R9 advice

[Otterbourne]

I am about to buy a VOS R9 this week (upgrading my R8 at long last!) and was looking for a bit of advice before diving in.

 

1. How do you retain the slightly dulled and aged patina on the guitar? When you polish it does that not remove the patina and attempt to restore to high gloss?

2. Why do Gibson not fit locking strap nuts on these guitars?

3. What sort of things should be looking for when checking the quality of the guitar before buying? Hints and tips grateful on weight, colour, top, bookmatching, neck etc?

4. What should I expect in the way of case candy? With my R8 I received a COA that was a paper certificate but I think the new VOS's have a different COA these days?

5. How should I interpret the serial number? I assume it will begin with 9 8xxx?

 

Sorry for all the questions but I am a newbie here and it's a expensive purchase here in UK. BTW, the colour of the one I like and have played is Iced Tea. I have seen another in a colour I have not heard or seen before - Sunrise Iced Tea - is that a new colour and is anyone here familiar with it?

 

Tks

[daveinspain]

Good luck with the purchas and welcome to the forum... You have answered most of your own questions and you seem to be spot on... Regular cleaning and wipe downs after you play should kepp your guitar in good order... Gibson makes some good products to maintain your guitar so ask your dealer. Another product that works very good is Vituoso Premium Cleaner and Virtuoso premium Ploish.. I use both and get great results. If you are worried about too much shine don't use the polish... www.virtuosopolish.com

 

Are you buying the guitar new from a dealer or second hand? Can you post any pics? The R9 should be fairy light for a solid piece of would guitar some where aroud 8. something pounds... or so. It should have a nice flaim and nicely matched. The new certificate is in a black hard cover and it's smaller than the old paper certificates... I'm not sure what neck it has but someone else will probably tell you... You should defenately play it and see how it feels...

 

Good luck

[FennRx]

I am about to buy a VOS R9 this week (upgrading my R8 at long last!) and was looking for a bit of advice before diving in.

 

1. How do you retain the slightly dulled and aged patina on the guitar? When you polish it does that not remove the patina and attempt to restore to high gloss?

2. Why do Gibson not fit locking strap nuts on these guitars?

3. What sort of things should be looking for when checking the quality of the guitar before buying? Hints and tips grateful on weight' date=' colour, top, bookmatching, neck etc?

4. What should I expect in the way of case candy? With my R8 I received a COA that was a paper certificate but I think the new VOS's have a different COA these days?

5. How should I interpret the serial number? I assume it will begin with 9 8xxx?

 

Sorry for all the questions but I am a newbie here and it's a expensive purchase here in UK. BTW, the colour of the one I like and have played is Iced Tea. I have seen another in a colour I have not heard or seen before - Sunrise Iced Tea - is that a new colour and is anyone here familiar with it?

 

Tks

[/quote']

 

1) do not polish it, just wipe it down. virtuoso will make the finish glossy.

2)ummm..... theyre not historically accurate....

3)ummm..... the normal things you look for when buying a guitar

4) a whole bunch of stuff...COA, warranty cards, etc

5)ummm.....yes, if it's brand new.

[porschemunkey]

If you want an awesome cherry sunburst '59 VOS, the Gibson Showcase in Nashville has one with incredible sound and a red maple top! Best sounding guitar in the store by a mile (and I'm very picky!). Just an FYI. Give them a call there.

[Tim Plains]

I am about to buy a VOS R9 this week (upgrading my R8 at long last!) and was looking for a bit of advice before diving in.

 

1. How do you retain the slightly dulled and aged patina on the guitar? When you polish it does that not remove the patina and attempt to restore to high gloss?

2. Why do Gibson not fit locking strap nuts on these guitars?

3. What sort of things should be looking for when checking the quality of the guitar before buying? Hints and tips grateful on weight' date=' colour, top, bookmatching, neck etc?

4. What should I expect in the way of case candy? With my R8 I received a COA that was a paper certificate but I think the new VOS's have a different COA these days?

5. How should I interpret the serial number? I assume it will begin with 9 8xxx?[/quote']

If your R8 is post 2002, you are essentially buying the exact same guitar you already own. I hope you know that.

 

1. The VOS finish will wear off the more you clean the guitar. No, it will not restore to high gloss, there is no high gloss finish on a VOS finished guitar. If you want to keep the VOS on there, don't clean or polish the guitar. I wouldn't worry about it, though. Soon enough, the guitar will have its own natural dullness.

 

These questions seem kind of odd, considering that you already own a R8.

 

2. Because people will upgrade these regardless, and it's relatively cheap to do.

3. What criteria did you look for when you bought the R8? The obvious answer is to find a guitar that sounds and feels great. I'll post more info for this at the end, happy reading!

4. There won't be any differences with the case candy, other than the COA is different.

5. 9 = 1959 reissue, 8 = year the guitar was constructed, xxx = the xxxth guitar to come out of the Custom Shop in 2008. Although, I don't know if that means the xxxth guitar, or the xxxth reissue.

 

I suggest you don't play just one and decide, because a R9 will sound great on its own, no matter what. If you put it beside another R9, it may not sound as good.

