1972 Gibson Les Paul Standard 1 of only 9 ever produced in 1972 !  

 

This is one of the rarest Les Pauls ever produced!  As you already know, the Les Paul Standard was discontinued in 1960 due to poor sales. Until 1974 Gibson did not have a regular Standard model with full sized pickups in their catalogue. It had been discontinued in 1960. However, a factory order for nine full sized Humbucker pickup equipped Les Paul Standards was issued in mid 1972, after Gibson became aware that a lot of players were unhappy with the Mini Humbucker pickups on all Les Paul’s at that time, except for the Les Paul Custom line.

 

Nine were made as a special run to see how they were received. Carlos Santana had one of them, Mick Ronson had another, that guitar was used on the Jean Genie promo film from November 1972. It can be seen being played by David Bowie and the guitar subsequently became Mick Ronson's back up guitar for live shows. That particular guitar is a keeper and I will never sell it.

 

Unlike its stable mates, the back of the body on these nine guitars was finished in a very dark deep cherry colour, just like the 59 Standards from 13 years earlier. The contempory Goldtop models had a transparent clearcoat on the back, and the Deluxe sunburst model had a single colour burst finish on the back too.

 

The full sized Humbuckers that came on these nine guitars had “Gibson” embossed logos on the chrome covers, this was  only ever done in late 1971 to late 1972. Most of these pickups from this batch came with grey nylon insulation on the wiring, apart from a few early ones in the usual metal shielded cable. Apparently the factory  ran out of metal shielded wire for reasons unknown to me at this time, and went with a batch of grey nylon instead.

 

These 9 guitars had  six digit sequential serial numbers beginning 61234?.

 

They came with the truss rod cover stamped Deluxe. The "Standard" trussrod cover you see nowadays had not been designed/issued yet.

 

The guitar for sale here is number 612340. It is a fantastic guitar and still retains its vibrant sunburst finish to the front. The finish on the back has an area of belt wear and has had a rear strap button fitted at some time. Lacquer cracks visible all over and a few dints and dings. On the whole it is in GREAT condition for a 44 year old! Pots date to 42nd week of 1971. One tone cap has been changed. This guitar has one pickup with nyon shielding and one pickup with the usual braided metal shielding. They are the original pickups.

 

It has had two mini switches fitted, they are treble bleed switches that filter out the bass frequencies at low volume. It keeps the signal clear when the guitar volume is turned down. No muddy tone with this guitar.

 

Original tuners have been replaced with a set of schaller tuners. Has been expertly refretted.

 

So it is not "All Original" but that is unlikely on ANY 44 year old guitar unless it was never played.

 

These 72 Standards rarely if ever come up for sale, unsurprising really, as there are only nine of them in the entire world. It is a very rare guitar indeed, way rarer than the highly revered 59 Standard, I think they made about 600 of them in 1959. in fact it is far rarer than any 1958-60 Les Paul Std.

 

If you collect guitars and need a 72 Les Paul Standard you may never see another one come up for sale!