480-299-3790
2003 Gibson Les Paul Historic R9
BRW Playability and Gibson’s Soul
This 2003 Gibson Les Paul Historic has SOUL to boot. The classic Brockburst coloring (officially Heritage cherryburst) with the awesome mahogany sides and back was born at a time when Gibson produced about 650 guitars with Brazilian Rosewood fingerboards - one of the most collectible of the 1959 re-issues (R9). At this time Gibson was using their finish processes reminiscent of the way they were made in the late 50’s. It all started of course with a nice maple top, with a very thin coat of clear lacquer mixed with yellow pigment stain. With the addition of the red aniline die with a little blue added for depth over the yellow top coat, you get the famous ‘59 sunburst shades. This combination created the beautiful topcoats that faded nicely to the sweet color pallets found on many Pauls. But not without issues, the red aniline is difficult to control and would frequently bleed into the binding, so Gibson by the late 2000’s had changed back to a “safer” paint formula for the re-issues. Purchased new from a major New York City dealer (that’s another story), this guitar was made right, thru the help and efforts of Philip Whorton and the Gibson Custom Shop.
This one also has the Burst bucker 1 and 2’s, CTS Pots and Bumblebee caps for that uncompromised Les Paul sound made historic by Clapton, Page, Allman, Betts, amongst others.