I bought a '69 back in '73.Still have it and I've played and heard a number Lp's over the years.Both those guitars sound great but the '56 type is the one for me.
That was an other stupid mod I did in order to make it look like a 50ies back then. Clipping off one ring and also taking off the reflectors from the knobs. The Klusons are the original ones and still work all fine even two of them are bent from crashing a wall or whatever I can't remember. The knobs are the original ones too less the reflectors like I said. The truss rod cover is an orig. 1962 cover. An other modification I did is making the bridge pickup tone potentiometer working as a master volume. That's a very convenient mod, since both std. vol knobs work as usual. I guess now you know it all ;)
@@TheoDahlemPickups Thats cool. Probably one of the last 68s with the smaller headstock prior to Gibson enlarging the headstock(538XXX serial number range) matching the Custom models to keep production moving along.
I usually prefer P-90, but the humbuckers in that 1957 sound glorious. One of the wonders of the world is why Gibson would make the Les Paul guitars again in 1968, and do it right, but then start devolving the design by changing it. The mini-humbuckers used in the Les Paul Deluxe, which I normally love, didn't sound nearly as good as the earlier versions, which gave them a bad name, but those P-90s sound wonderful.
To me the 68 looks more like a 54 to 56 Les Paul Gold Top because a 68 had a ABR-1 bridge and this one does have a typical bridge piece like the juniors in the 1950´s had. The tailpiece has maybe brought in later. Also the fret board has a typical Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard like the 1950´s guitar s have. It´s just my assumption.
Hi Charlie, in 1978/79 I was massively lusting for a wrap around because I thought it would enhance sustain and overall tone of the guitar. Back then, we didn't care much about preserving originality. Well we did but sometimes not. So, with the help of some acquaintance who precisely did the bores to go w. a 60ies lightning bridge, I finally ended up w. what was my dream come true back then. I played it with a slight off intonation for almost 40 years until I ran over a compensated lightning style repro which finally gave it perfect intonation. BTW I quit using the wrap around the way it was designed only a few years later after we had done this stupid modification. One of the reasons was that the two extra holes of the stop tail being exposed were really annoying to my eyes. And then there was also a grounding problem that I had to come by w. some extra wire going from one of the stp holes to the wrap around lightning. Aweful. Since gold top finish is the hardest to replicate I never dared to convert it back the way it was. I still have the original alum. bridge inkl. its' plastic saddles but then, the guitar sounds extremely nice the way it is. It looks odd and not era correct but certainly one of a kind w. a killer tone. I've played the sh## out of this plank and it definitely helped to develop its' character. I'm sorry to have bored my girl friends w. my guitar noodling when I should have been talking to them while they were visiting me. Today I wish I had more time to give this guitar more playing time though. THX for visiting.
@@TheoDahlemPickups Hi, i am owning two 69 Gold Tops in originally condition. One is one piece body and neck with P90´s and the second with a three piece neck and Mini hum buckers. Both sound incredible like yours but the P90´s are sensitive to noise and feedback of the 50 cycles. The Mini humbuckers do their job perfectly but have less warm tone. They are clear and sound right but slightly harder. Anyway those old Gibson Les Pauls have character and tone which you can't buy anymore. My pleasure
@@charliebrown720 My GT also features a one piece body and one piece neck. That said, unlike common rumors, one piece necks are not necessarily superior. Instead, they are more prone to bend than three or two piece necks. Im very familiar w. mini HB. Personally I like them a lot since they've been used by many great guitar players throughout the golden days of Rock in the 70ies. I got used to their crisp, sharp and refined tone. BTW My Gold Top is now loaded w. my own winds which I like far more than the originals. They are also wound to hum cancelling in the middle position.
Bro i would like to speak with you, i got an les paul 1968, that has the corone on the head, with everything original, i just wanna now how much does it costs? it has p-90s and everythings, build in anshville in lates 50s
I fear I can't be of help in this case as I'm not into today's market prices. I'm sure there are quite a few sources you can check in the internet. Those w. the crown in the head stock are quite rare which might command a higher market price. God luck
@@JustRoger you're welcome. Have fun with your exceptional guitar. Those are within the best sounding Les Pauls ever produced. better than many 50ies that I have sometimes come across. Stay safe
Hi. are the caps and pots original? Usually the date codes on the pots are from late 67 on these early 68 goldtops. Also do you have the first three digits on the serial number back of the headstock? I had a 501XXX a while back.
@@lawrencehric8173 Caps and pots arel original except for one pot that was worn out and couldn't be repaired. Like I mentioned earlier down this thread first numbers are 537
never mind those guitars are collectable these days and maybe not back in the late 1970´s. However I like the tone and character of the mini humbuckers as they are rich in frequency and tone. With modern AMPS they are a nice option compared to the PAF´s.
