This is quite a find. Its not so uncommon to find a refinished Les Paul, but you won’t have seen one like this before..

This is a wonderful guitar, retaining its gorgeous luster all over. Close inspection does lead us to believe that it could have been refinished by Gibson though we have no way of corroborating this. The colour is identical to an 1959 ES-225 we have in stock currently that we have proof was finished in red by the factory as a special order. There are signs all over the great care has been taken and there aren’t the signs that we commonly associate with work carried out at other places and it backlights just like an original does. 

Our hypothesis is that this guitar was probably originally all gold like so many were in 1953. The gold had maybe worn away and in a lot of cases this was quite bad, especially on the back of the neck which made it uncomfortable to play. The guitar was brought to Gibson, probably also with a broken tailpiece (which did happen) and the customer asked for it to be refinished and a replacement tailpiece fitted. We think this was sometime in the late 50's - 1958/9. 

Gibson at this time had sprayed a few guitars in red, later referred to as Cardinal Red (a GM shade introduced in that year) and comparing both examples we have in currently, slight clear coat fading aside, the colour is identical. To replace the broken tailpiece, Gibson used whatever they must have had in their parts inventory at the time. Original LP trapeze tailpieces would have been long gone in 1958 so due to the shallow neck angle this early '53 has, they used a low profile ABR-1 and to keep the break angle of the strings they used a tailpiece from an ES-140 which is the only tailpiece that would have worked.

There are a few dings and knocks. There are signs of a pickguard having been fitted when the guitar was used left handed but luckily this is just one small screw hole and a mark on the top.

The neck shows very little signs of wear. The fretboard and frets are in great shape with plenty of life left in both. Correct, no line tuners are present with no sign of any others being fitted. The Les Paul silk screening has either worn away or did not get applied to the headstock when it was refinished. 

The bridge is a stamped ABR-1 (with the foundry mark) and is a very rare item, found on the very early ES-335s produced in 1958. Commonly these warp due to the thin wings but in this case it rests on the body. It's this along with the finish that lead us to believe this was more than the refinished guitar we believe it to be originally. The saddle for the top e string is a later example.The tailpiece is from an ES-140. There is no sign of any other tailpiece having been fitted. 

The plastics are mostly correct with the jackplate being an extremely high quality reproduction. 

The electronics are all correct. Some solder joints have been reheated. The pickups are both strong and very evenly balanced.

The guitar comes with a Lifton 4 latch brown/pink case.

Sonically this guitar is a joy. Both pickups are well balanced and deliver those 50s tones with aplomb. There’s plenty of scope here, from Hairy Fuzzy neck tones through smoother combined sounds to the biting snarl of the bridge pickup. It will make you question why you need any other guitar in your life.

You won’t find another like this, a killer guitar that will turn heads. Grab it before its gone.