Used 1974 Gibson Les Paul Recording Natural with OHSC

Vintage 1974 Gibson Les Paul Recording

This is a one of the more unique guitars in Gibson's long & storied history, and has become a bit of a cult favorite.  It's also one of the most interesting vintage guitars we've taken in here in years, and is quickly becoming one our favorites!  We were excited to see it arrive, and wowed by how good of shape it's in.  These are hard to find, especially in this condition.

Designed to be more like Les Paul's studio guitar, which featured low impedance pickups, Gibson released the Les Paul Recording in the early 70's.   As one of the more interesting designs of this era, it contained a number of innovative electronic features, similar to the Les Paul Personal and the Les Paul Professional.  The Les Paul Recording came from the mind of the man himself, and he continued to use it for years to come.

The centerpiece of the design of this guitar are the pickups, which can be set to low impedance or high impedance, depending on the application. The philosophy being that low impedance would be best for recording, plugging straight into a console, or interface with little noise, and high impedance for playing out through an amp. Add in a tone selector, phase switch (to put the pickups out of phase), Volume, Treble, and Bass controls, and you have plenty of tonal options.  The Decade switch is main feature, offering various tones when in low impedance mode, perfect for studio use.

The neck is super comfortable to play, and the frets have plenty of life in them.  We were really impressed with the versatility of the guitar - not just in tones, but also in the variety of styles it could be used for.  Constructed during the Norlin years with strong references to the original Les Paul Custom models, the Les Paul Recording model features a Mahogany body with carved Mahogany top.  At this point, Gibson was using what’s come to be called ‘Pancake’ bodies, with at least two narrower layers of Mahogany. The neck is Mahogany with a Volute and bound Indian Rosewood fingerboard, bearing small Mother of Pearl block markers. The headstock is appointed much like the Les Paul Custom with Mother of Pearl split-diamond inlays and Gibson logo. A long-travel adjustable bridge and stop tailpiece are coupled with Gibson branded tuners.

This instrument has been vetted and expertly setup by the techs in our repair shop.  All of the electronics work exactly as they should - we spent a lot of time checking this.  Keep in mind that the Decade switch really only has an impact when in the low impedance mode (when in high impedance mode, it doesn't seem to do much).  Also, the bass and treble controls are for when you're on "2" for the tone selector.  It's an interesting design, and for those that know what this is intended to be, this is a great guitar for a variety of uses.