Mystery eBay Les Paul Reissue! I thought I Knew What I Was Buying... 1983 Gibson Prehistoric Reissue 

Episode Guide: Story - 0:23 | Calling Gibson - (This portion of the video had to be edited out based on a Complaint to RU-vid by Gibson) | The Mystery - 1:01. Dropping the Guitar - 6:07. Playing Demo - 13:16. Condition - 14:45 I thought I knew what I was bidding on - but it turns out we were all wrong! I was pleasantly surprised though!

That meme and image of the cracked neck scared the crap out of me!

I find it hard to look at those tuners.

You really got me with the cracked headstock 😪😂

My favorite Les Pauls are ones that get played! Same with cars and motorcycles, eff you Jay Leno!

I have this same guitar serial number 9 0008. I was told it was an ‘83 pre-historic. Now I guess I’ll call it a pre-pre-historic. Thanks so much for telling us about your research. I love this guitar and appreciated it even more now.

Don't drive a flathead screwdriver down into the split shaft of a pot! That is a good way of breaking off one half of the shaft, or widening them enough to make it hard to get a knob back on.

The proper way to remove stuck pots is to back the nuts off until they are barely on, put a deep socket that's two sizes too small on top of the nut, and strike the socket.

Just have to say I appreciate all of the effort and passion you put into these videos. They are absolutely fascinating to me and you are so dedicated to this channel. Much love man :) keep on teaching!

The wear and tear is what makes that guitar so cool. It was a working guitar. It's earned it's keep

My LP 1959 re-issue is from 1985. I was a Gibson/Epiphone dealer back then so I had some good in house sales reps. So I got a call from my favorite rep asking if I was considering on ordering for my store one of these. So I caved and said OK send me just 1 and send it in the then current Pro II case with the Blue felt inside the case. So my rep Ron Redmond had told me to call him when my guitar order came in (I had at least 12 more guitars that I ordered that day). Ron told me that he was sending me a SURPRISE. So the guitars came in and the UPS man put them in the back of the store for me that day. Upon closing the store that day, I decided to look at the outside of the boxes where they had a white label sticker on the top that Gibson would write the model number and the Serial Number as well as the finish and the type of case. So I saw the box with the 59 re-issue but I then saw the serial number that they had written and I then freaked out and I had to open up the box and open up the case to look at the guitar. Much to my delight the surprise I was promised by my sales Rep Ron was in fact there. So I brought the guitar home with me that night. Needless to say, the guitar never went back to the store. :-) So the serial number on my 1985 ' 1959 re-issue is 5 0001. I got the first one made and it's still in Mint Condition to this day as I never played or gigged the guitar ever. Just thought you'd might like to hear this story from me as I'm a big Gibson Norlin Era /early Henry fan like yourself.

That Gibson headstock logo looks like a DECAL to me.

I figured it at last! I don't plan to buy another Gibson, let alone vintage one, but your videos work as weird ASMR for me.

That is a stunning yet subtle flame! AN ABSOLUTE BEAUTY!

Awesome.....an "aged" guitar that got there the real way. Interesting how all the flaws you pointed out cost a premium when coming out of the custom shop. Great find!

Ooh, I liked that dirty tone. Tim Shaw's sure can rock!

Oh man, the Roundabout bit killed me! Great video as always, keep up the good work!

I like how the finish has dulled and it's well-played. I hate pristine guitars, I find myself babying them too much. I prefer to buy my guitars dinged up a little so it's not painful to ding them up a bit more.

I have one . It's 32 nd one made for that year ! Sounds just like yours . I love to play it !

Love the mystery unfolding. Thanks for the daily vids. Lots of work.

Nice! I recommend the book 2,000 Guitars The Ultimate Collection. One of the best references (this guitar is featured on page 108). Congratulations on cool guitar.

Hahah “pothead”. Also, the JoJo ref

I just bought a Gibson 2016 SG standard because of you.

