ID this Guitar

ID this Guitar

I am looking at this guitar and cannot seem to nail down "what"it is. Gibson came up short also. The serial number is LI 0976. Maybe one of you know. Here's the link.There are some additional pictures that have been added with hyperlinks.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...&showTutorial=0&ed=1018827568&indexURL=0&rd=1

Thanks for Your time!
Ronny

it's a leo's.................;\

I'm not bidding on this one (nor am I affiliated) but it is a descent looking guitar and the serial number "thing" got my curiosity up. Could this be a late 80's / early 90's guitar as the seller claims?
Thanks 1959burst!

82/83 made for leo's in oakland california, kinda rare and worth a good $$$$$$ one of the first attempts at a 59 reissue. a pre-historic jewel!

The Leo's Les Pauls were a limited run that were ordered by a guitar dealer of same name in California in the early 80's. Leo's, along with Guitar Trader and Jimmy Wallace were all guitar dealers who approached Gibson in the early 80's to make a Les Paul that more closely approximated '59 specs. All of these guitars had nice flame tops on them. Leo's Les Pauls are easily identifiable by the serial number "L1 XXXX" or LI XXXX" as this one has. Approximately 800 Leo's were made between 1982 and 1985, and approximately half of them shipped to Japan. In 1982 and early 1983 they were made in Kalamazoo. The Kalamazoo built Leo's have larger tortoiseshell side dot markers and have an eight digit serial number inside the control cavity, in the format YDDDYSSS", where "Y" equals the year of manufacture, "DDD" equals the day of the year, and "SSS" is a sequence number for guitars built that day. So, for example, "83652056" would represent a 1982 guitar manufactured on December 31st (the 365th day of the year) that was the 56th produced that day. The sequence number on Kalamazoo made guitars is always below 500. The Nashville made Leo's do not have a serial number in the control cavity and they have small black side dot markers.

The Kalamazoo made Leo's are a little more desirable among collectors (fewer were made there, and many people including myself believe the craftsmanship was a little better there at the time). I have a Kalamazoo Leo's in cherry sunburst and it not only looks great but plays like a dream and sounds killer (in fact I just played it last weekend for a good long while...)

This particular guitar on Ebay has changed tuners (a no no for collectors, although he still has the originals), and it's not clear where it was manufactured. It has a very pretty top but not among the finest Leo's out there. Depending on his reserve it may be a very good buy.

Hope this helps.

yeah what mike said!

finally the expert chimes in!;\ ;\

You guys Rock !! :wail:

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