1958 Gibson Les Paul Custom Black Beauty 3 x PAF

Here we have a super cool original stoptail 1958 3 x PAF pickup “Black Beauty” Les Paul Custom that just screams Rock 'n' Roll!!

It came to us via the wife of the previous owner and it comes with a dated letter from him! The letter and story state that Richard L. Jack received the guitar as a gift from his mother Margaret B. Jack (Guthrie) by the end of 1959 who paid a whopping USD200 for it. Now mind you, 200 Dollars was a LOT of money in 1959! In 1966 Richard joined the army and in 1967 he was stationed in Mannheim, Germany. Wanting to play in a band, he had the guitar shipped over by his dad, Earl S. Jack, but during transport the guitar received a headstock break which these are prone for. The break was repaired when returned to the US in 1968 by the Turned Music Store in Independance. The repair was very well performed with spline reinforcements on the back of the neck and a partial/local refin. After the repair he only played it occaisionally bot most if the time it was just stored in the case.
 
In 2010 it was appraised by a local vintage guitar collector and, unaware of the headstock break, he valued it at USD60.000-75.000 using the Vintage Guitar Magazine guidelines, noting it as an appraised value, not sales value.
 
The guitar is overall in very nice shape with all original appointments. It has some age appropriate wear and checking but apart from the headstock there are no breaks or repairs and the guitar lights up under UV beautifully.

The so called Black Beauty really is a piece of history, sporting the traditional Les Paul Custom "tuxedo" look that would become iconic in it's own right. These guitars were Gibson's most expensive top-of-the-line model featuring a double-bound solid Mahogany body in a black finish, Ebony fretboard with block inlays, bound headstock, gold hardware and a trio of PAF humbuckers to finish it off. Luxury to the max...

This '58 plays very easy and the original small “fretless wonder” frets are pretty low but playable. As it is all original we leave it up to the next owner t decide what to do. The original untouched unopened PAF pickups with Patent Applied For stickers and Gold covers are in pristine condition and produce a lively tone with lots of punch, dynamics and clarity. The neck and middle PU rings are stamped "MR 491 / M-69", the bridge PU ring is stamped "MR 490 / M-69". It has the original black bell tone and volume knobs, ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic non-retainer bridge with metal saddles and short seam stop tailpiece, waffleback tuners, pickguard, trussrodcover, backplates, jackplate etc. The pickup rings and tuners are mounted with slotted screws instead of philips but that is pretty common for the late 50's. Even some Bursts have been seen with a mixture of slotted and philips screws mounting pickup rings and tuners! Furthermore, this guitar never had a Bigsby so there are no snakebite holes in the top as a lot of these have. The original pots, switch and wiring has the famous "number stickers" on the wires in the switch cavity, capacitors are replaced late 50's  bumblebees. The original Les Paul brown Lifton hardshell case that comes with it is in good condition.

Tonally, this incredible treasure is about as vocal and alive as it can get, with an ultra resonant body and very dynamic response, producing a loud and rich sound acoustically. When plugged, the neck position is super rich, warm and articulate, never losing composure or note definition under a heavy attack. Very full and powerful! The middle position provides cut and clarity with the bridge and middle pickup out of phase producing glorious "quack" and push in the upper midrange, just as it came from the factory in 1958. Think "You Really Got Me" from The Kinks. Easy to change to a normal 3 pickup setup by flipping the magnet but as it is all original we prefer to leave it all original and to decide for the next owner. The bridge pickup is strong and powerful with a big cutting rock punch and an extremely vocal high end, perfect for those soaring single note runs with waves of harmonic content. The neck is a nice 42mm at the nut and not as big as your typical 58 Les Paul, but it feels rather more like a 59-ish neck.

All in all this is a fantastic "player grade" guitar  that is very much original and sounds like your straight into the 50's and 60's again!!