lp deluxe w/out "les paul" on headstock?

[mello]

hi,

i found an lp in a pawn shop that has had a bad headstock break. its repaired but not great. but my biggest concern is that its not a real gibson. it has "gibson" on the top of the headstock and then "zoso" under it where the "les paul" is supposed to be. it has a deluxe truss rod cover but two full size hums and coil taps. essentially its been modded heavily.. it has full binding and looks good but i've never seen any lp without the "les paul" on the headstock. i'd really like to buy this guitar if its a gibson as the price is incredible and my buddy is a luthier who could fix up the repair, but i don't wanna get a rip off copy. i have pics i can show to anyone who thinks they know for sure. i haven't gotten a serial number for it yet although the shop owner is gonna email it to me.
thanks in advance!

 

[Grandturk]

From the sound of it, whoever owned it was a big Page fan and scraped "Les Paul" of and put a "Zoso" decal on it... very flash.

Whether you should buy it or not depends on whether you want somebody else's bastardized LP.

 

[Ramrodrowdyyates]

It could be...

anything. If it's a good playing guitar and you would buy it anyway, no reason not to. Surely you're not paying big time $'s for any Deluxe with a bad headstock break that's been repaired. It will probably never be a collectable (maybe for your grandkids?) so buy it on it's merits as a playing instrument. What kinda money are we talking, anyhow?
P.S. It's pretty easy to scrape or rub off the decal on most Gibsons unless they've been oversprayed. That is not a good indicator either way. Also, thousands of Deluxes have been routed for regular 'buckers.