Description
This is a beautiful R8 from our friends at the Gibson Custom Shop. This lightly figured reissue Burst features a washed cherry gloss finish. The color is slightly leaning towards iced tea, but still more red with a faded vintage vibe.
The 2014 spec features a one-piece fingerboard, and hot hide glue was used for the neck joint, fingerboard, and holly headstock veneer. Gibson had also stopped using the tube for the truss rod at this point. All of these features improve the acoustic tone of the instrument and make it more historically correct to the late '50s models than earlier reissues.
This '58 has been upgraded electronically with Mojotone '59 Clone pickups, as well as a Mojotone short shaft non-historic wiring harness. This unpotted set offers clear and warm tones with plenty of single note articulation. They are simply a great PAF copy. The knobs are also Mojotone, and the jack plate is a sturdy metal replacement.
This one has been played quite a bit though clearly cared for. It has a handful of small faint dings on the top and back, some light scratches, and a few notable light dents at the back of the body and headstock edge. There is play wear on the neck down to the wood on the bass side behind the 2nd fret. Someone certainly loved the cowboy chord position! The neck binding exhibits the common red dye bleed. The frets show light wear in the lower register but nothing that inhibits tone or playability.
The guitar weighs in at 8lbs 9oz, and the neck measures .920 at the 1st and 1.010 at the 12th. It has classic '58 Les Paul tone with good honk and resonance, nice clarity, and plenty of biting attack. The neck is the full rounded large R8 neck you'd expect to find.
Overall a great playing example with a beautiful color and nice subtle figuring. Ships in the original hardshell case and includes the COA and case candy.
