Angellus

i'd rather do time than sell mine

Gibson XR1 Make: Gibson Model: XR1 (Studio) Year 1981 (This guitar was made a the Nashville Plant, TN, USA) Colour Cherry burst Steve Clarke (Def Leppard) had two guitars as his main tour guitars for the Pyromania tour: A Gibson Les Paul Standard and a Gibson Les Paul XR-1. This was formerly owned by Gaz Coombes of Supergrass. The XR-1 is the prelude to the Les Paul Studio. The studio came out in 1983 and so the XR-1 ran from 81-83. It is also arguably better due to non weight relief and the flexibility in pickup selection. Neck Specification Three piece laminated maple construction, width at fingerboard nut 1+11/16th", Rosewood fingerboard with pearl dot inlays, chrome plated individual machine heads, Gibson XR1 truss rod cover, 22 frets, 24+3/4" scale length. Body Specification Laminated mahogany body with a carved maple top, single cutaway, adjustable chrome plated Tune-o-matic bridge and stop bar, no binding on body, neck or headstock, body size length 17+3/8", width 12+3/4", depth 2". The pickups are two exposed black/white coil "Dirty Fingers". Apart from the usual 2 volume and 2 tone controls and the 3 way toggle switch for pick up selection it also features a coil tap switch located near the volume/tone controls which splits the pickup to a single coil tonal option. here is another thread on Mylespaul.com http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/norlin-years/63983-gibson-les-paul-xr-1-a.html

if you got any pics please post thanks

yes i done similar upgrades really makes the guitar come out tonally that sucks with the waranty but at least its not structual

IMO its nothing you have done, neither is it an issue with chambering/weight releif. this all comes down to the pots the checking is starting from the base of the pots so first initial culprit would be them being to tight causing an issue with the finish that will unfortunately get worse. Gibson should see this (even though they do not have a warranty policy on finishes) as the pots. yes checking on older guitars shows the guitars age and journey but fresh (wet look) laquer with checking doesn't look so great. Wanna make it look old and good with checking? dont use guitar polish (this moisturises the laquer) instead clean it with Naptha fluid and saliva! yes saliva best thing for your OWN guitar. this will help your laquer to dry out and the tone to (IMO) come alive like the oldies