Up for sale, a 1981 Gibson Heritage Series Standard-80 Les Paul in near-mint, 100% original condition and in perfect working order, complete with a hardshell case. The Heritage instruments were Gibson’s first attempt at faithful recreations of a late ‘50s Les Paul, with significant attention to detail and premium components, only produced from 1980-82. While the vast majority of examples featured “burst” finishes, this Standard-80 has an extremely rare factory Wine Red nitro lacquer gloss. According to former Gibson employee Randy Leonard, sparingly few Heritage Les Pauls boasted this custom color finish, which was very likely produced as an exclusive model for a single distributor.

Traditional tonewoods include a solid mahogany body, carved bookmatched two-piece maple top, mahogany neck, and bound rosewood fingerboard, and this Heritage Les Paul Standard-80 weighs 10lbs 6oz, dishing out plenty of natural sustain. At the heart of this Les Paul Custom are a pair of Tim Shaw PAF humbuckers: these pickups represent Gibson's first, and arguably one of their best, attempts at recreating the magic of their late '50s humbucker design. Offered for only a few short years in the '80s, the Shaws are designed with unoriented, rough cast Alnico V magnets, plastic spacers, and poly-coated wire, achieving the harmonic complexity, sensitivity to picking dynamics, and tonal clarity of the original PAF. This Les Paul Standard-80 has been professionally setup here at Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar with 10-46 strings, low action, and accurate intonation.

Neck Specs:

• Wood: Mahogany (three-piece)
• Shape: Medium C, measuring .840” 1st fret, .990” 12th fret
• Fretboard: Rosewood, pearloid flared trapezoid inlay
• Frets: Medium jumbo, no wear
• Scale Length: 24 3/4”
• Nut: 1 11/16”
• Headstock: “Heritage Series Standard-80” truss rod cover
• Tuners: Grover Rotomatics
• Serialization: Eight-digit stamp dates to ‘81, four-digit Limited Edition Heritage Series serial

Body Specs:

• Wood: Maple (two-piece, bookmatched), Mahogany
• Pickups: Tim Shaw PAF x2, ink stamps on baseplates date to Aug and Oct of ‘80
• Harness: Untouched solder, CTS pots date to 1980 and ‘81
• Hardware: Nashville bridge, Stopbar (nickel-plated)
• Plastics: Cream pickguard, amber bonnet knobs

The gloss Wine Red nitro lacquer custom color finish has subtle translucency, highlighting the curly figuring in the bookmatched maple top. There’s a bit of pick wear extending beyond the pickguard to the cutaway, limited to buckle rash concentrated at the bass-side waist, and just a few minor dings on the body, primarily limited to the lower bout. The nitro gloss on the neck profile is smooth and clean, with a few shallow marks behind frets 6-8 that are not distracting to the palm while fretting.

A modern brown tolex Gibson USA hardshell case is included.