Gibson Les Paul 1954 PAF Conversion

During the mid 50s, Gibson developed their own PAF pickups which were the first humbuckers ever created by Seth Lover. These pickups started a revolution, but some of the guitars that Gibson had didn't have them installed. To help make up for that, they offered a conversion where they would route out the P90 routes and install humbuckers in it for you. The guitar features a mahogany body with a maple top, mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, trapezoid inlays, pickguard, binding, hard tail bridge, two humbuckers, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.

UTILIZATION

The PAF conversion on this guitar was very clean. Sometimes you'll notice that Gibson converted these by checking out the cavity and looking for any nicks/dings/peeling of the finish. It's a tell-tale sign that it's been converted. They did a pretty good job on this with minimal peeling. The nut on this was also nice, albeit slightly worn. The frets were in pretty good condition, but they were also worn a bit. They were also very small, and I'm not a big fan of small frets.

SOUNDS

I should preface this by saying that I'm a metal player and not a huge fan of the stock Gibson pickups that they like to install in their guitars. That said, these were some pretty cool PAF pickups. One thing that should be noted is that these are extremely low output pickups, and they don't take high gain very well. The bridge can create an awesome blues tone and a solid rock tone with the right amp. The neck works great for that fat clean tone and a jazzy lead tone, but I don't enjoy doing high gain solos on these as I find myself struggling quite a bit.

OVERALL OPINION

These are extremely expensive, and if you ever find one, expect to pay a fortune. We generally keep these in glass cases at the shop as they're a bit of a liability whenever somebody plays them. They're extremely solid and sound great, but they're not worth the price that you have to pay.