Personal note: I purchased this Les Paul Special in 1966 for $100 from another local musician. It was the third guitar that I used while playing in “The Institution”, a northern New Jersey garage band that I co-founded with Richard Lester, J. Howard Duff, and Marvin Coopersmith. The first electric guitar that I used was a Watkins Rapier. Shortly after that, I bought a cream-colored, 1966 Fender Telecaster, at Rondo Music on Route 22 in Union, New Jersey. A great guitar, but I decided that I wanted a different sound and feel, and bought the Les Paul.

Originally the body was in TV Yellow, which was then sanded down by its previous owner and stained dark brown prior to my purchasing it. You can see me with it in a photo, above. In the late 1960s, The Institution was playing a lot in Greenwich Village in New York City at places like the Night Owl Cafe and Cafe Wha?, opening for acts like The Lovin’ Spoonful, Mountain, Canned Heat, etc. I met and became friendly with Dan Armstrong, creator of the Plexiglas “see-through” guitar (he is now deceased). Around 1969, I had the body altered by Dan, who resurfaced the front of the body with a blonde maple veneer with inlaid piping around the edge. The entire guitar was cleaned-up and reconditioned in 2016 by DRG Guitars in Fairfield, CT (apparently no longer in business). Above is a picture of me holding the refinished and reconditioned guitar.

See, here, for more on the history of this guitar.