Gibson Historic Division / Les Paul R8 / 2001 / Lemonburst / Guitar
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On the way to the Dallas show, Lee said to me, "Drew's going to be bringing an R8 by on Friday. Just put it under the table and we'll bring it home." I was driving the van and didn't even look over at him. To be honest, plain topped R8's aren't the most exciting guitars to me and I had already gone over in my mind the process of cleaning, photographing and writing the description on the guitar. Nothing too close to rocket science, right? So spring forward to last week and I'm going through the stack of guitars we brought back. This case was just another one of the black Custom Shop cases in the row and I probably walked by it 30 times until I had finally worked my way down to the end of the stack where it stood. I opened the case and laid the guitar up on my workbench and it was at this moment when I discovered that I had been supremely bamboozled. My first thought was, "There's been a mistake. This is an R9" but as I looked at the back of the headstock, the serial number revealed that it was indeed an '01 R8 and a slow smile spread across my scraggly, old face. Were I a '58 Les Paul player, this is the guitar that would haunt my dreams. The top is worthy of the finest R9 and the weight, at 8 lbs, 13 oz is very comfortable. I exhaled with relief at the knowledge that we were under 9 lbs with this beauty. It also occurred to me that there might be more than a few R8 players that have felt for years that they were forgotten in terms of the appearance of the guitars that were routinely available to them. Want a fat neck on your Les Paul? Then get ready to strap on a Goldtop or a Plaintop. No flames for you guys unless you stay up all night, every night hoping that one of these rare beasts will pop up on the dreaded Ebay. Horror of horrors- chances are, you might get a brick in a box or it clearly says "Made in Soviet China" on the back of the headstock! Not so here with this exceptional guitar and while it's not completely and utterly perfect, it's one bad guitar if you are looking for an instrument that you can actually play. Heck, you might want to be really bold and lean it against your amp- that would make you an old- school baddass in our book. There are a couple of dings on the face and these are shown by using the white reflections of our photography lights. If we can find 'em, then so can you and we might as well put our cards on the table right from the beginning. We also specialize in the rare and time- honored art of the in- hand description, so please feel free to give us a call anytime and get one for yourself. We may not always get 'em perfect, but we always try to get 'em pretty! Thanks for stopping by and we appreciate your time.
Instrument sold
GrinningElk Music Co., USA 
Contact name:
Ray Mauldin/ Lee Jackson
Brands:
Languages:
English
Specialties:
Vintage and Collectible Guitars, Basses and Amps.
Opening hours:
24/ 7
Atlanta, Ga. based buyer and seller of rare, vintage, limited edition and collectible electric, bass and acoustic guitars from Fender®, Gibson®, Les Paul®, Martin® and Rickenbacker®. We also have classic amplifiers, effects, cases and other music equipment for sale.
Policies
Payment: We accept bank wire transfers only from Europe and Asia.
All items are shipped via Fedex inside the US. All International shipments are via Fedex unless otherwise specified.
Return
Customers get a 24 hour approval period on all items. If, for any reason you are not satisfied with your purchase, you may return it for a refund, minus shipping charges.
