vintage les pauls with no "made in usa" stamp

[Julesman64]

why is it that some Les Pauls don't have the "made in USA" stamp on the headstock? I thought that missing that stamp would be a red flag for a fake, but doing a little research it seems there's quite a few genuine older Les Pauls out there without that stamp. No one seems to know why, just that it is what it is. Whats up with that?

heres the link that started my inquiry:

http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showt ... p?t=162986

[surfnorthwest]

Hmmm, the Les Paul forum would be the guys that know. Every Les Paul I have owned had the stamp. But the oldest one I have owned was a 1974 I bought brand new for $845

[slowpokerhino]

I have a guess (with absolutely nothing to back it up): Was it necessary to stamp "made in USA" on the guitars before Gibson started manufacturing guitars outside the US? There was a time when all Gibson products were manufactured in the good ole US of A. I'd venture to say non-stamped models were probably made in the old Kalamazoo factory.
I could be 100% wrong of course, but it makes sense to me.

[DeanM]

it says in the thread something about some models from 77 to 78, around the time they changed the serial number system, dont have em. id say with changing over the serial number system a few things went unnoticed for a while? the thread also mentions some of them had no dot over the "i"

[BrianC]

This may be of some help http://www.gibson.com/Files/downloads/b ... UMBERS.pdf page 4
It seemed pretty random some from the 50's had Made in USA stamped on the headstocks.
Then from 1970 they stamped all Gibsons on the headstock, but between 1975-1977 they used a transfer with the serial number with Made in USA also on the transfer.

Very confusing to say the least!

[Lordakamai]

My gibson Les Paul Deluxe 1980 Made in nashville doesn't have a Made In USA stamp either.

It does have a Dot in the I though

[slowpokerhino]

Well, as usual, I am way off. My story makes much more sense than the truth though.