Early 70s Les Paul Original Owner

[fmj355]

Hi All,
Great to find this site. I hope I can add something to it, since it seems many of these guitars are not in the hands of the original owners. I bought this Les Paul in the very early 70s, not totally sure, but 72 at the very latest, probably earlier. My memory is that I bought it at a hardware store in a small town in Southern Alberta, Canada. The early 70s memories are a bit fuzzy for me in spots. It is possible I bought it in Edmonton, Alberta, but one of those 2 places for sure. I think I paid something like $179.00 for it at the time. Lots of money for me in those days. Then, mostly it has sat in the case for the last 40 years.

Even though the logo has been stripped off ( I was young and drunk when I did it, so cut me some slack here), it is definitely an El Degas. I will have to get a better camera than my cell phone to get the picture, but the ghost of the image is still there in the right light. My memory is that there was a Made in Japan sticker on the neck plate for years, but it has obviously gone to El Degas heaven, along with the volume and tone stickers from the control knobs, the white knob from the pickup switch and the lock nut on the jack plate.

I don't have any memory of removing the Rhythm/Treble disc from the switch, but it seems likely there was one there.

Aside from these missing bits, everything else is as it was 40 years ago, pickups, tuners, pick guard, bridge, switch, knobs, the works.
I mention this, of course, so that anyone with one with a similar set up can see what was original and what may have been upgraded.

Right now, after all these years, I am finally going to get back to playing it. My intention is to find the parts to go back to purely original, not to upgrade. The neck is wonderful. The sound, well, I don't know yet. It hasn't been plugged into an amp for many, many years.

It's not that I haven't been playing the guitar all these years. I have another uncommon guitar that I have been playing all along. A 1967 Vox Country-Western acoustic that was made in Italy for only a few years.

I hope you will find the pictures useful and enjoyable. If there are any details pictures anyone wants with a better camera, just send a note and I will get those for you.

Don

[charles]

Thanks for sharing!

That's definitely an early copy - the rounded corners at the end of the fretboard (at the last fret) is a sign of the early MIJs.

[fmj355]

Is there a difference in quality between the early and later models? Is there a sweet spot for model years or is each individual guitar better or worse on its own?

What about things like the pickups and controls on these early ones? Better, worse? Is there a typical pickup that was used?

I have so many questions. Haha.

I'm taking it to a luthier today for a bit of a clean up. I have made it clear to him that I want it to stay as original as possible, since it has some sentimental value to me. Are there any things he might want to check that is characteristic of these old guitars? He says he has a real interest in the vintage guitars, but I won't know until we sit down together how much he knows about the MIJ of this era.

Any more information would be welcomed.

Thanks

Don

[charles]

I wouldn't say there's a sweet spot. There are different degrees of general quality in models - there are some models that do a bit more to nail the accoutrements of the originals they are copying (such as having a set neck rather than a bolt-on neck) and a bit better fit & finish... However, the quality can still vary between these instruments of any pedigree, the same as it can from a guitar from the big-name makers. There are lemons and there are great feeling & playing guitars.

For example, I have some amazing set-neck El Degas Les Paul copies but a Tobacco-burst bolt-on I sold a few years ago played and sounded about on-par with them - it was just a very good guitar even though it lacked that set-neck aesthetic.

There are a lot of factors that make these guitars difficult to give hard & fast rules to, including:
- all of these instruments are now 30-40+ years old
- the bulk of the ones sold were aiming for the beginner market as an inexpensive entry guitar with the look of a popular guitar, but they still tended to use the kind of woods that are not generally available for use today
- there were also models that aimed to be inexpensive higher-end copies
- there is not much of any surviving history on the brand and manufacturing to help us out

As to keeping yours original:

- Pickups: we have not been able to figure out (though there's not much effort been put into it from my end) to see what the stock covered pickups were in these. The ones people have popped off to look at did not have any distinctive markings, and are most likely a pickup made in-house or sourced from another Japanese manufacturer. In fact, many Les Paul copies a little later in the mid 70's came stock with Dimarzios! [either Super Distortions in both positions, or a Super Distortion bridge / PAF neck combo - this is a GREAT setup and what my aforementioned Tobacco-burst had] So, I'd say there are no rules. I'd recommend any sort of PAF pickup to be fairly close to the original sound; or if yours work - keep 'em.

- Hardware: if you are replacing any hardware, make sure your luthier/tech uses import parts - Gibson USA parts usually do NOT fit. This is a metric vs. imperial issue. Even then, sometimes new import parts need some help/coaxing to fit! Stuff from Gotoh and other Japanese manufacturers usually work pretty well. If you are replacing tuners, I always make sure to try to get the same general look & shape and especially the same screw setup - I hate when the back of a headstock has a bunch of ugly old screw holes!

Be aware that if you are replacing oxidized gold hardware with new, you will end up with some bright shiny stuff contrasting with the old oxidized stuff if you replace some-but-not-all the hardware. Can look a little bit funny. Your luthier/tech may be able to recycle your current pickup covers onto new pickups if you are just replacing pickups but none of the hardware.

- Logo: If you want to reinstate the El Degas logo, I can provide a vector file (Illustrator EPS) I have made of the logo for that model and your luthier/tech may be able to get a new one made and put on. We had a member of the forum make a bunch of these logos but I think they are all used up & sold now. One of my Teles had a missing logo and my luthier made a water-slide decal and put it on, but this was because I had him refinishing the neck anyway and he was able to put a couple of coats of finish over the label - might not be the method to replace a Les Paul one though, because the headstock is black and heavily laquered/poly'd.

- Bits & bobs: As for the volume/tone knobs, you currently have "witch hats". Again here, there are no rules. Do you like speed knobs? Use 'em! I personally prefer witch hats and bell knobs, m'self; but I have different ones on each guitar according to what feels 'right'. I also like little things such as volume/tone indicators and strapknob felts, it's all personal preference.