I’ve been wanting to buy my first Gibson for a while now, I’d originally had my eyes on one of the new 50s standards but I wasn’t impressed on the quality of the tops at my local store so I thought about finding a used R8, the ones I’m looking at are round 3-3.5k here in the UK. I just saw a 2009 faded standard up for sale on eBay for 1800 (the top looks amazing and it had been upgraded with Faber hardware and OX4 pickups).
If I went for a new standard it would probably be one of the dirty lemon aaa tops but they’re only a couple hundred less than a used R8. Would an R8 be worth spending nearly double the price of the 09 faded ?
I have a few niggles in the back of my head for each model.
R8 - although looks/specs wise it’s pretty much exactly what I’d want it is a lot of money if I got something cheaper that’s more money to put into other gear, also there’s nothing local so I couldn’t view/try anything so it’s a lot of money to potentially have to deal with issues like heavy fretwear etc.
09 faded - again like above can’t view/try so same potential issues
Sorry for the rambling, I have crippling indecisiveness
If I went for a new standard it would probably be one of the dirty lemon aaa tops but they’re only a couple hundred less than a used R8. Would an R8 be worth spending nearly double the price of the 09 faded ?
I have a few niggles in the back of my head for each model.
R8 - although looks/specs wise it’s pretty much exactly what I’d want it is a lot of money if I got something cheaper that’s more money to put into other gear, also there’s nothing local so I couldn’t view/try anything so it’s a lot of money to potentially have to deal with issues like heavy fretwear etc.
09 faded - again like above can’t view/try so same potential issues
Sorry for the rambling, I have crippling indecisiveness