It was January 1974 that a young Mr Dunn walked into his local Gibson dealer - Hodges and Johnson of Colchester, Essex, UK, to purchase a brand new Les Paul Custom. He could have bought a black one, a white one or a sunburst one quite easily, but the one that caught his attention was the cherry red one on the promotional flyer Selmer (the UK Gibson distributer at the time) sent around. Mr Dunn was besotted with this guitar and couldn't bring himself to settle for anything less..

He had to wait a long time for his dream guitar to arrive. It was a very limited colour and it was not until later in the year he could take delivery but when it arrived, it was well worth the wait and since late 1974 Mr Dunn has cherished this guitar, together with all the original tags, warranty card etc..

It is now ready to pass to only it's second owner, since it left the factory in 1974.

Finding these amazing looking cherry red Les Paul Customs is ridiculously hard. Out of the many black, white and sunburst Customs made in 1974 there are estimated to be around 180 ish in wine red, the second rarest colour but how many were made in this gorgeous cherry red are unknown. A lot less than wine red that is for sure.

So how has it fared during Mr Dunn's custodianship...? It has been played and featured on a few decent selling albums (included with the sale are pictures of the guitar being used on stage and for publicity). There are a few dings here and there but nothing too serious and some lacquer checking all over.

In 1976 during the long hot summer, an intermittent fault developed with the neck pickup. Mr Dunn sent it to the Selmer to have it checked out and they diagnosed a wiring fault from the factory which was causing the neck pickup to short out where it was soldered to the pot. They rectified this by cutting off the last 3cm of the affected wire and re soldered it to a short extension. All other solder is totally original as are both pickups which are rare, early tar backs.

The only other issue is a replaced jack plate and the case which has a new handle and was printed in black, water based paint to smarten it up.

​Everything else is 100% original. Guitar plays well with a superbly fast action. Original frets do have wear but are still playable. Weight is 4.5Kg which is pretty good for a mid 70's Les Paul Custom.

This is an exceptional piece and I will guarantee you it will be some time to come before another like this pops up...

GRAB IT! - It probably won't stick around for long.