Ax of the Month

REISSUE

Finally, in 1983, Gibson reclaimed the reissue market from the dealers by introducing the Les Paul Reissue. Not a '59 Reissue, not a '60 Reissue, just a cherry sunburst Reissue. By 1984 it was also offered with goldtop finish. By 1985 it had the smaller headstock of the originals, but it was still only a close approximation.

The Reissue had an appeal to collectors or tradition-minded buyers from the beginning. Obviously, such features as nickel-plating, finish color and binding depth had nothing to do with playability. Yet it was still priced within a player's reach. In 1984 it listed for $1,599; the production Les Paul Standard was $999 and the Custom was $1,099. Anything over $1,000 in the mid-1980s may seem beyond the average player's reach, but the Reissue was only in the middle range of Gibson's line, the same price as the B.B. King model. Gibson's high-end archtops, such as the Super 400CES or Johnny Smith, listed for $2,599.

As the reissue market was growing, Gibson was going down the tubes. The Kalamazoo plant was closed in 1984, and in 1986 Gibson was sold to Henry Juszkiewicz and two partners. Where the previous management had squandered Gibson's brand-name value on such forgettable models as the Sonex (with particle-board body) and the Q-series (with crude Strat-like body shape and various pickup combinations), the new owners recognized the potential of Gibson's tradition as they rebuilt the company. The first price list under their regime marked the debut of the Historic Collection. However, the Les Paul Reissue (previously a Custom Shop offering) was assigned to the Les Paul Collection; the Historic Collection was reserved for electric archtops such as the Byrdland and Super 400CES. Juszkiewicz did bump the price of the Reissue up more than he did the other models, and for the next two years, it listed for about double the price of the Standard.

Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, the Les Paul Reissue remained virtually unchanged. However, two historic-related developments from 1990, though not directly related to the Les Paul Reissue, would soon push the Reissue onward to "replica" status.

The first major step forward (or back to the past) was a new PAF reissue pickup, designed by Gibson R&D head J.T. Riboloff. Among other improvements, Riboloff had original PAF magnets analyzed and matched for performance as well as composition, and he brought the coil wire back to the original enamel-coated style, easily distinguishable from the urethane-wrapped wire by its blue hue. The new '57 Classic pickup debuted in 1990 on several models with historic appeal, including the Les Paul Reissue.

At the same time, Riboloff designed a new Les Paul model using the 1960 sunburst Standard as a starting point. The new model had the thin binding in the cut-away, the small headstock, various shades of sunburst finish and the inked-on serial number of the Reissue. But it had a slim, 1960- style neck profile, hot ceramic-magnet pickups with no pickup covers and "1960" stamped on the pickguard. It is clearly not a reissue. of the classic Les Paul Standard, although it was named, ironically, the Les Paul Classic.
In 1991 Juszkiewicz distanced the Reissue from the Classic, Standard and other regular production models by listing it in the Historic Collection. The collectible status of Historic models was underscored by the Les Paul Reissue's list price of $4,199, almost three times that of the Standard ($1,499) and more than double that of the Classic ($1,699).
The problem was that the differences between the Reissue and the Classic were on paper. In reality, the Classic was actually closer to the original sunburst Les Paul than the Reissue was. The Classic headstock was correct (the Reissue was smaller than that of the Standard, but not small enough). The Classic had push-in tuner bushings (again, the correct vintage style) where the Reissue had standard screw-in bushings. And the Classic had aged (yellowed) fingerboard inlays, which looked like those of an original Standard.

1997 Les Paul Classic

To further blur the line between the Classic and the Reissue, Gibson introduced the Classic Plus in the spring of 1991. It had a curlier top than the Classic but not as curly as the Reissue. Late in 1991, Gibson offered the Reissue with the thin 1960-style neck of the Classic, naming it the '60 Flametop Reissue. At that point the thick-neck version then became the '59 Flametop Reissue.

For dealers, and ultimately for buyers, the Reissue was separated from the Standard and Classic at the January 1992 NAMM trade show when Juszkiewicz inaugurated a new Historic program for dealers. In an audacious stroke of creative financing, he convinced dealers to help him with his startup costs by ponying up $10,000 (which Gibson would return in one year, with interest). The headliners of the new program were korina reissues of the Flying V and Explorer, priced at $10,000. A dealer had to be a Historic dealer to be able to sell a Les Paul Reissue.

There was still the problem of accuracy, however. With increasingly curlier tops on Classics (the Classic Premium Plus was soon to come), it was still a more attractive reissue-style guitar than the Reissue. Some Classic tops were flamed enough that "enterprising" dealers changed out the pickguard and truss rod cover and added a pair of pickup covers. Voila! A Reissue. A $2,000 upgrade (in list price). So in early 1992, the Reissue was changed to incorporate the more accurate features of the Classic.

3. The R9

4. The Future