This ultimate Kalamazoo-made Les Paul is No. 56 of only 77 produced between 1976 and 1979 (and one of only fifty-nine with the Natural finish). According to the plaque on the back of the headstock, this one came out of the factory on Nov. 13, 1979. These guitars were certainly the most expensive Les Pauls to come out of the factory at that time. 'The Les Paul's' list price was a staggering $3,000 in 1976, when a Les Paul Custom listed for $739!

You can see how most of what is normally plastic on most LP's is of carved wood on this model: pickguard, knobs, etc. It weighs just 9.90 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 24 3/4 inches.

Mahogany / maple /mahogany body with highly-figured book-matched maple top, highly-figured book-matched maple back, and sides. Rosewood outer binding and green-and red-stained maple inner bindings. Rosewood control plates on the back. One-piece highly-figured maple neck and three-piece ebony/rosewood/ebony fretboard with 22 frets with twin strips of red-dyed maple around the fingerboard. Inlaid abalone block position markers and side dot markers. Rosewood veneer headstock face with inlaid abalone 'Gibson' logo and abalone five-piece split-diamond inlay, with twin strips of red-dyed maple around the headstock and ebony truss-rod cover with 'The Les Paul' engraved in red. Original brass nut. Individual Gibson tuners with tulip-shaped mother-of-pearl buttons. Oval mother-of-pearl plate on the back of the headstock: 'Reg. No. 56 / 11-13-79'.

Two 'Super Humbucking' pickups (each stamped on the underside 'PAT NO 2,737,842') with rosewood surrounds and balanced outputs of 7.59k and 7.47k. Rosewood pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way switch with rosewood switch tip, the potentiometers are stamped '137 7927' and '137 7928' (CTS July 1979). Handmade rosewood knobs. Wide Schaller style bridge and separate Gibson TP6 tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. This guitar is in mint condition. Housed in the original Gibson black hardshell case with plush lining.

'The Les Paul' was one of two new Les Paul models introduced in 1976. 'It was a spectacular limited edition notable for its use of fine woods for virtually the entire instrument. Many parts that on a normal electric guitar would be made from plastic were hand-carved from rosewood, including the pickguard, pickup surrounds, backplates, controls and truss-rod cover. Raw bodies and necks of attractive maple, including the back, and an ornate ebony and rosewood fingerboard were produced at Gibson's Kalamazoo factory. Further work on the multiple coloured binding, abalone inlays and handmade wooden parts was continued at the workshop of freelance luthier Dick Schneider, about a mile from the factory in Kalamazoo. Schneider worked on The Les Pauls together with his brother Donnie and Abe Wechter from Gibson.

Most sources agree there were only 77 of these guitars made between 1976 and 1980. As the limited stocks of Schneider's handmade wooden parts ran out, so normal plastic items were substituted, as well as less ornate binding. Each example of The Les Paul had a numbered oval plate on the back of the headstock' (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul, p. 72). The guitar looks and feels as though it has more coats of nitrocellulose lacquer than a typical Les Paul. The tone of the guitar is balanced, percussive, refined and polite, and a little brighter than a typical Les Paul. Because of their beauty, price, and weight, many of 'The Les Pauls' did not see a lot of playing time. As a result, most available today in the used market are in near mint condition. (Mike Slubowski, The Les Paul: Spectacular Work of Art from the 70's).

This is a video of this exact guitar, from Fretted Americana: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD9vZQYjDLk Full pictures are here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JVMcSPhixgkTqplKmwuO_yNDlcIsMRIs?usp=drive_link