singemonkey wrote
"In 1971 to 1975 the gibson les paul standard guitars were made only on special orders , some guitars were made with p-90 pickups and some had humbuckers , these guitars were made in goldtop or sunburst finishes ."
Standards again in various colours from 1976 on.
edit: just had a think. Obviously the ebony board is really unusual, so I'm guessing it may have been a custom order?
Make no mistake, it is authentic. I bought it at A&A Terry for R650.00 in 1977.
I just had a look at the serial number again. The first and fith digits read 7 and 6 respectively, so your research is correct, it's a 76 and the finish was originally sunburst. I played this guitar 6 night a week on the Holiday Inn circuit and the rosewood fretboard became very worn and pitted. I moved to modified HSS Strats in the mid 80's and the guitar was semi-retired. In 1989 Mark Maingaard replaced the fretboard with ebony and refretted it but I still didn't play it much after that.
A few years ago (I think 2006) I took it to Foster vd Merwe (www.fosterguitarworks.com) who re-shaped the neck profile to a 1960 spec and completely refinished it in piano black. I fitted all new authentic gold Gibson hardware and pickups and it has since become my most prized guitar, even more so than the 1995 Standard that was autographed by Les Paul himself. I love the look and feel of it now and it plays like a mother! ?
