Not all 1970s Les Pauls are equal: 1974 Les Paul Custom White! (Kalamazoo!)

Why does it feel like all 1970s Gibson guitars are lumped into the same category? This 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom is a great example of the difference between the early 1970s Gibsons and the late 1970s Gibsons. 1974 and 1974 are a significant transitional time period for the iconic Gibson brand because that's when production of most of the Les Pauls moved to Nashville from the old Kalamazoo Gibson factory.
John: / truevintageguitar
Riggs: / the_riggstaylor
Riggs on YT here: ‪@RiggsTaylor‬
The most significant differences that I see between Gibson Les Pauls made in Kalamazoo compared to Nashville are the Mahogany vs Maple necks, the bridge, and most of all: the weight. The Nashville made Gibsons use Maple for the neck instead of the traditional Mahogany. The bridge used on Nashville Les Pauls is slightly fatter and threads into metal inserts in the body instead of directly into the wood like Kalamazoo made guitars. But most of all, I find that Nashville made Les Pauls are a bit heavier. This one weighs in at 9.8 lbs (not light, but lighter than the later ones!).
The listing is here if this 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom White finish is still available: truevintageguitar.com/product...
Are you looking to sell a vintage Gibson guitar? You can contact me here: truevintageguitar.com/pages/s...

[@eguitarplayer6689]

Thanks for the demonstration. I live nearby Kalamazoo. I'm always interested about information from that era.

[@matthewf1979]

Killer Custom!! A lot of great rock that we all love was made on Norlin and CBS guitars. There’s really good guitars to be found from the 70’s and 80’s.

[@robertcalvin2643]

My LP Sunburst 1974 Custom is really heavy but sounds great!

[@davidhaegens]

Nice Steve Jones and RR both can't be wrong

[@LarryHric-zl9pe]

Hello. Looked at the site description. Looks like caps from 73 that Gibson used. From 1974 onward I’ve read that most of the large mass production builds were moved down to Nashville and the smaller scale specialized builds remained at Kalamazoo. The smaller scale frets were preferred by Les Paul as used in the 50s for fast playability and chord progressions. More jazz oriented playing.

[@mikemiller6628]

Fantastic playing.

[@RiggsTaylor]

Thanks Mike!

[@ernestschultz5065]

Norlin guitars are actually pretty great

[@joeyd3324]

Made in USA Sideways..?

[@MayorMcCheese2000]

tasty

[@Nordic_Sky]

My first guitar was a 1974 Les Paul Custom, which was the 20th anniversary. Absolutely terrible guitar. Two-piece body, 3-piece neck, ugly cherry sunburst, horrible quality plating that bubbled almost right away. Nasty sounding bridge pickup. The worst.

[@truevintageguitar]

Hey I hear you! Is it possible that the sound you didn't like was a result of the 300k pots instead of the 500k pots? Gibson went with 300k starting in '73. If this were my guitar, I'd be tempted to drop in a 500k harness to listen for the difference.

[@TheScumAlsoRises]

Beautiful. Congrats on avoiding the constant over-the-top "something-something Randy Rhoads" trope when discussing white LP Customs from the 70s.

[@truevintageguitar]

Much appreciated!

[@Dr.Jekyll]

@@truevintageguitarIn contrast, some of us love the tie to Randy Rhoads, who got the shaft and deserves to be remembered in the same sentence as EVH. All Randy, all the time!