Rod Brakes’ excellent article about the Les Paul Custom [December 2020] made me head to my music room and pull my 1973 two-pickup model [shown right] out of mothballs, restring it and play it again. In 1973, my bandmates in an Allman-style band were telling me to ditch the 335 and get a Paul. I tried saving up the $800 I’d need for a vintage ’Burst or Goldtop, but when I had about $450 saved, I jumped the gun and bought a brand-new Custom. It eventually got some of the mods of that era: stronger magnets in the pickups to overload an amp more easily, an out-of-phase switch (which I never used) and vintage-looking knobs. And bigger frets once it needed a fret job.