OMG! These P-90’s are so 3 dimensional - compared to the hum buckets. Wider tonal palette and better at translating this awesome players affections. To think that so many of the original 57-58 goldtops were stripped to fad them and pass of as 59’s makes me ill.
wow, 2 goldtops u. 2 ES 335 vor 1960, das ist nach aktuellem stand jede menge kohle, es gibt aber auch sehr gut klingende les pauls die viel weniger kosten würden wenn man bescheiden u.stressfreier sein möchte. schon vor ca. 25 jahren konnte ich mit einer 50iger strat nicht mehr unbekümmert in die öffentlichkeit gehen. aktuell bin ich mit meinen selbst entworfenen u. gebauten gitarre sorgenfreier u. diese sind deutlich besser zu spielen u. der klang ist spitze. und wer ist an allem schuld............hauptsächlich die abzocker u. die $$$$$spekulanten$$$$$$. fuck off them.
![Vintage Gibson les Paul COMPARISON. '56 vs '54 Goldtops [P90 pickups]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bm0R_JH3s5E/mqdefault.jpg)
![Vintage Gibson les Paul COMPARISON. '56 vs '54 Goldtops [P90 pickups]](/img/tr.png)
I'll take them both.....
Great playing.....
By far the best "Blue jean blues" version I've seen in a loooong time.
Respect!
Killer guitars, killer playing
Thank you Sir
Both guitars sound terrific.
Two great guitars, good playin’ too
The P90's sound awesome.
very nice guitars!....sound excellent
I bought a '69 back in '73.Still have it and I've played and heard a number Lp's over the years.Both those guitars sound great but the '56 type is the one for me.
The Kluson tuners have also just one ring. The 68 & 69 had two rings
That was an other stupid mod I did in order to make it look like a 50ies back then. Clipping off one ring and also taking off the reflectors from the knobs. The Klusons are the original ones and still work all fine even two of them are bent from crashing a wall or whatever I can't remember. The knobs are the original ones too less the reflectors like I said. The truss rod cover is an orig. 1962 cover. An other modification I did is making the bridge pickup tone potentiometer working as a master volume. That's a very convenient mod, since both std. vol knobs work as usual. I guess now you know it all ;)
The 57 is great but the 68 is smokin'
P90 all the way
I want to hang out with you guys
I much prefer the 68 here. Both great guitars but that 68 just sounds better to me!
Yeah the 1968 Goldtop seems to have more clarity than the 57. What are the first three digits on the serial number for the 68 if I may ask?
537
@@TheoDahlemPickups Thats cool. Probably one of the last 68s with the smaller headstock prior to Gibson enlarging the headstock(538XXX serial number range) matching the Custom models to keep production moving along.
530994 is the first known 1969. My 68 is 530
@Fred C. Dobbs
I always like the sound of P 90s. Humbuckers are okay.
That 57 had been refretted with much bigger fret wire to make it easy way more playable !?
The 68 has received jumbos back in 79. I can't remember the frets of the 57. It's a customer's guitar.
57 is more well rounded and has more bass. 68 sounds more sparkly and high frequency
I usually prefer P-90, but the humbuckers in that 1957 sound glorious. One of the wonders of the world is why Gibson would make the Les Paul guitars again in 1968, and do it right, but then start devolving the design by changing it. The mini-humbuckers used in the Les Paul Deluxe, which I normally love, didn't sound nearly as good as the earlier versions, which gave them a bad name, but those P-90s sound wonderful.
hey, where u live? Just kidding, beautiful tones. spellbinding
3:37 57
To me the 68 looks more like a 54 to 56 Les Paul Gold Top because a 68 had a ABR-1 bridge and this one does have a typical bridge piece like the juniors in the 1950´s had. The tailpiece has maybe brought in later. Also the fret board has a typical Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard like the 1950´s guitar s have. It´s just my assumption.
Hi Charlie, in 1978/79 I was massively lusting for a wrap around because I thought it would enhance sustain and overall tone of the guitar. Back then, we didn't care much about preserving originality. Well we did but sometimes not. So, with the help of some acquaintance who precisely did the bores to go w. a 60ies lightning bridge, I finally ended up w. what was my dream come true back then. I played it with a slight off intonation for almost 40 years until I ran over a compensated lightning style repro which finally gave it perfect intonation. BTW I quit using the wrap around the way it was designed only a few years later after we had done this stupid modification. One of the reasons was that the two extra holes of the stop tail being exposed were really annoying to my eyes. And then there was also a grounding problem that I had to come by w. some extra wire going from one of the stp holes to the wrap around lightning. Aweful. Since gold top finish is the hardest to replicate I never dared to convert it back the way it was. I still have the original alum. bridge inkl. its' plastic saddles but then, the guitar sounds extremely nice the way it is. It looks odd and not era correct but certainly one of a kind w. a killer tone. I've played the sh## out of this plank and it definitely helped to develop its' character. I'm sorry to have bored my girl friends w. my guitar noodling when I should have been talking to them while they were visiting me. Today I wish I had more time to give this guitar more playing time though. THX for visiting.
