Hi,

I have an 83 Gibson guitar. I don't know very much about guitars at all, but it does say studio on it and the serial verifies that it's an 83. It looks like all of the other 83 Gibson Les Paul Studios with a few exceptions that I don't really understand

On the back of the base of the guitar, all of the others have two plates: one diamond shaped one on the bottom left and one small circular one on the top right. Mine only has one bottom left diamond shaped one and no circular one on the top right.

Also, usually there is a switch on the top left of the front of the base, but mine has the switch next to the knobs on the bottom right.

I know that I sound really retarded, but I know nothing about guitars.. so I have no idea what this means. I'm trying to sell it and I can't because I don't know what to say about it.

PLEASE HELP ME!

<3 kristin

The diamond shaped plate covers the inside of the three way switch and the volume and tone pots. Unscrew it and you will see the wiring and the backside of the pots. The reason you don't have a little round cover plate is because the switch is by the four pots. The studio designation might mean that the guitar has low impedance pickups used to have a more silent guitar without the hums and buzzes that sometimes occur. On stage these sounds are usually masked by the "music" but for recording a quieter pickup would be a plus

does this mean that it must be a custom? i dont quite understand.

Hi kristin.
Let me see if I can help clear this up for u. Gibson makes 3 different models of Les Paul - the Standrad, the Studio, and the Custom. The biggest difference between the models is the neck. The Standard and the Studio both use the same neck which is a bit narrower then the Custom neck. The major difference is in the neck. Pick- ups switch possitions etc do vary from ax to ax but that does not make them a "Custom."
If it doesn't say "Custom" on the headstock - then it's not. You also might check out a call to Gibson (# on website). They will probably help clear this up even more for u .
Later,
Stratman

hey Kristin,

Check out the Gibson Electronics PDF which has a lot of the specs listed out to help you ID the les paul you are holding. From your brief description so far, I believe you have a Les Paul Studio Lite/M III, but that is simply a gut guess.

While not the best forum for the question, do you have a ball park price in mind already or is that dependent upon what you have (I am sure it is, but just curious).

Best of luck.

peace

hello friend , i am not expert in playing guitar, i think these diamond shape plates are tone pots. for more help
related to guitar playing use this link
Learn To Play Guitar

hi,
Hope this helps on your question. les paul customs always have binding ( the little white/creme strip that runs along both the top and bottom of the sides of the body. customs always have diamond shaped inlays with a rectangle inlay in the middle on the headstock ( in the front between the tuning keys). the first and fifth digit on the serial no. should be 8 and 3 to make it an 83. cool guitar. if the dates match the serial it would be a custom as they didn't make studios until the 90's. it would be black, cherry sunburst, tobacco sunburst, creme white or a weird grey to black sunbusrst in color. which is yours?

danny

dannymangold@gmail.com

danny