NighthawkChris

Really cool amp man congrats! I bought a Fillmore 50 combo a while back and really digging it - like an improved Fender HRD, TBH. So IMHO, Mesa makes some real great amps and hope you enjoy it for many years to come.

What does “well preserved” mean I wonder. Looks nice but does all the stuff on it work - especially truss rod? How are the frets looking - worn down and square-like? It has neck binding so a refret would be costly. Pickups were replaced so hows the wiring and other electronics? Tuning machines work good? Aside from that, consider these things in the cost of the guitar of anything is wrong. If the truss rod don’t work or neck can’t be made straight, walk away. Even cracks and breaks that have been repaired I’m sketchy about. Anything else you generally can fix up without “major” cost given you know a good luthier - or have “skills”. It’s an older guitar being 32 years old or so therefore you will probably have something to address. Again, take this into consideration when agreeing to a price.

LP Custom I’m thinking. Real fancy guitar if you’re looking to spend some dough. Depends on which year you go after cuz you’d probably want to find one with an ebony fretboard. Maybe look at the older 68RIs if you want a cool one. R7s are nice too. I really like my R7 GT. Have to know the frets are tall and skinny with a fat neck. Sounds real good though - and looks great too. It’s a rock machine plain and simple. Like my R9 better but R7 is just like that with the features I just explained. The modern can’t comment on since I’ve never played one. It’s probably a great guitar and hopefully worth your time. It might be just what you’re looking for... Seems pretty versatile too. But you should just find some you can buy and try this way you gat a better choice of what to blow a few grand on. Good luck and share pictures!

I guess it’s a tragedy. Just WOW!

That R9 video triggered me. What did it do to deserve that fukkery!!!

I concur. At least it is a piece of what appears to be leather. I just don't like the straps that are made of that nylon weave junk to hold up my Gibson guitars. They dig into my shoulder and not much grip on my clothing. They are not as comfortable as my nice padded leather Gibson strap when I use it for an extended period of time. Either way, the straps that come with the Gibsons these days are alright to say the least.

I did 73 bags of leaves so far this year. Right now, I have 43 bags on roadside for pickup. I could probably do more, but damn I'm hoping to be done for the year. People have told me to consider paying someone to clean the stuff up, but that costs quite a bit, and I needed something to do instead of sitting on my butt like I've been doing lately. It also helps to get some help when doing this as I've done this for the last 7 years by my lonesome. This year though, my little ones and wife helped out thankfully. I have about an acre of land with mature trees all around so it takes quite some time to gather them all up and bag them.

Not that I am changing my mind on what I assessed, but I thought I was looking at a LP Custom initially. I never knew that they made a LP Standard R8 with the alpine white finish... We learn something new every day I guess. I guess I was sort of surprised when I noticed the long neck tenon because a run-of-the-mill Custom doesn't have a long neck tenon. There may be some anomalies out there, but only 50s reissues and the 68 reissue have long neck tenons AFAIK. So anyhow, thanks for sharing some info on this guitar @TriSarahPlop.

Considered the LP Modern? I’m just confused why you want this traditional type of guitar to play heavy music which is anything but traditional have you. Sorry to throw in another option here but nothing wrong with weight relief IMHO. But to each and to their own what they prefer I suppose. The Modern has BB Pros in them so not sure what they sound like... Either way trying to help here.

I’d be more inclined to chase down that Custom. Would be a bit more heavier most likely than the Standard so take that into account. I usually expect the USA LPs to be 9lbs, Customs to be around 10. This is not a given obviously, but I have 3 customs one being a BB R7 (and it’s a chunker alright) and they are a bit heavier (think keeping it strapped up for a set). My USA Standard is about 9 give or take a few ounces... only my R9s are sub 9lbs - one being 8lbs 3 oz (other 8.75lbs). And my R7s have some baseball bat necks. I like the R9 profile best though - NOTHING beats it IMHO. The Standard probably has Burstbucker set of pickups - not sure what Custom would have in 99. My 03 has 57 Classics. I like the Classics more... Custom looks more “classy” than Standard - and ebony fretboard to boot. You mention good condition so not too sure what qualifies that... Think of having to possibly fret dress/crown being it’s a 99 which costs a little bit more to make it play right. Hopefully you have some life in the frets to do a dress eventually. The newer guitar probably doesn’t have as much wear being it is a year or 2 old - something to consider... Overall, I think you are dealing with some good years of production whichever you choose. Good luck and show pics or it didn’t happen.

Yeah if I was a betting man, cosmetic only... and being a long tenon that’s thing is in there good. You’d have to have a crack somewhere north of that for me to be convinced otherwise which I believe would be highly unlikely. Nothing is disturbed where the end of the tenon rests whatsoever. But based in what you shared, I’d say you’re good, enjoy the heck out of that beauty; would be great to give some pictures of that thing! I like guitars with aged stuff like that. You don’t baby the thing as much and keep them case queens. I know because I have some case queens, and I just can’t bear to put the first dings in them... luckily I have 13 guitars haha!

I’m going with finish crack. It seems to me that every older alpine white LP Custom does this eventually. @merciful-evans has given a good way to inspect it if it is an issue. Those neck joints have plenty of glue in there when they are set - no way it just wants to come unseated. Do you see anywhere else on the guitar it might have taken a pretty good bang to transfer enough energy to loosen that bonding point? If not more evidence that it indeed could be just a cosmetic thing here. Hoping it is just that too.

That’s really nice man! I have a Gibson one that cost me about the same. They are costly but good investment nonetheless.

