How do people justify buying a new Gibson VOS LP?

[cyndicate]

Checked out prices for the 60's ones, holy cow they are freaken expensive! The others are just as expensive Is it that much of a upgrade from a Classic LP? I played a bunch of them the other day and found the ones with the 60's neck to be really comfortable.

 

[jonny toetags]

Checked out prices for the 60's ones, holy cow they are freaken expensive! The others are just as expensive Is it that much of a upgrade from a Classic LP? I played a bunch of them the other day and found the ones with the 60's neck to be really comfortable.

Yes...it is a huge upgrade from a Classic, but no, no way the prices are justified.
LP's should be priced the same as Fenders, imo.
But my R6 does play oh-so nice

I've seen some R7's and plaintop R8's got for $1900 on TGP...worth looking into.

 

[skoora]

You can't think of it in terms of how much the guitars cost to make. It's marketing in perceived value. When Gibson was slumping in sales in the 80's/early 90's they raised prices and sales actually grew. It's marketing based, not cost based.

 

[Jakem]

VOS Gibsons are amazing. They seem to have nicest tops (R9 & R0), lightest mahogany etc etc.

 

[jonny toetags]

Yes...it is a huge upgrade from a Classic, but no, no way the prices are justified.
LP's should be priced the same as Fenders, imo.
But my R6 does play oh-so nice

I've seen some R7's and plaintop R8's got for $1900 on TGP...worth looking into.

There's ALOT more that goes into making a Les Paul than a Strat or Tele, so it shouldn't be a surprise that Les Pauls cost alot more. They're really at totally different ends of the spectrum. Things like a set neck, mahogany/maple body, body and fretboard binding, etc... all make a Les Paul cost more than a Strat, so I'm good there.

I do think Les Pauls cost a heck of alot of money, though. Especially the Custom Shop models. There are alot of people that think the higher price of the Custom Shop models is well worth it. But there are others that don't feel or hear much of a difference between the regular production models and the Custom Shop models, so they don't think the extra price is worth it.

I used to think the extra cost is ridiculous, until I got alot of time on my R8. Now I think it's totally worth it.

Ok..maybe not exactly Fender-like.
I got my R6 for 2100$ used/mint, and i definitively feel that it is worth that, is it worth the 3699$ + tx they want for it new, no way.

 

[UltraGary]

You can't think of it in terms of how much the guitars cost to make. It's marketing in perceived value. When Gibson was slumping in sales in the 80's/early 90's they raised prices and sales actually grew. It's marketing based, not cost based.

I agree with your theory in general....but with current costs & realties in both forestry and manpower, it simply doesn't hold true here. Buying the woods you see on LPs is far more expensive than the ash you barely see on Strats....and the time/effort in putting LPs' together FAR outweigh bolting Fenders together. I'm not justifying how high they've gotten by any means....I'm just sayin'......

 

[jkdsteve]

Nice one on TGP right now:

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... p?t=442618

I guess used prices have gone up in line with new ones tho' .. prolly didn't pay much more than that for it new :-/

 

[jmgman69]

I picked up a brand new R0 for a little over 2700.00 and IT"S WORTH IT!I don't know if it is worth 3600.00 but I sure do like it.

 

[SFW]

I've spent time searching for a historic. In the end, I found them to be just as inconsistant as the USA production models. I also don't care for the neck carves on the R8 and R9. In fact, I played several 2008 Standards that I thought played and sounded better than the custom shop pieces. The fact that QC is so varied and the price has more than doubled in the past 10 years has kept me from buying a new Gibson. The used market is a far better place to search for one. The used prices are more on the level of the guitar.

At this moment, I'm considering a Carvin Singlecut... a far more consistant insturment, and with a price tag at $1,379.

 

[cyndicate]

Ok..maybe not exactly Fender-like.
I got my R6 for 2100$ used/mint, and i definitively feel that it is worth that, is it worth the 3699$ + tx they want for it new, no way.

Yeah, my R8 was listed at $2,999 a year ago, but I got it new for $2,600 or something like that.

Looks like prices have skyrocketed since, the only one I would consider is probably a R0, but those are the most expensive out of the bunch

What is the markup on these anyways, im sure you can haggle it down significantly, but how much seems reasonable?

 

[SFW]

When I worked at Guitar Center about three years ago, the markup was $300 to $400 give or take over cost.

 

[ToneFreak]

For that amount of cash I can get a Skermetta:

http://www.skermettaguitars.com/

He still works for James Tyler Guitars too.

 

[JackBootedThug]

mf had 58 plaintop r8's a couple of months ago for 1999 new. my last r9 was a plaintop that i bought for 1999. deals are out there.

 

[cyndicate]

mf had 58 plaintop r8's a couple of months ago for 1999 new. my last r9 was a plaintop that i bought for 1999. deals are out there.

No way, are you serious? MF had $3,300 Custom Shop 1958 Reissues for less than a production Les Paul Standard?

For $1999 I wouldn't mind buying one I really want a R0, had a chance to play one few weekends ago, I love the 60's slim necks, but the fat 50's ones I can never get used to, it just feels so awkward. Plus all this LP talk doesn't help. I Just can't justify that high price tag

 

[mysticaxe]

mf had 58 plaintop r8's a couple of months ago for 1999 new. my last r9 was a plaintop that i bought for 1999. deals are out there.

I thought that was for only one or two guitars that were either returns or "B's" for some reason...

 

[cyndicate]

For $1999 I wouldn't mind buying one I really want a R0, had a chance to play one few weekends ago, I love the 60's slim necks, but the fat 50's ones I can never get used to, it just feels so awkward. Plus all this LP talk doesn't help. I Just can't justify that high price tag

Guitar Center has their own model, which is a '58 Reissue with a slim neck. People refer to it as a G0 (G for Guitar Center and 0 for '60s style neck.) Very nice guitars and the same price as the R8. If I'm not mistaking, the R0 has a flamed maple top and is like $5,500 or something, right?

Yeah it is freaken insane, I think the price tag of it was $5,699. That is just nuts! I guess I should go check out a G0, wonder if they can get one in stock.

 

[blackba]

Yeah it is freaken insane, I think the price tag of it was $5,699. That is just nuts! I guess I should go check out a G0, wonder if they can get one in stock.

I've never been in a GC that didn't have a few in stock! Seriously, the model is made just for them. It looks EXACTLY like an R8, but the burst is lighter. Not as cherry red around the edges as the R8. I compared two R8s with two G0s and to me, they are pretty much the same guitar, except for the neck shape.

Previously, the R8 came with nice CTS pots and Bumblebee Reissue caps and the G0 came with cheaper "Gibson" pots and cheaper regular old caps. But I think the G0s come with the good stuff now. I think the bodies on the G0s are even stamped "R8" inside the control cavity.

I checked Guitar Center's site and they don't have the Go's that I could see. Do they only have them in the stores?

 

[Digital Jams]

Went to the Manchester GC last week to help a friend's kid demo some amps and they had an Axxess there for $3200.

All I am going to say is that they need to stop trying to copy hamer with the way they do their binding with the fret ends being covered by the binding cause it was a train wreck.

Big fan of the neck heal though, they need to do that for all models.

 

[thenine]

I hae R0 and I paid through the nose for it. But I have no regrets, its killer. Only shame is its so beautiful that I rarely bring it out of the house.

 

[Copperhead]

What!?!? All that money and NO FLOYD??!?!?