Conference napalm::guitar

    The LP 25/50 was made in late 78 to early 79. It is a LP Custom
    with Super 400 style neck inlays (split blocks), a very fancy abalone
    and pearl headstock inlay, combination silver/gold hardware, a coil-cut
    switch, "series VII" humbuckers, and some of them had very curly
    tops and necks. I have seen them in Sunburst, Blonde, Wine-red and
    black.
    
    For some years now they have sold at just slightly above LP Customs,
    but recently dealer prices have been in the $1000-$1250 for ones
    with highly figured wood.

    were you reading the review in "Guitarist"?
    
    Playability of the guitar is really the same as a L.P. Custom (and
    the same variations in neck width apply),the tonality somewhat improved
    on the standard Les Paul Customs of the time that had a very weak sound.
    The original guitars were better in appearance as more effort seemed
    to be place in producing a decent curly maple top whereas the latter
    guitars were invariably badly finished ,in very much the same way
    as Les Pauls of the time,such that the three piece maple tops that
    were used,not two piece,as on the originals were badly jointed such
    that the join could be clearly seen.
    
    If you're considering buying one then shop around until you find
    a good one..
    Regards
    Jeff Jansen

    
    Yes, I was reading the review, which I thought was a little 
    bit short.
         
    (To anyone who lives in Reading UK - check out 'Modern Music' on
    the first floor Butts Centre (Broad Street Mall).  They have some
    real nice LP's in there.  As well as various others (Kramers/Jacksons)
    etc..).              

    How much $$ does an LP Custom go for now?
    
    Mike

    
    UK or USA ?

    re: .2
    
    There seems to be a misconception here, that "early" ones were nice,
    "later" ones were not. While there was considerable variation in
    the quality of the tops, it had nothing to do with when it was made,
    since *all* of these guitars were made within a short period. I
    have seen ones from the end of the production run with spectacular
    wood, and plain ones made near the beginning.
    
    There is virtually no variation in neck width on these guitars--except
    for custom shop orders, they are all 1.6875" at the nut, 2.0625"
    at the octave, within usual wood-working tolerances, of course.
    I've owned a half dozen of them from all over the production run,
    and the necks couldn't be more similar.
    
    Re .0
    
    There were certainly more than 3000 of them made. Whether this is
    a "limited" run depends are your viewpoint. It's over twice the
    number of original LP Sunbursts. It also twice as many as the
    total number of LP Customs made from '54 through '60. From a
    collector's position, it isn't very rare. 
    
    Current US Les Paul Custom price for a '78 runs $600 to maybe $850
    depending on condition. Last year, I had been aware of 4 or
    5 25/50's for sale, but recently they have been hard to find. I
    have no idea what that means. The last two I saw were reasonably nice
    and priced at $1250
    
    BTW, I have an LP 25/50 beltbuckle, which Gibson made as a promo
    when they first released the guitar.
    
    Danny W        
                                     

    An interesting feature that I hadn't mentioned is the neck
    construction. Instead of the usual 3-piece maple neck, these have
    3 pieces of maple separated by two thick spacers of "ebonized" wood.
    This neck construction was also used on the Citation, Kalamazoo Award,
    and LP Artist, and is really nice-looking
    
    Danny W.

     well les paul fans i happen to own a black 25/50 it is as mentioned
    early a very good looking instrument and in my opinion plays as
    well as it looks .i also own a tiger stripe km and a custom ,the
    km is my favorite 79 $700 used  custom 80 840 25/50 they wanted
    1700 i paid 1100 i heard a rumor that the black 25/50 was intended
    to be an export ,painted that way because the tops did not meet
    up to gibson cosnetic standards ??? anybody know anything.

    Did Gibson ever manufacture Les Pauls with a licensed Kahler tremolo
    bridge on them?

    Mike,as I remember a friend of mine ordered his Les Paul with a Kahler
    or floyd several years ago. It's not a common thing and was a special
    order,but it was on there price list. Plus Gibson made a double cutaway
    Les Paul body style with a Kahler,with a headstock with six tuners in a 
    line. I've demoed a couple of these and found them to always be kinda 
    lame....compared to a Les Paul.
    
    
    							Rick
     

    During the height of whammy madness Gibson had ads showing Pauls with
    tremelos...not Bigsbys, not sure if they were Kahlers or Floyds or
    something else entirely.  Then they started offering the Steinberger
    tremelos for awhile.  I still see some SG models in catalogs with
    modern whammys (as opposed to the reissue models with the old Vibrola
    units).
    
    							Brian

    Gibson had Kahler-equipped LP Customs & Standards as stock items for
    awhile.
    
    What does this have to do with the 25/50 model?  :-)
    
    Danny W.

>                            -< yeah, but why here? >-
>    What does this have to do with the 25/50 model?  :-)
    
    Well there are only a couple LP topics and this one won.