pippy

"I don't know with 100% certainty" is the honest answer. I'm pretty sure it would all be applicable if it was new and cost more than the £630 upper limit for a 'Gift'. I'm pretty sure the Customs Duty also applies if the item was bought by a UK resident even if it was bought second-hand. I'm not sure what the situation is with VAT on used goods, though. We have friends who are in the process of moving from New Jersey to Surrey (about 30 miles from my part of London) and the thought did cross my mind to have them bring something in (Mark's Guitar Loft has a few tasty items!) saying it was their private possession as I can't imagine Customs Duty would be imposed on personal property. Pip.

Goods such as a guitar being brought into the UK are not only subjected to a 20% mark-up for VAT (Value Added Tax) but also a levy for 'Customs Duty'. This is a strange one as the amount which will be charged varies with both value (Under £135; Gifts with a value between £135 and £630; other goods above £135) and country of origin. The sums involved also vary if insurance and postage rates are involved. The total payable can be quite scarily high compared with original price. Here's one example; Goods value: £5000 (purchased from outside of EU converted from USD to UK£) Cost of Shipping/Insurance £500 Sub Total 1: £5500 (amount duty is calculated on) Duty on Sub Total 1 @3.5%: £192.5 Sub Total 2: £5692.5 VAT @ 20% on Sub Total 2: £1138.5 TOTAL Landed cost including duty and VAT: £6831 So the price paid goes up by approximately 37% (£5,000 to £6,831). The only reason I now know about this price-hike situation was because a while ago I bought one fairly high-value item from Japan and the final amount I had to pay to have the item released by UK Customs came as a bit of a shock... Pip.

Hi dava. Yes; I agree with you that it was Gibson who came up with the split 'stock. No question at all about that. It would be nice if Gibson were to issue a real 'Discoverer' bass - the 'Guitar Which Never Was'. I'm not sure how much demand there might be for such an animal but perhaps collectors would hoover up a small number just for fun? I can't remember offhand whether the Entwhistle 'Discovery' had a 'guard from one of the ealy Gibson upright electric basses or if it was from a Hofner 'Beatle Bass'. I should check that out when I get a bit of free-time. Out of curiosity are you aware that Ian C. Bishop wrote a companion to his first book? 'The Gibson Guitar From 1950 Volume II' was published three years after the first volume and has updates on what Gibson was doing at the time as well as quite a bit of info on the Epiphone story. Worthwhile reading. Pip.

It was John Entwhistle Who (pun) was duped by the fake 'Discovery' as related in his wonderful coffee Table book concerning his fabulous collection entitled 'Bass Culture'. As far as the peghead design goes have a look at the original patent application from '58 concerning the Gibson Explorer; Pip.

Yes.

It does indeed, m-e! I didn't know you were from down Farnham way, jdgm. Guitar Village certainly has some VERY nice stuff. I paid a visit a while back with our old forum mate Flight959 one day when neither of us had anything better to do... Pip.

Late back in response so apologies for being so remiss. Thanks for all the newer kind messages. After a few days with the wee thing I realised that she was doing all she could possibly do to help me and it was up to me to get my act together and make things work out as she always knew they could. The 'trick' was to abandon the 'palm-surrounding-the-neck' attitude and go back to absolute basics with the thumb planted centre-stage right behind the neck and DO NOT try to cup the neck with a thumb-over-neck style under any circumstance. Once I adopted this far more 'Classical' approach(*) things settled down really quickly and she is, absolutely, now my #1 'Go-To' whenever I have a few minutes noodle-time' I've also had a really good close-up look at the inlay and binding work and the attention to detail is quite astonishing! I might try to post some extreme close-up shots if I have time... Pip. * After all; this was crafted as guitar with an 1890 neck profile so the playing styles of Chuck Berry and the rest were still six decades in the future...

Just as an aside; A 'Travel Guitar'?......When I used to be in the Uni Mountaneering Club my clubmates were always bewildered by the fact that I took a screwdriver and my old Strat - with neck unbolted from body - in my rucksack whenever we went away for a weekend just so that I had something to play... Pip.

I'm an aesthete (obviously!) therefore could not possibly even consider owning such an abomination. Pip.

