First year for ‘57 Classics

Strings Jr. said:

Here's a pic of the baseplate on mine. Anyone recognize the stamped "L" at the bottom? Both pickups have it. I don't remember it.

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Many thanks for posting your baseplate, much appreciated

57 Classic and 57 Classic Plus both came out in 1990... same year as Seymour's Pearlies... :salude

wulfthar said:

As far as I remember the 57 Classics appeared in the mid 80s as and they were originally called P.A.F., Dimarzio complained and they were renamed 59 reissue and then 57 Classic, this is a screenshot of a 1987 catalogue I found on another forum where the Les Paul reissue is described to have 59 reissue pickups:

My understanding is that Tim Shaw, 59 reissue and 57 classic belong to the same "bloodline", the first attempt to recreate a PAF, more or less accurate...historicity improved through the years.

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Nope. 57 Classic was later, 80's were as I described. Your screenshot is exactly what I said, and you quoted, 1959 Reissue Pickup a very different pickup from later Tom Holmes design 57 Classic. All the pickups I listed were part of the paf bloodline, or an attempt to emulate it.

Big Al said:

Nope. 57 Classic was later, 80's were as I described. Your screenshot is exactly what I said, and you quoted, 1959 Reissue Pickup a very different pickup from later Tom Holmes design 57 Classic. All the pickups I listed were part of the paf bloodline, or an attempt to emulate it.

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I would be interested in the specs of the "59 reissue" because my understanding was that i was the forerunner of the 57.

Then, is it true the 57 has changed through the years?

Alls I know is THIS

every guitar I've ever had that came with them sounded great!

I love me some 57 classics!

cool thread.

Gibson's site says that the '57 Classic pickup was introduced in 1990.

https://www.gibson.com/Gear/Humbucker-Pickups/IM57R

Anyone with a 1988 or earlier Gibson 335 please check this claim (that they occurred earlier), as this is one model that should have this type of pickup if they were available at the time. Most of the listings on Reverb use EMG or Bill Lawrence pickups. Rudy's has a lefty 335 with unspecified pickups.

Some further reading on the other Les Paul forum site has one member stating that they saw a '57 classic in a Les Paul pre-historic from 1990. Too bad my pre-historic from that era was modded by the previous owner with a boutique pickup. I'd like to get to the bottom of this investigation.