1955 Gibson Les Paul Jr.
Hi, all! This is actually my first post on Reddit. But I feel like this is the spot where people will appreciate this instrument and the (in my opinion) cool story that goes with it.
A buddy of mine knows that I take in a repair old, broken down guitars as a hobby. His dad was a musician before he passed, and had tons of old gear lying around. My buddy is also a VERY talented musician in his own right, but he is a singer and pianist/keyboard player, not so much a guitar player. He was cleaning out some of his dad's old things and told me he'd had an old guitar with a broken headstock sitting in the back of a closet for decades, and asked if I would like it. I didn't really ask any questions, just said "yeah, of course!"
So a day later, he pulls up and hands me the body/neck out of the back of his truck - I was immediately blown away with how cool the old checked lacquer looked. Then, he says "here's the head stock" and hands it over. And I see the Gibson logo on it. I'm shocked. We brought the thing inside, found the serial number, and realized exactly what it was. And what it was worth. "Dude, you sure you want to give me this? Seriously, no hard feelings if you don't." Because I hang out with this guy, we work in the same place, and we are actually related through a few marriages. I'm not trying to get one over on him. "Are you going to fix it and play it?" Was his only response. Which, yeah I am. Given the chance. So he told me to take it, and if I ever decided to sell it once I'd fixed it, split the money with him. Holy crap, what an unpassable deal.
So, I fix the old girl up. It had Fender tuners on it when I got it, I took those off and put Gotoh repops on. Although I do have a vintage set of Klusons I'm going to put new buttons on and use later. The bridge was missing, so I put a Music City one on. Beyond that and the headstock repair, it is 100% original.
So, the story of the thing before I got it is cool.
When I went to repair the headstock, I noticed it had been broken and repaired once before. I adked my buddy about it. He said when him and his brother where toddlers, his brother knocked it over. Their dad fixed it, and within a year the exact same thing happened. He apparently just put it in a closet and it sat there for over 50 years untouched! I love old stuff because of the story that is attached to them, and this thing has got a very cool story, in my opinion.
This was long, sorry. Thanks for making it to the end. I am very excited to share