2023 Gibson Les Paul Modern Lite with Upgrades - Inverness Green
Weighs only 7.2 lbs. This is light for a Les Paul!

Free Pro Setup - $100 Value
See below for details.

Available Cases:

• Gibson gig bag, $89
• Aftermarket Les Paul case, $139
• Gibson soft "Basketball" case, $149
• SKB molded Les Paul Case with heavy duty TSA approved latches, $199
• Gibson hard shell case, made in Canada by TKL, black, $209 (shown)

Condition:  Very good. Has some small nicks in the finish on the edge of the headstock. See photos.

Description:  We've been wanting to get one of these Les Paul Modern Lites for a while. We love light Les Pauls, and this one fits the bill. It's about 2/3rds the thickness of a Les Paul Standard, so weighs about 2/3rds as much. And it has a belly cut. The thin and light body and the belly cut, make this guitar infinitely more comfortable than your run-of-the-mill, Les Paul Standard. And it has two Gibson humbuckers, four hand wired pots and a three-way switch. You give up nothing in terms of sound and performance, but in a much lighter, more comfortable and more affordable package. We call that a win-win-win.

Upgrades: The only thing holding us back on buying one of these Modern Lites, was we weren't crazy about the look with the black plastics, black knobs and exposed black pickups. But we fixed that. We changed the plastics to cream, put on a set of gold knobs, and installed chrome pickup covers.

Tuners: The tuners have been upgraded to a set of full size Grover style tuners. They don't say Grover on them, but they're as good or better than any Grovers we've ever used.

Inverness Green: Inverness Green is one of our favorite Gibson colors. You see Les Pauls all the time in Sunburst, Black, White and Cherry, but this Inverness Green is stunning! We love it.

Light and Comfortable: Weighs only 7.2 lbs. This is light for a Les Paul! Do you love Les Pauls, but struggle with a 9.5 to 10.5 lb guitar? Then this is the Les Paul for you. It's thin, light and comfortable, but with all the tone that Les Pauls are known for.

Upgraded Pickups: We upgraded the pickup to a Seymour Duncans with chrome covers. They look awesome and sound even better!

Duncan SH-1N '59 Model Neck Pickup: The ’59 neck is designed in the spirit of the original Gibson PAF humbuckers of the late 1950s, with sweet sustain, and a warm, full sound that still possesses a clear attack. The high end is slightly boosted for improved pick-attack clarity and the mids are a little scooped for an open, smooth sound that’s great for preserving the clarity of the individual notes in a chord. The ’59 model features traditional vintage treatments such as 42AWG plain enamel wire, Alnico 5 bar magnets and a long-legged nickel-silver bottom plate and it's wound on Seymour’s classic Leesona 102 machine from the old Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Duncan SH-4, "JB" Model Bridge Pickup: The Duncan JB is an absolute powerhouse designed in the 1970s for high-output crunch and singing sustain. It features a prominent, aggressive upper-midrange bump. This "mid-spike" cuts through a dense band mix effortlessly and gives solo notes an unmistakable vocal quality. It's well suited to Jazz, Rock, Hard rock, heavy metal, punk, and screaming blues leads. It pushes tube amplifiers into a natural, harmonically rich overdrive very quickly.

Wiring: The Modern Lite is hand-wired with standard CTS 500k pots. We love that. But since we were swapping the pickups, we figured we should add a few other upgrades as well. So, we changed the wiring to 1950's style with a pair of 0.022 uF tone caps.

Distinguishing features:

• Solid mahogany body has a carved top, but is 2/3rds the thickness of a Les Paul Standard, making it a lot lighter.
• The thin body, light weight and belly cut make it infinitely more comfortable!
• A Duncan SH-1N humbucker in the neck and a Gibson 490T humbucker in the bridge
• A three-way switch and four knobs, just like a Les Paul Standard
• Mahogany set-neck with a rosewood fingerboard and simple dot inlays
• 60's slim taper neck profile
• Nitrocellulose lacquer in a beautiful Inverness Green
• Body color matched headstock
• Chrome hardware, a Nashville-style bridge, and a silkscreened Gibson headstock logo

Luthier's measurements and assessment:

