Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Raptor

All Access
  • Posts

    329
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Raptor last won the day on October 18 2018

Raptor had the most liked content!

Reputation

6 Neutral

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Halifax, NS

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. Hey guys, how's things been?

  2. hey raptor! long time no see!!

  3. Hall, of Hall Groper days. Hi George.

    Steve

  4. VOS has nothing to do with it. The reissues made from day one are often referred to as R8's, R2's etc. It saves typing out Historic Reissue. Your Classic is not a reissue at all, although some dealers do suggest that they are. The Historic Reissues are all made in the Custom Shop. You will often see things like GT or BB used to differentiate between Les Paul reissues and Les Paul Custom Reissues i.e. an R7GT is a 1957 Les Paul reissue Gold Top, and an R7BB is a 1957 Les Paul Custom Black Beauty reissue. As Zaphod says, the special runs that GC orders each year usually have a G in front of them. The chambered reissues that they have been making in limited numbers are referred to as CRs, i.e. CR8 would be a chambered R8.
  5. Open the control cavity and read the pot codes. The numbers on the volume and tone controls, assuming that they are original. You can post those numbers here and we can decode them for you and get a rough idea of the year. The serial number will probably be useless as there was too much duplication and poor record keeping back then. You will probably learn more by the construction methods of the guitar, is it a pancake body etc. For a value, a lot will depend on how original it is and what shape it is in. $1000-2500 max is probably a fair range. Despite what a lot of people think, and what a lot of uninformed buyers/unscrupulous sellers are doing, they will never reach the values of the original 50's guitars. The exceptions will probably be, one offs, limited runs, and the 68s and early to mid 69s, but there is nothing really special about 1970s Deluxes.
  6. Stiffhand, those are like the ones I have been using on my CS LPs. Only difference it the ones I use have a little slot/loop where I can tie it to the strap and not lose it.
  7. Be careful of the rubber backing. A lot of rubber materials will eat into the nitrocellulose finish. Do you know if those are nitro safe? Also a normal guitar strap will rub through the finish in time. Even if they are nitro safe, those rubber pads will wear through the finish eventually. I should have mentioned that I also use a plastic (Dunlop made I think) strap lock that goes on the end of the pin after the strap. You then rotate it 180 degrees to lock it. They have a little loop on them and I tie a little piece of ribbon through the hole in the strap and the loop on the lock, so they are always there ready to use. I started using these, when I decided I didn't want to plug the larger holes in my CS LPs.
  8. With straplocks the screw size for the tail pin (the one at the very back of the guitar) is often hit or miss with Gibsons. It used to be that either Schaller or Dunlops would go on the Gibson USA models with no problem, but the Historic Reissues always had a larger screw at the tail of the guitar. Use a little carpenter's glue and a couple of toothpicks as suggested, although the other suggestions work fine as well. Remember that straplocks need maintenance too. With Schallers, usually they will loosen on the strap, so check that regularly; or put a tiny drop of threadlock on when you tighten the nut. Dunlops have a push button and ball bearings that lock the strap to the guitar. The ball bearings can get dirty and jam, so you put the pin in, let go and wham the guitar drops. So you need to keep Dunlops clean and oiled so the work properly. I prefer Schallers because the U shaped cup acts as a failsafe if the pin does not engage. With Dunlops, you can accidently hit the button and cause them to release unexpectedly.
  9. Coachgeorge, unless you can post pictures of the front and back of the headstock, it is difficult to help you with it. Your description is a bit confusing. I will say that 02005514 would indicate a Gibson USA guitar from 2005. That serial number is not in the format of anything from the Custom Shop(CS) at all. The CS used to do somethings on Gibson USA models, but that ended back in the early to mid 1990's. So from what you are describing it sounds fishy. Rather than take the time to post photos, and reply to this and wait for another reply, there is a much easier way to get information. E-mail Gibson at service@gibson.com or better yet call them at 1-800-4-GIBSON. You can call them toll free from anywhere in the world and they are there 365 days a year 24/7. They can tell you what guitar, if any, the serial number pulls up. I would be seriously suspicious of it saying Custom Shop, but having that serial number format. A lot of the Chinese fakes do that. Also, if you are looking for a guitar to invest in, forget it unless it is part of a very limited run, or a one off custom order that is confirmed by Gibson. Any other Les Paul you buy, will never hit the values of the original 1950's guitars in your lifetime, your kids' lifetime, or even your grandkids' lifetime. The reason is because since mid - late 1969 they have been just one of hundreds of thousands, if not millions made. I did a total once using a reference book, and I think between 1970 and 1980 they had made over 100,000 LP Customs alone. The original 1950's LPs are very rare compared to post 1969 models. There was only something like 1700 sunburst finish Les Pauls made between 1958 and 1960. The Custom Shop turns out close to that number (if not more) of most of the reissues each year. This means that a CS 1958 (for example) reissue Les Paul, is probably going to be 1 of 10's of thousands made. So unless you get one from a very limited run, like the first 25 Jimmy Pages, or a one off, you will never see the fantastic appreciation that the originals have seen.
×
×
  • Create New...