Bend Guitar Den is Oregon’s Exclusive Nash Dealer. Wander over to bendguitarden.com to see everything we have in stock or visit us at our location in Bend Oregon and hang out in our Nash Players Lounge. Feel free to call us to discuss this guitar: 541-977-6630.
This is a brand new 2024 Bill Nash Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. Brand new condition, no fret wear. These Nash Les Pauls are by far the best playing, looking and sounding Les Pauls you will ever have your hands on. Bill calls this one a 60s Les Paul. It is very fast with the smooth back. Stunning Goldtop.
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’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, muddy and not worth the effort or cost. And I didn’t see how Bill Nash aging one was going to change any of that.
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 Duane Allman, Dicky Betts, 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.
Essentially Nash completely rebuilds them.
Their first step is to completely disassemble and separate the parts that will be aged and re-used, from the parts that are rejected and replaced.
The thick finish is stripped off down to the bare wood. At this point some get stains applied, if required to get the desired color. Then the guitar gets re-finished in 100% nitrocellulose lacquer, keeping it as thin as possible to enable superior resonance.
After curing, the guitar gets the complete aging treatment and is then frets are re-worked and dressed to Nash’s specs, then they are ready for re-assembly.
The pickups are replaced. Bill Nash simply builds a guitar that he would use and his favorite and most versatile LP setup is using a DiMarzio Bluesbucker in the Neck and a DiMarzio Air Norton in the Bridge.
They then re-wire the guitar so the pickups breathe better as well as use the neck pickup’s tone control as a coil tap for the Bluesbucker, which gives you an amazing strat-like sound from that pickup. Between 1 and 8 on the tone knob it works as a regular tone control, between 9 and 10 it shuts off the second/dummy coil. This gives you a tap without adding switches of push pull pots.
The Air Norton give you bigger output and rich harmonics without going over the top into the tone spectrum of faceless, modern, high output sound that so many specialized humbuckers are susceptible to. These pickups have a lower string pull and a much higher sensitivity to your dynamics and playing style.
Also, as many of you may have figured out, the method Gibson uses for wiring the pots is not optimum. The tendency towards the guitar getting muddy or sounding choked when anywhere but “10”. This gets re-worked when we re-wire.
Gibson installs frets on the fretboard prior to it getting glued to the neck and body which leads to all sorts of fret issues (buzzing, fret outs, high action, dead spots etc). What happens is the neck and body glue, moisture, and all of the underlying structure will shrink, expand and or settle. The fretboard (and frets) will now adjust itself to the changes and you and up with lumpy gravy. The most noticeable and common issue is the hump at about the 14th fret, right where the neck gets really thick before it hit’s the body. So what Nash does is now re-work the neck and frets and take care of this to give the player better action, playability, sustain, bending etc.
Specs:
Serial Number: NGLP-288
Weight: 9 lbs 2 oz
Color: Goldtop
Body Wood: Mahogany
Top wood: Maple
Scale Length: 24-3/4″
Neck Joint: Set-in
Neck Wood: Mahogany
Fretboard: Rosewood Cream Binding
Frets: Dressed and Leveled by Nash
Neck Shape: 60’s
Frets: 22
Nut Width: 1.695″ (1 11/16″)
Fretboard Radius: 12″
Bridge: Aged Tune-O-Matic
Pickup Bridge: DiMarzio Air Norton
Pickup Neck: DiMarzio Bluesbucker
Controls: 2 volume, 2 tone with Coil Tap pots, 3-way pickup selector
Tuners: Vintage Kluson
Jack: Standard
Hardware: Aged
Binding: Top and Neck
Finish: Aged Nitrocellulose Lacquer