The Gibson Les Paul Heritage 80 Series (introduced in 1980) was the first of Gibson's many reissues of their classic 1959 sunburst Les Paul. These Heritage 80 Les Pauls were made in the Nashville plant from 1980 to 1982. While they had closer to vintage specifcations that any other Gibson Les Paul of the period and are not exact copies of the 1959 model. Close inspection reveals a wider cutaway and a sharper horn than on the 1959 original body. For the Heritage 80s Gibson ditched the weight relief chambers they had been using in the 1970s and made a totally solid bodied guitar - they are typically on the heavy side.

There were three Heritage Series models, in order of fanciness : the Heritage Series Standard 80, the Heritage Series Standard 80 - Elite and the Heritage Award. The models are easily identified from the model name engraved into the truss rod cover. Less than 3000 of these guitars were made in total. Only around 50 of the Heritage Award guitars were made - they were distributed as an award to the music stores that sold the most Heritage 80 models.

For the Heritage 80 series Gibson engineer Tim Shaw recreated the legenday 1950s PAF humbucker, by carefully investigating the winding and magnets of the original pickups. These PAF recreations became known as ‘Shawbuckers’ or ‘TimBuckers’ and are well regarded by Les Paul collectors.