Took 8 years & 3 months...

[Mailman1971]

Thanks...8 years and $7500 later, it was a relief to hear it play and sound like it looks.

Awesome.....sometimes price isnt a factor if its exactly what your looking for.

Lord knows how much $$$ I have dropped on gear thru the years. A helluva lot more then that.
But hey....its fun right? I could be out doing drugs.

 

[Scumback Speakers]

Awesome.....sometimes price isnt a factor if its exactly what your looking for.

Lord knows how much $$$ I have dropped on gear thru the years. A helluva lot more then that.
But hey....its fun right? I could be out doing drugs.

It's because I gave up my "offshore pharmaceutical" habit late last century that I have the money to buy guitars and gear now. If not, I'd have an artificial nose and lungs by now.

 

[Mailman1971]

Awesome.....sometimes price isnt a factor if its exactly what your looking for.

Lord knows how much $$$ I have dropped on gear thru the years. A helluva lot more then that.
But hey....its fun right? I could be out doing drugs.

It's because I gave up my "offshore pharmaceutical" habit late last century that I have the money to buy guitars and gear now. If not, I'd have an artificial nose and lungs by now.

Ha!

Yeah....I gave up the bottle the past couple months. Not as fun....but been getting some new gear lately.

 

[stephen sawall]

Looks great..

 

[fretout]

Looks fricken amazing man! Congrats! At the prices and quality Gibson is putting out these days, going with a independent luthier/builder really is the way to go! I've worked with many guys that make LPs and they are the best modern guitars around...especially since you can make a more accurate traditional than Gibson can!

Your builder did a great job! I always like seeing the heastocks to see if the buikder chose the modern/Norlin/Vintage Gibson logo or not. According to some forum members, you may want to fuzz-out your headstock of your guitar could be seized by the feds or some BS. I've never seen of heard it happen, but just to give you a heads up!

EDIT: your post says you have some original PAFs? Are they literally the PAFs from the 50s, or are they the Historic pickups (Burstbuckers/57 Classsics)?

 

[Scumback Speakers]

They are real PAF's. One is from a 1961 SG Custom, but the other I bought private party, and is an early patent # version. It has all of the same features/sound as the bridge PAF with the "round / square" hole, greenish bobbin wire, etc, etc. I got them ages ago before prices went stupid expensive...but the pair still cost more than $2k even back then.

I'm pretty sure having a replica is the same as having a "tribute car" in the automotive world. If you use OEM parts, etc you can own it, use it, etc. In deference to those who think it may be wise I have removed the logo from the picture.

If I were to try and sell this as a real 59 burst, knowing it's not, then that's another thing. I just read on the LPF that Joe Bonamassa must have replicas to tour with in the EU (and elsewhere) now due to the CITES / Brazilian rosewood, etc. crap that was imposed by Germany and other EU countries. So as long as it's a replica, made from "non CITES" sourced wood or you have proof it's pre "19XX" harvested wood, you're good.

It's a real quagmire out there these days. I just had an artist contact me about 24 4x12 cabs, and speakers. 12 are staying in the EU permanently with the rest staying here. Why? Shipping costs and that goofy CITES thing about wood source...even for an amplifier cab. It makes is simpler to have one touring rig for the EU, and one for the US. Part of it is the shipping costs as well. It's just easier/cheaper to store or warehouse the gear to be used overseas until you need it.

Lenny Kravitz and other acts I know of have been doing this for years, too. Just nutty what they do to musicians. I'm figuring Gibson has better things to do with all of their other business issues they have to deal with, rather than worry about two guitars that wouldn't pass as original bursts to a trained inspector.

 

[fretout]

They are real PAF's. One is from a 1961 SG Custom, but the other I bought private party, and is an early patent # version. It has all of the same features/sound as the bridge PAF with the "round / square" hole, greenish bobbin wire, etc, etc. I got them ages ago before prices went stupid expensive...but the pair still cost more than $2k even back then.

I'm pretty sure having a replica is the same as having a "tribute car" in the automotive world. If you use OEM parts, etc you can own it, use it, etc.

If I were to try and sell this as a real 59 burst, knowing it's not, then that's another thing. I just read on the LPF that Joe Bonamassa must have replicas to tour with in the EU (and elsewhere) now due to the CITES / Brazilian rosewood, etc. crap that was imposed by Germany and other EU countries. So as long as it's a replica, made from "non CITES" sourced wood or you have proof it's pre "19XX" harvested wood, you're good.

It's a real quagmire out there these days. I just had an artist contact me about 24 4x12 cabs, and speakers. 12 are staying in the EU permanently with the rest staying here. Why? Shipping costs and that goofy CITES thing about wood source...even for an amplifier cab. It makes is simpler to have one touring rig for the EU, and one for the US. Part of it is the shipping costs as well. It's just easier/cheaper to store or warehouse the gear to be used overseas until you need it.

Lenny Kravitz and other acts I know of have been doing this for years, too. Just nutty what they do to musicians. I'm figuring Gibson has better things to do with all of their other business issues they have to deal with, rather than worry about two guitars that wouldn't pass as original bursts to a trained inspector.