• Serial No. 229630282
• Weight: 7.2 lbs
• Nut width: 1.64"
• Neck width at 12th fret: 2.06"
• Neck thickness at 1st fret: 0.78"
• Neck thickness at 12th fret: 0.90"
• Action at high e: 0.050"
• Action at low E: 0.060"
• Neck pickup DCR: 7.5k Ohms
• Neck pickup DCR: 16.0k Ohms
• Truss rod: Turns smoothly
• Frets: Excellent 9.5/10
• Cosmetic condition: Very good. Nicks in finish around the headstock.
• Functional condition: Excellent. Everything works well.
• Electronics: Excellent. No issues
• Playability: Excellent. Plays very well. Neck is comfortable.
• Sound: Loud and resonant unplugged. Good sustain. Pickups sound wonderful.
• Overall condition: Very good

Features and Specs:

• Body Wood: Mahogany
• Body thickness: 1-1/4"
• Body finish: Satin nitrocellulose lacquer
• Body color: Inverness green
• Body contours: Belly cut
• Neck Wood: Mahogany
• Neck finish: Satin nitrocellulose lacquer
• Fingerboard: Rosewood
• Fingerboard Radius: 12"
• Nut: Graphtech
• Inlays: Dots
• Scale: 24.75"
• Frets: 22
• Neck pickup: Gibson 490R humbucker
• Bridge pickup: Gibson 490T humbucker
• Controls: Volume and Tone for each pickup
• Pickup switch: Three-way toggle
• Bridge: Tune-O-Matic
• Tailpiece: Stop-bar
• Tuners: Grover
• Hardware: Chrome

About Del Mar Lutherie:  We’re a small shop in San Diego County, California. We build custom electric guitars and vintage style hand-wired tube amps.  We also buy and sell vintage and used gear.  Our owner is a guitar enthusiast, wood worker and professional engineer by training.  We’re part of the local guitar community (Fender, Taylor, Carvin/Kiesel).

Why buy from us?  Our clients have peace of mind knowing they’re buying from a highly rated professional shop.  We've been doing this type of work since 1999 and have thousands of happy customers.  We pride ourselves in providing best-in-class personalized service for each client.  We are a Reverb Preferred Seller, and our approval rating is close to 100%.

Dr. T’s Professional Inspection and Setup: You may find a similar guitar at a lower price, but ours may still be the better value as we include our professional inspection and setup. With over 25 years in the industry, we’re convinced that a good setup is the single most important investment to improve the playability and sound of your guitar.  Here’s what in entails. We inspect the guitar and address issues. Next, we remove the strings and tighten and set the drag on the tuners. We inspect and polish the frets, clean and oil the fingerboard, restring, tune to pitch and set the relief, action and intonation. We then play each fret and check for fret buzz and fret-outs during bends, and we fine-tune as required. Next, we test the electronics, clean and tighten pots and jacks and balance the pickups.  Occasionally, we find a fault with the electronics, so we dig in and diagnose and repair that.  Once the electronics are tip top, we play the guitar to make sure everything is just right.  Finally, we clean and polish the guitar, then slacken the stings to get it ready for shipping.

String Gauges and Settings:  We do our setups using common string gauges and settings, which we've found work well for most players. For electrics, we use 9-42 gauge strings for Fender (25.5") scale guitars and 10-46 for Gibson (24.75") scale guitars.  We set action to 0.050 on the high e side and 0.060 on the low E side. This action is fairly low and allows for easy fretting without buzzing or sacrificing tone.  If you have special preferences, please let us know, and we will do our best to accommodate you.

Fine Tuning Adjustments:  Your guitar will be playing and sounding wonderful when we finish our setup. However, occasionally minor adjustments will be needed after shipping due to changes in temperature and/or humidity, rough handling or other unfavorable conditions.  Since we have no control over this, we cannot cover the cost of these adjustments.  However, if your guitar was mishandled during shipping, please let us know, so we can see if a shipping claim is in order.  Sometimes it’s possible to get you a partial refund to help cover issues if we can show that they were caused by shipping.

