odyseus41 Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 Hello Is there a real added-value in the today's 1958 VOS vs the former 1958 chamberred R8 custom ? Same question between Bustbuckers 1-2 and 57' classic... Thanks for your opinion... and sorry for my basic english. Christophe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flamed Froggy Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 Chambered models are almost some hollow body models since they have a resonnance chamber under the maple top, inside the mahoganny body. While the regular R8 models have a solid body. I don't understand why Gibson company makes some R8 chambered. If you need a chambered model it's OK but in my opinion a R8 has to have a solid body, that's all ! R means Reissue it means a copy of the original model. I'm not sure that original LP 58 were chambered. Am I wrong ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raptor Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 The originals were not chambered, and I am not sure what you are referring to by 1958 R8 chambered custom. The 1958 Les Paul reissue is a non chambered reissue of the original 1958 Les Paul. It is still off slightly with some specs, but it is a reissue not a replica. The have a solid mahogany back and maple cap. Up until 2002 (I think) they were available with a flame or plain top. Then they switched to plain top only. A couple of years ago, a group of guitar dealers commissioned the Custom Shop to make a run of Historic Reissues that were chambered. They were called Cloud 9s by the dealers. Since then Gibson has made various runs of them with chambering and just calls them 'Chambered Reissues' The serial numbers for these starts with a 'CR' for Chambered Reissue, whereas a normal one would just start with an 'R'. That might be where the term custom is coming from. The biggest differences will be in weight and tone. Chambered Les Pauls sound fantastic in my opinion, but sound different from non-chambered ones. You really have to hear them and try them to decide for yourself. A chambered LP should also be lighter than a nonchambered one. The same goes for the 57 CLassic vice the burstbuckers. Both pickups are PAF clones. Some people prefer 57 Classics, some prefer burstbuckers, some don't like either. I prefer 57 Classics, but like the BBs too. I find them to have slightly different tone characteristics. I know that doesn't help a lot, but with chambered vice unchambered, you really have to try a chambered LP and decide for yourself. The VOS will have a slightly aged finish. The VOS is an in house aging done by Gibson. For a while it looked like the Cloud 9s might have some increased value being a 'limited run' but Gibson decided to keep producing them in small numbers as needed, so a used chambered R8 should probably be a little cheaper than a new VOS. Nothing really makes either one more desireable or more expensive than the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odyseus41 Posted January 30, 2008 Author Share Posted January 30, 2008 Thank you very much. I keep on trying different LPs models until I find mine... Best regards from France Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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