Hey all,
I would love if anyone from Gibson could chime in here.
Long story short, I bought this R9 off of craigslist about a week ago. It looked totally legit from the pictures and when I initially looked at it. I only paid 3k for it, given he didn’t know that it had the true historic markings on it now that I think back on it. It was just listed as a regular R9. Anyways, as the week went on, I noticed that it had the TH penciled underneath the finish underneath the neck pick up, as well as the five digit serial number. I emailed Gibson and they confirmed it was a real R9 based off the serial number and pictures. The next day I called them over the phone, and they told me that it was an R9, as well as a true historic model, which was completed in 2016, and shipped in 2017.
Since then, I’ve been looking over the guitar and have noticed a few things that are off. The binding is too thick, compared to other true historic I’ve seen online. The tuners are double line, not single line, the neck profile is a little bit slimmer than an R9, more like an R0.
Everything else is correct however. All of the hardware is the right material for those guitars. The pickup rings have the M-69 printed on them. The finish is also aged very very well. Tom Murphy’s signature is on the finish as well. It also came in a nice Lifton case.
This afternoon, I held a headstock underneath a bright light, and noticed there’s a serial number, as well as the words made in the USA printed on the back underneath the red dye. Barely visible, but you can see it underneath the proper lighting conditions.
So I’m a bit confused about this. Did Gibson mess up and finish the wrong guitar at the factory? Or was the guitar refinished later on at some point by Tom? Anyone is welcome to chime in. I have posted this on other forums, but just wanted to see if somebody from Gibson would chime in.
Thanks!
Pics on page 3:
https://www.lespaulforum.com/index.php?threads/gibson-r9-authentication.222058/page-3
