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Hey it's Mat from Gibson Product Development - AMA

matkoehler

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Sep 12, 2014
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482
Mat, long time Gibson player here. Do you know the source of the Vanilla smell from Gibson guitars and their cases? I have heard it is the glue in the case, I have heard it is the laquer on the guitars. Many of us have wondered for years.
Good question! There must be something in the air because I have heard a lot of talk about this recently. Yes, we used to use a vanilla fragrance in the lacquer. When we switched vendors in 2019-2020, we moved to a fragrance that produced a more neutral smell. Based on recent feedback, we will be moving back to the vanilla fragrance. :)
 

jb_abides

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Apr 6, 2005
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5,276
Good question! There must be something in the air because I have heard a lot of talk about this recently. Yes, we used to use a vanilla fragrance in the lacquer. When we switched vendors in 2019-2020, we moved to a fragrance that produced a more neutral smell. Based on recent feedback, we will be moving back to the vanilla fragrance. :)

Does this serve any purpose apart from providing a masking scent during the manufacturing process, i.e. to stabilize, etc?
 

pqs

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May 31, 2019
Messages
109
Great questions and in a nutshell, there have been all sorts of Reissue neck profile changes over the past decade but yes -- they used to be huge and generic and now they are just transposed directly from scans of originals. The R8 is chunky and rounder, measuring 0.910" to 1.013" and the R9 is almost a soft V feel, measuring 0.962" to 0.861" deep. For the 2019-on Gibson USA Original Collection necks, we DO NOT transpose them from scans of originals but YES we are trying to get similar "realistic" depths with perhaps a little more cheek than you might see on a current Reissue. Original Collection 50s = 59 inspired, Original Collection 60s = 1960 inspired.

Two necks with the same depth measurements can feel totally different when shaped differently, for the record. And yes we are talking about tenths and hundreths of an inch here...pretty amazing that it produces such a different playing feel.

Hope that helps!

Thank you so much. That was a reassuring sanity check. I started questioning myself when everywhere I looked people were arriving at different conclusions, from YouTube to Reddit to here to other forums. Hence why I ended up with a little basic stats exercise and decided to ask. Good to know I’m not going crazy. Possibly a bit pedantic, but at least a sane one lol.

And yes I was referring to 2019-present for the reissues as well. These newer necks are ace. You all hit it out of the park.
 

TM1

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Jun 27, 2003
Messages
8,349
Hi Mat

I know earlier in the thread you mention that Custombuckers were a sonic pursuit to sound like Jimmy Page's #1


That said, in the recently-released video about the Pickup Shop, Dinesh Lekhraj says they "cracked the code on these real PAF pickups from the '50s". I'm guessing these are still the same Custombuckers from recent years. I guess nothing he says in the video precludes the Jimmy Page angle, but as a guitar spec and history geek, I'm curious. I'm not trying for a "gotcha" here or anything, just asking for clarity's sake :)

I remember back in the mid/late `70's Alembic came out with their "Hot Rod Kit" for Gibson pickups it was just two ceramic magnets, some copper tape and a bit of wire to solder onto the copper foil and the base plate that would shield the pickups. I wish they had made the ceramic magnets a bit thinner so one could solder the covers back on. I like covers on pickups, although I didn't like the fugly chrome covers. They were way too thick and killed some of the high end..But this was when replacement pickups like Duncan and DiMarrzzio were in the infency.
 

CAGinLA

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Joined
Jan 4, 2016
Messages
489
Good question! There must be something in the air because I have heard a lot of talk about this recently. Yes, we used to use a vanilla fragrance in the lacquer. When we switched vendors in 2019-2020, we moved to a fragrance that produced a more neutral smell. Based on recent feedback, we will be moving back to the vanilla fragrance. :)

Very important that you return to this, as some of us prefer to lick our new guitars.

Tone is in the tongue after all!
 

jonspace

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Joined
Jan 29, 2020
Messages
35
Good question! There must be something in the air because I have heard a lot of talk about this recently. Yes, we used to use a vanilla fragrance in the lacquer. When we switched vendors in 2019-2020, we moved to a fragrance that produced a more neutral smell. Based on recent feedback, we will be moving back to the vanilla fragrance. :)
Was this on both Gibson USA and Gibson Custom Shop?
I've noticed it on new Gibson USA guitars but not with Gibson Custom Shop, fresh out of the box, CS guitars smell like the fancy high end car polishing wax.
 

BlueGuitar!

