Gibson custom shop knows a thing or two about guitars - and this Class 5 is a fine example of Gibson at their peak of guitar making.
Gibson Les Paul Custom Shop Class 5
I have a great collection of many leading brands of electric
guitars including Gibson, Fender, PRS, Ibanez and others these days.
Check them out from the 'Tony's Guitars' section of this website.
While the images are not huge, the quality is - so you get a real
idea of just what this guitar is like in real life. Many are
reviewed on the reviews pages so don't forget to check those reviews
out. Also don't forget to visit the GALLERY with a section showing
Tony McKenzie's guitars in hi resolution images. Many of the guitars
are quite rare now.
This Custom Shop Les Paul (one of Tonys
favourite guitars) was bought new
in 1996 and remains one of the best topped Les Pauls ever bought by
me. I literally hand picked this guitar 'back in the day' when you
could walk in to a great music shop and things like this guitar were
hanging on the wall. I bought this one from Thoroughbred Music (who
remembers them?) who for all intents and purposes were the premiere
place to go if you wanted the absolute best that Gibson could
produce. Most other stores were either not in business or they had
what Thoroughbred rejected!
The weight of this particular Les Paul was just 7.7 Lbs. which is very light for a Gibson Les Paul without any hollowing.
Unfortunately I allowed someone to pick this guitar up and play it. Down it went and it landed (needless to say) on the neck and damaged the joint where the neck fits the body. I took this guitar and had it professionall fixed, but alas it was never the same.
The moral of this story is simple. NEVER lend your guitar to anyone for them to play it. Trust me on this, its simply not worth it no matter how they feel because you 'don't trust them'; its better for them to feel that way rather than costing you a guitar of this calibre which in this case eventually it did.
Here's the picture - that's all I have left of this one.
Click for larger view
Remember I said it!
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