Condition Ratings: We do our best to be consistent with Reverb’s condition rating system.  Please keep in mind that Reverb’s descriptions are very general and can be open to interpretation. The guitar you get will be the one shown in the photos, and if it has any major flaws or defects, we will point them out in the listing.  Our guitars rated below “Mint” will have signs of use and cosmetic imperfections, including minor dings, dents and swirl marks, which might only be visible upon close inspection. If you are sensitive to minor cosmetic defects, please let us know, and we can provide you with close-up photos.  We do not accept returns nor give partial refunds if you receive your guitar and believe that it should have been rated lower.  We’ve sold thousands of guitars, and almost without exception, our clients have not had issues with our ratings.  This tells us that we are doing a great job with our condition ratings.  

Standard of Care: We strive to meet our clients’ expectations, and we want you to be happy with your purchase.  Guitars develop wear with use and it’s widely accepted that honest wear adds character and shows that the guitar has been played and loved. Our used and vintage guitars will have signs of use. Our Del Mar Lutherie brand guitars are hand-built and will have artifacts that some people might view as "imperfections".  If you want a guitar in “perfect” or “flawless” condition, we advise you to buy new from an authorized dealer or buy locally so you can inspect it in person. We do not guarantee that our guitars will be cosmetically flawless, and we don’t accept returns or give partial refunds due to cosmetic imperfections.

Specs: We list specs as a courtesy. Some specs are measured by our techs. Others are taken from the manufacturer's data. Manufacturers change specs all the time, and their listed specs may not be 100% accurate. Also, some used guitars have mods that may not be apparent upon visual inspection. The guitar you will get is the one shown in the photos. If there are any "deal breaker" specs that you must have, please let us know so we can double check for you before your purchase.

Videos: We often provide YouTube links to provide our clients with more information. These videos will be of a similar make and model which is representative of the guitar in our listing. 

Shipping: We ship guitars via UPS ground. The fee shown includes shipping within the contiguous USA with insurance. It also includes packaging materials and our time to pack up and drop off at UPS.  For guitars, shipping costs are controlled by box size and insurance is based on value. Your guitar will ship without a case, unless one is described as included in the listing or you add one to your order. If you decline to add a case, we will pack your guitar well with bubble wrap and other padding and ship it in a sturdy guitar box. However, if you want your guitar to have even better protection, we encourage you to add a hard case to your order. See below for details.

Cases: Some guitars we buy come with cases and some don't.  Some clients want cases, and some have so many they don't want more.  To offer flexibility, we make cases optional.  This allows us to pass on some savings to those who don't want cases and to offer several case types to our clients who do want them.  If you want a case, please let us know.  There are many benefits when you buy a case from us; we have good prices, we make sure your guitar fits, we offer free shipping on the case (when combined with a guitar) and we ship your guitar inside the case for better protection. Each year, we see a small number of guitars arrive with damage caused by mishandling during shipping. However, when shipped inside a hard case, the incidence of damage is almost zero. See the top of the listing or inquire for options.

Delivery Time: We do our best to get your guitar setup, boxed and shipped as soon as possible. However, sometimes this can take a few days depending on our workload and other factors. Once UPS receives your guitar, they will estimate a delivery date, which you can access via Reverb. UPS will typically deliver your guitar within 2 to 7 business days after they receive it, depending on your distance from Southern California. If you're in a hurry, please let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate you, or at least we can advise you of the estimated wait, so you can decide if you need to make other arrangements.

Damage Claims: Although rare, guitars sometimes are damaged during shipping. If you receive a guitar that is damaged, please let us know immediately so we can open a claim.

Returns and Canceled Orders:  We are a small business and can’t afford to offer free returns like the big guys. There is a lot of time, effort and cost involved with processing your order, pulling your guitar from inventory, setting it up, packing and shipping it. Please make sure you want the guitar before you commit to buy. If we agree to a return or to cancel your order, you will be responsible for shipping costs (both ways) and a restocking fee to cover our time.

Trades:   We are a professional guitar business. Anything we take on trade, we resell. Due to shipping costs and transaction fees, we only do trades in person. To make sense for us, we can only offer wholesale value, which is typically 40% to 60% of what it would sell for on Reverb. This is usually as good or better than Guitar Center.  If you’re OK with this, please send current photos of the actual gear you have for trade. We need brand, model, year, and condition. Note any mods, repairs or other issues. If your guitar includes a hard case or gig bag, send photos of that as well.