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THE MIGHTY BURST � Dave Belzer
Why is the‘ 58-‘ 60 Gibson Les Paul Standard the single best solid body guitar ever built? Simple. It was the perfect blend of design, materials, and workmanship all coming together in the right place at the right time.
Of course, no one realized that until the mid 60’ s when Mike Bloomfield took hold of one, plugged it into a Fender Twin Reverb and subsequently turned the guitar world upside down, shortly followed up by Clapton plugging one into a Marshall and creating the foundation of rock guitar tone to this day. Inspiring the likes of Allman, Beck, Page, Kossoff, and Gibbons, just to name a few of the many great guitar players that were inspired by a good burst.
Speaking to my long time business partner Drew Berlin the other night, we came to the conclusion that between us, we have seen hundreds of bursts( Drew counted over 200 he’ s seen alone) and in just our Guitar Center days together we sold over 100 of them. During 2006, at the height of the market, we moved 14 bursts over the span of a month that ranged in price from $ 200k to over $ 400k. Many are still being played today by some of the most famous hands in the biz.
My adventures into the quest of bursts started on a sunny spring day in 1983 when my buddy Ralph and I were perusing the Vintage Guitar Bulletin that Guitar Trader sent to its customers and subscribers for $ 2.00 each. These were written and edited by GT’ s resident expert, the incomparable Tim Kummer. His detailed descriptions of each guitar noted any changes, mods, condition, and a price. There were also great articles on guitar repair, history, identifying, and collecting. And then we saw it … a 1959 Les Paul Standard at the price of 10k. Ten thousand dollars! Was that a misprint?
We wanted, no, we needed to see that 1959 Les Paul! Ok, we took the bait and we hit the road. We jumped in his Oldsmobile 442 and headed to New Jersey. We were on a pilgrimage to the mecca of east coast vintage guitars.
It was listed:
“ Les Paul Standard, 1959, cherry-sunburst finish with dramatically striped curly-maple top, strong color remaining, four white coil original PAF’ s, probably the nicest( original!) flametop available anywhere. A showpiece. Very good. $ 10,000”
I still remember pulling up in front of the store. I am not sure why, but the look of the building from the outside made me think it had possibly been a bank at one time. Red Bank back then was a small, quaint little town with a very country feel to it, quite a contrast from New York City that we had just passed by an hour or so earlier. I seem to remember the store had very high ceilings, and guitars seemed to be hanging from everywhere. I remember wanting to look at everything, but our time was limited and we need to head back to Long Island. We asked about the 10k Les Paul and were pointed to a glass showcase built into one of the counters. There, before our eyes, was the most spectacular 3D figured Les Paul either of us had ever seen! It was displayed on a bed of purple velvet, like the royalty that it was. I’ m fairly sure there were other guitars I looked at that day, but I cannot remember any of them, just that Les Paul and how it looked as if it was on fire. I finally understood what they meant by the term“ flametop.”
14 Jul � Aug 2016 CollectibleGuitar. com