1968 Gibson Les Paul Std.

The Early Series Gibson Les Paul Goldtop Reissues are fantastic instruments with thoroughbred heritage to boot. They are the most sought after of Les Paul Reissues by far and they display decidedly 50’s construction throughout. These guitars offer a great alternative to an original 1950’s Les Paul as prices have been soaring over the past decades. When you hear the general term “1968 Les Paul” in a guitar nerd conversation, it generally refers to this particular era even though a good bit of these guitars were made in 1969. This is the era that Gibson chose to produce their legendary “1968 Les Paul Reissue”, all based upon the original 1955-1956-1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop.

For this particular guitar all specific details point to a “second batch” guitar built September/October 1968: the one piece body and big 50’s style one piece neck with no volute and 50’s style heel, long tenon neck joint, small headstock with Les Paul Model Gibson Logo (with open b open o and dotted i), serial number in the 515xxx series, pots dating to 1968, pots cavity routing with straight walls and flat maple floor hinting on the earliest routing method. One of the last 1st Series Goldtops noted has serial 515xxx so the one we have for sale must be one of the first “2nd Batch” guitars !

This all original beauty weighs only 9 1/2 lbs. which is a very good weight for this era ! It has the original P90 pickups, pots dating to 1968 Sprague black beauty capacitors, ABR wire bridge with nylon saddles, stop tailpiece, studs, pickguard, gold reflector knobs, 3 way plastic trim ring, Kluson Deluxe double line double ring tuners, jack output w/a repro jack plate, even the strap buttons and screws are original. The finish throughout is original front to back, neck and headstock, with no touchups or repairs. This was owned from day 1 by a Mr. Bob Albert, who bought it new from Sam Ash on Long Island. Bob had a very successful band call the “Lookout” whom played many venues in period. We have some killer period photos & a current pic in the shop of Mr. Albert. She’s excellent overall & comes in its original 1968 Gibson shaped case with yellow/gold plush lining.