Spring cleaning at Château PGC! Time to get rid of the winter dust and look what I found underneath: not one but two Gibson Les Paul Traditional London Fog guitars! Nothing traditional about these. These guitars were manufactured by Gibson in 2009. In fact it are leftovers from the Gibson Les Paul Dark Fire product line destined for the Japanese market. The Dark Fire was probably the nicer version of the robot guitars that were put on the market by Gibson. The LP DF was equipped with the robot tuners and a piezo pickup system. It came in a white case and a lot of batteries and cables. I assume it was not much of a success as they had some bodies left to throw them on the market as a Les Paul Traditional London Fog. 
I am not a fan of hi-tech guitars, like most guitar players I am very conservative when it comes to changing a proven design. Plug and play for me, I hate guitars that come with a manual. In 2009 I found three London Fogs in the UK (Where else but in London?) and brought them home. I must say! I love these guitars!
The LF is a stripped Dark Fire. These guitars have a beautiful flamed top, ebony fretboard, black binding carbon inlays. The headstock on the asymmetrical neck carries the old fashioned “flowerpot” design inlay.
The electronics are fairly simple and just how I like them. A Burstbucker Pro pup in the bridge and carbon covered P90 at the neck.
The playability is excellent. The guitar is very lightweight and very resonant due to the empty cavities and routings where the dark Fire electronics used to be. Under the bridge and the saddle you can still find the cavity for the piezo wiring.
The color is hard to capture in a pic, it changes from “greenish” over “salmonish” to “goldish”! The earliest one comes with strap lock buttons while the youngest of these sisters has the skinny Gibson strap buttons factory installed. After all, not bad for a left over Gibson. I love them!
Stay tuned for more! Anyone interested in one of these will soon find a link to my Reverb page here.
Cheers!
