Better plan on hanging on to this one, Austin. Not only is it a beautiful guitar, but you probably won't find another one piece top and back. What needs to be brought back to factory spec isn't difficult, and tbh...those pickups sound pretty awesome as they are!, great find!
Known Gibson L5-S players • Pat Martino • John McLaughlin • Paul Simon • Neil Schon • Jorma Kaukonen • Eric Gales • Santana • Ron Wood (has a current Gibson L-5S "signature" model) • Keith Richards • John Entwistle • Mark Farner • Grant Geissman • Pete Carr • Ray Sharpe • Dino Valenti • Gary Duncan • Billy Butler • Dick Wagner • Kerry Livgren
Show all these cats to the dude up in the comments known as "WASHING UP LIQUIDS!" Of course, they'll have some bullshit to say about the line-up of L5-S users you listed as not noteworthy or some dumb shit... I guess there's always a "Debbie-Downer" in the crowd...!!! You could have the most beautiful, wanted "THING" in the world, and some asshole has to come along and just shit all over it!!! Though, I can see Ronnie Woods and his signature model, Kerry Livgren absolutely, but I am curious..., when, and what recorded media did John Entwistle have ONE OF THESE BEAUTIES in his hands!??! Just wondering 🤔!!??!! P.ost S.cript... The "loudmouth all caps" was for the commentor formally known as "Washing UP Dishes!!"🤣 ANYWAY KEEP ON KEEPING ON BROTHER!!!!! PEACE!!!!! 🤘🏼
Show all these cats to the dude up in the comments known as "WASHING UP LIQUIDS!" Of course, they'll have some bullshit to say about the line-up of L5-S users you listed as not noteworthy or some dumb shit... I guess there's always a "Debbie-Downer" in the crowd...!!! You could have the most beautiful, wanted "THING" in the world, and some asshole has to come along and just shit all over it!!! Though, I can see Keith Richard's and his signature model, Kerry Livgren absolutely, but I am curious..., when, and what recorded media did John Entwistle have ONE OF THESE BEAUTIES in his hands!??! Just wondering 🤔!!??!! P.ost S.cript... The "loudmouth all caps" was for the commentor formally known as "Washing UP Dishes!!"🤣 ANYWAY KEEP ON KEEPING ON BROTHER!!!!! PEACE!!!!! 🤘🏼
@@TheRealBKSchyster John Entwhitle’s was recently sold at auction about a year ago. It was one of the best 2-piece examples I’ve ever seen. It was relatively cheap, too. I was not working at the time or I would have bought it!
@@LarryEngel Oh... yeah... I had brain fart!!! 😆 That was his 1981 with the TP6 tailpiece, right!??! Didn't Sotheby's auction that off in 2004 or something like that?? I probably should have not forgotten about this... oiiiyyy!!! Yes sir-rie, that was a beautiful Axe.... O.K. This one, not an Axe!! A beautiful guitar!!! Gibson crank's and all as I remember it now!! I guess you think Entwistle, and Big burly bass player comes to mind first!! Thank you for the memory brotha!!! 🤘🏼👍🏼
I tell you what mate. If I’m ever in the market for a vintage Gibson, you’re the only person I trust to sell it to me. You’re so unbelievably thorough that I don’t think I can trust any other potential seller. 👍🏾
This level of inaccuracy is standard for Heritage Auctions. The best of many examples I’ve seen is an “all original” 1950s Fender Champ amp with a Radio Shack speaker. Apparently nobody even looked at through the hole in the back panel to look at the speaker.
That's hilarious! I burned up many Radio Shack speakers in the 70's and 80's not knowing anything about impedance 😂! They had a cheap 12" guitar speaker with a aluminum cone... Total crap but I didn't know any better! I thought I was so cool with my fancy speakers.
Interesting to see Heritage screwing up Video Games in a similar fashion. Really, all these collector groups need to band together and out a stop to it.
I’ve offered L5-S guitars up to Trogly twice previously to review (we live fairly close). He didn’t take me up on it, though. Favorite is my AAAAA Grade highly-figured, book-matched top - 1976 and made from the same maple as the “The Les Paul.” Best guitar ever!!
My ‘76 L5-S actually was featured on his channel very briefly. He showed the listing of it on Norm’s Rare Guitars shop and said he tried to buy it. I purchased it before he could.
Hey Trogs, if you really want to restore this all the way, Kluson has started to make reissue Sealfast tuners again. It's the first time these highest-end tuners have been available since the 1970's. Kind of a big deal.
It’s a good idea, but just one problem: You think it would be as valuable as finding the 70’s era tuners? I have a feeling Austin cares more about retaining the value and making it as accurate as possible with parts from around that time period. For a player’s grade restoration, the Kluson reissues would be a great option. I’d be surprised if Austin said the value would hold for collector’s grade guitars with the brand new reissues. It would probably be better than nothing if he couldn’t find the 70’s era tuners, but I don’t think he’d put modern remakes on a vintage guitar unless he literally couldn’t get his hands on the real deal.
@@MashaT22 Finding an original, complete and functioning, set of these high end Sealfast tuners would be difficult, as they were only used on very few ($$) models. Coupled with the fact that they haven't been made in over 40 years, makes their scarcity apparent.
@@rbarker1706 not to mention you were just being nice and letting trogly know they were remaking the tuners.....in case trogly didn't know. Being nice sometimes just throws people way off.
Yup to the new Klusons and they look good but I am fairly certain that the tuner was not Kluson but Schaller Big Jazz which is an extremely well made Sealfast knockoff. This is based on a conversation I had decades ago with John Paul at the Gibson custom shop but I stand ready to be corrected if someone has some first hand primary source information. Either way the vintage tuners are over 700.00 per set for either in good shape.
@@seanwoodburn2616 Good info. Aside from other very subtle details like the Schallers being more likely to have a smoother "slope" to the stacked styling on the back casing than the Klusons, I guess one way to tell would be the ratio. It's "likely" the Schaller would be a lower 1:12 or 1:14 ratio, whereas the Klusons will be closer to 1:18 ratio. We'd have to see what the ratio of an actual Kluson Sealfast would've been, and then it would be easy to tell. We put a brand new set of the new Sealfasts in my friend's L5S. For some odd reason the last owner(?) changed the machine heads at some point. It's a nice look and feel to have those original Sealfast style in there. WD owns the Kluson line and manufacturing now. Since I'm a WD dealer too we were able to get them at cost. The price though is VERY reasonable especially when you know how expensive it is to TRY and even find a 70's set in very good condition. The gold plating was notorious for it's pitting over the years. One of my friend's old L5ces has the gold completely pitted. Tuners still work great though. The waffle-backs are much easier to find, it was just that there were SO FEW guitars made with the sealfast style and there was no real hope of this kind of tuner ever being re-made until now--thanks to WD. ~JSV
Kevin Peek from the band Sky (from the 1980's featuring classical guitarist John Williams, Herbie Flowers, Tristian Fry, Francis Monkman) played one to superb effect. I loved the lead solo toned he got out of this, and those cleans.
Austin, I think I have an extra set on '76 L5-S electronics around here somewhere. I'll check for you. I do not have an extra set of the Super Humbuckers.
Oh my god, finally I see this guitar! This one has haunted me for years, my guitar teacher had one of these when I was a kid in the mid 80s and I never found out what model it was. Always figured it was a weird les paul, but now I see what it was. Thanks a lot for this video.