As has already been said it does not seem to say Gibson on the peghead and It is almost certainly not a Gibson. Perhaps someone in the acoustic sub-forum could shed some light on the situation? Pip.

I'm annoyed that I'l be on holiday when you and the Mrs are also on holiday. Poor timing on my side. I would very much have enjoyed both your company and the opportunity to be a tour guide in almost equal measure! If the weather is fine and you have a spare hour I heartily recommend taking one of the MBNA Thames Clippers from the London Eye at Waterloo down river to the O2 and, if you can time it right, the limited service ones which goes all the way to the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich; https://www.thamesclippers.com/assets/doc/0555_TC_Route_Map_680x440-APRIL-2019-be6d4340c9.pdf If you only get as far as the O2 then the Emirates Airline, which is a cable-car set-up (dotted orange line at the east end in the link), offers great views as it crosses high over the Thames and, once over on the north bank, you could return in to town on the Docklands Light Railway. All three of these modes of transport let you see parts of the city in completely different ways. Pip.

On the more general subject of under-guard areas and what might be lurking therein - and just FWIW... In the summer of 2008 I bought a mint-condition 1995 R0. It was custom-detailed at the Custom Shop by a player/collector and had been kept in a glass display case until he traded it in. When I got it there wasn't a mark on it. After a while - around 8 months - I noticed what appeared to be some lacquer checking in the Vol / Tone knob area. Curious as to what was going on I had a really good look all over the guitar and this was what I saw underneath its pickguard; Ten years on the checking is much more pronounced but seems to have pretty much stabilised as there has been very little change - if any - over the last five years or so. The curious thing is that my 4 LPs were all made within a 4 year timeframe of '91 to '95; they are all kept in exactly the same room under exactly the same conditions yet the R0 is the only one which has checked. Pip.

Nice snaps, Rabs! Many congrats to your employer into the bargain. I know you say it's not big news - and on a global scale, of course, it isn't - but to have received the recognition of his peers from within his own industry is a fine achievement and he should be justifiably proud to have been the recipient of the award. Good news for you all, I should think, in the long run. It's always interesting to see a well-known place from a different viewpoint - especially from a height - and to see that part of the South Bank from the top of City Hall is a sight not many of us get to enjoy. As a slightly amusing bit of trivia for those who don't hail from these parts; the tall building - colloquially known as the 'Walkie-Talkie' - seen at the left of the third snap and the right in the fourth snap gained a bit of notoriety a few years ago whilst under construction. Due to the concave nature of the south-facing side glass windows they became in effect, one hot, sunny summer's day, a parabolic mirror. One poor soul had, unwittingly, parked his brand-new Jaguar saloon car at what, later on, became the focus point of the sun's rays and came back to find parts of his car had melted... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23930675 Seeing London from on-high does, literally, show you the old place from a different perspective. Through my own work I've been able to enjoy spectacular views over London from the tops of both Centrepoint (or whatever it's called nowadays) and No.1 Canada Water (aka 'Canary Wharf') which was, at the time, the tallest building in the UK. The vews up and down the river from the latter were magnificent. Pip.

My heartiest congrats, T-G! Great-looking LP. Play Long and Prosper! Pip.

I agree with m-e's comments. I use Schallers on all my Les Pauls and they work fine but it is essential to check the nuts for tightness every so often. If these new ones do away with that necessity then I might have a look at them. Pip.

Not entirely true; https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/cars/delivery-mileage-mclaren-f1-emerges-japanese-time-capsule Anyhow; the 'ding' isn't a mistake. It's put there because it's "Historically Accurate". All '58 - '60 'bursts have them. It's how they are supposed to be. Did you not know that?.................. A fortnight ago when you started talking about this situation it was suggested that you take the case of being sold 'Damaged Goods' up more seriously with the dealership. Have you done that yet? If so then please tell us how you got on. If not then please tell us how you get on. Because bleating away like a pissed-off sheep here is not going to get you anywhere. Pip.

A catalogue of pre-arranged damage meted out on a car? You are obviously describing a 'Road-Worn' Fender... Pip.

Equally, T-G, I'm happy if I have been able to help you a bit with the puzzle. Pip.

