Recent content by 83Custom

Exactly. People seem to make things up in their head and subsequently believe it to be fact. A guitar needs to be set up correctly. For some, the stock set up works perfectly for them. Others may need the action higher or lower. Or a truss rod adjustment. Some may like the feel of a...

A friend sent me a picture of the wiring from a 50’s LP. We know it’s been resoldered and a different cap added to the bridge tone pot. The neck pickup has the usual 50s wiring. The way the bridge pickup is connected to the bridge tone pot has me somewhat perplexed. I can’t say I’ve...

Agreed.

Obviously I have no inside info on what gets done but I just can’t see Tom doing one-offs for friends and putting his semi-hidden initials/trademark on a guitar from the regular USA line. And that’s leaving out the fake serial number added to the equation. Weird things do happen but...

Imagine if Gibson looked up the old serial number and discovered that it was given to a long ago employee. Lol I’d guess that they probably have a ledger that shows exactly where that guitar went way back in 2002.

The only two cents I can add to all this… Even if it were a test subject per se for Murphy way back long ago there’s no way anyone connected from Gibson is going to refinish the back of the headstock and put an R9 serial number on it. Repurpose a Felder CS LP to be a regular R9 like they...

IMO, it depends in the guitar. I’ve had some T Tops in a couple of CS guitars and they sounded pretty good. But in a LP from the late 90s one of the same T Tops I put into it sounded comparatively weak. To my ears, the 2019 CB I put into the same late 90s LP sounded better than the T Top...

The obsession with exact specs is getting to be excessively stupid with each passing year. Are you using the same amps they used in the late 50s and early 60s?

Yeah, mentioning the 335 was my bad. Lol.

335s? Byrdlands?

Gibson customer service was fantastic and extremely quick. They confirmed that they would not have added it so a previous owner must have done it. “Thanks for that picture. That helps me confirm that that was not done by us. We stamp our guitars before the finish is applied, whereas that R...

Does anyone know what the “R” stamp is on the back of this 1997 LP? Perhaps it was added by a previous owner for personal identification. I can’t tell. I’ve read that in the 60s there may have been an “R” stamp meaning refurbished but nothing has come up doing a Google search for more...

A holy grail? I put a Cream T Billy Gibbons Whiskerbucker in the bridge of my 2019 R8. It was like suddenly having a volume/OD combo pedal put into the guitar. It clears up as you roll back the volume and dirties up on 10. It’s the best replica pickup I’ve ever tried in a guitar. It...

The only difference I’ve ever noticed between the two guitars (excluding the obvious things such as neck size or weight) is that bends are a little tighter on the wraparound since there isn’t any string behind the bridge (a bridge and tailpiece has a bit of string movement between them when...

Once any potential dust/grit has been removed with a damp cloth, I just use Mother’s Brazilian carnauba wax. Meguiars makes some good polish too.