive again.
 
There's no question about it: 3 pickups offer a different variety of tonal color than a 2 pickup Les Paul. But moreover, the reason you to want to own one is you wish to stand out from the crowd, or it could be you so love the sounds from the legendary concerts you feel you must have such a guitar. 
 
These are the kinds of guitars that when you see one in a guitar store, you generally have to ask someone in order to have a look at it. On stage, people will notice you and ask you if its the real deal. You will love it. And people will love you... ;-)