The ’58 Goldtop Slash couldn’t walk away from: “He said, ‘I don’t need any more of these.’ And then he plugged it in and said, ‘Alright, I’ll take this one!’”
Gibson’s Certified Vintage Program was created to bring clarity, transparency, and confidence to the often opaque world of vintage guitars. And few stories capture that better than a 1958 Goldtop Les Paul that ended up in Slash’s hands – despite his initial insistence that he didn’t need another one.
Speaking to Premier Guitar, Gibson Certified Vintage Manager Mitch Conrad explains that the program was created to bring clarity and confidence to the vintage guitar market.
“The vintage world can be a murky place to navigate,” Conrad says. “It can be hard for people to feel confident about what it is they’re adding to their collection.”
At its core, the goal is simple: “We really wanted to provide the best possible experience when buying a vintage Gibson or a Gibson-made instrument.”
READ MORE: “It ain’t the same, man”: Lenny Kravitz thinks modern guitar gear and digital emulations still don’t sound as good as vintage gear
To that end, every Certified Vintage guitar is accompanied by extensive documentation, including a certificate of authenticity, a detailed appraisal letter, and a deep dive into every component on the guitar – down to sourcing vintage-correct replacement screws when needed.
“And, as far as I’m aware, we’re the only ones [offering] a new, limited lifetime warranty,” Conrad adds. “We want to send them back out with that same level of confidence that these instruments will make it another lifetime in the hands of their next caretaker.”
While the goal is always to find the best examples possible, Conrad notes that “best” doesn’t always mean flawless.
“We try to stay away from things that have been broken. Still, we’ll make an exception,” he explains. “We sold a killer 1958 Goldtop that had a headstock repair. But this guitar was incredible. It was not in museum-grade condition, but it was one of the best ’50s Goldtop, darkback, PAF-equipped Les Pauls that we’ve had around.”
That guitar, as we now know, ended up in Slash’s hands.
“When I took it down for him to try out, he told me, ‘I really don’t need any more of these,’ Conrad recalls. “And then he plugged it in. He was like, ‘All right, I think I’ll take this one.’ [laughs]”
Tracking down guitars of that calibre, however, isn’t always a storybook affair.
“A lot of folks reach out directly,” says Conrad. “But there’s a lot of digging around as well. It’s stopping into shops on a long drive and asking, ‘Do you have anything else?’ And then somebody pulls out an old black rectangle case, and it’s a 1969 Les Paul Custom. There’s also Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, all those spaces. So, not every story has the romantic ‘found it at a garage sale’ start to it.”
The post The ’58 Goldtop Slash couldn’t walk away from: “He said, ‘I don’t need any more of these.’ And then he plugged it in and said, ‘Alright, I’ll take this one!’” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
