Gibson Les Paul R9 Pre Historic 1988 Heritage Cherry Burst

No sales tax for customers outside California.

Here we have a 1988 Gibson Les Paul Standard, a "Pre Historic" reissue of the legendary '59 "Burst".  Gibson started the effort of reissuing their classics in 1983, leading eventually to the official Custom Art & Historic "R9" reissues.

This is a great example with a desirable weight of just 8 pounds, 6.5 ounces.  

Someone clearly coveted this guitar - they took great care of it.  A good way to tell is to look closely at the tip of the headstock - there's one little chip there, a sign that it wasn't played much and was never used to hit a drummer's crash cymbal, and was never the victim of a drunken stumble.  

The frets show the prior owner's reverence as well - they show little use.  

As you may know from checking out our listings, we check every detail of our guitars to make sure we know what we're selling you.  I was surprised to find a pickup mismatch as we went through our process, but after a deep dive I am confident that this is the way the guitar left Gibson.  1988 was the first year that the Bill Lawrence pickups were used, a transition away from the embossed "Patent Number" pickups.  The solder joints in the electronic cavity are clearly original.  This must have been a model made during this pickup transition, and someone reached for pickups to find one from each period.  

The guitar is 100% original with no repairs, issues, etc.  The truss rod was checked to make sure there is room for future neck relief adjustments. It is a perfect example!

The original case is included.

Some pre-historic history for ya:

1983, Gibson finally released a “Les Paul Reissue” model. For whatever reason, they were careful not to call it a 1959 reissue. The Reissue was an immediate hit with Les Paul lovers, since it had features that were closer to a 1959 Les Paul, such as the thin binding in the cutaway, nickel hardware, ABR-1 bridge, vintage-style knobs, and highly figured tops. None of the reissues had a long neck tenon. The reissues did not have serial numbers starting with an “8”, “9”, or “0” to denote 1958, 1959, or 1960. Rather, the first digit of the vintage-style (Y XXXX format) serial number represented the year of manufacture, so a 1983 started with “3”, 1984 started with “4”, and so forth. This numbering scheme has confused many collectors who have purchased Les Paul Classics that, starting in 1990, carry a similar serial number format. While the Reissue carried an almost 50% premium price above a Les Paul Standard at the time, at $1,500 it was within the realm of possibility for many collectors and players.

The Les Paul Reissue varied in features as the 1980’s progressed, and there does not seem to be a logical pattern to the changes. As noted in the following descriptions of actual instruments from that era, these guitars varied considerably in weight (lightest at 8 lbs. 9 oz. and heaviest at 10 lbs. 8 oz.), style of “Gibson” logo (open or closed “b” and “o”, position of the logo, and some with a dot and others with no dot over the “i”), color of backplates (black or brown), and color of tops. All except the 1984 described below had a deep red painted mahogany back versus the use of cherry color pore filler, which was reintroduced with the Historic reissues. Some years had no markings of any kind in the pickup cavities; others have an “HCSB” (“heritage cherry sunburst”) designation. Reissues were made from 1983 until early 1993, before the Les Paul ’59 Historic Reissues with the long neck tenons were released. The neck sizes on Reissues varied somewhat, but were generally of medium thickness. 

• Color: Heritage Cherry Burst
• Weight: 8lbs 6.5ozs
• Top: Maple
• Body: Mahogany
• Neck: Mahogany
• Neck Profile: See picture
• Fretboard: Bound rosewood
• Inlays: Mother-of-pearl trapezoidsd
• Frets: Original
• Fret count: 22
• Nut: Original
• Nut width: 1 11/16"
• Radius: 10"
• Scale: 24 3/4"
• Neck thickness at 1st fret: 0.825"
• Neck thickness at 12th fret: 0.955"
• Action 1st String at 12th Fret: 2/32"
• Action 6th String at 12th Fret: 2/32"
• Total length: 38 9/16"
• Lower bout: 12 7/8"
• Waist: 7 1/8"
• Upper bout: 9 1/8"
• Body depth/thickness outside edge: 1 15/16"
• String gauge: .010-.046"
• Hardware Color: Chrome
• Bridge Pickup/Brand: Gibson
• Bridge Pickup Reading: 7.92k
• Pickup Original?: Yes
  
• Neck Pickup/Brand: Gibson
• Neck Pickup Reading: 6.99k
• Pickup Original?: Yes
  
• Bridge: Original 
• Tuners: Original
• Knobs: Original
• Switch: Original
• Pots/Codes: Original 137-8818
• Case: OHSC
• Notes:

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