Gibson 1978 Les Paul Anniversary 25/50 Natural
Gibson 1978 Les Paul Anniversary 25/50 Natural
Gibson 1978. Les Paul Anniversary 25/50 in Natural Finish.
#0778 of 3411.
#73208228.
The 25/50 model was issued to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Les Paul model (a year late, since 1977 was actually the 25th year), and the 50th anniversary of Les Paul's career in the music business.
The 25/50 model is a distinctive model in the Les Paul lineage for many reasons, including the unique and intricate pearl and abalone "25/50" headstock inlay design, creative use of silver and gold hardware combinations (e.g., the tuners are gold with silver buttons), abalone side dot marker inlays, beautiful flamed maple top, five piece flamed maple neck, split block parallelogram inlays (one of only two Les Paul production models to sport these inlays), large control cavity, gold truss rod cover inscribed with "Les Paul Anniversary", brass nut, and a coil tap mini-switch (one of the few production Les Pauls with a coil tap until the Jimmy Page Les Paul was introduced).
In addition to the above unique features, the 25/50 had multi-ply binding on the front and back of the body and the front of the headstock, a volute, Nashville bridge with TP-6 fine tuning tailpiece, black speed knobs, Schaller style "Gibson" tuners, and Series VII pickups. These Series VII pickups were potted with a black, rubber-like material that fills the gold covers and makes these pickups virtually impossible to remove from their covers for repair.
The Les Paul 25/50 was available in tobacco sunburst, natural, wine red, and black.
Based on the resale market, it appears that tobacco sunburst was predominant, followed by natural.
Wine red and black are very rare.
There has been a report of a few 25/50s in white. There are photos of a few 25/50s in what appears to be a lighter honey sunburst color, but it could be a lighter tobaccoburst under bright photographic lighting. There is one 25/50 in Japan that has a flamed pickguard and pickup rings, but it is not known whether or not these are replacement parts or a special order. Despite its "limited edition" marketing image, it is ironic that some factory seconds of the 25/50 were released.
All 25/50s were made in Gibson's Kalamazoo plant. The regular 8 digit serial number in "YDDDYSSS" format was used on the 25/50 (where "YY" is the year, "DDD" is the day of the year, and "SSS" is the production sequence number, with numbers below 500 used at Kalamazoo). In addition, the 25/50 has a four digit edition number, which presumably gave it that "limited edition" marketing image. The "Made in USA" stamp is also on the back of the headstock.
Please have a look at these very interesting videos from The Trogly's Guitar Show about these guitars
Gibson 1978 25/50 Natural
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLztPHPJmp4