Can you Identify it?

Koeryn · #1 09-10-2007, 12:35 PM

Alright, the charade is up, I'm not a bassist. I pick up a bass every once in awhile, but most of my attention is directed toward guitar. That said, I was referred here by a friend who has made mention of the fact that, well, to put it straight, you guys and girls know your **** about pretty much anything and everything with strings.

I'm really hoping that's true.

I've recently come into the possession of a Les Paul clone, which I'm pretty damn sure is an antique, considering the hardware (which my friend and I both agree are original), are of west German manufacture, a company called Schaller.

It looks like the company logo for whoever made it was scratched out, so other then a general outline, it's unreadable. There is a mother of pearl butterfly between the middle pegs, and the neck also has mother of pearl blocks on 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 17th frets, and the neck is 22 frets long.

I took pictures of pretty much everything I could think of that would be relevant, if you lot are willing to help, and can think of anything else that you'd need a photo of to help identify my baby, let me know and it'll be done.

All I can do now I guess is leave the task in your hands, and hope you guys are as knowledgeable as your reputation!

Thanks ahead for any and all help you can give me, even if it's just to direct me elsewhere where I might get better help.

Play on, rock hard, peace out.

Rather then waste your bandwidth with a bunch of photos, I'll just post a link to photobucket which has all of them.

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...yn/Les%20Paul/

mjolnir · #2 09-10-2007, 12:38 PM

Another thing worth mentioning is that this sucker is old.

Or at least it looks old (and the bridge pup is shot to hell...)

lunarpollen · #3 09-10-2007, 01:20 PM

You are not alone

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1313772...n/photostream/

My guess is that it's a cheap made-in-japan generic (but nice-looking, to my eyes) LP clone made back in the day by some factory that probably sold them under different "no-name" brands. I've read of anonymous SG clones with the same mysterious butterfly...

bluestarbass · #4 09-10-2007, 01:23 PM

Schallers are a well respected tuner brand, so it may be a decent copy. The bolt on neck makes me think its cheaper though. It could be one of a million companies that did les paul knockoffs. Its probably not worth anything, but could be a really killer player. No matter how old it is, unless its an american made guitar its probably not gonna be worth a whole bunch, maybe $400-500 tops if its really something special.

mjolnir · #5 09-10-2007, 01:28 PM

Well, I guess it'd be prudent to ask the more important question, then.

The whole reason my buddy Koeryn posted about this is that the electronics are shot and he was talking about maybe letting me rip the old stuff out and putting new stuff in. Because he never knew what brand the guitar was, I have some reservations about pulling out the original stuff. The last thing I want to do is completely destroy the value of a potentially expensive guitar.

So I guess the more direct question is is this thing worth enough that I shouldn't replace anything? Or is this a great potential project guitar as Bluestarbass has implied?

bluestarbass · #6 09-10-2007, 02:11 PM

One of the best ways it to take one pickup out. Now look inside the body. Is it solid wood? Is it a bunch of peices glued together? If its solid wood what kind of wood is it?

I have a similar guitar I bought a while ago. Its all terrible wood inside, but I can put a new pickup in it and use it for shows that I dont care what happens to the guitar. You wont hurt anything by taking the pickups out. When you do that take pics othe bottom of the pickups and of the inside of the guitar, that will tell a much better tale if the guitar is worth anything.

My guess would be, and I dont mean to offend you, but since its bolt on its not worth anything. Thats not to say it wouldnt be a good project, i have tons of stuff going like that. Its not gonna sound like a 57 les paul or anything though.

mjolnir · #7 09-10-2007, 02:18 PM

Thanks for the advice, bluestar, I'll take one of the pups out and take a looksee.

I personally am itching to rip everything out and stick some decent parts in there... It'd be a shame to leave it as is when it has the potential to sing...