Gibson
Les Paul Custom M2M

Sometimes someone’s bad luck turns into a lucky break for someone else (pun intended). Here is a drop dead gorgeous one-of-a-kind custom “made to measure” Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul Custom, with a nicely flamed hand-picked curly maple top in a very faded denim blue gloss, with a rare custom TV white finish on the back and neck (white with brown grain fill). This $8000 guitar, brand new from the factory, suffered a headstock crack in transit. The break was not complete, it was just a crack (no snapped headstock), and the guitar has been professionally repaired, headstock glued and clamped, so the joint is actually stronger now than it was before it was damaged. (We could have refinished the neck and concealed the damage but opted to leave it alone, leave the visual cue for some future owner, and preserve the Gibson Custom decal.) Guitar is 100 percent and plays perfectly. Save some serious money. With original case, certificate of authenticity, case candy, etc.

If you’ve ever wondered, the reason Gibsons tend to break their headstocks is because there is a hollow cavity right at the joint to accommodate the truss rod nut, so there is very little wood and very little strength right where they tend to crack. Either a proper scarf joint or volute in construction would alleviate the issue, but that is not how these guitars were designed. This is a cutaway of an R7 that shows how little wood is actually remaining.