Is the neck straight? Looks like the bridge is angled the opposite way that it normally should be. Usually higher on bass side lower on treble. Nice find. I’d certainly rock it. 🤘🏻

After ex-detective Monk, we have Detective Trogly! :)

I’m with you, that kind of flame is beautiful

Actually, that guitar and it’s flaming 🔥 photographed spectacularly.

I gotta say man I learned ssssooooooo much about my favorite guitar the Lespaul on this channel .I truly appreciate your effort my friend ..thank u ..now I have ppl call me an ask me about there LPs all bc of u and I direct them to your channel

When I heard the roundabout intro I knew something bad was about to happened. Then I was quickly relieved.

The serial number font, and size of the font does NOT look like it was stamped by Gibson.

What a find! and yeah Tim Shaws are lovely pups, love that sound! Gorgeous guitar

Don't ever drive a screw driver down the middle of the pot stem. You greatly risk snapping one half of the stem off!!!

This is obviously old info, so what did it sell for, or what is it’s value in it’s present condition? Thanks, Mr Trog;)

Now see, I absolutely love the short, small bursts like this one has.

I think it would be fun to hear you talk about how you overcome the keep/sell impulse sometime. Add it to the Adventures in Resale group like the Goldtop that took the "3 hour tour" a while back. If this one was more complete, I'd be torn if I was in the business

4:20 into this and I have to say.."Hold it right there boy.." I'm not sure if you were born yet when these came out. That Serial # I think is NORLIN. The first batch of those "Good" (most accurate 59' reissues up till that time ) went to Manny's Music on 48th Street in New York City..there were 12 of them. Numbered I believe as you see 9 Space then 00XX but I maybe mistaken and it may have been just 00XX . Of the first 12 almost all instantly sold to Japan..when I walked in (I worked a few blocks away and was down there often) there were two left. One was out and Benny pulled out the one still in the box and I bought that one 0011.they discounted around 45% off then so with tax it came to I think $1055.The Warranty was Norlin and was for one year.The guitar looked the part but was caked in Polyurethane..that was the main issue. I think it was April 1983. The guitar never really opened up so I gave it to Mandolin Brothers to sell it for me 10 or 15 years later. To give you some idea how much $1055 was in 1983..in late 1978 or early 1979..it was winter..there was a real 1960 Sunburst Les Paul hanging in the window of We Buy Guitars (48th Street) for $600. A current shiny new black Les Paul Custom was about $358 at Manny's. I wanted that 1960 but had less than half that and got ripped off by Stuyvesant guitars instead on a 65' Gibson Dove. In the 80's I had a job but things had sky rocketed.I also got the first Historic Series Reissue 59' Les Paul that arrived on 48th Street..the price for the time I think it was 1993 with tax was $4005 an astronomical amount for the time..but that guitar was a Henry owned Gibson and was and is special..had to sell it two years later to help buy a house..my brother inlaw has it.

Dude! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!?

The clean sounds on this thing are awesome! Until I bought my first Les Paul and ES-339 I thought the best clean sounds were from single coil guitars. And, I still love my Strat's and Tele's clean sounds. I find myself using my Gibson's more and more when I need clean tracks.

I love the Tone, Look ...Its my favorite out of all the guitars that you have reviewed... Keep up the good work.. I learned a lot from you..

I had a few of these and a goldtop as well. I also had a Guitar Trader that I bought from the original owner and I remember it from when he ordered it new. I knew the Guitar Trader guys and they showed me the tops one day that they sent out to Michigan to put on the guitars. The burst on these early guitars wasn't as great as some of the later reissues. As for the 82-83 reissues, the '57 goldtop had a two piece center seam flame top. At least one of the sunburst standards had an 83 serial number. The same guy had the sunburst '59 and goldtop '57 guitars and I bought both. He bought them both new. One weird thing I noticed is that they had a few longitudinal lacquer checks on the top.Weird but original . An LPF guy heckled me slightly over this saying that whomever reliced them had a bad sense of direction! I had several real bursts as well back when ordinary folks could still afford to buy them. Its always fun checking out these reissue guitars before they were institutionalized into the R9 format Thanks it was fun watching this one.

