Strange Les Paul. What is it?

[Petie]

I just found a Les Paul-like Gibson in a secondhand store. It was indeed a strange beast:

Bolt-on neck

Two humbuckers (zebra-style - two hight adjustment screws on the bass side, one on the treble side)

Headstock with "The Gibson Guitar Company" and "Made In USA" - screened, not inlayed. No headstock inlay. Doesn't say "Les Paul" anywhere.

Tuners looked to be new/replaced so no help there.

Dot inlays

Elongated pickguard which held the controls.

This thing was in pretty beat up condition, selling for $999 Australian (about $500 US). I'm not thinking of buying it but it made me very curious, especially due to the unusual headstock logo (the "Gibson" looked normal but I've never seen one with all that other stuff on the headstock face like that). So is this thing real or a $200 Hondo doctored up by a sly seller?

[Petie]

Thinking it could be a Melody Maker because the pickguard is similar to this:



However it had regular-sized humbuckers, Tune-o-matic bridge, stop tailpiece and the full-sized headstock. I should add that the truss rod cover was missing.

[vaijem777]

Melody Makers have/had bolt-on necks

Not many Gibsons have had bolt-on necks. Check the serial number and then run it on Gibson's site. That'll tell you whether it's "real" or not.

[whatshisname]

Sounds like it's a Gibson Sonex. Here's a Google image search- Does it look like this? http://images.google.com/images?q=Gi...onex&hl=en

[Petie]

That's EXACTLY it. Thank you

[whatshisname]

You're welcome!