1956 GIBSON LES PAUL SPECIAL TV YELLOW (EX-TOM WITTROCK)
All original '56 LP TV model in excellent, close to mint condition. The guitar was previously owned by Tom Wittrock and was a favorite of his huge (mainly) Burst collection among Sandy, Donna and all the other legendary pieces of vintage guitar history. The instrument is truly exceptional with untouched solder joints on the Centralab pots & Bumblebee caps, original P90s, original plastics, hardware, screws, tuners, frets and the nylon nut which has never been removed. The Brazilian rosewood fingerboard is super dark with long pore structure. The guitar is lightweight with a deep woody resonance that '50s Les Pauls are known for. The P90s really bark and scream in this one, they certainly pack a punch with an incredible dynamic range and versatility. This one is a late '56 model with full '57 specs including the desirable long TP studs and the sweetest neck profile from the era. The original nitro finish has only very minimal finish fade so the TV Yellow color pretty much preserved its look from the golden days when the guitar left the Kalamazoo factory brand-new almost 70 years ago!
With the factory-narrow frets the guitar still plays amazingly with a neck that is straight as an arrow and a low action with zero fret buzz. The folks at Kalamazoo really knew what they were doing back then - building a handmade guitar that still plays like a new one after close to 70 years is nothing short of incredible!
The plastic tuner buttons have shrunken as usual on '50s Gibsons, but they have been carefully preserved and put away in the case with replacement buttons installed.
The hardcase is a special order hand-aged Murphy lab Lifton which looks just like the original that the guitar once had but unfortunately got unusable due to severly broken latches beyond repair.
The guitar includes an appraisal letter + documents from the decade-long period when it was still part of the Wittrock collection.