The binding has shrunk for the dots to become proud. You can avoid that by allowing the celluloid to age somewhat (collings making knobs and pickup rings comes to mind - they cut rough the ivoroid that they use and put it aside for at least a year, let it shrink some and then cut to finish size). I like gibson prior to the Henry era, but they've never gone to the level of care that collings does.
I used to have a '74 L5S that looked like yours. The gold pickup covers were pretty worn, so I decided to replace them only to find the pickups were Tar-backs! I did the next best thing and replaced them with factory gold covered Seymour Duncans. I figured nobody would ever care (:-) Because the body is all maple, I think the dramatic body carve is in an attempt to lighten the load. After all, Les Paul himself wanted Gibson to make his model solid maple, but Gibson refused and used maple capped mahogany to keep the weight of the instrument reasonable. My guitar was neck heavy also, and tended to dive on me. I sold it because it was too heavy to play for four hours a night, 2-3 gigs a week.
I played in a band where the other guitar player had one. Beautiful! It had the standard 3 piece flame top. I did see a 2 piece book matched center seam one before Gibson stopped production. One piece top is AWESOME! Keep it!
Austin the only famous person I know that played this guitar was Jorma Kaukkonen from Hot tuna he was tearing up the 70's with this guitar totally ripping it apart with intense psychedelic blues jams. You can see him using it in many videos from the mid '70s it's like the only electric guitar he used.
Jorma and Jack…the Rampage Years! The live album "Double Dose" has the L5-S all over it. Great sound. Curious to know what amps he was using at the time.
PLEASE devote an episode to your system of cleaning and polishing guitars! That information would be very helpful and interesting.They always look so good when you are done.🎸
Finally, you did a review on the Gibson L-5S. I have a 1977 Cherry burst with the trapeze tailpiece and it happens to be one of my favorite guitars. Incidentally, Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad played one in 1975. You can hear that guitar on the Caught in the Act live album and All the Girls in the World Beware album. He still has that guitar as of today.
i am always in awe as to how details some of you guys can see in a guitar while they seem so similar to me, and the amount of passion you have is staggering.
I have a 1979 L5S in a natural finish. The pickups have been replaced on mine with Lindy Fralin PAF style pickups. The rest of the guitar is mostly original except for one replacement tone pot. Mine does have the original Kluson Sealfast tuners and like yours, my headstock has a black stinger. The stinger appears to be original, no old screw holes to hide. These guitars are lookers and play well. It is one of the top guitars in my collection. Great video on a fairly rare and interesting guitar.
I've got a gorgeous '79 tobacco sunburst, I believe all original. I play jazz and I must say that it is hard to find a solid body that gets a good jazz tone. But this one really sings. It has a punchy, but rich, clean sound and the longer sustain (compared to typical big box jazz guitars) allows a different kind of phrasing. I love it. It was set up by a master and is perhaps my best player in my small collection - plays "like buddah.". It's a beaut and I'll never part with it. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it since most of your audience are probably more interested or curious about how it might work for rock. Can't say, but for jazz it has a really nice sound. It is indeed heavy and with that big L5 neck and headstock it does tilt down and need constant lifting the neck back up. And digs a groove in one's shoulder. But I found a solution. I found a thick, wide rubber strap - kind of a spongy scuba diving suit-type material except thicker. It not only cushions my shoulder more but also grips on my shoulder top better than most straps so I don't have to constantly lift the neck back up as much. With that problem solved I love playing it. It has a unique and lovely tone, for jazz.
Beautiful looking guitar - single piece front and back is a most pleasant surprise. Looking forward to a future episode where we can hear what the original electronics sounds like. Looks like another keeper for the museum Trogly!
I'm not sure what he's talking about with it being "strange"...that's a beautiful instrument and I'd dearly love to have one. Ronnie Wood is still known to play one occasionally on tour with the Stones.
Hey Austin. The SD 59's in your guitar are rare late 70s ones (no stamp on the baseplate) and at least on par in value to the Gibson tarbacks that do come up for sale on ebay all the time (even here in the UK!). They are both bridge pickups and the green one has reacted to the foam in the retail box. I have a few vintage SD 'greenbacks'! The bad pickup cover is for neck spacing. However I do think it has definitely been refretted. It should have the flat 'fretless wonder' frets and the missing fretboard chips are an absolute giveaway. Possible even a stainless steel refret given the shine? IMO, I hate the look of this guitar but thought it actually sounded very good (for a Les Paul 😂).
John McLaughlin used L5-S on the Mahavishnu Orchestra Inner Worlds record. Boz Skaggs had several. I seem to recall some other name players with this model like Kerry Livgren of Kansas, and Pat Martino used one all over the Joyous Lake record, but this guitar is a real beauty - wow! I personally liked the vocal aspect of the distorted tones.
Very nice example! Even when these were available new in the day, you didn't really see them...its cool to see this model up close! Even though the wiring is upgraded, I would be extremly pleased!
Really wanted one for years, but a big disappointment for me when I got to play one was the neck is parallel to the body like a fender, not tipped back at an angle to the body. The playing experience was definitely weird to me.
Thanks Austin, that was a good review considering the unexpected issues. I get a 57 classic vibe out the tarbacks, similar output only with slightly smoother bass and upper mids are more vocal (think Fran Dresher, lol) I don't think you'll like the low imp pups. The volute is my favorite part! It is a maple slab between maple caps. I really like mine, it sounds great, plays great, looks great and people wanna talk about it...It's like having a Pontiac G8. Thanks again.
I've this l5s, the version with humbuckers (year 74 or 75). Sublime. Eritated from my father. I've always wanted a 335, but every time i compare my l5s and a 335 in a shop, i do no more feel the need to put 6000€. Yes, a semihollow have a little bit more room, that bluesy thing, but the sound difference is not this big. The l5s sounds awsome in jazz, blues, funck and rock to hardrock. I love all 3 position, especialy both pickup together. Lots of guitarist told me it sounds almost like an hollow. Even unplugged, the guitar sound great, the volume remains obviously really low.
I am still suspect of a partial refret or repair of some lifted ones and the crack in the binding at the heel, touch-up area. I think the neck suffered some trauma and was repaired, very well. The top of the neck showed a line going into the stinger. Hope not, but saw them pretty clearly. Like the neck was bent, not broken.Almost like it was stepped on and the massive volute saved it, but it popped some frets.
First thing I thought of was........................the guitar got run over in the case at the headstock area, by a trailer, at a gig. Had a gal who backed her car over her Kramer, fret board down, it did not break, but showed similar stress areas, bent some tuners and popped three frets in the middle around the 12th.
Agreed, there are stress cracks on either side of the headstock by the nut. Those and the stress cracks by the heel confirm your theory. The repairs here are nicely done, but lucky it wasn't worse. Guitar is still a very nice example worth collecting.
@@jimmyjames2022 It's still a beautiful guitar and may have a little extra resonance because of that ! The chipped fret board, stinger and total redo of electronics was what convinced me , that was a major repair and players upgrade.
I think it was refinished in the early 80’s. I have owned and played tons of these. Currently own 2. They all had L5 spec’d R8 “baseball bat” necks. I think this neck was shaved and refinished early in its life.
