“A 1952 Les Paul was not a cool guitar to own – I remember these guitars hanging around and fading in shop windows for months on end”: The story of Gibson’s “cursed” 1952 Les Paul and why it was long overlooked on the vintage market

1952 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop pictured in a vintage guitar case.

As one of the very first Les Pauls ever made, this 1952 model has the unbound neck with a slight V profile towards the nut end that feels really nice. It’s like a 1956 wide-neck Strat V that begins to round off by the 5th fret.

A lot of these early Les Pauls sound particularly good, and I wish Gibson had continued with the unbound fretboards. There’s something about the feel of shoulders that are uninterrupted by binding that I really like because it is actually very Fender-like.