Andrea Gangemi Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Hello and Happy New Year from Italy. I am new to the forum, and I would like to share with you some pics of my strange guitar. It's a 1989 Les Paul Studio Lite with Floyd Rose. I know that it may look too weird for many of you, sorry about that. I noticed that is very difficult to find this model, wonder if you can provide me some more infos. Regards, Andrea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twang Gang Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 I owned a Les Paul Custom Lite for several years, but it was built around 2011 or 2012. Yours is certainly unique, looks like active pickups and of course the Floyd is uncommon. I was unaware that they made "Lite" models in a studio finish, first one I've seen. They seem to come and go, making them one year then not making them for several more years. The most recent incarnation I believe was called the Les Paul Less and it came in a sunburst. Sorry I can't tell you any more about yours. Here are a couple pics of the one I had. I modified it from only one tone control to two and had a push/pull for coil splitting as opposed to the toggle switch it originally had: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrea Gangemi Posted January 12, 2022 Author Share Posted January 12, 2022 17 hours ago, Twang Gang said: Yours is certainly unique, looks like active pickups and of course the Floyd is uncommon. Hi, Well, I really wanted to understand how much "unique" is, I am not a collector, just curious. That model came out in a particular period of late 80's , superfast shredder like Joe Satriani or Steve Vai were very popular and I guess my model was a try to get into that market. If I correctly decoded the S/N it was the 63rd guitar built on February 11th 1989 in Nashville The PUs are not active and the switch works as a splitter only for the bridge. And of course Floyd Rose is a nightmare, I wish I had so many online resources and tutorials on how to live peacefully with it as of today. I think that somehow my guitar is a sort of ancestor of the modern axcess line. Ah, I really like yours. Regards, Andrea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twang Gang Posted January 12, 2022 Share Posted January 12, 2022 Gibson does not keep good records of how many of a particular model they built, especially going back to 1989 so you will probably never be sure how many were made. I doubt it was more than 500 or so. As I mentioned I have never seen a Studio model Lite before. I never had a Floyd so am not familiar with them and problems they may present. Supposed to stay in tune better than a Bigsby though. Hopefully you could find a good tech to set it up properly and get it working smoothly. You may be right that it was a predecessor to the Axcess models. Les Pauls of any type with Gibson factory Floyd Rose systems are pretty rare so you have an uncommon guitar and I hope you enjoy playing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrea Gangemi Posted January 13, 2022 Author Share Posted January 13, 2022 Thanks for your reply, I eventually found another guy who owned one in the past and gave me some hints about the materials. RE the Floyd Rose you are right, once you get tuned it has a lot of stability, so you get rid of the infamous G string issue of LP, However Floyd Rose bridges are really tedious to tune, especially if you want to switch into another tuning, such as dropped D, each time you change the tension on one string you have to retune all 6 strings and it is a sort of iterative procedure, even the small change matters. I recently solved by inserting a damper on the springs cavity, now the floyd rose is stiffer but it's no problem to me, after all I am not Steve Vai 😄 And yes, I am enjoying playing it, it may be strange but it's still a Gibson Les Paul 😉 Regards, Andrea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wb12 Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 I also got hold of a studio lite in an auction in Switzerland in Summer 22. Original pickups were gone and it was loded with a Dimarzio Classic Paf at the neck and a Dinazio Humbucker from Hell on the bridge. I moved the latter to the Neck and put a Duncan Custom in the bridge position. Works well for me. It also needed a refret job. In addition to a pop-in arm in the trem it got a few consmetic mods. I emailed the Gibson Customer Service and asked how many were made. Thy do not know they said because these were special orders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precipice Posted July 2, 2023 Share Posted July 2, 2023 Hi, I also obtained one of these 1989 LP studio light. However when I got mine it was in horrible condition. Some weisenheimer decided they were going to sand the entire thing down starting with the neck and apparently decided they were just going to spray paint it and make a mess of all the electronic compartments starting with drilling larger holes for the pots and covering one up entirely. Removed the original tuning pegs and replaced then with grovers. I had some chic bring it to me to restring and repair the electronics. Then she just never returned to pick it up and that was three years or maybe two years or so ago. So it’s now under new ownership! 😂 at this point. Because of all the damage the guitar will never hold any real value other than intrinsic value to me. These are extremely rare for a number of reasons. But mostly to start off is the Floyd Rose being installed. Then there are many other nuances… but in the end I’m going to do a total refurbishment. See pics below… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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