My favourite ever Gibson, I've been looking for one for 25yrs and never seen one for sale, I was on *Scott Jennings "search list" for one, and even he couldn't find one. *Route 66 guitars
Austin: when you do your play-it sections at the end, with these 2HB Gibson-wired guitars, it would be really helpful (and take no extra effort) to let people hear both tones in the 'both' position. With both volumes dimed the pickups are out of phase with each other; as soon as you cut either pickups' volume pot a hair they're back in phase~~~not only a little ~louder~ with one vol. on 9-9.5, it's a richer harmonic balance (and the sound of a 'one-volume-knob' 2 HB guitar in 'both' position. To this day, I install an "in/out of phase w/ each other" DPDT mini-toggle (or a push/pull pot) to get that "both HBs out of phase " sound of a Gibson etc. w/ both volumes up. Check this out yourself (the different tone/timbre when you cut one vol a hair in 'both'); it's the "fourth sound" in most 2 HB/2 volume guitars....and ~all~ Gibsons.
You are the owner of a truly awesome guitar. It's the nicest looking of the L5-S guitars in the video. All the non-original parts look and sound great, from the stinger, tuning machines pickups and electronics. I hope you don't change any of those. Replace the pickup cover that lost it's gold finish, but leave the cream pickup rings. I think "all" the tones were very musical and useful. Personally, I'd never sell that guitar. You lucked out big time.
Ahh the infamous "More Paul"! I've always thought these were super cool. One day I hope to own one of the earlier kind with low impedance pickups. This is a really special guitar you have here!
Great review. What a shame the pickups are gone, they are super hot and quite frankly are what makes this guitar awesome (for me, that is) with that slim neck (you didn't mention that?). I don't know the progress of the restoration, but you are one lucky man. And to answer your question: no, it doesn't have any jazzy sound with the super hot pickups. I'll look for an update on this guitar. Again, awesome find! Jorma Kaukkonen would be jealous. Me too. I only have a two-piece, so I'm with Jorma on this one ... 👍
Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad used an L5-s for a few years back in the mid 70's... I owned a '73 L5-s. The low imp p/ups were definitely not rockers. And as you noted, it's neck heavy and is more comfortable to play while sitting. It is a beautiful guitar, but pretty much a "one trick pony". Not very versatile at all.
Farner pretty much played clean when not using a Fuzz pedal. Always had a great tone. In the 60s and 70s we played alot of Grand Funk. Inside Looking Out was our big number. Also Into the Sun, Foot Stomping Music, Black Licorice, We're an American Band, and of course I'm Your Captain. All good dance tunes.
Respectfully I disagree. I hear that all the time about these but I get amazing crunch out of mine and it has the low impedance pickups. Getting"gain" from pickups is much over rated...mind you the late '74/ 75 L5-S came with the same pickups as a Les Paul ...so why would it be a one trick pony? Overwound pickups and overly powerful magnets create string pull and weird odd order harmonic series that turn to mud in processing. Almost every great preamp made uses a transformer to condition the signal so that even overtone series are emphasized which makes the signal more usable for effects. Think Radial Engineering, Alembic F1 and especially Bradshaw/CAE who defined shred. The guitar trogly has is really just a squished Les Paul...no difference electronically. My '73 L5-S with low impedance pickups through the Bradshaw or Boogie Triaxis will eat a 5150 and leave no trace. Sounds amazing. Cheers!
The late Kevin Peek of Sky used one of these extensively with that band along with a very odd Ovation, either a Breadwinner or a Viper (can't remember which but it was definitely very odd!). He got a very thick, melodic sound out of it through both a Musicman combo and some kind of Lab Series small stack when I saw them. A very underrated player, now sadly remembered (if at all) more for going to jail a couple of times for fraud than for his excellent guitar playing, alas.
I am pretty sure it was an Ovation Preacher that KP played on the first Sky album, and on later material he seemed to used mostly a 25th anniversary Strat. But for me I think he got the best sounds, both clean and distorted, from his L5S- a really distinctive, singing tone. He seems to have used a Big Muff and achieved an amazing, sustained sound. I do think that his use of fingerstyle often in conjunction with a volume pedal contributed to his incredibly smooth note attack. At the time I thought he had a very distinctive sound and style.
Two people in Hungary had such a guitar .. István Slamovics and Tibor Tátrai, both of them were guitarist of a legendary hungarian rock band. unfortunately both had their guitars stolen.The names of the rock bands are EDDA művek and új skorpió.
I almost bought one of these beautiful guitars - until I actually played it! Of course, people have different ideas about what makes a great instrument but to me it was too heavy, stiff feeling and dead sounding - like it was made of marble. Plus the fact that, played sitting down, the 1 inch deep body and the massive weight caused loss of circulation in my leg after a few minutes. I ended up buying a Gibson '68 Les Paul Custom reissue instead, which was less expensive, and in my opinion, a far nicer sounding and playing guitar.
I first saw an L5 solid body played by a woman who wanted a Les Paul, but like the L5 because it was lighter and thinner. She was a singer and rhythm guitarist. The L5 sounded good and she never wore a bra, which is a good combo.
Regardless of the changes that is a stunning guitar. I’ve seen a couple of these for sale on Ebay for $5000.00 similar condition. They were 2 piece tops.
I remember playing one of these in a music store back in the late '70s or early '80s. The thing that impressed me about all the Gibsons back then was that they were really heavy, really high quality, really solid and um really really expensive for a teenager like me. I was playing knockoff Les Pauls from the Sears catalogue at the time. Going from the Sears guitar to any real Gibson like this is always fun. I also remember that Les Paul "Studio" or "Recording" guitar with the low impedance slanted pickups in the store. Those were all top quality guitars!!!
I always wonder why nobody (Gibson or otherwise) uses the cut out wood as a backplate instead of plastic back plates. Look how gorgeous the back is as a result! They have to cut it out anyway to make space for the electronics, so how difficult could it be?
It’s a good question, but you have to understand the build process to know why. The cavity isn’t cut out. It is routed. So basically a spinning bit is moved around to create the area. The wood from the cavity is turned to dust. To do it differently would add an enormous amount of cost or at least trouble.
@@mikesides617 It's much easier to do with a pancake type body as they can just cut the whole piece out of one or two layers before putting the carved top on, if you see what I mean.
@@mordokch Yeah, but then they would have to use a tool that can cut the shape out with minimal loss. It's not easy. Maybe for flat backs, they could use laser, but a guitar like this requires some kind of thin rotary tool that would brake easily. Anyone that had a Dremel trio knows what I'm talking about. It's a nice tool for cutting precisely, but the damn bits were expensive as hell and too delicate to be viable.
I had an L6-s it was my fathers and when he passes someone took it from our house with his Clapton Blackie Strat. I’d be a dream to get both back but they were taken at separate times really wish I could play them both again
I played one of these back in the 70s and really liked it. The owner swapped out the original pickups for DiMarzios (no covers). Had cream pickup rings as I recall.
I bought my 2 piece top L5-S new in 1978... for $1000. I drained all my savings for it back then. Been thru many Lesters and Strats since, but nothing compares, it is super unique axe. Tonally the Super Humbuckers, while not really high output compared to today's stds, are very smooth and articulate with lots of sustain. With all maple construction it tends to be on the bright side and IMHO those SD's in that sound very brittle and lack the the body of the originals, especially under gain. The neck is flat and fast and access to the upper frets is much easier then a LP. It's the one axe that will never leave the collection. Good job on the review and the one piece top is amazing.
That clown burst isn't my favorite color of those, but I do love those guitars, especially the Natural finish L-5S with the TP6 Tailpiece.. I've had the honor of playing them before and I didn't care for the ones with the low impedance pickups
It's good that you go into such much detail - I'm not sure that many of the people who work at general auction houses really have a detailed knowledge of electric guitars. I guess it's 'buyer beware', but it has a one-piece top so it's still a beautiful guitar.
