Yeesh...craigslist stuff!

Saw what looked to be a decent, player Les Paul, priced at the upper edge of reasonable, but I thought there might be some wiggle room, and reached out.

“any mods?” I asked - it looked relatively stock. “No,” the seller replied, “none at all.”

My next question was if he had any pics of the back - “sure do” he said, and sent them. He also sent some better pics of the front - which were nice. First thing I notice is that the nut is notched between the G and B string, deeply so - and all six strings were really deeply embedded in the nut. “Stock nut?” I asked, since I’ve never seen one come from Gibson that way - “yep, it’s stock”

okay - stock maybe, but no way that was plek’ed like that.

the Craig’s pic showed stock buckers, but the detail pics had an uncovered zebra - “what pups are in that?” I inquired. “Oh, there’s a Gibson zebra in the neck, and a JB in the bridge.”

(ah. So not “stock”, I’m thinking)

and the detail pics have top hat knobs, but the ad pics were clearly speed knobs. “Which set are you including?” I asked - “oh, I’ll sell it with both.”

the selector switch was changed too - but I said nothing.

“is the wiring stock?” I wanted to know...”yep, it’s got the Peter Green out-of-phase in the middle position. I’ll send you a pic.”

Nothing stock under the hood either - it’s all rewired and not very pretty - some of it I didn’t even recognize.

Genuinely a pretty guitar, and I thought it had a TON of potential - but man, when a guy tells you repeatedly that it’s stock, and really, the tuners and bridge are the only parts that haven’t (maybe) been swapped or modded...that’s not cool.

not my thing to challenge or correct a seller - but I think that if I make him an offer, it’ll be much less than he’s asking.