i have a set of tim shaws. the neck pickup sounds heavenly

Despite having a 2017 lp of my own (blue berry burst). Watching your vids makes me want another (usually the ones featured, like this one😂)

Very happy for you nice-looking Nash playing guitar I only 1983 Studio standard with the Tim Shaw pickups haven't changed a thing on his guitar sounds great and also looks great my hands are kind of a root beer burst enjoy your videos thanks

A friend of mine in Texas just watched this...he's got this identical guitar... albeit a little more beat up. He's had it since new. It's a freaking spectacular guitar and it's probably going to be buried with him.

That's almost a tiger flame top. Its gorgeous!!

I have number 47 of this run. So there were probably 50 made. In 1989 the serial numbers started with a 9 but only had 3 digits after.

Another nice fret board with color variation. A beautiful flame top, topping it off with a nice cherry burst. Very nice. Lucky

Hey now I thought of it. I bought a Norlin era custom 77 on eBay. Still have it.

I love the top and the color of that guitar.

Rossetti (EMI) at the time the distributer of Gibson in England had a bunch of the "1983 Standard Reissue" in London. I played a couple when I went in to pick up a Black Custom. They all had nice wide flame. If you look at page 90 of Tony Bacon's "The Les Paul Guitar Book" you will see a photo of Billy Gibbons playing one onstage.. The next year they had the "1984 Standard Reissue" - which I missed. I thought the 83 version's red was unusually translucent. Btw the next page of Tony's book features the Spotlight........... Best, Pete.

I had one of those serial number 1, it was pretty heavy, but sounded great, with brown case. Mine had a more narrow flame

Austin ,i'm not sure but I think Philadelphia luthier tools makes tools just for that ,that removes those & t a nice brass hammeris a useful tool works on many application as the brass is soft when tapping. 30 years as a auto painter the brass hammer saved many delicate trim parts in classic cars being removed,think it'll be useful on guitars too..😎

Yes indeed I done that with the screwdriver thing inserting the flat head in the slot and lightly tapping it but the parts were so old they broke one of the ears off so ended up having to replace the pot

Great story ,that top is killer and it sounds great ! Thanks for sharing.

The dings and scratches from it actually being played make it even cooler, id just like to see the matching pieces of the top match better but i love it and would love to play it and own it.

Use a tea spoon if you want to safely take off your knobs!!! And you can add a little piece of foam between the guitar top and the spoon if you want to be sure... YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE ANY DAMAGES WITH THIS METHOD, and you have all the tool at home!!! 😁

I would absolutely love an early 80s cherry. I'm selling a car soon, I will either get one, or a custom of some description.

I found a brand new left over 2018 Traditional Les Paul for $1695 . Sounds great

You really need to refret it it with med. jumbo stainlese Steel frets. Also put everything original back on it that you possibly can including putting back on the original Clouson Tuners back on it! Nice guitar, Rock on! 🎸👍

Fantastic score. It sounds warm without being muddy. I would say it looks rather good for a guitar that is 35 years old.

Finish looks really interesting for sure. a kind of 3d holographic effect?

Wow Trog! Thats the prettiest top ive ever seen, thats a beautiful Rock machine! Love to have that one to play as well , it had to be played! Those kinda tops have a real keeper attitude! thanks for the informative vid, shes a beaut!

Love your youtube channel mate! Always learning something new. Thank you.

That's how you show love to a guitar play it !

This video was better than any episode of Law and Order!!!

I have been asked to identify instruments for insurance companies and police investigations and these took all of 43 seconds to identify.I am quite embarrassed that it took me so long.

Have you ever reviewed the 2013 Gibson 3knob special sold by the big catologs?