Don’t worry about things not working out being original for your vids we appreciate any upload regardless thanks for all your hard work…also what a beautiful guitar
This is an amazing guitar....well worth trying to find the original pickups, if you really feel the need to restore it to the original specs. Superb woods used on this example!
I's be curious to hear how did it sound with its original tarback pick-ups. I know they weren't very durable, but at least they could swap them for Tim Shaw ones, that would be a more historically correct choice.
I bought a '67 es 335 from Heritage that was listed as all original metal parts. Found that one pickup was replaced with a 70s Maxon. The rest was original, though.
Back in 2017 Ronnie Wood had a signature model and I think it only came in black and it had two knobs and a switch and that was it... with the split Diamond headstock it's a really good-looking guitar. There is one for sale on reverb for damn near $11,000...ouch
Have owned two of these, the first was same red sunburst as this only a three piece top. Great guitars, heavy but great guitars. When they first came out with low impedance pickup nobody bought them. They switched to humbuckers then the Kalamazoo boys gave certain artists guitars to spur interest. Bob Seger got one, Dick Wagner got one, Mark Farner got one, but we nobodys had to buy one! And at the time 1974, they were $800! That's a lot of nights playing whiskey bars and teen clubs!! They are great guitars and beautiful too. They are made so heavy duty you could buy a beat up example and still have a great guitar you don't have to worry about scratching up. Unique! Sorry you bought a misrepresented piece, keep up the good work, thanks!!
They're fabulous guitars and I had the earlier version with the original lo-z pickups. I chose not to modify mine and retrofit humbuckers to it, but I have seen that done and with excellent craftsmanship. I still seek a later version with humbuckers. And I know how to restore the metal plating on the lo-z pickups...not that there's a lot of money to be made there.
My 2021 Heritage H-150 came with SD 59s. I also got a 2021 Les Paul Standard 60s with some Gibson PUPs in it. The Duncan 59s have much more clean headroom than the Gibson PUPs. On clean amp settings it almost sounds like the difference between stereo and mono. I'm really impressed with the 59s.
Why go back to originals if the SD's sound great? For collectible integrity? The line between players and collectors, although there are probably people who are both at once. I only care about the sound and comfort.
If you can date the new pots, you might be able to track down the original controls and maybe pickups if someone sold them online and new what they were selling. Why mess up something this nice like that though? 🤷♂️ There’s a ‘73 low impedance on Reverb that also looks like it’s 1 piece top and back… but not figured… I wonder if they just did 1 piece top and back when they could because of the price point?
I beg to differ: the original 1972 low impedance pickups certainly look like single coils, and are almost always described as such, but I'm pretty sure they are stacked humbuckers, which are quite a rare item on a production instrument.
I believe you are correct. I’ve owned a couple of ‘73’s and have never taken them apart, but I always thought they were stacked humbuckers. Those low impedance pickups where designed by Les Paul.
What supports our view, Larry, is that the Les Paul Recording, which also used this style of pickup as we are all aware, included a "Fat Tap" coil tapping switch to convert it to a single coil sound. Hardly necessary if the pickups were single coils!!
I had one- it was a blond one, maybe a '77. It was really heavy- unreasonably....all that maple. I wound up trading it away- didn't like the fret wire- really low and would have cost too much to change it. It did sound amazing, though. I don't miss it.
Great vid!!...Terry Kath of Chicago played a Les Paul Professional which has a similar body style. You should try & obtain one of these for a demo, Austin.
I find it interesting that you didn't care for the distorted tones of the Duncan Vintage Blues pickup set. I have a Hamer Sunburst Archtop loaded with Duncan Designed HB-101s (Pacific Rim made 59s), which sound almost identical to their USA made cousins. I like those tones so well that I have barely considered a pickup swap, and yes, I like the distorted tones well, too. Still, to each his own. Too bad your L-5 S didn't retain its original pickups. Would have been nice to hear them.
Heritage Auctions have been floundering in the last few years. They aren't checking guitars. I bought a guitar 2 years ago and had the same problem. The pots were wrong year and the pickups changed. They're reputation is gone but they still charge high fees. They have been sued several times for shill bidders to drive prices up, creating bubble markets on collectables, and false advertising of items, like your all original L5 that isn't. I dont watch them anymore.
Les Paul originally suggest the solid body be made out of pure maple, but they opted out of it because it would have been too heavy. Now that I've heard a pure maple guitar, I'm glad things worked out the way they did because it's way too bright from my taste.
Good-sounding guitar, Seymour Duncan ‘59 pickups or not! Most of the humbucker-equipped Gibsons you review are darker-sounding than I prefer, but this one’s got some clarity and definition. I’m sure the maple body has something to do with that too. Years ago a friend of mine had one of those, in Tobacco Sunburst. Really nice guitar. A bit heavy, though. And I’ve never played one with the low-impedance pickups, but I used to have a Les Paul Recording with those. Even more clarity and twang. That was a great-sounding guitar.
Better plan on hanging on to this one, Austin. Not only is it a beautiful guitar, but you probably won't find another one piece top and back. What needs to be brought back to factory spec isn't difficult, and tbh...those pickups sound pretty awesome as they are!, great find!
Better plan
Indeed....with the rarity of the one piece top--and back...the rest....the rest is just annoying
Is is name Austin?
Known Gibson L5-S players
• Pat Martino
• John McLaughlin
• Paul Simon
• Neil Schon
• Jorma Kaukonen
• Eric Gales
• Santana
• Ron Wood (has a current Gibson L-5S "signature" model)
• Keith Richards
• John Entwistle
• Mark Farner
• Grant Geissman
• Pete Carr
• Ray Sharpe
• Dino Valenti
• Gary Duncan
• Billy Butler
• Dick Wagner
• Kerry Livgren
Show all these cats to the dude up in the comments known as "WASHING UP LIQUIDS!"
Of course, they'll have some bullshit to say about the line-up of L5-S users you listed as not noteworthy or some dumb shit... I guess there's always a "Debbie-Downer" in the crowd...!!! You could have the most beautiful, wanted "THING" in the world, and some asshole has to come along and just shit all over it!!! Though, I can see Ronnie Woods and his signature model, Kerry Livgren absolutely, but I am curious..., when, and what recorded media did John Entwistle have ONE OF THESE BEAUTIES in his hands!??! Just wondering 🤔!!??!!
P.ost S.cript...
The "loudmouth all caps" was for the commentor formally known as "Washing UP Dishes!!"🤣
ANYWAY KEEP ON KEEPING ON BROTHER!!!!!
PEACE!!!!! 🤘🏼
Show all these cats to the dude up in the comments known as "WASHING UP LIQUIDS!"
Of course, they'll have some bullshit to say about the line-up of L5-S users you listed as not noteworthy or some dumb shit... I guess there's always a "Debbie-Downer" in the crowd...!!! You could have the most beautiful, wanted "THING" in the world, and some asshole has to come along and just shit all over it!!! Though, I can see Keith Richard's and his signature model, Kerry Livgren absolutely, but I am curious..., when, and what recorded media did John Entwistle have ONE OF THESE BEAUTIES in his hands!??! Just wondering 🤔!!??!!
P.ost S.cript...
The "loudmouth all caps" was for the commentor formally known as "Washing UP Dishes!!"🤣
ANYWAY KEEP ON KEEPING ON BROTHER!!!!!
PEACE!!!!! 🤘🏼
@@TheRealBKSchyster John Entwhitle’s was recently sold at auction about a year ago. It was one of the best 2-piece examples I’ve ever seen. It was relatively cheap, too. I was not working at the time or I would have bought it!
