That was a fairly odd ball guitar that came out of Nashville, from someone who was aging flametops, in the relic business.
It was a 1990, seemingly a prototype made for the NAMM show, as there was something relating to it stamped into the wood at the control cavity's edge.
It was basically what would become the Les Paul Classic, somewhat of an iconic guitar from 1990-1992, very early 1993 actually.
The early "Classic" had all of the hallmarks of the earlier models, correct neck angle, press in tuner bushings, thin binding revealing the Maple in the cutaway and the headstock was sikscreened Les Paul Model, not Les Paul Classic.
These two last features disappeared in 1993, as Gibson was trying to put some distance between the burgeoning Historic series and the Classic.
Gibson, as usual having their heads mostly up somewhere, wasn't actually making a correct Historic very well, some details were off (had been for 20 years, people had been trying to get Gibson to redo the Flametop, and they never got it right), so unscrupulous dealers had been taking really choice Classics, switching out the TRC and PG (that had 1960 on it), and passing them off as Historics which cost something $2400 back then.
In time the Classic became a run of the mill Les Paul with the ugliest "Mountain Dew" inlays, although through the 1990's some had just simply amazing tops.
This one here was pretty special. When I found it through a big time wheeler dealer that lives over in the next state, we did some trading, and I'd say it was like I did a deal with the devil, but I had to have it.