1962 Gibson, Les Paul Custom guitar restoration project,

I was asked by a friend, and fellow musician, to restore this 1962

Gibson Les Paul Custom.

It came from the deceased estate of John Donohue, a very well

known and loved local musician.

This guitar was his pride and joy.

The guitar was severely stained with years of nicotine,
there were several cigarette burns to the head stock
and it was generally completely worn out.
The frets were dressed right down to the tangs, the finger board was
worn and had been sanded completely out from its original 12 inch radius.
 Though the middle pickup was absent, with only the original cover
occupying the middle position, after I cleaned and lubricated
the potentiometers, incredibly, the original electronics
were working perfectly.
It was fitted with Ibanez, Velvetune tuning machines.
Amongst John's large collection of guitar hardware were the
remains of the original gold Rotomatic tuning machines.
One had a winding spindle missing and three were missing their
protective brass domes. I located the missing spindle and button in my box of parts
and I fabricated the three missing domes out of brass plate.

JD with his Band, Cheshire Katt. 1969.

This closeup reveals that John already owned this guitar in 1969.

1969 was the year that he found himself playing the same guitar
as Billy Tekahia in the band "Human Instinct", also in 1969.
Here Billy is playing the same model guitar.
Billy is known to have sold this guitar to Steve Marriott
of the Small Faces in the same year, whilst touring in the UK.

Steve Marriott playing Billy's Guitar.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe famously played the same model guitar.

The opened control cavity reveals some modification
but plenty of originality too.

The Top-hat knobs, the switcraft selector switch and output
jack are all original as is the sideways acting, Vibrola tremelo unit.

The frets were dressed down to the tangs and the binding had
been filed over, removing all the original plastic fret nibs.

Sadly the guitar had taken a fall, most likely from the neck
strap button. Attempts had been made to relocate that button in
two other locations, badly scarring the paint is several places.
The fall had resulted in damage to the neck at the point of impact,
on the treble side of the neck, this had partially chipped
a flake of wood, binding and paint the impact had stressed the neck joint as well.

Those Ibanez Velvetune tuners just had to go!

The guitar retains its original case and is in fair condition as well.
I stabilised some loose and fraying Tolex and cleaned the brass ware.

The original scratch plate had shrunk and buckled,
preventing me from refitting it.

After deep cleaning of the paintwork I was able to locate the
original paint colour online. Polaris white was a standard
paint colour for Oldsmobile cars in the late 1950's.
The manufacturer had changed its paint type from nitrocellulose
to acrylic lacquer around the same time.

The headstock polished up nicely. I decided to leave the
cigarette burns.

The original (restored) Grover Rotomatics are fitted.
I noticed that the truss rod was missing its original
half round washer so I modified a square, steel washer to fit. The truss rod is working perfectly.

I re-radiused the fretboard to its original 12 inches then I fitted
new, vintage, nickle silver frets.

This mad looking object is the sideways acting
Vibrola Tremelo unit.

I fabricated new white, black, white scratch plates, the new plastic material was supplied by Nev Claughton, Mr Music in Nelson.

The chip repair to the neck is now invisible. I left as much
of the original paint finish as possible so the neck & body still shows its
original play wear and minor dings.

Refitting the guitar and awaiting the new replacement humbucker,
made with original materials, (by Mr Glynn) magnets and wire.

I left most of the orignal dents and dings so the guitar
reveals a real life of gigging.

I decided to chose the horn position for the strap button.
I don't want a repeat of the fall damage done to this guitar.
if its good enough for Tony Lommi, its good enough for me!

The original nut cleaned up beautifully.

Here you see the new lazer engraving of the neck mortice plate done by Aaron White.
Also the new humbucker has been united with the original cover.

Now this guitar is correctly set up, it is a pleasure to play.
its tone is warm and jazzy with plenty of tonal colour across
the 3 way pickup selector. I replaced the old Tuneomatic bridge
with a genuine, gold Gibson replacement.
The old one was (incorrect replacement) chrome and well past saving.

This Les Paul Custom is a worthy survivor of a bygone era.
Although Gibson reissued this model in the 1990s the original
has a mojo all of its own. they are also fetching big money 
on the used guitar market with sales figures approaching $40,000 for
an original survivor like this one, in its original case.

It has been a great pleasure to me to be a part of its history!

Below, my great friend & renown guitarist, Nigel Gavin sprinkles fairy dust over this special guitar.