Price This Guitar

American made Gibson Les Paul played and signed by Les Paul. Its my friends fathers guitar who bought it after seeing Les Paul in concert, not sure which year. He has no intention on selling it, but he just lost his job so I think its time to make an offer. I couldn't get a pic of the "Made In USA" because it was too faint. There is a dent almost an inch long that i forgot to take a pic of. Plays beautifully. What is a reasonable price for this guitar?

is it a standard, custom, vos, etc?

Im having some trouble posting the pics. I dont even know.

standard

the signature is etched, not written, as you can see from the pic. Sorry its upside down.

you know what year it is? check the pots or pickups for it. A standard ranges generally from like 1,000 to 2,000 or maybe 3,000.. it depends on how it plays, the condition, the year, ect ect blah blah blah.

Are you looking to buy it or are you helping him sell it? If your buying it, id ask him for a price and see what he says, if he says 2,000 id say something less, probably worth between 1,000 and 2,000... If your trying to sell, list it on craigslist or maybe on commision at a store...

erm, let's see. judging from the serial number it was made around April 1978, it's in a decent condition(not the mintest condition I've seen with this kind of guitars, but still) and you say it plays great.
I personally wouldn't sell this baby for less than 2500 bucks, even in recession time.

Im looking to buy it.

get the exact date of it. If its a 1978 its worth a damn lot more then a 2004.

@kellenman; oh, in that case getting it for less than 1600$ would be a rip o..*cough, cough* great deal. Your friend could have probably easyly sell it for 2000$+ on ebay.

@EMB5490:the exact date would be 5th of april 1978, and it was the 52nd guitar built that day. It's all encripted in serial number.:wink:

i see, well then indeed it is worth around 2500.. at least 2000. Just say like 1500 and see what he says...

one thing though, an etching is not a signature and doesn't get you more money. If that was the case I could go buy a few Joe Pass Epi models and be a millionaire.

Unless Les Paul gave out hand crafted etching which is doubtful.

and I'm not an expert but is the 70s a big year for Gibson?? now if it was the 50s ** that would be some dough. not that ~2000 is cheap mind you.

@Calvin, you sure it was the 52nd? What does the 16 etched on the back near the signature mean?

I'm by no means an expert but I would say upwards of $5000. This would be the retail or max of what I think it could be sold for. The proplem is finding the buyer who wants to buy it to keep it. That's the person who would pay max. What you are going to find is a reseller of vintage guitars. That person will pay only half of what it's really worth.

The only problem I would have as a buyer is that the signature is not actually on the guitar but on the cover plate.

i disagree 5,000 seems a bit high. Id say anywhere from 2,000-3,000. But im not sure id pay that

I'd look up the guitar in a little book that most vintage/pawn shops will have somewhere in the store. It gives ranges of pricing on thousands of guitars and I'm guessing it might include this specific "signed" LP. I forget the name of the book... ask around for a book about vintage guitar pricing. That thing is the guitar price text book for vintage stuff...

Your talking about the vintage-guitar price guide I think?

http://www.vguitar.com/priceguide/

I looked and guitar center sells one like that for around $2500-$3000.
Somewhere in there.

@Emb,

Because it's a vintage, you double the actual cash value $2,500 for someone who really wants it. Typical buyers of vintage items will pay half of that to be able to sell it at the max price at auction. So we're both right. I think!

@Kellenman,

I would pay $2,500 max.

I know this because I've been to this auction and asked the question to one of the sellers there. My brother has a 79 Strat he was selling for $3,000. He said it was only really worth $1,500 (he bought it for less than that.

http://www.vintageguitar.com/events/detail.asp?eventID=127

I think i found the same guitars on the web.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&hash=item4aa57983ba&item=320603784122&nma=true&pt=Guitar&rt=nc&si=YFJ40b%252BFTkpVb7byh1CWR5SDWOs%253D#ht_720wt_936

http://www.guitar-muse.com/1978-gibson-les-paul-standard-signed-by-les-393

i guess it has a double sunburst finish both cherry and tobacco.. thats why i have had such a hard time finding it online. I'm almost 99% sure its a match with the link because of the double sunburst. I couldn't even find another double sunburst of any year period.

well I stand corrected, Les Paul did do it. Good like getting that kind of money though.

there is just one discrepancy... What Calvin says and what the auction info says doesn't match up, so I'd look into it if i were you.


**edit** Well maybe not, they could have made more then just those that day

what do you mean by the signiture is "etched"? do you mean an etching machine put a replica of les paul's signiture on ot? or do you mean that les paul hand scribed his signiture into the rear of the guitar?

It looks like Les Paul dented his signature in to the back. Maybe etched wasn't the right word...

I have the same guitar. I bought it new in 1978. I too am looking for more information, but here is what I know:

Grinnell's (sp?) music store in Detroit was the sole distributer of this particular limited edition. They had all 35 of them. Les Paul himself when to the store to do a promotion. I was there with my grandfather. Les played a few songs, told some stories and said he would sign every guitar that went out the door that day. My grandfather bough me one.

All of us who bough one stood in line to talk with Les and have him sign the guitar. He used an electric engraver to etch his signature onto the back plate. Mine said “To Russ you got the best. Keep pickin’ Yours, Les Paul”. Any guitar that didn’t sell that day he simply signed “Les Paul”. I know because I went back and bought another one a few weeks later. The reason I went back is a long story, but in a nutshell, the one he signed for be was stolen from my house. Someone broke in and stole my brand new guitar. I was heartbroken. I frantically called Grinnell's and asked if they had any left. The manager told me he had one left. He was so saddened by my story that he actually put the guitar in his car and drove it over to my house. I felt lucky to have it replaced, but of course it didn’t have the personalized message that Les signed in front of me just for me.

This is all I know about the guitar other than it was made in Kalamazoo, and is supposed to be a very limited edition of 35.

I have been looking for more information all over the web, but I can’t find anything. I have a feeling that because it is such a rare guitar, nobody knows anything about it. If you have found any information, I would love to hear about it.

Please let me know if you find any more info. Thanks!

-Russ

Cool story! I would seek someone proffesional to do an appraisal. Rare LPs in great condition are valued high but you're right, if no one knows about them, they can't be valued. If you want to know because you want to sell it, I would put it on ebay at some ridiculous reserve price and see what happens. Tell the story on the description. You might get people looking for it and somehow get a value by averaging out the offers.