Hi everyone, I`m wondering if someone can help me. I tried doing a forum search but didn`t find anything on this topic. I inherited a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe in Cherry Burst from the 60`s that belonged to my brother who was killed in an accident in 1980. The first 3 numbers of the serial number are 898. I tried a Gibson web site but didn`t have much luck and I must be looking in the wrong area. Would anybody know where I can look to find out when this guitar was actually made ? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year. Joe

_________________

Sorry to hear about your Brother. The Gibson site has a forum with some pretty knowledgeable folks.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Hard way to go about receiving a vintage guitar! I'd go over to mylespaul.com and post lots of pictures of that guitar in the Vintage Les Paul section. You will need pictures from just about every angle, inside both pickup cavities and control cavity.

EDIT: Let me know if you need any more info.

EDIT AGAIN!!! Let me know when/if you post it as I'd love to have a look at it myself.

Thanks

The typical Les Paul serial number is 8 digits and they represent: YDDDYRRR
The two Y's are the year, so it doesn't make sense that yours starts with an 8 if you think it's a '60's guitar. Also there were several years in the 60's that they sold the SG as a Les Paul.
The three D's represent the day of the year it was built, 001 would be Jan. 1st.
The three R's are the factory designation.
How many digits are in the serial number. Are you sure it's not a 50's guitar?

_________________
'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

The Deluxe started up in 1968 when the Les Pauls came back from hiatus.

It's probably from the early '70s --- before they implemented the serial number date scheme that Drew365 mentioned. That dating scheme was nice because before that, Gibson used their 6 digit serial numbers over and over, so no telling the era from the serial number. The pot codes and construction clues are your best bet.

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

This is the LP I`m trying to date. The serial number is 898775 and its stamped into the headstock, its not a decal if that means anything. At the time my brother told me it belonged to some known drummer that also played guitar but over time I forgot who he said he was.
Nevin, it does say Les Paul Deluxe made in USA, and when I asked about it in a music shop the guy said the only ones made in the late 60`s in cherry burst were the Deluxe`s. Its a bit confusing because Gibson seems to have some issues with their serial numbers.
My brother bought it used around 1970 so it has to be made before the 70`s.

_________________

Beautiful guitar. I'll bet those P90's sound great. You really need to post the picture and serial number in this forum: http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/vintage-les-pauls/

I guarantee you, they will figure out exactly what you have there.

_________________
'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

is that a 3 piece body?

_________________

http://www.youtube.com/user/nazareneart ... ature=mhee

When they reintroduced the Les Paul in '68, they weren't called "Deluxes". They started calling that model the "LP Deluxe" in mid '69 around when they switched from P90s to mini-humbuckers. Up until '71 they were all Goldtops (before '71 they also did a small batch of all-mahogany "fretless wonder" Black Beauty LP Customs with a P90 in the neck position and an Alnico staple pickup in the bridge, and they made "regular" LP Customs with full-size pickups in a variety of colors, but until '71 all the LP's with single body binding and trapezoid inlays were Goldtops).

So a cherry sunburst LP Deluxe is '71 through '85. In '75 the transitional/medium tenon 3-piece mahogany necks were changed to short tenon 3-piece maple necks. Around the same time they switched from the ABR to the Nashville bridge and started using decal S/N's instead of stamped. There are overlaps -- some maple necks from that period have ABRs and some mahogany necks have Nashvilles, some maple necks have stamped serials and some mahogany necks have decals.

Yours has an ABR and a stamped serial so it's '71~'75. It's an 800000 serial number which makes it '73~'75. If it has a maple neck you can narrow it down to 1975, but if it's a mahogany neck you'll have to check the volume/tone pots for date codes (which may or may not narrow it down -- a '75 could have pots from '74 or even '73, but if it has '75 pots it's definitely a '75).

Here's a very authoritative site for vintage guitar history :http://home.provide.net/~cfh/gibson.html

***************************

"is that a 3 piece body?"

Yes, it's a 3-piece cap which was common on Norlin Les Pauls. It also has a 3-piece "pancake" body -- two fairly thick layers of mahogany with a thin layer of maple sandwiched in-between (plus the 3-piece maple cap, so the body is made of six pieces of wood). They used the heaviest mahogany they could get and they didn't start weight-relieving the bodies until the '80s so the pancake body LP's tend to be very heavy -- 13 pounds was about average.

***************************

"I'll bet those P90's sound great."

Those are mini-humbuckers, not P90's. Gibson had a bunch of leftover Epi USA mini-humbuckers (plus the tooling to resume production) so they cut holes in P90 covers and stuck the mini-humbuckers into them.

They are great sounding pickups. P90s are sort of humbucker-ish sounding single coils (fatter, darker, hotter than most single-coils), mini-humbuckers are sort of single-coil-ish sounding humbuckers (clearer, brighter, lower-output than full-size 'buckers). They're particularly great in the neck position -- really spectacular. They can be a little thin sounding in the bridge position, especially on heavy mahogany/maple cap guitars.

Your information is excellent. I managed a Gibson dealership. The LP Custom all mahogany "Black Beauty" models, however, had the Alnico staples in the neck position; not the bridge. Mine had a "LE" serial number. As far as I know, they were the first reissue electrics that Gibson made.

I played the guitar on stage for a long time. it was very stable and held an excellent tune. Tone wise, I would prefer a Fender or a Custom Les Paul with humbuckers.

"The LP Custom all mahogany "Black Beauty" models, however, had the Alnico staples in the neck position; not the bridge. Mine had a "LE" serial number. As far as I know, they were the first reissue electrics that Gibson made."

Yes, you're correct on both those counts. I'll claim a senior moment on getting the P90 and staples reversed.

The early '68 Goldtops weren't officially Limited Edition Reissues like the Black Beauties but they too had '56 specs -- 1-piece bodies (with dish-carved maple caps), 1-piece long tenon necks w/o volutes. I've read rumors that the early Goldtops and the Black Beauties were all or partially NOS bodies and necks they had left over from the discontinuation in '60/'61.

Besides being the first reissues, they were among the most accurate vintage-spec models Gibson did until the Historic series. Other than some tiny batches of reissues for Jimmy Wallace, Leo's, and Guitar Trader they were much more accurate than the later '70s, '80s, early '90s reissues. That still makes me a little angry -- Gibson showed they could do it then abandoned the accurate reissue concept almost entirely for 20-some years. It took the popularity of the MIJ clones to eventually spur them into doing serious reissues.

Thank you all for the very helpful information. Obviously I have the year that he purchased the guitar wrong. It was a long time ago and I guess I forgot exactly when he got it. But all this information is a big help and once again thanks for the help.

_________________

I think they had changed up the serial number code. They've had several.

_________________
"Speak the truth, and speak it ever,
cost it what it will
for he who hides the wrong he did
did the wrong thing still."
-Miss Uel

The serial would date it to a 68 but it should have the serial impressed in the back of the headstock, no stamped.

It is impressed into the headstock and a 68 seems more like the year its from since I remember my brother getting it in the early 70`s and it was preowned. But with the above information I`m a bit confused. I`m going to do some more research on it from some of the links posted and see what I can find.

_________________