Norlin Era Questions / Discussion

marantz1300 · Jul 22, 2015

Those are beautiful guitars.
I use to have a routed 77 Deluxe.
Flat carve,weighed anout 12lb,maple neck and it had great tone.
Now I want another.

ICR · Jul 27, 2015

Testudo said:
Gentlemen,

i have just purchased this beautiful Gibson Les Paul Custom, Maple neck.

The body looks like my 1976 Custom when after it needed to be stripped for a re-finish. Only difference I see is 1976 had a decal.

Wilko · Jul 27, 2015

Yours, luckily has the good neck joint. '76 can have the dreaded, short "rocker tenon":hmm

Stickyfingers · May 6, 2022

Hi I can see this thread is old now, but I’m new to this forum so please excuse me. I have a natural blonde LP custom, with a pancake body, 3 piece maple neck, ebony board, & large headstock. It has Grover tuners and original T top pickups. It is a great sounding guitar. Unfortunately I have recent black plastic pickup rings, poker chip switch tip & reflecor knobs because someone had switched it to cream plastic and gold speed knobs before I got it in 1999. Gibson have told me that the 6 digit serial number starting 96**** dates it at 1971-71 but 1973 dated pots, pancake body and maple neck??
There was a story with it that it belonged to Deny Laine but nothing to confirm.
What do you guys think?

guitplayer · May 6, 2022

1975-6 some 6 digit maple neck customs.

Stickyfingers · May 6, 2022

Hey thanks I think it must be more like mid 70’s

dwagar · May 6, 2022

I'd guess 1975 with a 6 digit serial and a maple neck.

Progrocker111 · May 7, 2022

This is very interesting, cause there were some 75 and even very early 76 Les Pauls with 6 digits formula for a very short time, mostly with 9xxxxx and 2xxxxx form. Parallel there were in action the new serial number water slide formats with 99, 00 and 06 prefixes.

Otherwise 9xxxxx serials are exclusively from 1970 and very early 1971...

Bob Womack · May 7, 2022

Progrocker111 said:
This is very interesting, cause there were some 75 and even very early 76 Les Pauls with 6 digits formula for a very short time, mostly with 9xxxxx and 2xxxxx form. Parallel there were in action the new serial number water slide formats with 99, 00 and 06 prefixes.

Otherwise 9xxxxx serials are exclusively from 1970 and very early 1971...

That's one feature of the early '70s LPs - for some reason the serials were all over the silly map. No-one knows why it happened but there was just about everything, including repetition of previously-issued serials number, during that period. Could it have been extended alcohol breaks on the neck building line?

Bob

Stickyfingers · May 7, 2022

Wow thanks, very interesting, sound like the neck building line was the place to be….

Wilko · May 7, 2022

they were between factories at thta time. Some Nashville, some Kalamazoo.

Stickyfingers · May 7, 2022

OK Thanks, Is there a way of knowing which factory it came from?

gibson-r8 · May 7, 2022

To make a guess at that (KZoo or Nashville) more info needed

ABR or Nashville bridge?
trans tenon or rocker?
thickness of binding in cutaway?
size of side marker dots

Stickyfingers · May 8, 2022

Bridge studs straight into body so I guess abr1?
Thin binding in cutaway, can see maple top,
Very small side dots compared to my 2006 standard.
Wasn’t sure on the neck tenon so took a pic (attached) found a date stamp in the pickup route

Nov 25 _ _ 75

dwagar · May 8, 2022

I think Kalamazoo.

gibson-r8 · May 9, 2022

I would guess it a Kalamazoo made.

Progrocker111 · May 9, 2022

Kalamazoo

Stickyfingers · May 9, 2022

Hey thank you all, this is really interesting stuff.
Cheers

gibson-r8 · May 11, 2022

More pictures please!

Stickyfingers · May 12, 2022

More pics, I have a black mark on the top behind the tail piece and another under the pick guard. My naive younger self put it away in its gen 3 chainsaw case with a lovely new leather strap after a gig. Yes, the dye run onto the top. I have lived with it a a personal battle scar of the guitar, personal to me, mainly because it won't polish off.

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