 

I copied this from elsewhere, it's apparently somewhere on Gibson's website.

I know it's long but it may be worth reading:

 

A lot of ingredients work together to form the precious tone that issues forth from your electric guitar, but however much time and consideration you have put into pickup and hardware selection, the way in which the wood components resonate together remains the make-or-break factor that determines the voice of your instrument. We examined tone woods in general in one of my earlier Tone Tips, It All Starts with the Wood, but this time I want to offer a few pointers to help you pinpoint the guitars that are really happening resonance-wise.

 

The first step in determining whether or not a guitar has got it together in tonal terms is to give it a thorough acoustic check-up. I’m talking purely electric solidbody or semi-solidbody here, but of course if you play any guitar unamplified it will perform as an acoustic instrument, and the extent to which it excels or falls flat in this effort will tell you a lot about how it will sound plugged in and cranked up, too. This is all really a matter of learning how to assess the structural and resonant virtue of an instrument; you can try it with guitars you already own, or apply these techniques when you are shopping for that important new instrument.

 

Weight plays a part in this equation, but is generally secondary to the virtue of the build and whether the wood itself—whether on the heavy side or the light—is working with the resonance and harmonics of the guitar, or against them. A well-built example of a well-designed guitar should live up to its potential as an instrument. Some slightly inferior examples of otherwise great, even legendary, guitars do occasionally see the light of day, of course, and this isn’t always the result of any great “mistake” that was made in the manufacturing process. Sometimes a piece of wood just doesn’t want to be a guitar … it wants to be a park bench. When that occurs, you find that the acoustic tones of body and neck fight each other and just don’t vibrate in harmony, or the guitar simply throws out less-than-flattering peaks, nulls, and dead spots that hinder the acoustic voice of the instrument, and as a result, it’s plugged-in performance. Let’s take a look at some methods of discerning an electric guitar’s acoustic performance.

 

First, put guitar X on your lap in playing position, strum a first-position chord, and feel the tip of the headstock with your right hand while still holding that chord with your left (reverse these if you’re a lefty). You should feel a significant amount of vibration there, almost a surprising amount of movement in some cases (note that set-neck guitars exhibit a bit less of this by nature, and set-neck semi-acoustics a little less still; this doesn’t indicate a lack of toneful resonance, but is just characteristic of the breed, so you need to assess like against like, as far as overall resonance is concerned).

 

Now, strum again and feel the strap button at the lower end of the body, and also the treble-side lower bout (the edge of the guitars near the controls). These regions should vibrate too, a little less than the tip of the headstock perhaps, but you should feel something there. Next, pluck just the open G string and check these same locations: on the really resonant guitars, you should still feel some action there. Put your ear to the bass-side upper bout (the upper “horn” or shoulder of the guitar) and play a little. You should hear a full, round, even voice, which might even be surprisingly loud on a really toneful guitar. It should be rich, deep, and woody. Ideally, you shouldn’t hear anything that’s too boomy, or too choked and spiky, or harsh in its treble response.

 

Finally, just play the guitar in a range of styles, all up and down the neck, and listen normally. It might not be real loud, but should be full and even and lively—and in some cases, might be louder than you’d think for a solidbody electric, when you give it your full attention. Play both chords and single notes and hold them, and listen to how long the guitar sustains, and whether the decay has a pleasing character. Does it sound good to you and make you want to play? Does it represent a quieter version of the kind of tonality that you’d like to have at the core of your sound when amplified? If so, you could be onto a winner.

 

On the other hand, if it sounds dead, dull, uneven, or as if different harmonic elements in the acoustic resonance are fighting themselves, you might want to pass it by and pick up the next example. Once you locate a guitar that is really happening acoustically, you can almost always achieve what you want in amplified tone with the right set of pickups. If the wood resonance is fighting you, however, the best set of pickups on the planet won’t correct the ills that are coming out of the heart of the instrument.

 

First-call LA session guitarist Carl Verheyen passed one of his own guitar-buying tips along to me when we were working together recently. Carl said that when he approaches an instrument hanging on the wall in a guitar store, he plucks just the B string, then grabs the lower treble bout of the guitar (around the region of the jack socket) to feel if there’s any vibration there at all. If there is, he takes it down and plays it further. If there isn’t, he passes it up. Experiment with playing acoustically as many electric guitars as you can get your hands on, put some thought into wood resonance, and see what you discover. It’s the first step toward nailing the really great tone machines out there.

[Otterbourne]

Thanks a lot folks for all the advice so far. Very helpful. I have played 3 x R9's now in 3 different shops and, like you all say, they all sound slightly different. The tips on feeling for the best resonance and vibrations are particualrly useful - I hadn't come across those before.

[AXE®]

Your cheekbone makes for a great resonance checker also . If it makes your eye water BUY IT

[Cooperoni]

When I asked Gibson they told me (in regards to the serial number) the XXX digits refer to the production number of reissues for that year. So my '60 LesPaul Special VOS that was made in 2006 has the serial number 06 XXXX, meaning 0= 1960 ReIssue, 6=2006, XXXX= the order in which it came off the production line. Mine was the one-thousandth-something 1960 Reissue guitar made in 2006. This applies regardless of what type of guitar it is (LP, LPSP, LPSPDC, SG) I believe.