@@TheoDahlemPickups Hi, i am owning two 69 Gold Tops in originally condition. One is one piece body and neck with P90´s and the second with a three piece neck and Mini hum buckers. Both sound incredible like yours but the P90´s are sensitive to noise and feedback of the 50 cycles. The Mini humbuckers do their job perfectly but have less warm tone. They are clear and sound right but slightly harder. Anyway those old Gibson Les Pauls have character and tone which you can't buy anymore. My pleasure
@@charliebrown720 My GT also features a one piece body and one piece neck. That said, unlike common rumors, one piece necks are not necessarily superior. Instead, they are more prone to bend than three or two piece necks. Im very familiar w. mini HB. Personally I like them a lot since they've been used by many great guitar players throughout the golden days of Rock in the 70ies. I got used to their crisp, sharp and refined tone. BTW My Gold Top is now loaded w. my own winds which I like far more than the originals. They are also wound to hum cancelling in the middle position.
The wide binding in the cutaway is the giveaway. It's a 68
P90s sound so delicious.
The tone in this video is fantastic….what amp is in the signal chain? Cheers from NZ
It's straight into my early 70ies Fender Princeton w. orig. 10" Speaker. Some inboard spring reverb
@@TheoDahlemPickups you can rock out on a Princeton in the livingroom. Add an Electro Harmonix Big Muff and delay pedal and its rockstar city. ;-)
like the p90 sound way more
Bro i would like to speak with you, i got an les paul 1968, that has the corone on the head, with everything original, i just wanna now how much does it costs? it has p-90s and everythings, build in anshville in lates 50s
I fear I can't be of help in this case as I'm not into today's market prices. I'm sure there are quite a few sources you can check in the internet. Those w. the crown in the head stock are quite rare which might command a higher market price. God luck
@@TheoDahlemPickups thanks a lot!
@@JustRoger you're welcome. Have fun with your exceptional guitar. Those are within the best sounding Les Pauls ever produced. better than many 50ies that I have sometimes come across. Stay safe
Hi. are the caps and pots original? Usually the date codes on the pots are from late 67 on these early 68 goldtops. Also do you have the first three digits on the serial number back of the headstock? I had a 501XXX a while back.
@@lawrencehric8173 Caps and pots arel original except for one pot that was worn out and couldn't be repaired. Like I mentioned earlier down this thread first numbers are 537
one knows when hears the decent sound/playing!
Ah Lenny. Love Stevie ray
Are those orginal 57 pickups?
Yes
How much is one of these
Hi Oink Molly, it's 84.00$ export price and 100.00 Euros within Europe.
P90 all day - and night :-) Great playing...
never mind those guitars are collectable these days and maybe not back in the late 1970´s. However I like the tone and character of the mini humbuckers as they are rich in frequency and tone. With modern AMPS they are a nice option compared to the PAF´s.
they are actually P90s and not mini humbuckers! Those came in in the 70s if i remember correctly :)
As different as chalk and cheese, preferred the 57 tone .🤫
The older one sounds better. I have always been a guy who prefers P90s anyway..
OMG! These P-90’s are so 3 dimensional - compared to the hum buckets. Wider tonal palette and better at translating this awesome players affections. To think that so many of the original 57-58 goldtops were stripped to fad them and pass of as 59’s makes me ill.
reich mal rüber die Klampfe Alter...:D
wow, 2 goldtops u. 2 ES 335 vor 1960, das ist nach aktuellem stand jede menge kohle, es gibt aber auch sehr gut klingende les pauls die viel weniger kosten würden wenn man bescheiden u.stressfreier sein möchte. schon vor ca. 25 jahren konnte ich mit einer 50iger strat nicht mehr unbekümmert in die öffentlichkeit gehen. aktuell bin ich mit meinen selbst entworfenen u. gebauten gitarre sorgenfreier u. diese sind deutlich besser zu spielen u. der klang ist spitze. und wer ist an allem schuld............hauptsächlich die abzocker u. die $$$$$spekulanten$$$$$$. fuck off them.
Wir spielen unsere Instrumente live und haben jede Menge Spass dabei.