This is a Gibson USA Les Paul Studio Sweetwater exclusive honey burst electric guitar w/ factory hard case. It is estimated that Gibson’s Kalamazoo plant continued to use the six-digit serial numbers through 19. Of course, many of the older guitar builders and craftsmen were still in Kalamazoo, and if they weren’t ready to change how they built guitars, then they may not have been ready to change how they numbered them! Certain guitar models built in the late 1970s can be used to demonstrate the old-style, six-digit serial numbers. NOTES: When the Nashville Gibson plant was opened in 1974, it was decided that the bulk of the production of products would be run in the South the Kalamazoo plant would produce the higher end (fancier) models in the North.
