History Vs The Internet ....les Pauls

[AlvisX]

Kossoff , Jimmy Page etc are not even part of the conversation

Koss had a a few different sunbursts and that stripped one
A TV Junior ,a 55 Custom that his dad bought him on a trip to America ,a 3 pickup 57 Custom (that was allgedly traded to Clapton ?) All bunch of $500 ,or less , guitars in his time

Maybe if he'd lived long enough to tour Crawler in the States ,he would've got him a Norlin for the road

Anyhow, my point in this thread ....
Im 55 now, but I can tell you as a teenager, when a guy showed up with a Les Paul back then, NOBODY, not even the older guys who may have had had "real" Les Pauls, said, "Ughh, a Norlin"

 

[Nik Henville]

... when a guy showed up with a Les Paul back then, NOBODY, not even the older guys who may have had had "real" Les Pauls, said, "Ughh, a Norlin"

And that is the TRUTH of it...

 

[anitoli]

Seriously people bemoaning 70's Gibsons because of multi piece bodies? Fender used 2-3 piece bodies for ever ( prevented warping ) and nobody seems to care. Oh well what's the consensus on a neck through guitar? Several pieces of wood glued together is required to make it. Lets not mention Gibsons use of glued on headstock sides. Oh and lets not forget the maple cap that is glued onto the rest of the body wood. Even if you used a solid slab of mahogany that two piece cap would technically make it sandwiched, no? I have an EDS1275 made in 90 with a multi piece body and it's not a Norlin.

Cork sniffing plain and simple.

 

[Wildeman]

I'd love to get my hands on a '70s Custom, I've played a few and they were great. They had some weight to them but it just seemed right. My first was a '80 Deluxe that had std buckers routed in, it was pretty sweet but not the best one i've had, that would be a Greco black beauty knockoff.....Stupid move letting that one go.

 

[slide222]

i'm a strat guy or a super strat guy ,ok so what is a norlin , I've never had a les paul ,I ve got a cheap one now with p90's in , but I always hit the pickup selector when strumming and struggle with the controls generally -i'm just use to strats , been playing since I was 13 and love the thin tones of singles
the les paul I refere to is the isle of wright gold top , it had a normal bridge not the one shown and it was very heavily worn
…..what has age got to do with , i'm 56 and always played fender strats , it was all hendrix for me at the start and I got into kossoff later mainly though semi tone bending and rolling into the note vibrato and feel , he was the master ,even Clapton asked him how do you do it, and why are page and kossoff not part of the conversation , i'm a player not a guitar collector

 

[AlvisX]

i'm a strat guy or a super strat guy ,ok so what is a norlin , I've never had a les paul ,I ve got a cheap one now with p90's in , but I always hit the pickup selector when strumming
the les paul I refere to is the isle of wright gold top , it had a normal bridge not the one shown and it was very heavily worn

Norlin Industries owned Gibson from '69 to '86 . They brought a lotta unwelcome changes to the products

Yeah, Isle Of Wight is the one I refer to as the stripped one .He had it in one of them German TV performances too,Fire N Water I think . Looks stripped to me anyway

 

[slide222]

I don't think people stripped guitars then its looks worn in the loved to bits way , remember free toured the north of England very heavily before they became world wide ,mostly working men's clubs and regular venues , that's why they were so amazing tight as a unit. and some venues were not that big
just imagine the volume out the 2 bass marshall stacks , I bet kirk struggled to be heard , kossoff never held back , he was seen playing very loud in the marshall shop in London , where all the local guitarist's hung out , before they became known .
I bet that was some atmosphere in there , jim gave drum lessons in the early days as they were developing the marshall amps

 

[AlvisX]

I don't think people stripped guitars then its looks worn in the loved to bits way , remember free toured the north of England very heavily before they became world wide ,mostly working men's clubs and regular venues , that's why they were so amazing tight as a unit. and some venues were not that big
just imagine the volume out the 2 bass marshall stacks , I bet kirk struggled to be heard , kossoff never held back , he was seen playing very loud in the marshall shop in London , where all the local guitarist's hung out , before they became known .
I bet that was some atmosphere in there , jim gave drum lessons in the early days as they were developing the marshall amps

This just in from ........the internet

https://www.theguitarmagazine.com/features/paul-kossoff-les-paul/

And yeah, people stripped guitars then ....
It's more like, people dont strip guitars now...

