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les paul standard cost in 80's

Godin/64

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Joined
Apr 20, 2002
Messages
265
Bought my very first Les Paul Standard brand new around June of 1987 for $825. Price included a HSC. Mine was wine red with a killer flame top. Sticker price was $1101 in a store here in Memphis.
 

bangkok

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Joined
Dec 21, 2005
Messages
295
In 1981 at the tender age of 16, I forked over $711 OTD for a brand new Standard (that was jacked in 1987).
 

CharlieS

Active member
Joined
Dec 12, 2002
Messages
2,618
It's a day I'll never forget, I bought my first real guitar as a Junior is H.S in 1986. A white studio for $599 at Steve's Quality Instruments, now gone.


That was a great shop. Steve Pelletier was great to do business with, and there were plenty of good guys around the store. He started off in a small shop just up the street from the larger place they moved to. It's too bad that the shop closed.
 

Werloc

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Joined
Sep 18, 2004
Messages
714
Early 80's I paid around $400. to $500.00 ish. I bought most of my LP's in the early 70's. They were around $300.ish ten years earlier.....:2cool
 

Zoomer

Active member
Joined
Feb 1, 2005
Messages
2,357
Just curios, what were les paul standards going for back around 1985.

thanks

Sam Ash had them on sale for $ 495 in 1982.

Real Bursts were like $ 3000 - $ 4000

:2zone,

Zoomer
 

Les45

New member
Joined
Nov 13, 2001
Messages
954
Heritage Series 80 $900.00 out the door. 1981 from Leo's Music. The price was kind of steep compared to a Standard, but I had to have it.

I also had to have one of those when they first came out in 1980.

Paid $800 OTD from Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center.
I still have that baby today, and absolutely love the sound from the Shaw pups...plus the wood has aged quite nicely over the last 27 years.
 

Dega500

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May 24, 2006
Messages
70
Those prices kind of take the glitter off the purchase of my abused 81 Standard for $400 around 7 years ago.
 

jrgtr42

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Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
2,308
I remember it was summer of 90 when the price (street) of a STD went from $999.99 to 1099. I had started playing not long before, but wanted a Les Paul...and I remember thinking that I'd never keep up with the price increases...
 

marshall1987

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Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
3,278
Bought two brand new LP Standards in the early 80's.

1980 Sunburst Std, 3 piece maple neck......$600

1983 Sunburst Std, 1 piece mahogany neck.......$650

The 1983 was much closer to recent Gibson USA specs than the 1980.
 
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billd13

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Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
426
In 1982 I bought an all red, all mahogany Std with Gold Harware, one piece mahogany neck for $750.
 

Mudman

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Joined
Dec 9, 2006
Messages
87
Allowing for inflation, they're more expensive now. A guitar that cost somewhere in the 6-700 dollar range in the early 80's is only worth 13-1600 dollars today (vs the 2200-2500 they go for now). Frankly the price is ridiculous if you look at it that way. However, if you figure that a '59 cost $250 dollars new, it works out to be about 1800 new, still a good 400 to 600 below the cost of a current standard. Dems the breaks. However, I think that you can get great used gibsons today for somewhat reasonable prices. I used the Minnesota federal reserve calculator to figure all this out.

Cheers,
Eric
 

CC58

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Joined
Jan 24, 2020
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1
Heritage Series 80 $900.00 out the door. 1981 from Leo's Music. The price was kind of steep compared to a Standard, but I had to have it.
I didn’t really know how good of a deal I got until reading your post. In 1982, I paid $300 for a 1981 Heritage Standard-80 and gave it to my brother for a birthday present knowing it was his dream guitar. We just lost him over the holidays, and his wife gave me his collection including that old Standard-80.
other than a couple of very small dings and needing a bit of cleaning and polishing, it looks to be in perfect condition! Cleaning the pots and restringing it tomorrow. Nice to have it back, but, .....I’d rather my brother still had it!
 

Texsunburst59

Active member
Joined
Feb 15, 2004
Messages
765
I bought my very 1st LP standard used in '84.

It was my '80 "Jimmy Wallace" '58 "Proto" Quilted Standard.

I bought it used for $500.

I didn't know it was a prototype until I ran into Jimmy at a guitar convention in Austin back in 2005.

I took the guitar to try to get it evaluated, and Jimmy had a booth there.

When he saw it, he remembered selling it to a touring musician from Dallas.

It was some of the 1st few he had Gibson make to see how good they could do with Reissues.

He ended up selling all the prototypes he got from Gibson.


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Big Al

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
14,537
You did better than I. I got dinged for almost a grand for an H-80 back then by one of those 'Mom and Pop' stores which I am happy to report is no longer in business.

How'd you get dinged? They sold for more on average. Some small M&P sold you one for a bit more than a giant retailer. You still got a discounted price.
 
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