[mpeixoto]

Hi,

 

If your R8 is post 2002' date=' you are essentially buying the exact same guitar you already own. I hope you know that.

[/quote']

 

Is this true?

R8 is post 2002 = R9?

I thought the '58 and '59 necks were different and frets too.

 

 

Rock On,

 

Miguel

[FennRx]

frets are the same size. r9=r8 with flame top and slightly thinner neck

[Tim Plains]

What ^ said, basically.

Miguel, if you browse through this forum and look for the threads with R8, R9, or reissue in the subject line, you'll have all the info you need.

[Torquill]

Folks, some advice please,

 

I've just bought a 2006 '57 les paul custom historic 2 PU version black beauty off of ebay. Everything seems to check out okay except that the owner claims the shop couldn't find the cert of authenticity. Couple of things troubling me are that the serial no. is a white 'transfer' and is not embedded in the wood and also the machine heads are grover which seems to contradict with the custom shop website picture which shows a vintage style.

Serial no. seems okay 76009 (so '57 reissue from 2006 and ninth out of the factory) Was supplied with a gibson custom case, receipt from the shop and all the gibson bits'n pieces (apart from the truss rod key). Any helpful comments much appeciated.

[Tim Plains]

Torquill, Gibson sometimes makes changes and it takes them a while to update the website. Serial numbers are not stamped on the historics, like Gibson USA guitars. I'm sure it's fine. Post some pictures.

[deepblue]

This is how the stamp the serial number on reissues.

 

[Bluemoon]

If you want an awesome cherry sunburst '59 VOS' date=' the Gibson Showcase in Nashville has one with incredible sound and a red maple top! Best sounding guitar in the store by a mile (and I'm very picky!). Just an FYI. Give them a call there.[/quote']

 

Did you check where he is located?

[pippy]

This is how the stamp the serial number on reissues.

 

Thanks very much for posting the snap, deepblue - I've often wondered about that!

 

Sad, but True.

[Bram]

Lots of acoustic resonance doesn't guarantee a great plugged-in

tone.

 

You have to play every Les Paul both unplugged AND plugged-in.

 

Chambered Les Pauls are by far the most resonant Les Pauls that

Gibson offers, period. Is that a good or bad thing? Well, mostly I'm

not impressed by their plugged-in tone. Too much Strat or Tele-like.

 

For lots of bite or an agressive tone I'd grab a Strat instead of a Les

Paul.

 

You gotta pay for smoothness.

[Bram]

I mean this:

 

Gibson R9:

 

 

1972 Les Paul Custom:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2d4c99L9tE

 

The Custom sounds way smoother; that's the tone

I'm talking about. Imagine somebody playing a Les Paul

with a tone like this when you're on vacation in Spain,

relaxing on a cousy terrace. Watching people enjoying

the Spanish sun and their Spanish beer. Pretty women

walking everywhere. Give me a smooth Les Paul Custom

anytime.

 

The R9 sounds trebly, thin and agressive compared to the

Custom. I'd prefer a nice Strat for these kind of tones.

[six-string]

Folks' date=' some advice please,

 

I've just bought a 2006 '57 les paul custom historic 2 PU version black beauty off of ebay. Everything seems to check out okay except that the owner claims the shop couldn't find the cert of authenticity. Couple of things troubling me are that the serial no. is a white 'transfer' and is not embedded in the wood and also the machine heads are grover which seems to contradict with the custom shop website picture which shows a vintage style.

Serial no. seems okay 76009 (so '57 reissue from 2006 and ninth out of the factory) Was supplied with a gibson custom case, receipt from the shop and all the gibson bits'n pieces (apart from the truss rod key). Any helpful comments much appeciated.[/quote']

 

as someone pointed out, the serial numbers are inked not stamped for most historic reissues. as for the tuners, it seems Gibson has used both Grovers and Kluson styles on the 57 black beauty reissues, sometimes in the same year. personally, i'd consider the Grovers an upgrade and be happy with them.

[Tim Plains]

Bram, why would you say chambered LPs are the most resonant and then post videos of two solid LPs?

Besides, the Custom was using the neck pickup and the R9 was using the bridge pickup. A bit of a difference...

 

The R9 sounds trebly, thin and agressive compared to the

Custom. I'd prefer a nice Strat for these kind of tones.

The amp has a lot to do with it. I can easily make my R9 not sound like that.

[Blaster]

I've owned many R9s over the past 15 years since the program began. The posts up top are correct; essentially the R9 is the same as an R8 except it's suppose to have a nicer figured top. Try to play as many as possible acoustically, so you can actually hear the sustain. They all have different tonal personalities. If the guitar sounds nice and open when played acoustically and the sustain lingers for a long time before dropping off chances are it'll be a keeper. Personally I like lightweight ones, and feel some of the best sounding ones are in that category.

Some of them are tone turds, and it's almost impossible to differentiate one from another when blasting thru a hi-gain amp. Just take your time and you'll know when one speaks to you.