New 2014 Bill Nash Gibson Les Paul Standard 2009 guitar, Honey Sunburst OHSC

This is a 2014 Nash aged Gibson Les Paul Standard from 2009.  Brand new condition, no fret wear.  I’ve got a lot of description following, first from Nash’s own hand, and then my take on it.  In a sentence, These Nash Les Pauls are by far the best playing, looking and sounding Les Pauls you will ever have your hands on.  For more thoughts, read on.  It was in mint, nearly unplayed condition when I sent it up to Nash.  The serial number is 000790537.  I think it has a 60s neck, but it feels a little fuller than that so I’m not 100% sure.  Hopefully, if you know how to look these things up, you can get all of the details off the net from the serial number.  I’ll continue filling in details as I find them.

From Nash’s web site:  

Les Paul’s we received will be disassembled Top finish will be stripped, sanded, and prepped Top will get re-finished, back and sides will be completed with amber coats Nut will be replaced Frets will be leveled and dressed Neck and body will receive aging Hardware will be aged or replaced Plastic parts will be aged or replaced Pickups will be replaced (Dimarzio Bluesbucker in neck, and Air Norton in bridge) Wiring will receive the “rolling coil tap on tone knob” feature Complete Nashguitars Setup Guitar will receive final inspection, and will be shipped back.  Nashguitars only uses 100% nitrocellulose lacquer in all steps of our processes.

Here are my own impressions:  I’m not sure where to start with this description.  And I don’t want it to sound like b.s.  I’d been avoiding delving into the Bill Nash Gibson Les Paul category for my store because I’ve never had a Les Paul that I liked, and I don’t like to sell them.  I’ve always felt like they were overpriced, clunky, heavy, awkward and not worth the effort or cost.  And I didn’t see how Bill Nash aging one was going to change any of that.  So for the three years I have been enthusiastically selling, playing and exhorting Nash Guitars, and getting rid of the dross in the store to make room for what I considered very nearly the only guitars worth playing, which are the Nash fender series of guitars, I never bothered to have him age a Les Paul for me.  I was so happy with what I was getting on the fender end of things, that I figured if I needed a Les Paul sound, I’d get the T-72 DLX with the two Regals, and have something even better than a Les Paul.  

I had no idea what I was missing.

I’ve always wanted to like Les Pauls.  All of my heroes played them at one time or another in their careers, but I have never had one in my hands that came even close to that vibe that I expected to feel with a Les Paul, or what I’ve always envisioned in my head as to what  a Les Paul should look, feel, sound and play like.  That Peter Green, Jimmy Page vibe that you see in pictures and hear on records, but don’t get from Musicians Friend or Guitar Center when you order one.  And to be frank, all of the used ones I’ve played or sold in the store were either mediocre or kind of crappy, so I just quit ordering them and buying them.

So a guy comes into the store and has an almost new Les Paul and doesn’t like it and wants to trade it for a Nash Thinline with the f-hole and the Regals.  It is like all of the Les Pauls I’ve played in the last 10 years, clunky, heavy, poor playing, poorly set up, muddy sound, everything I just don’t like about Les Pauls.  But I have four Nash thinlines in the store at the time, and I figure, OK, maybe now, after three years of selling Nashes, is the time to send one on up to Nash to see what it is all about.  So I make the trade.

I sent the Les Paul up to Nash, and then I forgot about it.

Several months after sending it up to Nash, and forgetting about it, a precious object of art and beauty arrived back that bore exactly no resemblance to the hunk of junk that I sent up months earlier.  I just could not believe it was the same instrument. I could not believe my eyes or my ears, or my hands.  It played, sounded, looked and felt EXACTLY how I always had it in my head a Les Paul should play, look and sound.  Oh, I think I muttered, this is what they’re talking about.  This is what Peter Green and Jimmy Page were up to.  THIS, is their guitar.

I think they look great in the pictures, but they look far better, more impressive and more authentic in person.  This is a guitar that is guaranteed to impress you and you will never sell.