@@LarryEngel Oh... yeah... I had brain fart!!! 😆 That was his 1981 with the TP6 tailpiece, right!??! Didn't Sotheby's auction that off in 2004 or something like that?? I probably should have not forgotten about this... oiiiyyy!!! Yes sir-rie, that was a beautiful Axe.... O.K. This one, not an Axe!! A beautiful guitar!!! Gibson crank's and all as I remember it now!! I guess you think Entwistle, and Big burly bass player comes to mind first!! Thank you for the memory brotha!!! 🤘🏼👍🏼
Jerry Garcia
I tell you what mate. If I’m ever in the market for a vintage Gibson, you’re the only person I trust to sell it to me. You’re so unbelievably thorough that I don’t think I can trust any other potential seller. 👍🏾
Exactly what I’ve been thinking lately
Hoepfully he will figure out what a stinger by the time you do business
@@deviltronix ha right? I was like…uh…dude? 🤦♂️
This level of inaccuracy is standard for Heritage Auctions. The best of many examples I’ve seen is an “all original” 1950s Fender Champ amp with a Radio Shack speaker. Apparently nobody even looked at through the hole in the back panel to look at the speaker.
That's hilarious! I burned up many Radio Shack speakers in the 70's and 80's not knowing anything about impedance 😂! They had a cheap 12" guitar speaker with a aluminum cone... Total crap but I didn't know any better! I thought I was so cool with my fancy speakers.
@@garthkolbeck8674 I remember those they were like paper..lol
dude, they should hire you to review their guitars. (but they probably would end up getting less for them)
Interesting to see Heritage screwing up Video Games in a similar fashion. Really, all these collector groups need to band together and out a stop to it.
I’ve offered L5-S guitars up to Trogly twice previously to review (we live fairly close). He didn’t take me up on it, though. Favorite is my AAAAA Grade highly-figured, book-matched top - 1976 and made from the same maple as the “The Les Paul.” Best guitar ever!!
@@DavidMorales008 I will never sell it. Plan to be buried with it! LOL
My ‘76 L5-S actually was featured on his channel very briefly. He showed the listing of it on Norm’s Rare Guitars shop and said he tried to buy it. I purchased it before he could.
@@LarryEngel I don't blame you, I deleted it, it wasn't very nice, I do like Trogly I rushed my comment, but I still think it makes no sense
@@LarryEngelplease do a vid on it yourself!
Hey Trogs, if you really want to restore this all the way, Kluson has started to make reissue Sealfast tuners again. It's the first time these highest-end tuners have been available since the 1970's. Kind of a big deal.
It’s a good idea, but just one problem: You think it would be as valuable as finding the 70’s era tuners? I have a feeling Austin cares more about retaining the value and making it as accurate as possible with parts from around that time period. For a player’s grade restoration, the Kluson reissues would be a great option. I’d be surprised if Austin said the value would hold for collector’s grade guitars with the brand new reissues. It would probably be better than nothing if he couldn’t find the 70’s era tuners, but I don’t think he’d put modern remakes on a vintage guitar unless he literally couldn’t get his hands on the real deal.
@@MashaT22 Finding an original, complete and functioning, set of these high end Sealfast tuners would be difficult, as they were only used on very few ($$) models. Coupled with the fact that they haven't been made in over 40 years, makes their scarcity apparent.
@@rbarker1706 not to mention you were just being nice and letting trogly know they were remaking the tuners.....in case trogly didn't know. Being nice sometimes just throws people way off.
Yup to the new Klusons and they look good but I am fairly certain that the tuner was not Kluson but Schaller Big Jazz which is an extremely well made Sealfast knockoff.
This is based on a conversation I had decades ago with John Paul at the Gibson custom shop but I stand ready to be corrected if someone has some first hand primary source information.
Either way the vintage tuners are over 700.00 per set for either in good shape.
@@seanwoodburn2616 Good info. Aside from other very subtle details like the Schallers being more likely to have a smoother "slope" to the stacked styling on the back casing than the Klusons, I guess one way to tell would be the ratio. It's "likely" the Schaller would be a lower 1:12 or 1:14 ratio, whereas the Klusons will be closer to 1:18 ratio. We'd have to see what the ratio of an actual Kluson Sealfast would've been, and then it would be easy to tell.
We put a brand new set of the new Sealfasts in my friend's L5S. For some odd reason the last owner(?) changed the machine heads at some point. It's a nice look and feel to have those original Sealfast style in there. WD owns the Kluson line and manufacturing now. Since I'm a WD dealer too we were able to get them at cost. The price though is VERY reasonable especially when you know how expensive it is to TRY and even find a 70's set in very good condition. The gold plating was notorious for it's pitting over the years. One of my friend's old L5ces has the gold completely pitted. Tuners still work great though. The waffle-backs are much easier to find, it was just that there were SO FEW guitars made with the sealfast style and there was no real hope of this kind of tuner ever being re-made until now--thanks to WD.
~JSV
Kevin Peek from the band Sky (from the 1980's featuring classical guitarist John Williams, Herbie Flowers, Tristian Fry, Francis Monkman) played one to superb effect. I loved the lead solo toned he got out of this, and those cleans.
The original '76 L5-S guitars came stock with Gibson Super Humbuckers (Tar Backs).
4:19 - "The fact that I ACCIDENTALLY stumbled across a 1 piece top... "
Man... That is SOME acting, right there...
Austin, I think I have an extra set on '76 L5-S electronics around here somewhere. I'll check for you. I do not have an extra set of the Super Humbuckers.
Oh my god, finally I see this guitar! This one has haunted me for years, my guitar teacher had one of these when I was a kid in the mid 80s and I never found out what model it was. Always figured it was a weird les paul, but now I see what it was. Thanks a lot for this video.
The binding has shrunk for the dots to become proud. You can avoid that by allowing the celluloid to age somewhat (collings making knobs and pickup rings comes to mind - they cut rough the ivoroid that they use and put it aside for at least a year, let it shrink some and then cut to finish size). I like gibson prior to the Henry era, but they've never gone to the level of care that collings does.
I love the way the binding comes to a point down by the pickups.looks classy
I used to have a '74 L5S that looked like yours. The gold pickup covers were pretty worn, so I decided to replace them only to find the pickups were Tar-backs! I did the next best thing and replaced them with factory gold covered Seymour Duncans. I figured nobody would ever care (:-) Because the body is all maple, I think the dramatic body carve is in an attempt to lighten the load. After all, Les Paul himself wanted Gibson to make his model solid maple, but Gibson refused and used maple capped mahogany to keep the weight of the instrument reasonable. My guitar was neck heavy also, and tended to dive on me. I sold it because it was too heavy to play for four hours a night, 2-3 gigs a week.
Les was probably to the Gibson people like: "Do you even lift, Mr?"
I played in a band where the other guitar player had one. Beautiful! It had the standard 3 piece flame top. I did see a 2 piece book matched center seam one before Gibson stopped production. One piece top is AWESOME! Keep it!
My friend had the exact same L5S with a one piece top. He rocked like crazy with that guitar.
Austin the only famous person I know that played this guitar was Jorma Kaukkonen from Hot tuna he was tearing up the 70's with this guitar totally ripping it apart with intense psychedelic blues jams. You can see him using it in many videos from the mid '70s it's like the only electric guitar he used.
Pat Martino is the artist who made it a thing.
Jorma and Jack…the Rampage Years! The live album "Double Dose" has the L5-S all over it. Great sound. Curious to know what amps he was using at the time.