Just remember that you want a very good strap... Don't cheapy out on this. You're trusting that that thing will hold up your expensive guitar and not have it swing around on your shoulder. Get a nice piece of leather - not that plasticy crap, leather. That's too nice of a guitar to trust it to some seat belt material POS or any other garbage $20 strap.

Oh wow she’s a beauty for sure! Cherry burst Gibsons are my absolute favorite type of finish they put together. Many years of enjoyment for you with that one.

@Jayharr58, nice guitar you got there! 50s Standard I gather...

Well, at least you have some more info after your phone call; I was pretty confident you had a 1994. If you aren't the original owner which I gather, you don't know what modifications might have been done to the tuners or bridge, etc. by the last guy. Anyhow, glad the investigation is going good, haha! Cheers!

@fortyearspickn good point about outside walls. I was told to do this with my upright piano too.

To me the HB in the bridge works well for hard rock. You want a hot pickup for this. Remember this was a 90s guitar. About 14k is par for the course regarding a stock PU. I’ve tried the Seymour Duncan 59 bridge and it is ok, but IMHO sucks once you split it. This PU is around 7-8k - half the stock. SD also makes a nice JB too which is even hotter slightly than the stock PU. When you split the HBs you definitely get this straty sound when you split the coils and select positions 2 and 4 of the 5-way switch. But again this refers to the 3 pickup model. Oddly enough not familiar so much with the 2 pickup model which I always thought of as a Gibson Telecaster. As I said, I have the 3 pickup versions on all 3 of mine. You get 10 possible sounds. It utilizes a 4P5T “super switch” and when you add the pull switch on the tone pot, you multiply the 5 by 2 and there you go, 10 tonal possibilities. I don’t particularly like all 10 but it works for quite a few things. Overall it’s a thing of its own sort of. Criticism of it is that it doesn’t do the Gibson thing completely and doesn’t do the Fender thing completely so why bother... This is why I just use it for what it is and roll with it. I like it because it’s smaller and lighter type of guitar. nice belly cut, and adornments typical of a Gibson. You either love it or hate it I guess. I have had one for over 20 years and I have grown on them ever since. It has served for me as a versatile guitar growing up playing anything from hard rock to funk to blues and even more. My avatar features the CST3 model in Fireburst and it is sort of rare to find these today. I haven’t seen one for sale anywhere for quite some time and their value has gone up a bit once a good one comes along.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Hercules-Stands/GSP38WB-PLUS-Auto-Grip-System-AGS-Guitar-Wall-Hanger-Short-Arm-Wooden-Base.gc?rNtt=hercules&index=2 These work for me.

Another thing I wanted to add here is saddles like those on a strat for the most part are beneficial when you use a trem. If they are a material like graphite, this is good because it is one less place for the string to bind up on - a lot of the reason Strats have issues staying in tune once the trem gets used. Of course up at the nut is another place to get strings bound up on the trees or even the nut, but we are talking about saddles. Typically saddles need replacement IMHO if you have some cheap pot metal or something that catches the string. I suppose that bends could cause issues too. Overall I would replace saddles for stability reasons mostly, not for tonal changes.

Oh another thing I noticed is the typo of 350kOhm in my first post... I meant 250kOhm. Damn iPhone! Or maybe it’s my fat fingers haha!

Oh my mistake with regards to the caps I suggested... I meant the 0.047uF and 0.022uF. You could say nF (nanoFarad) but typically everything you’ll see is referring to the measurement in microFarads. Either way, the 47 and 22 are the important numbers so to speak to remember. The higher the potentiometer’s resistance, the higher the capacitance should be - per what a vast majority of designs are physically realized.

Honestly, that sounds like you have a 1994 Gibson... I have 2 x 1994 Gibson guitars all starting with the 94xxx... S/N. It was Gibson's centennial year - yippee - and they changed it up this time for whatever reason. As @Sgt. Pepper mentioned, the CS was appended to the front during the 201x years AFAIK. I have one from 2015 that has the CS prefix. Unless it is a reissue, you won't see the CS prefix; reissues have another format to look for. If in doubt, call Gibson. A short phone call will do you good.

https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/articles/214343803-How-do-I-set-up-my-Telecaster-guitar-properly- Here is what I use to set up my NHs. As I said, I set it up like a Tele - vintage style as they refer to pickup heights for several different types of pickups. They mention 6/64" on bass side and 5/64" on treble side for both neck and bridge pickups, so I'm in that neighborhood generally. If it is too hot, I lower it a tick, but still in the ballpark of the Fender spec. Really, this is a guideline so giving or taking a little won't be necessarily wrong. Anyhow, you asked what I set my pickup height to so this is what I have to share. I also wouldn't necessarily add a resistor into the circuit as you have suggested. I mean, you could, but there's never been a design that I ran into that had a stand-alone resistor in the electronics. Depending on where you put it, you could even brighten up the sound, because essentially, the resistance of the pot is something the small signal from the pickup loads onto that is picked up by the amp input. If you put the resistance in series, you could affect the frequency response, but it would be a hard-fixed response so to speak. Anyhow, I would avoid doing this. If you really want to change tonal response, I'd focus more on the cap in the tone circuit personally before adding "permanent" resistance in the circuitry. I go with 47uF for 500kOhm pots, 22uF for 350kOhm - sort of standard AFAIK. Basically, I would like to understand where you plan on doing this, how, etc. if you must do this, but generally, I wouldn't try to do this. The volume pot is supposed to be sort of Fender (250kOhm) at 300kOhm linear tapered. That's how mine are done up and what Gibson's schematics say to use. I rewired an older Epiphone NH I had years ago like the Gibson NH and this 300kOhm volume linear taper pot was what I used. And generally, the idea is the higher the resistance, the more bright you get. Good luck once again!