The Gibson Corporate Offices were ahead of the curve in many ways when they finally started listening to their vintage oriented dealers on what their customer base was looking to buy. Twas the Birth of their 1st real attempt at re-making their pinnacle main-stay…the 1959 Les Paul Std. Flame Top ! In 1980 Gibson introduced the Les Paul Heritage Series Standard-80 model, an early attempt at recreating a late 50’s legend. In 1981-2 Gibson offered some special order very accurate ’59 Std. models thru 4 shops including The Guitar Trader, Jimmy Wallace, Strings & Things & this one from Leo’s Guitar Shop in Oakland California. These “Leo’s” had his own special serial #’s that started w/an “LI” for Leo’s Issue. This example from 1982 happens to be one of the the finest & rarest specimens of this early production run. This has a beautiful slightly faded Cherry Sunburst finish that simply explodes in the natural sunlight here in South Florida. Its 1 piece Cherry finished Mahogany body compliments its 1 piece Mahogany Neck. Its dark Ebony fingerboard is wearing some pretty mutha-a-toilet pearloid Trapizoid inlays. Gibson tried to make them to correct specs from its Kluson Deluxe tuners to its vintage knobs to its Tun-a-matic Bridge & Stop Tailpiece. She’s also sporting a set of really powerful early “Tim Shaw” period PAF Humbuckers w/Black & White coils a la “Zebra” that sound insane ! Its original chrome covers are not included. Its pot codes date to the 40th week of 1982. Under its Rhythm pickup is stamped VCSB for its color choice. She weighs in at 8 lbs. 14 oz. Overall its exceptionally clean as its hardly been played & certainly one of the best we’ve seen from this very early series. It comes complete w/its original early series Brown Tolex Hard Case.