Les Paul Estate auction results

[Tim Rinkerman]

You know the name, and you might know the history..but.... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...man o man o man o man !!!!!!!!https://www.julienslive.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/71/?page=1&items=100

[JeffW]

Pair of Iconics for $4375, pair of 4350B for $4375. Some of the prices were strange, like a pair of normal looking workbench stools for $4000+, one guitar went for $216,000. $748 for a normal bench vise?

[Tim Rinkerman]

Yea, I know...crazy prices...but..if that is the vise that held the piece of metal that got drilled to hold the second playback head onto his first tape deck...!? Or, for people with their heads up their a***s, a stool might be the best way to soak up the knowledge Les left behind....;) And the low serial number Fender Nocaster...? that's like finding a piece of the Titanic that didn't get wet....

[JeffW]

I would have left the stools and kicked in $400 more for Iconics, personally.

[MikeBrewster77]

I particularly enjoyed the speaker notes detailing the wonders of boundary reinforcement. Wouldn't pay for that advice, but nonetheless...


A file folder labeled "Speaker" containing ten pages of notes and diagrams, some in Paul's hand, dated 1969 and 1970 with notes on speaker placement reading in part, "Note- placed in corner can improve Bass response 20 DB or more."

[BMWCCA]

I'm loving all the JBL and Crown artifacts. Crown Reference amp actually went fairly cheap!

[1audiohack]

I wish I would have known about this auction, the pair of 4350B's for $4,375.00 USD?!? Hell yeah I would have bought those!

[Tim Rinkerman]

There's an excellent DVD about Les Paul, with him in it, called " Chasing Sound". After seeing it, and learning about how he did what, and when...gave me a whole new respect for the man. There's not a minute in it that everybody on this forum can't identify with at some point. Hearing, from him, explaining early experiments, to the Who's who of people he worked alongside of in his career, AND how he got himself into those positions made 90 minutes seem like seconds. A truly creative,inventive,talented individual who's contributions to music are argueably some of the greatest over the last 100 years!

[4343]

Lot 96 seems familiar...

[speakerdave]

A matching pair of Altec 821A's for less than 5 grand. That's a beautiful speaker. And there were a few other things there that, if I were he, I would have taken them with me.

[Mr. Widget]

And then there was an old personalized license plate for $10K....

Auctions can be fun... what a treasure trove.


Widget

[John]

Old Les looks to have been a bit of a pac-rat. ;)

[Tim Rinkerman]

unless you take into account that he INVENTED more than half of the stuff that was on those lists!!!

[mech986]

Pair of Iconics for $4375, pair of 4350B for $4375. Some of the prices were strange, like a pair of normal looking workbench stools for $4000+, one guitar went for $216,000. $748 for a normal bench vise?


I wish I would have known about this auction, the pair of 4350B's for $4,375.00 USD?!? Hell yeah I would have bought those!

Heh, I bid on the 4350B's knowing I wouldn't have to pay shipping on them, and still got outbid at $3000. If I had been working over the last year, maybe I would have stretched to $5000 (prices you see are with buyers 25% premium and additional auction costs (3% for online bids) so it ended up about 28% more than the final bid. Thus the bidding ended at $3600, not a lot more than what I had bid - I agonized about 10 seconds before deciding not to commit what I didn't have and face some wrath at home. I think the last set of 4350's I've seen on ebay went for $10K.

I did end up getting lot 615, a lone single JBL 4430, literally new appearing for a total of $576, a nice hanging tag saying "property from the Les Paul Auction" and the lot card, plus a copy of the auction catalog included. I also helped a fellow from Michigan collect his lot, #655 which turned out to have an Altec A-8, 9846A and 9846B cabs with woofers and horns/drivers, and a 612C cabinet with horn. he paid a total of $384 for all of it, plus $100 to me for picking up and storing them till his in-laws were able to pick them up and take them to Michigan. I'd say he did all right since the woofers and horns were all working. Turns out though he's probably going to sell most of them even though he's a big Les Paul fan. If anyone is interested in those, contact me and I'll get you in contact with him.

[Steve Schell]

I attended the Les Paul auction at Julien's all day on Friday, June 8th 2012, the first of two days. My friend Robert and I had attended a pre-auction party the previous Wednesday evening at the invitation of a friend who knew the people who had assembled and graded the items. I was fascinated with all things Les Paul of course, but especially driven to inspect Les's Lansing Iconic which he had owned since the late 1940s. It is especially rare since it has the never-before-seen push pull 6L6 power amplifier that Lansing Mfg. Co. began building in 1939. The famous late 1940s picture of Les, his Iconic and one of the first Ampex 200 tape recorders in his Hollywood garage studio can be seen here:

http://caughtupinthefable.blogspot.com/2009/08/vaya-con-dios-les-paul.html

Unfortunately this poor Iconic has evidently been through a basement flood or something since all components were all rusted up, the cabinet was missing its outer layers of veneer and weak as a cereal box, and the woofer cone and high frequency diaphragm were gone. Even so, the scrap remnants of this fine speaker brought something like $10,600 at auction! Pictured are my friend Robert with the Iconic, the ultra rare 6L6 amp and a couple of shots from the auction floor on Friday. It was quite an experience to sit there and watch tens of thousands of dollars change hands by the minute, with everyone acting as though it was all just so routine!

[4343]

Lot 96 seems familiar...

Here's what were called "Les Paul Speakers":

[stephane RAME]

He had a home theater room?

Stéphane

[Steve Schell]

Les was a huge collector and intense user of all sorts of sound related stuff. Evidently he worked hard at it every day of his long life. There were hundreds of guitars on auction, many of them Gibson factory seconds that they had wisely sent to him for his endless experiments. The more obviously that they appeared crudely modified by Les, the more they brought at auction. He was a tremendous concept guy, but a little short on craftsmanship, as most of the modifications had that "screwdriver used as chisel" look. Nevertheless he advanced the electric instrument and recording arts enormously.

[d16rr702]

I bought these 4350b's last night.

Could not imagine how heavy they were. Wow.

They've been sitting at the buyers house since the 2012 auction. More history... but never connected after his purchase.

I'm not ready with the hardware to connect them but looking forward to the day....

[BMWCCA]

Pictures . . . or it never happened! :applaud: