Now available, an original Gibson Les Paul Custom 'Black Beauty' from 1960.

This is a late 1960 example of a triple pickup Les Paul Custom, with features including the early reflector knobs, and the slimmer neck profile. The guitar was sold new in New Zealand in 1961, having the same owner for 60 years until we purchased the guitar a few years ago. Included with the instrument is the original receipt of sale from the 3rd of May '61, payment schedule, and ten photos of the guitar being played back in the early 60s.

At some point during the 1980s the guitar was professionally refinished and the gold parts replated by Gordon Zettwitz, who performed warranty work for Gibson in New Zealand during this time. Luckily all of the work was performed without any loss of thickness to the body or neck. The guitar was also refretted at the time with slightly bigger fret wire, these are the only replaced parts on the whole guitar.

Otherwise the guitar retains all three original short magnet PAF pickups with original coils, all reading between 7.8-8k ohms. The original wiring harness remains original and intact, with all four Centralab pots dating to the 43rd week of '60. All of the plastics and hardware remain original, including the no-wire ABR-1 bridge, aluminum stopbar and studs, pat pend. Grover tuners, pickup covers, and all screws.

Sonically this guitar sounds as you would expect even unplugged, with a fantastic balanced set of PAFs plugged in as well.

A rare opportunity to get into an original PAF loaded Gibson Les Paul Custom in Australia.

Includes the original case, strap, receipt of purchase, photos of the owner, and tags.