Yesterday, I got my hands on this Gibson Les Paul Studio which had been listed for a long time without takers. I kept her on my watch list for a long time before removing her a long time ago. She was then listed at $1500. Looking at her condition in the pictures, I didn’t find it worthwhile to watch her anymore. She didn’t even show up in the search anymore.
A few days ago, the owner lowered the price to $700 and I managed to find her back in the search again. I realised she could be a good deal. I went down to check on her. She looked neglected in that dirty-looking case. The Les Paul was even filthier. But having done my research, this 1990s Studio is a cheap keeper that could rise in value. So I took her in.
After doing my research on the net and trying to look at the very faint serial number on the headstock, I could only speculate this is a Gibson Les Paul Studio Lite from possibly 1991, 1994, or 1998, not 1990 mentioned by the previous owner. When I checked the number on the pots, it became clear after checking the net again. She is a 1991 Gibson Les Paul Studio Lite in translucent blue. The blue had been refinished partially and poorly. It was done probably due to the fixing of the headstock which bears the signs of a repair. She has all the battle scars and metal tarnishes. She has the stock Gibson pickup with some PAT # at the neck. She also has a Seymour Duncan SH5 pickup at the bridge, something touted to sound like the PAF. For the money, she’s still a rather valuable Gibson Les Paul from 1990s, a sort-after era among Gibson players, even with the repair done.
I will keep her while thinking if I should refinish the exterior or swapped out the pickups back to the original Gibson pickups. She does resonate very well with her versatile clean and rock voices.