New Guitar Day: Les Paul Standard

[toejam]

Awesome color! Congrats on that beauty.

[chrisolson]

My LP GAS is off the charts right now!! I traded my Shiva for a Les Paul Robot, bought a Burny LPC that will be converted onto a Sykes model of some sort, and trading one of my Ibanez K7's for a Les Paul classic. I REALLY want a Standard though...

Nice score!!

[slayer]

See, I am a traditional kind of guy (not the guitar, the features). Gibson gets a lot of flack about the new Standards (they made the current changes in 2008), but here is a case of it working for someone. Congrats on your new axe.

Don, what were the changes they made in 2008?

[SixstringKing]

Don, what were the changes they made in 2008?

They started weight relieving as well as chambering them in`08.

[DonP]

They started weight relieving as well as chambering them in`08.

Weight relief of Standards goes back to the mid 1980s.

Surprisingly chambering to Standards started mid 2006. Gibson "snuck it in" and officially annouced it in 2008 along with:
Asymetrical neck profile
Chrome hardware instead of nickel
Locking tuners instead of Klusons
Circuit board electronics
Borne pots
Nutric(sp?) locking jack

All of these changes were made to make the Les Paul Standard a "more modern" electric, and the new Traditional line was supposed to be for people like me. But Traditionals aren't as close to 50s specs as the 2002-2006 series, so I prefer those for my Standards. Also, I love the thin 60s neck so my 2002 Std is my guitar of choice.

[toejam]

My faded Studio Vintage Mahogany is from 2004, and I'm pretty sure it's chambered.

[modelseriesman]

My faded Studio Vintage Mahogany is from 2004, and I'm pretty sure it's chambered.

It's not. Not if it's actually a 2004 Faded Series in "Worn Brown". For 2004, the first five digits of your serial would be 0xxx4. If it's a 2004, it was made to a different spec than do Fadeds made from November 2006 on. Yours is weight-relieved, not chambered. The original spec was for "six or seven" holes drilled into the mahogany body. Starting in Nov06 they went to full-on light as a feather chambering.

The difference between yours and a chambered is huge, both in weight and in tone.

I have an '05 on my current flyer which I describe as "PRE-CHAMBERED" for the above reasons.

Gibson maintains a hotline. Call in the middle of the night and you might get a guy named John fielding your call. He's so good. He will pull up the build sheet for your specific guitar. You two can discuss its details or he will offer to email it to you. I do both.

Slang for these particular Fadeds made only between 2004 and Nov06 is "heavies". They represent one of the very few underpriced bargains in the LP realm.

ps: I'll buy yours any day.

[toejam]

It's the worn cherry that was originally done for Musician's Friend. The serial is 00304636. So it's weight relieved then. It's about 8 or 9 pounds.

[modelseriesman]

It's the worn cherry that was originally done for Musician's Friend. The serial is 00304636. So it's weight relieved then. It's about 8 or 9 pounds.

I would call John at Gibson. Often times runs made for larger dealers are made to their own specs and not those norms otherwise set by Gibson. The only means of knowing for sure is running your full serial by John.

[toejam]

Cool. Thanks for the info!

[DonP]

It's the worn cherry that was originally done for Musician's Friend. The serial is 00304636. So it's weight relieved then. It's about 8 or 9 pounds.

Toe,

Chambering gets you into the 7's usually. My CR8 is 7lbs 1oz.

But you do have a good point. There were rumors that the Les Paul Faded's (burst tops) were chambered. Some people said their's were in the 7's. it's possible this could have carried over to the Studios. 2004 was around the correct timeframe.

If we are discussing chambering in general, it first started (I believe) with the 1997 Custom Shop "Elegant" models. These came with a compound ebony board, Abalone inlays and other "modern" features. But, they were never very popular because of people like me who think all Les Pauls should look like something out of Beauty of the Burst

I will say I saw an Elegant back in 1997 in Firemist and came really close to buying. This was before I got back into Les Pauls (2003). I still would like to get one in that color.

[toejam]

It's the worn cherry that was originally done for Musician's Friend. The serial is 00304636. So it's weight relieved then. It's about 8 or 9 pounds.

Toe,

Chambering gets you into the 7's usually. My CR8 is 7lbs 1oz.

But you do have a good point. There were rumors that the Les Paul Faded's (burst tops) were chambered. Some people said their's were in the 7's. it's possible this could have carried over to the Studios. 2004 was around the correct timeframe.

I swear I heard somewhere that mine was chambered, but it might just be a little weight relieved. I know some people get confused with the holes for weight relief and the full chambers. I wish I had an X-ray machine! I'll have to make the call to Gibson soon and find out the info on my guitar.

[straycat]

I had a faded cherry from 05 that Jon Schaffer (Iced Earth) had gotten from Gibson and it was very heavy 9+ lbs.
Great sounding studio.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

They do vary the weight-relieving on these somewhat. So, they may "weight relief" the guitar until it's around 8 lbs or so or they may leave it at 9.5, it depends on the model.

[slayer]

Hmmmm.... So, what would be my best choice for a non-weight releived/non-chambered LP Standard with Grovers-Nickel hardware and a 50`s neck profile? This is what I am looking for basically.