Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/collecting/2007/04/17/gibson-auction-guitar-forbeslife-cx_nw_0418pow.html

Somebody was telling me about this auction today, that occurred recently here on Cape Cod. Rumor has it that Paul McCartney was the buyer of this '57 Gibson "Black Beauty", that's a rare lefty.

Particularly because it sold for five times what was expected, it MUST have been a deep-pockets lefty like McCartney

Maybe I should think about selling one of my old 50s Gibsons. At five times what is was thought to be worth right now, there is no reason to wait another 30 years to sell it. I could cash out that 401K account now and enjoy some of the money while I am still young enough to not be bedridden with arthritis

I'm curious. I've never seen a control arrangement like that, with no selector switch how are the pickups selected? Three volumes and a master tone?

This is what's known as a "Mickey Baker" Les Paul. The controls are set up exactly like an early version of the ES-5. The control on the shoulder where the selector switch would normally be is a master tone control. The three controls on the lower bout are individual volume controls, one for each pickup. This is a very rare Les Paul Custom not only for being a lefty, but because of the schematic. The triple pup Custom really wasn't all that normal until ~ '58 or '59, so a '57 is indeed a pretty rare bird. Very cool guitar!!

I saw this auction, which was on ebay as well. A real beauty and maybe a one-off.