1990 Les Paul Custom in White

This baby was the one I always wanted. I've been a Les Paul fan ever since I had even a passing interest in guitars. While others lusted after the gorgeous sunburst standard models, for some reason I had an even stronger lust for the Les Paul custom, particularly a beautifully-aged white (cream) color.

Well I found this beauty on Ebay for a very reasonable price. Part of the reason for the deal was the fact there had been many mods on the guitar. From my understanding, the first owner was a heavy metal/hair metal player who likely had a Randy Rhodes fetish. The custom had gold speed knobs like Randy's (as opposed to black). The headstock had been drilled into and refitted with a Floyd Rose locking tremolo system, and high gain pickups installed.

Second owner got the guitar and went "Holy F***! What has this guy done with this beautiful instrument!" He took off the Floyd, ditched the woofy metal pickups, and installed 57 Classics.

There were some discolorations and some slight scratches in the finish, but that didn't bother me at all. It had been played a fair bit which isn't a bad thing and when I got it I was surprised at how well intact the frets were. They were squared off instead of rounded (probably for jazz play), and set beautifully into the ebony board with large block inlays. The 57 Classics sounded pretty good and handled jazz, classic rock and even some country playing. The action was also the lowest I have ever seen or felt on a guitar which makes sense as that's what these guitars are known for.

When the Les Paul Custom first came out they were known as "light touch" guitars. The low action meant you couldn't play too aggressively. Again a great guitar for jazz.

I traded the guitar in a few months after getting it. Why? Well it was a great instrument. I can't say I was really dissapointed in the quality of the workmanship. The one drawback it had was that it was HEAVY even for a Les Paul. It was at least a pound heavier than my LP studio and a good 3 pounds heavier than my Tokai LP sunburst. The custom actually sounded a lot like the Tokai (which carries a Dimarzio virtual PAF pickup in the bridge).

It actually sounded too much like the Tokai. My first thought was getting rid of the Tokai but as it was lighter and would fetch a much lower price than the Custom, I let my dream guitar go.