PLEASE devote an episode to your system of cleaning and polishing guitars! That information would be very helpful and interesting.They always look so good when you are done.🎸
Pat Travers played one of the versions of this guitar.
Finally, you did a review on the Gibson L-5S. I have a 1977 Cherry burst with the trapeze tailpiece and it happens to be one of my favorite guitars. Incidentally, Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad played one in 1975. You can hear that guitar on the Caught in the Act live album and All the Girls in the World Beware album. He still has that guitar as of today.
i am always in awe as to how details some of you guys can see in a guitar while they seem so similar to me, and the amount of passion you have is staggering.
I have a 1979 L5S in a natural finish. The pickups have been replaced on mine with Lindy Fralin PAF style pickups. The rest of the guitar is mostly original except for one replacement tone pot. Mine does have the original Kluson Sealfast tuners and like yours, my headstock has a black stinger. The stinger appears to be original, no old screw holes to hide. These guitars are lookers and play well. It is one of the top guitars in my collection. Great video on a fairly rare and interesting guitar.
I fell
In love with wood when I grew up seeing my grandmother’s beautiful wooden furniture.
I've got a gorgeous '79 tobacco sunburst, I believe all original. I play jazz and I must say that it is hard to find a solid body that gets a good jazz tone. But this one really sings. It has a punchy, but rich, clean sound and the longer sustain (compared to typical big box jazz guitars) allows a different kind of phrasing. I love it. It was set up by a master and is perhaps my best player in my small collection - plays "like buddah.". It's a beaut and I'll never part with it. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it since most of your audience are probably more interested or curious about how it might work for rock. Can't say, but for jazz it has a really nice sound. It is indeed heavy and with that big L5 neck and headstock it does tilt down and need constant lifting the neck back up. And digs a groove in one's shoulder. But I found a solution. I found a thick, wide rubber strap - kind of a spongy scuba diving suit-type material except thicker. It not only cushions my shoulder more but also grips on my shoulder top better than most straps so I don't have to constantly lift the neck back up as much. With that problem solved I love playing it. It has a unique and lovely tone, for jazz.
Beautiful looking guitar - single piece front and back is a most pleasant surprise. Looking forward to a future episode where we can hear what the original electronics sounds like. Looks like another keeper for the museum Trogly!
I'm not sure what he's talking about with it being "strange"...that's a beautiful instrument and I'd dearly love to have one. Ronnie Wood is still known to play one occasionally on tour with the Stones.
Austin, polishes are very fine abrasive compounds. ALL of them remove" some of the finish/surface.
Hey Austin. The SD 59's in your guitar are rare late 70s ones (no stamp on the baseplate) and at least on par in value to the Gibson tarbacks that do come up for sale on ebay all the time (even here in the UK!). They are both bridge pickups and the green one has reacted to the foam in the retail box. I have a few vintage SD 'greenbacks'! The bad pickup cover is for neck spacing. However I do think it has definitely been refretted. It should have the flat 'fretless wonder' frets and the missing fretboard chips are an absolute giveaway. Possible even a stainless steel refret given the shine? IMO, I hate the look of this guitar but thought it actually sounded very good (for a Les Paul 😂).
John McLaughlin used L5-S on the Mahavishnu Orchestra Inner Worlds record. Boz Skaggs had several. I seem to recall some other name players with this model like Kerry Livgren of Kansas, and Pat Martino used one all over the Joyous Lake record, but this guitar is a real beauty - wow! I personally liked the vocal aspect of the distorted tones.
Very nice example! Even when these were available new in the day, you didn't really see them...its cool to see this model up close! Even though the wiring is upgraded, I would be extremly pleased!
Really wanted one for years, but a big disappointment for me when I got to play one was the neck is parallel to the body like a fender, not tipped back at an angle to the body.
The playing experience was definitely weird to me.
Thanks Austin, that was a good review considering the unexpected issues. I get a 57 classic vibe out the tarbacks, similar output only with slightly smoother bass and upper mids are more vocal (think Fran Dresher, lol) I don't think you'll like the low imp pups. The volute is my favorite part! It is a maple slab between maple caps. I really like mine, it sounds great, plays great, looks great and people wanna talk about it...It's like having a Pontiac G8. Thanks again.
I've always dreamed about the L5-S. Love the Chalice/Flower Pot w/Stinger
Good evening brother
I know I talk about “dream guitars” but a “regular” L-5 is one of my dream guitars
I've this l5s, the version with humbuckers (year 74 or 75). Sublime. Eritated from my father. I've always wanted a 335, but every time i compare my l5s and a 335 in a shop, i do no more feel the need to put 6000€. Yes, a semihollow have a little bit more room, that bluesy thing, but the sound difference is not this big.
The l5s sounds awsome in jazz, blues, funck and rock to hardrock. I love all 3 position, especialy both pickup together. Lots of guitarist told me it sounds almost like an hollow. Even unplugged, the guitar sound great, the volume remains obviously really low.
I am still suspect of a partial refret or repair of some lifted ones and the crack in the binding at the heel, touch-up area. I think the neck suffered some trauma and was repaired, very well. The top of the neck showed a line going into the stinger. Hope not, but saw them pretty clearly. Like the neck was bent, not broken.Almost like it was stepped on and the massive volute saved it, but it popped some frets.
First thing I thought of was........................the guitar got run over in the case at the headstock area, by a trailer, at a gig. Had a gal who backed her car over her Kramer, fret board down, it did not break, but showed similar stress areas, bent some tuners and popped three frets in the middle around the 12th.
Agreed, there are stress cracks on either side of the headstock by the nut. Those and the stress cracks by the heel confirm your theory. The repairs here are nicely done, but lucky it wasn't worse. Guitar is still a very nice example worth collecting.
@@jimmyjames2022 It's still a beautiful guitar and may have a little extra resonance because of that ! The chipped fret board, stinger and total redo of electronics was what convinced me , that was a major repair and players upgrade.
I think it was refinished in the early 80’s. I have owned and played tons of these. Currently own 2. They all had L5 spec’d R8 “baseball bat” necks. I think this neck was shaved and refinished early in its life.
@@LarryEngel Your right ! The finish is definitely aged and even too !
My favourite ever Gibson, I've been looking for one for 25yrs and never seen one for sale, I was on *Scott Jennings "search list" for one, and even he couldn't find one.
*Route 66 guitars
SEEN 3 OR4 RECENTLY 5K.
@@dougmason8007 I'm after a lefty, I got quite excited when I saw your reply, then I saw I hadn't put lefty in my initial comment
Austin: when you do your play-it sections at the end, with these 2HB Gibson-wired guitars, it would be really helpful (and take no extra effort) to let people hear both tones in the 'both' position. With both volumes dimed the pickups are out of phase with each other; as soon as you cut either pickups' volume pot a hair they're back in phase~~~not only a little ~louder~ with one vol. on 9-9.5, it's a richer harmonic balance (and the sound of a 'one-volume-knob' 2 HB guitar in 'both' position. To this day, I install an "in/out of phase w/ each other" DPDT mini-toggle (or a push/pull pot) to get that "both HBs out of phase " sound of a Gibson etc. w/ both volumes up. Check this out yourself (the different tone/timbre when you cut one vol a hair in 'both'); it's the "fourth sound" in most 2 HB/2 volume guitars....and ~all~ Gibsons.
You are the owner of a truly awesome guitar. It's the nicest looking of the L5-S guitars in the video. All the non-original parts look and sound great, from the stinger, tuning machines pickups and electronics. I hope you don't change any of those. Replace the pickup cover that lost it's gold finish, but leave the cream pickup rings. I think "all" the tones were very musical and useful. Personally, I'd never sell that guitar. You lucked out big time.