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Joined
Nov 4, 2019
Messages
74
Big mystery for me... Did Tom Murphy paint the limited Brunswick Blue Gibson USA les paul Standards in 1993? Here is a Trogly video of one

They are different from the Custom Shop Standards in that they have the finish on the headstock too. Also there is less blue flakes so it's a slightly darker finish than the typical brunswick blue. The only one I've seen close to this type is a Murphy Labs heavy aged es-335 seen Here

would really appreciate a response.. thanks!
 

charliechitlins

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Nov 16, 2021
Messages
1,021
Good question! There must be something in the air because I have heard a lot of talk about this recently. Yes, we used to use a vanilla fragrance in the lacquer. When we switched vendors in 2019-2020, we moved to a fragrance that produced a more neutral smell. Based on recent feedback, we will be moving back to the vanilla fragrance. :)
Alright...suit yourselves...but when I had a '17 Firebird V, the guys in the band started calling me Cupcake. :cry:
 

jb_abides

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Apr 6, 2005
Messages
5,276
Big mystery for me... Did Tom Murphy paint the limited Brunswick Blue Gibson USA les paul Standards in 1993? Here is a Trogly video of one

They are different from the Custom Shop Standards in that they have the finish on the headstock too. Also there is less blue flakes so it's a slightly darker finish than the typical brunswick blue. The only one I've seen close to this type is a Murphy Labs heavy aged es-335 seen Here

would really appreciate a response.. thanks!

As to the darkness being down to a difference in finish, I don't believe there's a formulation change. It's just highly dependent upon lighting employed and photographic technique.

Here's my non-aged 64 335: very dark in absence of direct light, even on bright days.

1667221736655.png
 

BlueGuitar!

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Nov 4, 2019
Messages
74
As to the darkness being down to a difference in finish, I don't believe there's a formulation change. It's just highly dependent upon lighting employed and photographic technique.

Here's my non-aged 64 335: very dark in absence of direct light, even on bright days.

View attachment 19937
Wow that's cool! What year?

The 1993 with the matching headstock had a different Brunswick Blue than any others

93 limited edition standard
20220420_125844.jpg

95 custom shop standard
20220420_125947.jpg

And here's a shot of the 93's headstock. It's more of a 'starry night' finish then a typical sparkle paintjob. They also have the plastic tulip tuners and 490/498 while the CS ones have kidney grovers and 57's
20221031_085307.jpg

Would be awesome if Mr. Koehler could ask Mr. Murphy about this!
 
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jb_abides

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5,276
Mine's a 2022.

Flake size and % in situ may vary per application. Also, I won't discount a formulation drift because of supply availability or safety requirements, but I'll go back the main variables being lighting and photography.


1667226407220.png

1667226438246.png

1667226476671.png
 

BlueGuitar!

Member
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Nov 4, 2019
Messages
74
I see your point but I've looked at about a half dozen 93 'custom shop edition' brunswick blues with the matching headstock and more than a dozen actual Custom Shop 95, 96 standards online and the latter has much more small sparkle flakes in every case. No matter how much light I shine on my 93 I can't get it to look like the first 2 pics in your reply.. the flakes are much more spread apart and makes it seem like the base coat is darker. The comparison pics I posted are from 2 listings by GuitarChimp and they use very consistent lighting/conditions for their photos.

The speculation is that Tom Murphy painted about a hundred of these standards in 93 and the 'real' Custom Shop ones were not (I don't believe he was a regular CS employee after 95 anyways). I didn't buy the guitar based on this but it'd be nice to know. The only intel I have on it so far is that a trusted person told me that he read about the Murphy brunswick rumor in a forum similar to this from a person he also trusted not to tell tall tales.
 
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Jericho-79

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Apr 12, 2016
Messages
56
Hi Mat!

Last month I found this Reverb listing:

LPFAPU5RC-14-large.jpg

Is that what the Gibson CS mean by a "plum crazy" finish?
 

jhawk77

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Sep 14, 2022
Messages
25
Hey @matkoehler, I requested a M2M quote through my local guitar shop just shy of two months ago, still haven’t heard back. Is that typical?
 

rodrigoeliedson

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Joined
Dec 1, 2022
Messages
1
Hi, Guys
Need some help for identify this 2009 Gibson LP VOS 1957 pickups.

Are they the first run Custombuckers, Burstbuckers with A3 magnets or Standard Burstbuckers?

Screenshot_20221130_213813.jpg

Screenshot_20221130_214430.jpg
 
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