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I just bought a 2009 Les Paul Traditional. It has the '57 Classic humbuckers, and no weight relief (10.3 lbs of love). A beautiful 50's neck, an absolute joy to play. I am really impressed. What separates this from a '59 reissue that costs thousands more?

 

Gibson%20LP%20Traditional_zpsqt2ymhqv.jpg

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If I remember correctly, the '59 reissue has vintage appointments and bits, it's weight-relieved, has a painstakingly-selected flame maple top, and Custombucker (vintage PAF copy) pickups.

 

You did MUCH better buying that beautiful guitar, trust me.

 

:)

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Congrats on your pretty Traditional, HNGD! [love][thumbup]

 

By the way, she's traditional (nine-hole or Swiss cheese) weight-relieved.

 

R9 Les Paul guitars have some appointments that were gradually modified over the years. Most of them have light-weight, solid bodies, selected maple tops, nickel hardware, Kluson-style tuners with pressed-in capstan sleeves, nylon nut, ABR-1 bridge, lightweight stopbar tailpiece, AlNiCo 3 Custombucker pickups, knock-off bumblebee capacitors, audio-taper pots also for volume, not just for tone as with all other Gibsons, and 50's tone control wiring. Then there are warm hide glue (making them "hot" as often falsely mentioned, even in advertising, irreversibly destroys the proteins of all sorts of animal glue what is applied by luthiers for unglueing), aniline dyes, and period-correct plastics. I might have forgotten some items...

 

All in all they age faster than the modern Gibson USA models featuring chrome hardware and other contemporary materials. Moreover, the timbers used in the late 1950's may have been quite different, in particular mahogany.

 

Rock on, mate, I'm fine with my "modern" Gibsons, too! [biggrin][thumbup]

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If I remember correctly, the '59 reissue has vintage appointments and bits, it's weight-relieved, has a painstakingly-selected flame maple top, and Custombucker (vintage PAF copy) pickups.

 

You did MUCH better buying that beautiful guitar, trust me.

 

:)

 

 

 

 

Re-issues are NOT weight relieved, they have specially selected body blanks with weight limits set for year of the re-issue. Re-issues also are an average of some studied originals (body carve, neck shape, head stock size and shape, etc). Hard ware and electrical components are "closer" to original (black beauty caps and 50"s wiring). Pick ups over the years have changed with BBs and Custom buckers which were not offered on the trads. These days they even claim the plastics are closer to the same composition of the originals.

 

The trads are really just what standards used to be before Gibson modernized them with compound radi, locking tuners etc, etc, etc.

 

Is the difference in price worth it? Depends on who's spending their hard earned.

 

 

Johnny

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Congrats on your pretty Traditional, HNGD! [love][thumbup]

 

By the way, she's traditional (nine-hole or Swiss cheese) weight-relieved.

 

R9 Les Paul guitars have some appointments that were gradually modified over the years. Most of them have light-weight, solid bodies, selected maple tops, nickel hardware, Kluson-style tuners with pressed-in capstan sleeves, nylon nut, ABR-1 bridge, lightweight stopbar tailpiece, AlNiCo 3 Custombucker pickups, knock-off bumblebee capacitors, audio-taper pots also for volume, not just for tone as with all other Gibsons, and 50's tone control wiring. Then there are warm hide glue (making them "hot" as often falsely mentioned, even in advertising, irreversibly destroys the proteins of all sorts of animal glue what is applied by luthiers for unglueing), aniline dyes, and period-correct plastics. I might have forgotten some items...

 

All in all they age faster than the modern Gibson USA models featuring chrome hardware and other contemporary materials. Moreover, the timbers used in the late 1950's may have been quite different, in particular mahogany.

 

Rcok on, mate, I'm fine with my "modern" Gibsons, too! [biggrin][thumbup]

Thanks so much for all the info!

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I just bought a 2009 Les Paul Traditional. It has the '57 Classic humbuckers, and no weight relief (10.3 lbs of love). A beautiful 50's neck, an absolute joy to play. I am really impressed. What separates this from a '59 reissue that costs thousands more?

 

Gibson%20LP%20Traditional_zpsqt2ymhqv.jpg

Beautiful! The flame really makes the colour pop and 57 classcis are quickly becoming a fav pickup of mine, had them in my 335 and now my 175. If you told me that git had a slim neck id have even more gas [biggrin]

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