Les Paul Classic 1960 Serial Numbers
Les Paul Classic
The Gibson Les Paul Classic was introduced in 1990 as a reissue based on the 1960 Les Paul. The key feature of the Classic was it's slim neck profile.
Home » 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard Serial #02163. The Classic Years by A.R. This month’s 1960 Les Paul sports a pair of original PAF humbuckers that. Jul 09, 2012 What year is this Les Paul Classic? Discussion in '. 1952-1960 Les Paul. You can NOT use the Historic serial number system to date a Classic. Gibson Brands Forums: How do the Les Paul Classic serial numbers work? - Gibson Brands Forums. Jump to content. A 2004 Ebony Les Paul Classic 1960's reissue.
The Les Paul Classic also had some other features true to the 1960 original: a narrow headstock, thin cutaway binding, aged yellowish fingerboard inlays, inked-on serial number, nickel hardware, vintage-style logo and aged binding on body and neck. Some differences were the Les Paul Classic's truss rod cover with 'Classic' and pickguard engraved '1960.' The pickups came with no covers so the coils were exposed, another characteristic to differentiate it from other Les Pauls, though this was fairly realistic given that many players removed the covers to get a better tone on their old Pauls. The Classic was introduced with a retail price of $1,529 more expensive than Les Paul Standards at the time.
The Classic's higher price was justified by its reissue-yet-modern vibe and was further enhanced by availability in several sunburst finishes, and in bullion gold on the top, sides, back and neck. Most of the tops on sunburst Classic models were plain: there was no special effort made to find figured maple tops. The Les Paul Classic specifications were adjusted during the early 1990s with the addition of the Classic Plus and Premium Plus models. Source: Eric Shoaf. Vintage Guitar magazine, May 1998. I bought my 2001 LP classic about a month ago from GC. I bought it used but its all stock.
This thing sounds great! I wasn't sure about the 500t and 496 being ceramic. I've heard that ceramic magnet pickups can sound sterile. But these don't sound sterile at all. I have a 57 classic plus I was going to throw into the bridge but why bother?
Les Paul Studio Serial Numbers
The 500t sounds amazing. I will, however say that it (the 500t) has to be dialed back to about 7 on volume and tone for it to sound really good. To my ears anyway.
But with that, it sounds fantastic! Being that it was used from GC it needs a setup. But its a fantastic sounding, playing, and looking guitar. Worth every penny. My wife might disagree, but its still worth it.
I bought my classic the year it was built in 2005. While I have since swapped both pick ups (Gibson Burstbucker 3 in place of the 496R & a Seymour Duncan Nazgul in place of the 500T) I have used this guitar for 10 years and it is a workhorse. I used it when I played gigs with a small jazz combo, Gun's and Roses cover band and a groove metal project. This is the be-all and end-all of a rock/ metal guitar. None has more sustain, none has more power (especially with my set-up). While it is ok in a studio setting, it really shines on-stage.
Beautiful Nashville quality, gorgeous honeyburst finish. I wanted to build a guitar that I could use to play through every song on The Allman Brothers 'Eat a Peach' album, then immediately play every Lamb of God song from 2000-2007. This guitar can do it. Incredibly versatile, heavy mahogany body with screaming gain and unreal sustain, but soft, nuanced and tone rich. To me, it is the perfect guitar and a classic that will hopefully be around for generations to come. Just some information on the Classics origins. The guitar was thought up by Ritchie Fleigler (Marshall, Fender, Gibson, he was an employee at this time and Fishman) and myself.
We both recognized a hole in the Market of what he was selling and I was buying. This was a very cool and well priced guitar that had an audience but a product that didn’t exist yet. We sold a ton of them right from the start. I had a 6 month lead time with the Classic before they opened it up to all dealers. Either way the initial PO’s would have taken up a lot of the production so they would have been backordered.
Then a year after that they cut me off and then a year after that they cut of Guitar Center and then they put us back on??? Always been a very interesting relationship) BTW Ritchie has serial number 0 0000 and I have 0 0001. Gibson will verify the story though it isn’t in any history books that I am aware of.
My Gibson Rep, Trish Moss who was inside sales at that time and a Gibson Rep now will verify this claim.
Are the pickups uncovered? 'Historics' didn't start until mid '93, but the ones before that are still good although I don't think they had the long neck tenon.
They're known as 'pre-historics' and some of them seem to fetch pretty big prices. If you're sure of the year then it would not be a Classic as they first appeared in 1989, and those early Classics are dead ringers for R0s that have had the nickel pickup covers removed, I think the only way to tell is that the neck on the Classic is thinner than the R0. This was before they had the Classic truss rod cover and they had 'Les Paul Model' screen printed on the headstock but later that was changed to 'Les Paul Classic'. Have a look at this page: Your serial number doesn't seem right for a pre-historic. Click to expand.Yeah I didn't mean to say that the early Classic is the same construction as an R0, but to look at them (compared a 1991 Classic to R0) you can't tell the difference if the pickups have been changed. The early Classics had proper white inlays, no '1960' and the word 'Classic' did not appear anywhere on the guitar.
Gibson stopped doing this with Classics around 1992 because they looked too much like the Historics that were about to be released. Of course the serial number would give it away for any Classic that was not made in 1990! It sounds like its a 1990 Classic. A plaintop in excellent condition will go for about $1500. Flametop $1800-$2200. I've owned three early '90s Classics and I can testify that they are very nice guitars. The build quality is excellent on all that I've seen.
If you don't mind the skinny neck, the Classic are a great alternative to the more expensive Historics.They primary differences would be thinner neck, uncovered 'hot' pickups (500T/496R), and a regular USA-style neck tenon rather than a long tenon joint. The early 90's (90-93) Classics have features that are more vintage-correct than the later Classics, such as: - Narrow binding in the cutaway - Thin binding on the neck - Better inlays with sharp corners - 'Les Paul Model' script on headstock - Nickel ABR bridge - Better color cream plastic (not the pink. used on newer models) Here are pix of the Classics that I've owned: 1990 Classic - Covers added to pickups 1991 Classic - Cover added to neck pickup, rings and pickguard swapped out with Historic Parts 1992 Classic - Duncan '59s installed, Historic pickguard, Dimarzio rings.