 

[Deep Purple fan]

It's funny how history has repeated itself
The Gibson USA guitars from the late 80s thru the 90s were really great,some even exceptional .Man, I just missed out on a '93 LP Custom for $1500 because my personal finances are in the outhouse .But I still keep an eye out for guitars of that era

Somewhere in the mid 2000's they started to go down IMO. Maybe it was the faded era and all that ,but it just seems like it got to a point where USA guitars got to feeling really cheap
Then again , that could've been a calculated move to boost Custom $hop sales among the generation that now had that kind of disposable income ......

I got lucky and snagged up some Custom Shop guitars before the prices got too stupid

BTW, multi piece tops go back to the 50's , can't pin that one on Norlin

I’m talking up to 5 pieces...not two. But you’re right...we are on Gibson 4.0. If you do a deep dive on the Norlin era your head will spin.

 

[Deep Purple fan]

This just in from ........the internet

https://www.theguitarmagazine.com/features/paul-kossoff-les-paul/

And yeah, people stripped guitars then ....
It's more like, people dont strip guitars now...

Cool read. Amazing what people did in the day. But then again, I’m sure Kossoff would have laughed his ass off if he knew we were still talking about him and his guitars.

I also remember going to the local second hand shops in late 70s with all these old Plexis.....beat up looking....and nobody wanted them. If only my paper route paid a living wage...

 

[AlvisX]

I’m talking up to 5 pieces...not two. But you’re right...we are on Gibson 4.0. If you do a deep dive on the Norlin era your head will spin.

The BEST Les Pauls have NO top anyway , didn't you guys know that ???

But anyhoo,dig this . I've kept this catalog in the Alvis Residential Library since 1998. I wish I could've bought this '54 . The asking price was $4500 in '98

So the story is the the orig owner didn't want a gold top. So the factory took a goldie out of production ,finished it sunburst and shipped it to the customer this way. So what do you count , 4 pieces of maple ?

 

[jimmyjames]

Stripped LP? This Greco shows me how sweet mine would look stripped, but the Violin Burst is too beautiful. I'd buy the stripper if the neck hadn't been kicked so hard (Apologies for bulk pics, couldn't pick out individuals)

 

[Wildeman]

Got that Aspen and its a sweetheart, upgrade city! Duncan JB in back with a push/pull coil split, Duncan '59 in front, full size pots, switchcraft switch and jack, Gibson tuners, straplocks and a Epi hard case for 249.00
A split JB is badass btw!

 

[Wildeman]

Only thing pisses a Norlin hater off more is FAKE Norlin's!

 

[axe4me]

Cool axes ladies and gents:>)

 

[Deep Purple fan]

Only thing pisses a Norlin hater off more is FAKE Norlin's!View attachment 49930

I’m glad you like your guitars. But, this Norlin hater nonsense is over the top. Who wants to obsess about the dead anyway.

Norlin is your neighbor who bought the historic Gibson mansion and then proceeded to screw his neighbors, burn the house down and then commit suicide. They bankrupted Gibson and nearly ruined the brand.

 

[Wildeman]

I’m glad you like your guitars. But, this Norlin hater nonsense is over the top. Who wants to obsess about the dead anyway.

Norlin is your neighbor who bought the historic Gibson mansion and then proceeded to screw his neighbors, burn the house down and then commit suicide. They bankrupted Gibson and nearly ruined the brand.

Sounds positively presidential nowadays

 

[jensvonbustenskjol]

I have a '79 custom with t-tops. Best guitar I ever had. Paid next to nothing because she's been beaten up. No headstock trauma though.

I'm taking her with me 6 feet under, giving an archeolog a 1000 years from now something to wrap his head around

 

[jericbrazier]

the picture I have in my head is a very worn early goldtop

I’ve seen that one as well.

 

[AlvisX]

And uh .....Ronno , STRIPPED !