Description
This cherry sunburst Gibson Les Paul Custom dates to October 2nd 1985 at Nashville, during the Norlin era. It's in very good, clean and original condition and has a relatively unusual feature - Tim Shaw PAF reissue pickups. The use of these pickups is revealed by small 'Patent Applied For' decals on the bass side of the pickup trim rings. Overall this is a very good example of a Les Paul Custom, regardless of era.
Built in the 80's style, this 1985 Gibson Les Paul Custom has a three-piece Maple cap over a Mahogany back, wider Mahogany neck and Ebony fingerboard with Mother of Pearl for the block-style position markers and for the headstock logos. The body top and back and the headstock have multilayer binding, the fingerboard has a single layer binding.
The fretwire is relatively low with very light wear.
The metal hardware is gold plated - Grover Roto-Matic tuners with metal keystone buttons, wider travel tune-a-matic bridge and stop tailpiece. This plating on these metal parts has very little wear, indicating that the guitar has not been played much. The neck pickup trim ring has a break on the interior edge.
The individual volume and tone controls have black 'speed' knobs - these were originally introduced in 1953 and used until 1960, then used from 1980 on reissues.
The finish is a cherry sunburst in Gibson's standard nitrocellulose lacquer and is in very good, clean condition with only minor wear.
Sold with a Levy's gig bag. Hard shell cases are available.
When introduced in 1954, the Gibson Les Paul Custom differed from the Les Paul Model with a Mahogany body back, but a carved Mahogany top instead of Maple and an Ebony fingerboard with Mother of Pearl block position markers in place of Rosewood (Brazilian at the time) with trapezoidal markers. The bridge pickups on both versions were P-90s, but on the Custom an Alnico V 'Staple Top' pickup was used, adding some clarity and definition. At the middle of 1957 when the new Humbucking pickup designed by Seth Lover was available, Gibson installed three of them. This lasted until 1961 when poor sales led to a complete redesign to what's now known as the SG, and in 1963 the Les Paul name was retired. When reintroduced in 1968, the Les Paul Custom shared the Maple cap with what was now known as the Les Paul Standard, and the Deluxe. It also generally had two humbucking pickups. In 1969 Gibson's parent company CMI was itself acquired by Norlin, which lasted to 1986 and during this time further changes came and went including reducing the headstock pitch and adding a 'Volute' behind the nut and a three-piece Maple neck, all to reduce headstock breakage.
By 1980, Gibson Nashville was recognizing the interest in older models and began to design 'reissues', and one of the first low-cost targets was the pickups. Tim Shaw was tasked with re-creating the original PAF, 'Patent Applied For' pickups. His work uncovered a number of subtle changes such as magnet thickness, wire coating differences and impedance. Also discovered was the fact that original PAF's varied from pickup to pickup so any reissue is a reissue of one specific pickup or an 'average' example. These pickups appeared from 1980 to 1987. In 1996, Tim Shaw moved to Fender Musical Instrument Corporation, first working on Guild products.
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There are no refunds or returns on used items unless authorized in advance by a Twelfth Fret Sales Associate at time of sale. View Our Full Terms Here |
DETAILS:
- Instrument Model: Les Paul Custom
- Instrument Manufacturer: Gibson
- Instrument year: 1985
- Instrument Finish: Cherry Sunburst
- Instrument Class: Solidbody Electric Guitar
- Instrument serial number: 82755535, dated to October 02 1985 at Nashville TN
- Country of Origin: USA
- Instrument Condition: Very Good
- Playing Condition: Very Good
- Right-handed
- CITIES Documentation Required: No
- Instrument Weight Imperial: 10.516 lbs
- Instrument Weight Metric: 4.78 kgs
- Scale Length Imperial: 24.65 in
- Scale Length Metric: 626 mm
- Nut Width Imperial: 1.684 in
- Nut Width Metric: 42.77 mm
- Case included: Yes
- Case original: No
- Case Type: Levy's Gig Bag - Hard shell cases available
- Items in Case: N/A
- Consignment: Yes
- Product ID: 190484
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There are no refunds or returns on used items unless authorized in advance by a Twelfth Fret Sales Associate at time of sale. View Our Full Terms Here |