THE GIBSON CUSTOM SHOP TOM DOYLE TIME MACHINE LES PAUL SERIES
Just like the REAL Vintage Les Paul Bursts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The total experience of a heavily played & gigged late 50's Les Paul… just without the six figure price tag!
The Gibson Custom Shop Tom Doyle "TIME MACHINE" Historic Les Paul Aged Relic is an authentic & faithful aged recreation of an oft played late 50's Les Paul. These one of a kind hand aged masterpiece features Tom Doyle's Doyle Coils TRU-CLONES PAF Humbuckers, Real '59 Holy Grail Harness, and an exquisite vintage hand aged Lifton case. Every single part & piece has been painstakingly pored over, aged, relic'd, and antiqued in order to recreate the look and feel of a decades old, gigged late 50's Les Paul Standard.
THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO OWN PART OF THE ACTUAL LES PAUL LEGACY...
Every single part, piece, widget, screw, and molecule of this guitar has been meticulously aged, relic’d, antiqued, and worn down… EVERYTHING! The Doyle crew does this not just for aesthetic reasons (although it does look mighty cool!), but to make the entire guitar “open up”, resonate, vibrate, and sing. No razor blade checking here, baby… it’s all REAL actual hot/cold weather checking and spider cracking that releases this vintage monster from its “shell”. The wood of the guitar comes alive, and the Doyle Coils PAF Humbucker pickups let you hear the very essence of the structure of the guitar itself… that’s why old, played down, vintage Les Paul guitars sound so damn amazing, and why these do too! It’s just like a REAL Vintage heavily played ’59 Burst… even the expert players and collectors agree.
Doyle TIME MACHINE #54 - '59 Les Paul Relic - Now owned by Keith Page (Gary Moore's right hand man)
We painstakingly age, wear, breakdown, and antique every single part, piece, component, nut, bolt, and screw. Everything on the guitar gets aged… just as 60+ year old guitar would get aged by time, use, wear, smoke, weather, sweat, bumps, and bruises… and just plain being played and played. No razor blades ever touch these beauties. We've been doing it this way 25+ years, way before any "Lab" finally decided to put down the razor blades and try to do what we've been doing all along.
The next time you look at an Aged or Relic'd Les Paul take a really good look. Have you ever seen or played, first-hand, what a real late 50’s Model Les Paul Standard actually looks like when it’s been played for almost 60 years? We have!!! More times than we could possibly count over the last 5 or 6 decades. When looking at a “factory” or "lab" aged Les Paul have you ever noticed how the only thing that seems to really get aged is the top, and perhaps (ever so slightly) the nickel hardware? Now compare that to a Real Vintage 1959 Les Paul Burst that has been played its whole life... A keen eye will quickly notice all the outrageous shortcomings of these so called “aged” guitars.
When Tom Doyle and his team Vintage Age and Relic a Les Paul guitar, the ENTIRE guitar gets complete attention. Every single molecule gets vintage aged... whether you can see it or not! Think about it for a moment, how could a 60+ year old guitar have a weather checked top but then have brand new shiny volume and tone knobs with no “greening”, or perfectly clean finger indicators with no rust? How could the top be so old, but the hardware looks clean and new? Why are the tuning keys brand new and not discolored, the nickel housing not patina’d and rusted? How can the pearloid fret markers not be discolored? And for God’s sake, how can all the plastics be fresh, clean and crisp, right from the factory? Compared to a Doyle "TIME MACHINE" Relic these supposedly aged or relic'd (and very expensive) Les Paul guitars just don't meaure up, that is if you are trying to recreate the magic of a truly vintage Gibson.
Ask us about turning your favorite Gibson Custom Shop Reissue into a TIME MACHINE. Must be 2014 or newer to be a candidate...
Tom Doyle was Les Paul’s personal guitar builder, repairman, restorer, soundman & engineer, co-inventor, fixer, and all around right hand man for over 45 years. Tom knows more about the Les Paul guitar than any other single human being on the planet… and that’s putting it mildly. Tom was side by side with Les, “in the trenches” since the early 60’s… working tirelessly and was dedicated to “The Master” his entire life. After Les would destroy a beautiful guitar in the quest for this sound or that, he would summarily bring it to Tom Doyle to fix, repair, restore, and even make it better than it was before Les applied his “handy work”. By the late 60’s and early 70’s, the word got out that Tom Doyle was doing amazing things with Mr. Les Paul… and the guitar legends came running. Guys like Jimmy Page, Rick Derringer, Paul McCartney, Chet Atkins… and all of the “jazz guys” like Bucky Pizzarelli, Al Dimeola soon had Tom building, modding, and/or repairing their guitars too. Then in the 80’s Tom was building and working on guitars for the likes of George Benson, Tommy James, Sting, Muddy Waters… and the list goes on and on. Tom became known worldwide as “The Luthier to the Stars”. Not bad work, if you can get it!
Our Gibson Custom Shop Tom Doyle TIME MACHINES Les Pauls become an absolute Masterpiece... an Heirloom for the ages. Virtually indistinguishable from The Real Deal 1959 Les Paul Standard Burst, and we even dare say that they sounds better! The guitar has all of the mojo, prestige, vintage charm, old-school feel & playability of a Real Burst, and of course that “wow factor” of those famous artist played ’59 Bursts you’ve drooled over all of your life… But without that six figure price tag!