It's becoming more and more likely that it was a 1968, T-G. First-off ABR-1s from the '50s didn't have the retaining wire. Secondly the inked serial number practice was ditched in 1961 in favour of the stamped number. Lastly - even taking into account that serial numbers from this period were frequently duplicated - in his book on the Les Paul Tony Bacon lists very large batches of 6-digit serial number sequences beginning with a 5 (starting from approx 501000 and going up to 599999) as dating to '68. Pip.

Hadn't seen that for years! Good fun! And who would have thought that the British Prime Minister of the time, Harold Wilson, was such a fan? Check him out at the 02:57 mark... Pip.

Comapre it with this one; Hope that helps! Pip.

As far as the OP and his '76 v's a newer one goes; this thread dates from just over 3 years ago so I doubt the OP is still needing advice. As far as the post from Jorge which resurrected this thread goes; It's not very clear how the digits after the 00 prefix should be interpreted. If Gibson followed up the '75-'77 idea for their newer system introduced subsequently then the next three digits are the date on the calendar (starting with 001 for the first of January) and the rest is the individual number for the instrument(s) stamped that day in numerical order. I have never, however, since 1978 when I first started to read about this stuff heard a definitive answer to how Gibson coded their guitars in this time-frame. There is a similar problem with the rest of your question - as I'm sure you already know. We can only guess. The Nashville plant was operational by June 1975. According to Tony Bacon in his reference work 'The Les Paul Guitar Book'; "...(in 1975) management decided to transfer to Nashville the bulk of the production of the Les Paul line - by far the most successful Gibson solidbody guitars at the time..." ...and later goes on to add... "...Kalamazoo had the potential to specialise in small runs. Nashville was therefore the obvious choice to produce the highest-volume models in Gibson's solidbody line at the time..." My guess - and it is purely a guess - is that Kalamazoo would have been reserved as the place where the more specialised Les Paul models - such as the Spotlight Special, the KM, the LP Artist and so on - were crafted with the likes of the DeLuxe, Standard and Custom models produced in Nashville. Not much help, I know, but if no guitar historian has yet given out this sort of information at any point during the last 40 years I can't see it surfacing anytime soon. Pip.

Lovely 'burst and colour on that one, Bill. Love the chevron, too! When you say the main differences are the weight and the neck am I right to assume you mean the new arrival is heavier and with a chunkier profile? I look forward to your evaluation of the incoming SD's against the '57 Classics. Pip.

Thanks again, all, for the nice comments. The neck? Similar to what Dub said above it's not chunky. Contrary to Dub's Warmoth Strat nor can it even remotely be described as a 'Soft V'! It's V profile is VERY pronounced with only a very narrow flattened-off band running up the spine of the neck and the flattened cheeks only start to curve (if it can be called that!) when we get to the area of the neck binding. I can't, in all honesty, say I find it comfortable (yet) but then again we are still becoming acquainted with one another. I'm pretty sure that in a few days after some more attempts at familiarity we will be good friends. I'm inundated with work at the mo' so haven't had much play-time but I had a brief five minutes with her before breakfast and I'm already finding the profile less weird in the hand. Volume-wise it's surprisingly loud! I haven't been whacking it but I'm guessing that it will be plenty loud enough to hold its own. Because of the wider string-spacing this style of guitar is far more suited to finger-picking techniques than as an out-and-out 'strummer'. I have actually been quite surprised how much more cleanly it can be played than, for instance, my Dread. Fingers are less prone to tripping-up over themselves. I can assure rct that 'Can't Find My Way Home' is a walk in the park. Tone is very sweet. No idea what brand of strings is fitted but they are phosphor-bronze and it sounds like plucking at the strings of a small piano. Very bright, tight, projection is good. A bit more mid-and-upper-range-centric than a bigger-bodied instrument, obviously, but the bass is plenty enough for my tastes - I don't particularly like 'Boomy'-sounding guitars. Intonation is very accurate but as it's a 12-fret neck I'm not anticipating doing much work in the tree-tops. So all-in-all I'm absolutely delighted with her. It was my 60th birthday yesterday and I picked her out as my present from my wife. Both, needless to say, are keepers. Pip.

OK; for anyone who is interested here are a few detail shots; Pip.