Ahh the infamous "More Paul"! I've always thought these were super cool. One day I hope to own one of the earlier kind with low impedance pickups. This is a really special guitar you have here!
Great review. What a shame the pickups are gone, they are super hot and quite frankly are what makes this guitar awesome (for me, that is) with that slim neck (you didn't mention that?). I don't know the progress of the restoration, but you are one lucky man. And to answer your question: no, it doesn't have any jazzy sound with the super hot pickups. I'll look for an update on this guitar. Again, awesome find! Jorma Kaukkonen would be jealous. Me too. I only have a two-piece, so I'm with Jorma on this one ... 👍
Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad used an L5-s for a few years back in the mid 70's... I owned a '73 L5-s. The low imp p/ups were definitely not rockers. And as you noted, it's neck heavy and is more comfortable to play while sitting. It is a beautiful guitar, but pretty much a "one trick pony". Not very versatile at all.
Mark Farner is a rock god...
He’ll always have that Messenger in my mind!
Farner pretty much played clean when not using a Fuzz pedal. Always had a great tone. In the 60s and 70s we played alot of Grand Funk. Inside Looking Out was our big number. Also Into the Sun, Foot Stomping Music, Black Licorice, We're an American Band, and of course I'm Your Captain. All good dance tunes.
Grand Funk saw them 3X when I was a kid a lot of great memories
Respectfully I disagree.
I hear that all the time about these but I get amazing crunch out of mine and it has the low impedance pickups.
Getting"gain" from pickups is much over rated...mind you the late '74/ 75 L5-S came with the same pickups as a Les Paul ...so why would it be a one trick pony?
Overwound pickups and overly powerful magnets create string pull and weird odd order harmonic series that turn to mud in processing.
Almost every great preamp made uses a transformer to condition the signal so that even overtone series are emphasized which makes the signal more usable for effects.
Think Radial Engineering, Alembic F1 and especially Bradshaw/CAE who defined shred.
The guitar trogly has is really just a squished Les Paul...no difference electronically.
My '73 L5-S with low impedance pickups through the Bradshaw or Boogie Triaxis will eat a 5150 and leave no trace. Sounds amazing.
Cheers!
The late Kevin Peek of Sky used one of these extensively with that band along with a very odd Ovation, either a Breadwinner or a Viper (can't remember which but it was definitely very odd!). He got a very thick, melodic sound out of it through both a Musicman combo and some kind of Lab Series small stack when I saw them. A very underrated player, now sadly remembered (if at all) more for going to jail a couple of times for fraud than for his excellent guitar playing, alas.
I am pretty sure it was an Ovation Preacher that KP played on the first Sky album, and on later material he seemed to used mostly a 25th anniversary Strat. But for me I think he got the best sounds, both clean and distorted, from his L5S- a really distinctive, singing tone. He seems to have used a Big Muff and achieved an amazing, sustained sound. I do think that his use of fingerstyle often in conjunction with a volume pedal contributed to his incredibly smooth note attack. At the time I thought he had a very distinctive sound and style.
Two people in Hungary had such a guitar .. István Slamovics and Tibor Tátrai, both of them were guitarist of a legendary hungarian rock band. unfortunately both had their guitars stolen.The names of the rock bands are EDDA művek and új skorpió.
I almost bought one of these beautiful guitars - until I actually played it!
Of course, people have different ideas about what makes a great instrument but to me it was too heavy, stiff feeling and dead sounding - like it was made of marble.
Plus the fact that, played sitting down, the 1 inch deep body and the massive weight caused loss of circulation in my leg after a few minutes.
I ended up buying a Gibson '68 Les Paul Custom reissue instead, which was less expensive, and in my opinion, a far nicer sounding and playing guitar.
Trogly trying to create a market for profit when nobody wants one LOL
@@popeye089 Austin the kinda guy who'd roast any seller asking whatever he wants for this if he has found it on Reverb
I’ve always loved these. Try to find one with the low impedance pickups!
I first saw an L5 solid body played by a woman who wanted a Les Paul, but like the L5 because it was lighter and thinner. She was a singer and rhythm guitarist. The L5 sounded good and she never wore a bra, which is a good combo.
Regardless of the changes that is a stunning guitar. I’ve seen a couple of these for sale on Ebay for $5000.00 similar condition. They were 2 piece tops.
I remember playing one of these in a music store back in the late '70s or early '80s. The thing that impressed me about all the Gibsons back then was that they were really heavy, really high quality, really solid and um really really expensive for a teenager like me. I was playing knockoff Les Pauls from the Sears catalogue at the time. Going from the Sears guitar to any real Gibson like this is always fun. I also remember that Les Paul "Studio" or "Recording" guitar with the low impedance slanted pickups in the store. Those were all top quality guitars!!!
I always wonder why nobody (Gibson or otherwise) uses the cut out wood as a backplate instead of plastic back plates. Look how gorgeous the back is as a result! They have to cut it out anyway to make space for the electronics, so how difficult could it be?
Prs does sometimes I think on high end models
It’s a good question, but you have to understand the build process to know why. The cavity isn’t cut out. It is routed. So basically a spinning bit is moved around to create the area. The wood from the cavity is turned to dust. To do it differently would add an enormous amount of cost or at least trouble.
@@mikesides617 It's much easier to do with a pancake type body as they can just cut the whole piece out of one or two layers before putting the carved top on, if you see what I mean.
@@mordokch Gotcha, that makes sense.
@@mordokch Yeah, but then they would have to use a tool that can cut the shape out with minimal loss. It's not easy. Maybe for flat backs, they could use laser, but a guitar like this requires some kind of thin rotary tool that would brake easily. Anyone that had a Dremel trio knows what I'm talking about. It's a nice tool for cutting precisely, but the damn bits were expensive as hell and too delicate to be viable.
Trogly. Thank you from the bottom of my heart..I love seeing your vids in my notifications. It wouldn't be the same without ya 😜
I had an L6-s it was my fathers and when he passes someone took it from our house with his Clapton Blackie Strat. I’d be a dream to get both back but they were taken at separate times really wish I could play them both again
That binding job is out-of-this-world!
I played one of these back in the 70s and really liked it. The owner swapped out the original pickups for DiMarzios (no covers). Had cream pickup rings as I recall.
I purchased a new L6-S. I never could really connect with it. Traded an SG in to get it. Wish I still had the SG. I really like the look of that L5S!
Trogly's in the HOUSE!!!
I bought my 2 piece top L5-S new in 1978... for $1000. I drained all my savings for it back then. Been thru many Lesters and Strats since, but nothing compares, it is super unique axe. Tonally the Super Humbuckers, while not really high output compared to today's stds, are very smooth and articulate with lots of sustain. With all maple construction it tends to be on the bright side and IMHO those SD's in that sound very brittle and lack the the body of the originals, especially under gain. The neck is flat and fast and access to the upper frets is much easier then a LP. It's the one axe that will never leave the collection. Good job on the review and the one piece top is amazing.
That clown burst isn't my favorite color of those, but I do love those guitars, especially the
Natural finish L-5S with the TP6
Tailpiece.. I've had the honor of playing them before and I didn't care for the ones with the low impedance pickups
Nice crunch on that bad boy!👍Thanks Trogly
man i wish they mad more solid body guitars with hollow and semi hollow shapes ... this guitar is beautiful
It's good that you go into such much detail - I'm not sure that many of the people who work at general auction houses really have a detailed knowledge of electric guitars. I guess it's 'buyer beware', but it has a one-piece top so it's still a beautiful guitar.
