Bill Bartlett

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."