Differences between the Les Paul Reborn and the Reborn Pauls

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I have one of each, a cherry sunburst 1978 'LesPaul Reborn' and a 1980 Gold Top 'Reborn Old'. There is no difference in the design, but my 2 have differences -

CSB weighs a ton!! 10lb is weight.
GT, 8lb, has a nicer sound, more bluesy and really screams. This guitar came with cream 'open' pickups (not nickel covered like the CSB). I has a better feel than the CSB but has a tendency to be a bit shrill with high gain or loud amplification.
CSB and GT have the same circuitboard for the electrics in the wiring cavity.

Both are amazing, both will be bricked up with me in the crypt when I'm gone. Both piss all over any modern Les Paul I have played. I bought both from Ebay in Japan, I couldnt get them over here in England so I took the plunge. One was ?360, the other ?380. Add that together and multiply it by 3 and you get a **** new Gibson with bad fretwork. the CSB took 2 days from the end of auction to get from Tokyo to my door!! I was gobsmacked...
 
Agree, ? essentially it was probably just intended as a series of name changes ? Les Paul Model (1978), Les Paul Reborn (78-79), Reborn Old (79-80), Love Rock Model (80-81) - probably a response to legal threats issued against Ibanez (not Tokai), ie a slow move towards dropping the Les Paul name.

However, at this time (1978-80) it seems Tokai were changing specification every few months, so I think a given LS model may well have different fittings or different construction. Difficult to be precise, because the early catalogues are all written in Japanese, and so far we have no translation. But for example ? in 1978 models LS80 & above had 18deg headstock (LS50&60 had 14deg.), but by 1980 I think they all had 14deg. LS80 and above had a range of different pickups ? LS50 & 60 had Gotoh Vintage MK1 at first, then revised model MK-2 (but some were also fitted with hex-pole pups of uncertain origin c.80-81) :-? .

Ian.
 

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