I bought a 1977 LP Tuxedo under similar circumstances. It was labeled as cream colored LP custom, with no auction pictures revealing the black backside. Someone had replaced all the custom black plates with cream ones from a standard. It was very exciting to receive it and see the black backside. Eventually, someone offered me stupid money for it, so I sold it. It was a super heavy guitar but sounded fantastic.

very difficult when you're selling something and you're really not sure of a sweat in age and things like that but when you're not completely sure of what's going on it's hard to make the buyer understand that you have to be more sure of yourself of what you're selling before the person's going to buy it is going to feel comfortable

Instead of using screwdrivers to remove the knobs the barbaric way, simply take 2 long wires and place one on each side underneath the knobs and then grab the wires together and pull up!!! this is a guarantee that no damage will happen and much simpler than banging on it with screw drivers.

Great knowledge you have on the Les Paul. ...i had a 1983 reissue of the 58 i wish i still had

I can’t watch a damn guitar video without JoJo haunting me; I love it.

Cool guitar! I remember seeing 9 0001 for sale on digimart in Japan about 8 years ago, the frets were completely worn out though.

Did you end up keeping this one or did you sell it on? I LOVE these guitars, always have. (The knobs were really cool!)

The original run of studios around that time made of alder were super cool- your right- it was a good era.

That bit with the cracked neck was great 😂

If you had never played it I was going to split and stay gone :0 Thanks for restoring my faith!

Back to the 6 minute mark where you wack away at the potentiometer, may I suggest you take a 1/4" drive socket that fits snugly over the shaft or simply take on of those universal screw drivers with changeable bits, take the bit out and use the driver, it should just fit over the shaft.

Very nice indeed, the pickups sound perfect. Between 81-83 there was a massive up-set due to the TOGAI aggresive and cool Fender and Gibson vintage styles thhat were outselling everyone and the 2 big boys realised they had to get the old blueprints out and make some decent instruments which took us right back to the 50s and 60s classics making a come-back..it's only 24 years younger than a 59 lez paul. A beauty but the sound is too good!

One of the first things I would do when trying to date code the guitar would be to check the pots out and see if they had been changed if not I would check the date code on them. You could then see if everything else seems to agree with that date.

Awee you sly dog, I thought you actually dropped that guitar for about 2 seconds, also that flame top on that guitar is freaking GORGEOUS.

The headstock logo looks like it was cut out of construction paper.

For the longest time I told myself I'd learn about guitar production history and gear after I was half decent at playing.... never got very good but i guess I've seen the error or my ways since then so I'm trying to learn now. Great videos man tons of good info

If it we're an 89, the "i' in Gibson would be missing the dot on the logo

Interesting about this flame maple top....I have an almost identical one on my '82 Ibanez AR-300 Artist!

Oh my gosh, I was freaking out when he dropped it

In 1983, Guitar Trader in NJ ordered from Gibson a batch of Les Pauls that were the first "Burst" reissues. It is maybe one of those.

Favourite guitar on here ever. That flame top and it's siblings.

For a minute, I thought trogly was going to do a video on how to do a headstock repair on a Gibson! 😆🤣😂😆🤣😂

Even though Schaller's are descent tuners. The previous owner did devalue the LP by reaming and drilling it to install the Schallers.

Is the top carve not as deep or pronounced as the originals? Doesn’t seem to have that reflective dip but it could’ve been the lighting. Very cool guitar!

One of the nicest clean bridge tones I have heard.

That LP has nice flame and it sounds great clean. As far as having nicks and dings, it has character and would be a great player. Cool guitar!

OMG, they lined the case in Wookie? Bastards!

As soon as I heard the to be continued sound I knew something was bout to happen😂

I like the wider flame too. I'd rock this one!

A clean tone to die for!! I think the character marks are fine for 35 years old. What bothers me most is that headstock logo. It looks like it pasted on, and then lacquered over

i almost thought that was a foot playing at 13:17

I have an 83 Alpine White computer chip pickups chainsaw case two big plastic latches red interior. does that sound right for that year? Great show you probably forgot more than I know about guitars keep rocking.

My personal favorite year of gibson is 1984 just because of the 84 explorer that look so much better has the other ones