eclecticsynergy

I had a cherry sunburst L5-S with a two-piece top back in the 70s. Great guitar, fabulous neck. But it was quite heavy. If I'd known two-piece tops were rare I might've kept it anyway.

Jumping in kinda late here, but you might try ozone for deodorizing the original case. Nowadays very small USB-powered ozone generators are available for $20-30.

That's a nice one. I favor fatter necks myself. Also happen to love P90 neck tone.

George is correct; there were at least four different sets of limited-production "pre-Historic" reissues made at the time, separate and distinct from the Heritage Series. Yours has a lot in common with the one I got through Guitar Trader in '83. It will have the long tenon neck joint that helps to make these more consistently lively than regular production; this can be seen inside the neck pickup cavity. And looking at the binding in the cutaway, it does not widen to cover the seam and you can see the edge of the maple cap under the finish. They also have vintage-style lightweight aluminum tailpieces. Being hand carved, scalloping of the tops and neck profiles varied a bit from one to another. The top on mine is dished out quite deeply and when I was gigging it every night I used to get lacquer rash on my forearm from the edge of it. After the first year or so that spot got worn down to the wood and then it didn't bother me anymore. One detail that sets the pre-Historics apart: if you remove the brown control cover they have a body number imprinted in the wood under the finish at the edge of the control cavity. Another difference from the later Historic series is that these use the heavier Nashville bridge, with supports set into anchors in the body rather than being screwed directly into the wood like the ABR bridge supports. I think the Nashville design sustains better and to my ear it has a slightly richer tone - I prefer them to the ABRs, despite not being period correct for a '59 reissue. The Shaw pickups sound great. Low wind, airy sound, super dynamic & articulate. My '82 Moderne came with Shaws also. Like the old pickupss these are unpotted and they're prone to squealing at high volume. (If you decide to pot them, be very careful cleaning off the excess wax - on one of mine the inked numbers got wiped away.) A small number of the first Guitar Trader pre-Historics were built using actual original PAFs, Gibson's old stock leftover from the late 50s. Wish I'd gotten one of those!