Any Gibson Les Paul experts here?

[G-Mac]

I'm looking at a 1978 Les Paul Pro model. It's black. It has a P90 soapbar pickup in the neck (rhythm) position and a humbucker in the bridge (treble) position.

Did Gibson manufacture this model with this pickup configuration?

I Googled it, but it seems that all I can find is pictures of the Pro with two soapbar P90 pickups.

I'm trying to determine the originality of the guitar...I'm wondering if the body was routed out to accept the larger humbucker. That would not be a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

I thought I knew something about Les Pauls, but I'm not familiar with such a variation of the Pro model from this time period.

Anybody know of such an animal?

 

[tomhenry]

I'm sorry, I don't know the specifics of the '78 Black Beauty LP. I own a LP Standard and have owned a LP Studio, but they are much later manufactured guitars.

China has been flooding our market with counterfeit Les Pauls. I seen pics of some and they look pretty good, until you look real close. Of course they sound like garbage.

If I were you, I'd call Gibson. I'd also join some forums, such as:

Harmony Central Forums
Gibson Guitar Board
The Gear Page - Powered by vBulletin

.....and ask them.

Good luck.

 

[beach elvis]

I don't believe that setup came stock. Could be wrong, however. Gibson has done special runs before for Sam Ash and Guitar Center.

Good news is I also don't believe there'd be a routing issue between the two, depending on whose humbuckers you use. Hopefully, that can be a bargaining chip in your negoshee-ayshuns. Or, it could also sound monstrous as is.

Odd that they'd be in the positions that they are because usually the P-90 would be in the lead (bridge) position to take advantage of the extra "cut" of the single coil during solos. Maybe they just wanted a beefed-up Les Paul Junior tone for rhythm.

 

[ajr969]

I found this... It's an excerpt from the 1978 Gibson catalog which lists the Les Paul Pro Deluxe as being equiped with 2 single coils:
1978 Gibson Quality / Prestige / Innovation catalogue, page 5 - Les Paul Pro Deluxe and Les Paul Standard

There's no mention of humbuckers in the description details for the pro, so I would guess the one you're looking at has been modified at some time to accept a humbucker at the bridge position... unfortunately. (I like P-90's).

 

[G-Mac]

Well, I guess I can assume it's not original. I had thoughts of buying it, but the asking price is too high for an example that's been butchered. The owner says it came like that but I don't believe it. Thanks.