2000 Custom Shop Elegant Heritage Flametop

[Arvid]

Picked it up for my 15 year old. Looks authentic from the clues I've researched on this and other sites.

Just one little question tho. Not much is posted about this particular style and model.

Most pic's I've seen have pick guards attached. This one does not. Would installing one affect the value?

Paid 2500.00 for it and the boy is strutting around like a peacock with it.

It's a pretty little guitar(I'm not a player)and sound real good thru his Fender Hotrod Deluxe amp.

Thanks in advance for any info on this or any other knowledge you can share with me.

[Raptor]

Picked it up for my 15 year old. Looks authentic from the clues I've researched on this and other sites.

Just one little question tho. Not much is posted about this particular style and model.

Most pic's I've seen have pick guards attached. This one does not. Would installing one affect the value?

Paid 2500.00 for it and the boy is strutting around like a peacock with it.

It's a pretty little guitar(I'm not a player)and sound real good thru his Fender Hotrod Deluxe amp.

Thanks in advance for any info on this or any other knowledge you can share with me.

Gibson discontinued the Elegant in Jan 2005 although it has been available as custom orders from time to time since. If you call or e-mail Gibson's Customer service with the pickguard they should be able to confirm the guitar for you. They were not a greatly popular guitar model because they are chambered. When they were in the product list most Les Paul fans looked down upon chambered LPs because of the tone. There are still a lot of purists who feel the only good LPs are the solid body ones. When the first Cloud 9 chambered reissues were made a lot of people began to fall in love with them and chambered LPs were looked upon differently by a lot of players. A guitar body can be chambered in such a way that the affect it has on tone is minimal, or it can be chambered to intentionally create a specific tone. The chambering on the Elegant was designed to give it a different tone from the solid body guitars. I have a custom made Elegant that was one of the last made. It was ordered in 2004 and was finished in 2005. When Gibson discontinued the Elegant they decided to complete the backorders that they had. Mine was one of those dozen or so. Then in 2007 I saw the Elegant offered again in limited numbers in Canada by the distributor Yorkville Sound, but I don't think they have ever come back as a regular production guitar.

If your Elegant is still all original it will have 57 Classic pickups which are very good vintage sounding pickups, and nickel hardware. The neck profile is the 50's rounded and the ebony fretboard has a compound radius. I forget the exact radius range, but I think it was 12 to 17 inches. Installing a pickguard will require putting a couple of holes into the body, so yes it will have some negative impact on the value of the guitar. The Elegant did not come with a pickguard in order to show off the highly figured top. Gibson does not release production numbers (they haven't for many years now) so there is no real way to know how many Elegants were made, but they were never one of their biggest sellers.

I find the tone to be very articulate and airy. The chambering adds some brightness to the overall tone. My Elegant is one of my regular players and I love it. I still hope to get one more made with single coil pickups. They are great guitars and I am glad to hear your son likes it. Apart from being lighter than a lot of solid body LPs they have a wonderfully unique tone to them. Congrats on a great guitar. If there is anything else you want to know, just ask. I am sure I can dig out my reference books again, and if I can't help I am sure someone else will chime in.

Cheers