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I have a Gibson Les Paul standard that the owner wants to know how old it is. He tried looking up the serial number but it is confusing because Gibson only has information as far back as 1975 but I think this one may be older than that.

Here are some pictures...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

If those pickups are stock, it can't be very old.
My guess is about 12 - 15 years old, tops.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

need to see more of the headstock.
looks completely rewired to me, as if it previously had a ground plate that was removed (the tab is soldered to the back of a pot.)
pickups coulda' been replaced
complete speculation
does the back of the headstock have a volute?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I think Gibson went to 8 digits in 1977.

Found this;
YDDDYPPP
YY is the production year
DDD is the day of the year
PPP is the plant designation and/or instrument rank.
The numbers 001-499 show Kalamazoo production, 500-999 show Nashville production. The Kalamazoo
numbers were discontinued in 1984.
When acoustic production began at the plant

I can't really make out the first number in the pic but it looks like an 8.
If it is then I'm guessing it's a 1980 made in Nashville (559)
I also can't make out the 3 digits for the day of the year- it appears to me as 069 or March 09, 1980.

Tuff job dating Gibsons and I'd also try to track down numbers stamped on the pots/controls.
Of course they could have been setting on shelves for who knows how long before they were used.

IF that first digit is a 6....that's going to make it even tuffer since 8 digit didn't start until '77.

Hope this may help and good luck.

There isn't any volute... the neck has been broken twice and it was repaired by "someone" who glued a patch of unknown wood (it looks like maple or pine) and in the process sanded off a bunch of lacquer and did not even bother to touch them back up. There are rather wide cracks visible (enough to stick a piece of paper into it) with bits of missing wood that was never filled. If there was a volute it's definitely gone by now.

There are also what looks like wooden plugs that was added by a previous repair, but there are red lacquer over it.

I believe the serial number began with a 9...

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com