I know it's not all original, but those pickups do sound great! I say leave the thing as it is.
Don’t worry about things not working out being original for your vids we appreciate any upload regardless thanks for all your hard work…also what a beautiful guitar
Around 1990-ish, I remember seeing this in Tom Wheeler's "Guitar Book" BITD and lusting after it. Wish I'd found/bought one then!
I’ve been waiting for you to review one of these for a long time
Sounds killer with the Duncans
This is an amazing guitar....well worth trying to find the original pickups, if you really feel the need to restore it to the original specs. Superb woods used on this example!
I's be curious to hear how did it sound with its original tarback pick-ups. I know they weren't very durable, but at least they could swap them for Tim Shaw ones, that would be a more historically correct choice.
I bought a '67 es 335 from Heritage that was listed as all original metal parts. Found that one pickup was replaced with a 70s Maxon. The rest was original, though.
bernard potschka (ninahagen band) played one too. i remember a gibson brochure from early 80's showing one. time flies
Back in 2017 Ronnie Wood had a signature model and I think it only came in black and it had two knobs and a switch and that was it... with the split Diamond headstock it's a really good-looking guitar.
There is one for sale on reverb for damn near $11,000...ouch
I think there was a single pu model and a 2 pu model, I think they were 5 grand new. Yes a beautiful guitar in black, I sure wanted one
Have owned two of these, the first was same red sunburst as this only a three piece top. Great guitars, heavy but great guitars. When they first came out with low impedance pickup nobody bought them. They switched to humbuckers then the Kalamazoo boys gave certain artists guitars to spur interest. Bob Seger got one, Dick Wagner got one, Mark Farner got one, but we nobodys had to buy one! And at the time 1974, they were $800! That's a lot of nights playing whiskey bars and teen clubs!! They are great guitars and beautiful too. They are made so heavy duty you could buy a beat up example and still have a great guitar you don't have to worry about scratching up. Unique! Sorry you bought a misrepresented piece, keep up the good work, thanks!!
They're fabulous guitars and I had the earlier version with the original lo-z pickups. I chose not to modify mine and retrofit humbuckers to it, but I have seen that done and with excellent craftsmanship. I still seek a later version with humbuckers. And I know how to restore the metal plating on the lo-z pickups...not that there's a lot of money to be made there.
Mark Farner of GFR used an identical L5-S in the mid-70s
I love wood, too! My favorite would probably be morning wood.... (Somebody had to say it.)
Can’t believe someone would have desecrated it with all the replacement parts. Foolish…
I have tar backs and Tim Shaws' and T tops. I would go to WD and buy some new Sealfasts. When I did find vintage Sealfasts those would go in the case.
Great guitar but I’m almost certain that guitar has had a neck reset and possible headstock repair. Still a great example
I love those weirdos! If I could get a Les Paul with those contours and bindings.... damn!
Jorma Kaukonen played the hell out of an L5-S in Hot Tuna during the Rampage period in the mid 70's. Mark Farner played one back then, too.
Those SD 59's sound very good. What were the original pups? This is a guitar with an interesting history. How many owners has it had?
My 2021 Heritage H-150 came with SD 59s. I also got a 2021 Les Paul Standard 60s with some Gibson PUPs in it. The Duncan 59s have much more clean headroom than the Gibson PUPs. On clean amp settings it almost sounds like the difference between stereo and mono. I'm really impressed with the 59s.
Why go back to originals if the SD's sound great? For collectible integrity? The line between players and collectors, although there are probably people who are both at once. I only care about the sound and comfort.
A buddy of mine had an L6-S in junior high school, 1975. He still has it.
If you can date the new pots, you might be able to track down the original controls and maybe pickups if someone sold them online and new what they were selling. Why mess up something this nice like that though? 🤷♂️
There’s a ‘73 low impedance on Reverb that also looks like it’s 1 piece top and back… but not figured… I wonder if they just did 1 piece top and back when they could because of the price point?
I still have my 1978 plays like a Gem
I beg to differ: the original 1972 low impedance pickups certainly look like single coils, and are almost always described as such, but I'm pretty sure they are stacked humbuckers, which are quite a rare item on a production instrument.
I believe you are correct. I’ve owned a couple of ‘73’s and have never taken them apart, but I always thought they were stacked humbuckers. Those low impedance pickups where designed by Les Paul.
What supports our view, Larry, is that the Les Paul Recording, which also used this style of pickup as we are all aware, included a "Fat Tap" coil tapping switch to convert it to a single coil sound. Hardly necessary if the pickups were single coils!!
Another good job covering this guitar
So, what is going to happen to the L5-S ? Does it go back , do you get a purchase price adjustment , is it a keeper ?
I had one- it was a blond one, maybe a '77. It was really heavy- unreasonably....all that maple. I wound up trading it away- didn't like the fret wire- really low and would have cost too much to change it. It did sound amazing, though. I don't miss it.
For me, The most fantastic and involving Trogly vid so far .
Great stuff .
Great vid!!...Terry Kath of Chicago played a Les Paul Professional which has a similar body style. You should try & obtain one of these for a demo, Austin.
This is one gorgeous guitar, thanks for sharing man.
I find it interesting that you didn't care for the distorted tones of the Duncan Vintage Blues pickup set. I have a Hamer Sunburst Archtop loaded with Duncan Designed HB-101s (Pacific Rim made 59s), which sound almost identical to their USA made cousins. I like those tones so well that I have barely considered a pickup swap, and yes, I like the distorted tones well, too. Still, to each his own. Too bad your L-5 S didn't retain its original pickups. Would have been nice to hear them.
I just can’t bring myself to buy a 14 degree headstock. But this is really sweet, even with the changes.
I believe a stinger actually comes to a sharp point where the head stock meets the neck, hence (Stinger)
Heritage Auctions have been floundering in the last few years. They aren't checking guitars. I bought a guitar 2 years ago and had the same problem. The pots were wrong year and the pickups changed. They're reputation is gone but they still charge high fees. They have been sued several times for shill bidders to drive prices up, creating bubble markets on collectables, and false advertising of items, like your all original L5 that isn't. I dont watch them anymore.
I've seen a picture of Jan Akkerman of Focus playing what looks like an L5S back in the 70's. Anybody else have more on this?
Les Paul originally suggest the solid body be made out of pure maple, but they opted out of it because it would have been too heavy. Now that I've heard a pure maple guitar, I'm glad things worked out the way they did because it's way too bright from my taste.
First one I ever saw was Pat Martino playing one on my very first issue guitar player magazine, June 1977. Just like this guitar.
Played by Bernhard “Potsch” Potschka of the legendary Nina Hagen Band at the legendary 1978 Rockpalast performance
Please, please do a true L5 or more archtop Gibsons!! I absolutely love the true archtop Gibsons.
Trogly saying “fancy Boi” is the most wholesome thing I have ever heard. It made my day.
Good-sounding guitar, Seymour Duncan ‘59 pickups or not! Most of the humbucker-equipped Gibsons you review are darker-sounding than I prefer, but this one’s got some clarity and definition. I’m sure the maple body has something to do with that too. Years ago a friend of mine had one of those, in Tobacco Sunburst. Really nice guitar. A bit heavy, though. And I’ve never played one with the low-impedance pickups, but I used to have a Les Paul Recording with those. Even more clarity and twang. That was a great-sounding guitar.