Freddie King can be seen on his album cover for "Blue Guitar Hero" holding what is more than likely a 1954 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop.

In this post Richie is sharing his two Gold Top Les Paul's. Featuring a P90 loaded '54 Gold Top.

I used it all through the “Shake it Up Tour, but didn’t take it to England to make “Heartbeat City”. Factoid: I traded Bun E. Carlos, the drummer of Cheap Trick, (who is also a lefty and collects vintage guitars), a 1961 Fender Stratocaster in Candy Apple Red. - Elliot Easton

At the site mentioned are many pictures of Fairport Convention in the years 1968 and 1969. Richard is pictured playing a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop with a single-piece wraparound tailpiece (which was introduced in late '53 and continued until the introduction of the Tune-O-Matic bridge on the model in '55). So this guitar is most likely a '54.

John had two early Gold Top P90 loaded Gibson Les Paul electric guitars. One was a 1954 and the other similar in age, this I am not sure of.

Both of Martyn's Les Paul Goldtops were auctioned off in 2024, according to BBC.

According to this interview (transcribed from the February 2000 issue of Guitar Player magazine), Kevin utilized a '54 Goldtop during the recording of Third Eye Blind's second album, Blue.

Pata uses a 1954 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, famously worn down to the wood and nicknamed "Hage" (meaning "Bald"). This detail is noted on Geocities.

Alan’s main choice and probably the only electric he owned was his 1954 Les Paul. This was an interesting choice due to several reasons. His guitar was not a factory stock model, but had the potential to be what he wanted. The 54 model, did not as play well as later models of the time since the period stock tuning keys did not keep the instrument in tune as well as later, sealed worm gear type Grover tuners. The stock tuners on Alan’s guitar were replaced sometime prior to Woodstock with modern Grover tuners. In addition the pick guard and bracket were also removed to provide room for Alan’s finger picking style. As with his modified harmonicas, both of these modifications made his guitar a more playable instrument to suit his particular needs. Vintage purists today would scoff at any attempts to upgrade a guitar such as this, but Alan wanted a playable instrument, not a showpiece.

The 54 model had a combination bridge / stop tail piece that provided both string support and intonation in one unit. It also featured P-90 single coil pickups. Both of these features were keys to Alan’s tone. Although Alan could have afforded or even borrowed any Playing Guitarguitar he wanted, he chose the 54 Les Paul for the following reasons. The P-90s have a construction whereby multiple windings are wound around a magnet to form a large single coil. The result is a pure tone but is susceptible to outside noise or interference. It can also distort the tone slightly if played or strummed hard. On the other hand, humbucker pickups have a construction whereby two coils are wound in opposite directions of each other and the magnets of each pickup have opposite polarity. Both pickups are then connected together in series. This construction then allows all common mode signals (noise) to be cancelled out. However a side effect is that some of the signal, (music) is also lost due to phase cancellation in the pickup. This results in a quieter, more powerful signal with less music spectrum than a single coil. Alan’s preference was clearly a single coil pickup vs. a humbucker.

The combination of a bridge / stop tail piece attracted Alan as well. The strings were required to run through the bridge toward the bottom of the guitar, then wrap around over the top of the bridge and onto the fret board. This resulted in better mechanical coupling of the strings to the body and increased sustain. The downside to this design is that intonation was less than perfect and was compensated using the string height adjustment screws, and the rear mounted set screws.

http://alanwilsoncannedheat.com/woodstock-alans-guitar.php

Mick Ralphs used a 1954 Les Paul Goldtop, as he recounted trading his SG Les Paul and £100 for the guitar at a shop in London. He specifically mentioned using this Goldtop on the album "Mad Shadows" with Mott the Hoople. This information is supported by an article from GuitarPlayer, where Ralphs discusses his guitar choices.

In this video John plays and talks about his 1954 Gold Top and compares it to a later version Les Paul.

In the video titled "Nick Waterhouse - Holly (Full Length LP Coming March 4, 2014)" by Innovative Leisure on YouTube, Nick Waterhouse can be seen playing a Gibson Les Paul with P90 pickups and a Bigsby, which is consistent with a 1954 or even earlier model.

Ask Zac The "Black Betty" Les Paul story (April 17, 2020) article details the history of the guitar, according to Bill Bartlett

"According to Bill, the guitar started its life as a 1954 Les Paul gold top with a wrap tail bridge and P90’s, serial # 4 0755. It was in mint condition when he bought it, trading a 1956 Esquire plus $50 to make the deal. The instrument was used heavily and soon would begin getting modified, and having necessary repairs performed on it. First off, Bill did what was then a common modification, he took some woodworking chisels, routed out the pickup cavities, and installed a set of patent # humbucking pickups."

"The next modification was the gold finish that was oxidizing. Bartlett indicated “The gold on the Paul started to look green, so I removed the paint, only to find a really ugly maple top made of many pieces.” He then went about removing the maple top, making a jig so he could make a replacement of the same dimensions, but with “birdseye maple similar to what Paul Bigsby used in the 1950s.” A repair was also in order, as Bill had been inducing feedback by pushing his Les Paul’s headstock against his Marshall, a la Jeff Beck, and in the process had cracked the headstock. Bill decided to address this by removing the damaged portion of the headstock wings, and adding his own, then shaping them to give the Gibson more of a Mosrite flair. He also inlaid abalone in the headstock, added a first fret marker, and replaced the rest of the inlays in the fretboard with abalone. Next, he decided to add a gold tailpiece, an Alembic brass bridge that he bought from their factory, gold stairstep tuners and changed the pickups to gold “Gibson” embossed humbuckers. This is the instrument that is seen in the “Black Betty” video."

"After Ram Jam ran its course, Bartlett changed the pickups to Carvin M22 pickups, moved the pickup selector switch to where the neck pickup tone control was, and added 3 mini toggles to split coils for each pickup, and for polarity reversal “to get that tone like Mickey Baker got on Love is Strange.” "

"Bill added; "Also, maybe obvious, the single knob on the guitar is a master volume control. Eddie Van Halen influence."