Since there seem to be a few les Paul fans here, let me tell this story again
One of my close friends is a pretty decent guitar player (he actually played at my wedding)
He had a couple of different guitars including a slightly battered les Paul
Having done some research he found a guy who supposedly knew les personal and should be able to properly rehab his guitar with the proper hardware and such
So, my buddy send his guitar out to this guy and waited
And waited
And waited
And after almost a year he had almost given up on ever seeing the guitar again, when a box showed up at his doorstep
Taped to the top of the box was an evelop and when he opened it, there was a letter in it
In the letter, the guy who had restored my buddies guitar was very apologetic, said he had a hard time finding some of the hardware, but he hoped the surprise would make up for the delay
When my buddy opened the box this is what the guitar looked like
Appearantly, the guy really did know Les Paul personally and one day Les happened to visit him in his shop
He showed Les my buddies guitar and expressed to him how frustrated he was that it took him so long to finish it
So Les himself decided to sign the guitar before the clear coat went on
I believe this was back in 07 or 08