1961 marked a major turning point for the Les Paul Model line. With the late 1950s bringing lacklustre sales across most of the Les Paul range, Gibson thought to rejuvenate sales with a complete redesign. The new Les Paul guitars featured a thin, double-cutaway, slab mahogany body with bevelled edges and a 22 frets-to-the-body neck joint; a drastic shift from the single cutaway, 16 fret neck joint, carved top models built from 1952 through 1960. Shipping records suggest that the revamp of the Les Paul line did initially boost sales as intended, with the Custom model alone hitting 513 units shipped in 1961, up from a mere 189 in 1960. Gibson's newly designed range of solid-bodies kept the Les Paul name until mid 1963 when the guitars were rebranded as the SG (solid guitar) models.

This remarkably cool 1961 SG-style Les Paul Custom spent the majority of its life in the hands of a single owner on the West coast of Canada before finding its way to Ontario in recent years. The guitar's original owner, Johnny, purchased the Les Paul in 1961 and gigged professionally with it in the Vancouver area. Johnny certainly had an air of flair about him, as he had the guitar oversprayed with a sparkle burst in the late 1960s. Old photos included in this listing show the guitar both before and after the sparkle burst was added.

An excellent, player-friendly, example of an early '60s Les Paul Custom, this guitar remains in largely original condition without any of the heel, headstock, or control cavity breaks that plague early '60s SG-style guitars. The original Polaris White finish remains underneath the overspray sparkle burst, and hints of white can be seen poking through in worn areas. As the guitar was never stripped of its original finish, the instrument retains its correct body contours and neck profile. 

This 1961 Les Paul Custom shows a couple of honest modifications consistent with a professionally used guitar. Sometime in the late 1960s the original gold Grover tuners were replaced with the chrome Patent Pending Grovers that are still on the guitar. There is a slight modification to the tremolo arm to accommodate for a small section that snapped off. A refret done years ago left fret tangs visible through the binding. The bridge is a late '60s chrome plated replacement, the treble tone knob appears to be a period-correct replacement, and the nut is not original.

The bridge and neck pickups, with D.C. resistance readings of 7.9k and 7.8k respectively, are the guitar’s original PAF humbuckers. The bridge PAF is unmodified, the neck PAF has had its cover off in the past. A late '70s T-Top has been installed in the middle position. The wiring is otherwise completely original, with Centralab potentiometers dating to the 20th week of 1960. One provided photograph suggests that the PAF currently installed in the bridge position was originally the middle pickup, and a non-original humbucker was oriented upside down in the bridge position. There is a small amount of wood that has been chiselled out of the body under the bridge pickup to accommodate the pole pieces of the mystery humbucker that was once installed upside down in the bridge position.

This 1961 Les Paul Custom is an incredible sounding guitar. The two original PAF pickups offer up tones with exceptional depth, clarity and harmonic content. In the middle position, the bridge PAF and middle T-Top pair to deliver snappy out-of-phase tones that are surprisingly pleasant and useful. The fast C carve with full shoulders makes for a neck profile that sits very comfortably in the hand. All in all, it's clear to us why Johnny loved and used this guitar as much as he did.

Scale length of 24.75". C-shaped neck carve with a first fret depth of 0.784", twelfth fret depth of 0.888", and a 1-11/16" nut width. Weight of 8lbs 11oz.

With 1970s Gibson “Chainsaw” Case