The Les Paul Story 1952-60
This article was researched and written by the webmaster of this site and is © 2001
The 1952 version of the Les Paul had a gold top nitro-cellulose lacquer finish, no serial number, a Trapeze tailpiece (designed by Les), Kluson tuners, a pair of P90 pickups, and retailed for $210. Les Pauls began to be serial numbered (on the back of the headstock) in 1953.
These guitars were officially simply called 'Les Paul' models, but quickly became known as Gold Tops due to the finish. Although most Gold Tops have exactly that, a gold coloured maple top with natural back, a few were made that had the gold finish all over. The gold finish was produced using a coat that contained bronze powder, as a result of which a greenish hue can be seen on many Gold Tops where, over time and with wear, the bronze particles in the finish have become oxidized. Two quirks of the very earliest Les Paul models are that they had fretboards with no edge binding and also lacked the rhythm/treble plastic surround on the pickup selector switch.
The Trapeze tailpiece was a rather impractical design for two reasons. If the unit was knocked the guitar could go out of tune; additionally, the strings fed underneath the tailpiece, not over it, thus making the technique of palm muting with the right hand impossible. Les himself has said in relation to this latter design flaw that when he saw the first production models with this feature he did call Gibson to tell them they'd got it wrong. He apparently explained that the strings were supposed to wrap over the bar, not under it, and that the neck was supposed to join the body at a different angle to accomodate this difference in action at the bridge. But Gibson countered that it was not practical to change the neck join angle for technical reasons, so the wrap-under design had to stay.
In 1953 the Trapeze tailpiece was changed for a new, combined wraparound bridge/tailpiece and, contrary to the account from Les of what Gibson had previously told him, the neck join angle was also changed. This made for a much better instrument all round - the action was better (i.e. lower), the tuning more stable and the previous problem of the awkwardness of right-hand palm muting was solved.
But although this was an improvement on the previous design, it still had its limitations in respect of intonation and was replaced the following year with the separate tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece that have remained a feature of the most popular Les Paul models ever since (though some vintage Les Pauls were fitted with a Bigsby B7 vibrato). The tune-o-matic bridge, designed by Ted McCarty, allowed for individual intonation adjustment for each string.
Forward to Part Three: 1954-1956
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This article is © 2001, first published in the UK 2003. It was licensed for use on the UKGuitarShop.com website in 2004 and also appeared on earlier versions of this site previously hosted at vintage-gibson-les-pauls.ukartists.com and freeserve.co.uk. Permission has not been given for it to be reproduced anywhere else. All rights reserved.
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