1981 Joe Walsh Model LS100S ???

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Sigmania

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Would be cool if someone could get it cheap and re-do the binding and re-paint the top. Rare guitar.
 
Looking at how the binding is destroyed, but the pickguard next to it looks fine makes me think this may be chemical damage from something that ate the binding and the finish..

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Looks like it was in its case when it happened judging by the corresponding damage to the lining.

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Fire or acid/solvent accident (or mad girlfriend), chances are that whatever it was (and it would be nice to know what it was, could be something toxic or carcinogen...) penetrated and/or damaged the wood, so the whole area would need some remodeling and not just cleaning, then the entire body binding needs to be redone, most of the finish needs to be stripped and redone...

That could be a complete write-off if someone who has the needed skills and tools calculates the work and cost that goes into it. What they end up with is still a refinished guitar with a considerable loss in resale value (if they're honest).
 
Ah yeah I've seen that thread before and maybe I should rather leave that there.... but are you sure about the "one-piece mahogany body"? I'm asking because that's a misconception occasionally coming up about old Gibby LP Customs: There never was such a thing as a "one-piece mahogany body":

The first (1954-1960) series Customs had one-piece mahogany backs with one-piece mahogany tops, so the body is always 2 pieces total (otherwise routing wire channels would've been rather challenging). I think the catalog is referring to this as well:

The LS100S is a reproduction of the standard model of this mahogany 1-piece body, which was slightly manufactured from 1957 to 1958, using the original material as it is.

This probably should say (maybe it does in Japanese?) "1-piece back". This is still special (basically an all-mahogany guitar) because (at least most of) the first Custom reissues of 1968 had already a maple top, one year later Norlin started wreaking havoc on the specs (3-pc necks, multi-piece pancake bodies, 14° HS angle with volute...).

So I have to assume this is just some misunderstanding, maybe also triggered by the somewhat confusing explanation of the wire channel drill in the 1979 LS/LC catalog. The spec list is less ambiguous though and lists a 1-piece back and a ?-piece top for the LC100.
 
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Yeah this keeps getting argued about for the same reasons on the Gibby forums as well. The problem is that deriving this from the visuals alone can be pretty misleading I guess - you know how hard it often is to see the glue seam on transparent hog backs, quite often only the lacquer not sinking into the seam as much gives away that there is one after many years. I guess that can be even harder in the (usually a bit rough) PU cavities when the pieces align well, and there is no (or not much) lacquer in the cavities - just 2 pieces of mahogany.

Why this is even an eternal argument is that Gibson never specified that - why would they? Their catalogs are ambiguous and the text (that never changed) allows both interpretations:

Screenshot 2023-11-20 at 18.30.15.jpg
1955 Gibson catalog page

Revisiting the discussions I saw a claim that the shape of the wire channel would be a way to discern that - a round hole indicating a one-piece body. That sounds superficially reasonable considering that a square hole can only be made with a router. But then again, a round channel can also be found in LPCs with maple top, so that's just the way they insisted to make the Customs for some reason.

To make this even more confusing, all I can see in Tokais (LC or not) is round wire channels, at least the bit in the control cavity? Maybe this is all the Tokai catalog with the confusing text about the awkwardly long drill bit is alluding to, that they're drilling the wire channels the old-fashioned way? What makes this technique difficult is that you can't be sure where exactly the drill is going and and I've read something about locating it with a magnet to make sure you hit both PU cavities and end up in the switch cavity.

Anyway, I'm not saying there can't be one-piece bodies on Gibbys or Tokais. There is just no completely unambiguous, hard evidence that they exist, the nature of the visual evidence is that it's only unambiguous when it's not a one-piece body, and it seems there is no written or at least oral document stating this in a dependable way for either of them?
 
They could definitely do it. It looks like they were drilling all LP bodies in a way that they could.

1979 catalog

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1981 catalog

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Interesting pic from the 1982 catalog. Not at the correct angle for this rout. May just be set up for the photo.

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They could definitely do it. It looks like they were drilling all LP bodies in a way that they could.

No doubt about that they did (from what I can see), you can also tell that from the channel touching the neck PU cavity at varying positions. What I don't know is why they did that. :)

Interesting pic from the 1982 catalog. Not at the correct angle for this rout. May just be set up for the photo.

View attachment 32457

That big, stubby bit is likely for drilling the jack hole (through which the long one goes later, at an awkward angle).

Edit:
f253bdb191a5eaad081f2f6b4a3e0c85.jpg

That's obviously a SEB body, looks like the top carving is done on this one but the PU cavities show no sign of the wiring channel (or the height screw tabs) yet. If it had been already drilled at this point it should at least show in the bridge PU cavity.
 
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I like the seller's feedback; not a single negative with over a thousand feedback reviews

damage (which looks like burns) looks to be repairable with some time and of course some ca$h
 
Nor me.

Hopefully someone will get it with enough room to have it worked on. Expensive repair I would guess.

Or do it themselves if they’re good. I would imagine the binding replacement could be a bear to get it the right dimensions and cut the end so there’s not a gap.

I remember looking into this years ago with Ibanez guitars with their notorious binding rot.
 

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