Cool Story Bro.

[jkokura]

So this morning I played Paul Stanley's guitar.

No joke. This is not a "Paul Stanley" model, nor is it some other guy named Paul Stanley's guitar. I played a Les Paul Custom Shop guitar owned by Paul Stanley. That was cool.

A friend of mine is a top notch refinisher here where I live. He's been in the business of relicing long before the shops started to do it. But he's not the 'sander and belt buckle' sort of relic finisher. He takes all the finish off and then starts from the bottom up on a complete refinish job. He uses a scalpel and traces out checking patterns he's traced from authentic vintage instruments. He uses the old style techniques for finishing guitars, using liquids like Nitro Cellulose. This guy's relic jobs cost a grand and up (well, 800 for some guitars).

Anyway, he's been doing this stuff a long while, has tonnes of work all the time, and he's done some jobs for high profile guys. Paul Stanley got in touch with him, and he's doing a series of guitars for him. This was the first. It's a new guitar from the Gibson Custom Shop, but it looks like it's from the 50's. He had it out at church this morning, and I couldn't believe it wasn't 50 years old. Looks like a real 59 for sure. Photos don't do it justice.









Jacob

[cjkbug]

  holy s#$t

[chip46]

Doesn't get much cooler than that. Cool story indeed.   

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

That is freakin insane!!!! That really does look like it came straight outta Duane Allman's hands...and then professionally refinished!!
Did it weight more than you?

[jkokura]

Yeah it was pretty dang cool. It was about as heavy as any other Les Paul I've played. I don't own a Paul, so I don't really like how heavy it is, but I'm thinking about looking into get a Paul Special with P90s.

I don't think I'll get to meet Stanley, but he may come up here to see the guy who does the refinishing.

Jacob

[bigmufffuzzwizz]

They aren't all heavy, I have 2 of them and one is much lighter. I should add that I don't have a real LP, but in fact the 70's/80's copy cat clone. Besides the name they are exact replica's and they are really from the 70's so that rules! The most recent one I bought I paid $120 for and it weights so much it can really get uncomfortable, but no other way to replicate that fat sound.

[rowland1]

That is a cool story and a cool guitar. Once upon a time I played Paul in a Kiss cover band. Somewhat ironically, I quit after I started going to church. I bet this is the first time one of Paul's guitars ever goes to church.