That's nuts! Ok, so who is the guy that holds and maintains everyone's "EU Rigs"? And, how do I get that job? Very interesting, and I agree, I think it's a great, simple, effective strategy. Why ship 3 entire 18 wheelers worth of gear across the Atlantic when you can just keep your "B Rigs" in Europe somewhere?

I actually find your comment about the cabs rather encouraging. I'm happy theres at least one guitarist left that still needs 24 cabs to play live, instead of using a prerecorded CD, or having a single amp mic'd backstage. It seems like everyone that's playing mid-sized clubs or better aren't even playing live anymore. I remember how outraged people were when Ashley Simpson's CD skipped during her SNL performance. Who would have thought the industry would have jumped on that bandwagon?

About the independently-made Gibsons, I think it's a great thing. With so many builders out there turning out great products, I think it's forced Gibson to up their game. Gibson was putting out some of their best Reissues in the last 2 years. But it costd a small fortune to afford them. There's dozens of luthiers that have made Gibson LPs and posted their work on another popular forum, and not one person has had their guitar taken away. Does the government have the ability to track you? Absolutely, but I think it's ridiculous (and a little arrogant) to think anyone is important enough to take down through an online forum.

Anyway, you have a great guitar there. Looks amazing, and it's insane to think you have PUPs that old to go with that axe. Unfricken real. I haven't had the privilege to play through any PUPs from that early, but how do they stack up t the current Gibson '57 Classics or to Seymour Duncan's 1958 PAF? Are they pretty close? I recently was forced to use an 68RI that had the original 57 Classic / 57 Classic Plus for a gig, and I hit an A5 and then an E5, and it just about took my breath away. I've always played high-output or active pickups in my guitars, and a few jam sessions recently has got me thinking that the passive Gibson and SDs may give me the tone I always wanted!

 

[Scumback Speakers]

I haven't played a 57 Classic, Burstbucker, SD or many other pickup maker's stuff in years.

What I do use is the following:

Real PAF's & P90's
Jim Wagner Pickups (I've got about 8 different sets of humbuckers, 1 set of SR's, and three sets of G90's, which have replaced most of my original Gibson P90's)
Motor City Blackbelt #2 (2 pairs)
Voodoo PAF's (1 set from 12 years ago)

I think everything else got tossed due to uneven or lacking tone. That list (I'm not naming them all) pretty much covered all of the higher end pickups. I no longer use high output pickups, as it homogenizes the tone too much...not enough nuance and subtleties. So anything over say 11k DC resistance isn't mounted in my guitars.

As for the "B" rig setups...that's been going on for years, especially since the flood in Nashville in 2010 at that storage facility. I was on the phone to Keith Urban's tech when they opened their locker. He said a wall of 4 feet of muddy water came out all over his and Keith's shoes.

And that's why he got a cab and 16 M75 65w speakers in 2010. These acts are on another level for gear than us mere mortals, you know. Reliable backup (kind of like computer data) is the name of the game for them with such large $$ at stake during a tour...not to mention the EU shipping costs.

 

[Scumback Speakers]

I may as well get this one out of the way, too.

My Fool SG (Clapton's main guitar in Cream) replica.

63 SG Jr husk (Basically it was stripped, with just a body, neck, fretboard, etc. and some parts).

Brazilian Rosewood board, MOP inlays, stainless steel frets, bone nut.
Grover tuners, Jim Wagner CTS 500k audio taper pots, Jim Wagner American Steele pickup set (Crossroads neck, Godwood bridge), Wagner caps, Switchcraft jack/toggle.

ABR-1 locking bridge, lightweight tailpiece.

Paint job by Jim O'Connor Design, http://jimoconnordesign.com/using 70 plus colors, 9 days of painting/masking. He did a lot of famous guitars in 80/90's for custom air brush paint, check his link above.

Final finish/assembly/nitro finish by the "ghost builder".

Front:

Back:

Ok...time to ship out speakers, handles, etc...the crew will be here in 45 minutes.
Hope you enjoyed the replica pics.

 

['63-Strat]

Those both look great!!

 

[gibson5413]

Looks great...congrats!

 

[Scumback Speakers]

Thanks very much for all the kind words. Don't think I'd have the patience to do another 8 year project, though. The Fool SG was three years in the making, the Keebler took two to get done (although the ghost builder didn't have much to do with that one).

It seems these replica builders have a mind of their own regarding completion dates.

"So, what kind of time frame are we looking at for this?"

"That one will be 12 to 18 months." (Reality, 3 years, with a bunch of "WTF are you doing?" along the way.)

 

[SLOgriff]

Are those stains on the floor from when you first opened up the case?!?!?

but I finally received my 59 burst replica...

 

[Scumback Speakers]

Are those stains on the floor from when you first opened up the case?!?!?

LOL, no, that's the joy of a female pit bull spotting on the rug. I tried to talk to her about it,
but the volume of her growling kind of drowned me out! I guess she doesn't give a shit about
how my pics look on the net...allow me to crop that oversight, sir!

 

[Hail Satin]

Not to derail the thread (terribly)...

For shits and giggles: this took 9 years and 8 months to receive.

At least RIC had the decency to raise the list price every year for the
first three years on something not yet produced...