Post
by electricskychurch » Mon Jan 05, 2009 2:34 pm
the question was VOS or vintage isn't it ?
so , unless you can afford what i call the real ones (50's les paul's) , i suppose you talk about 70's or 80's ones .
70's les paul are different from 50's ones everybody knows this as a matter of fact.
you have sandwich bodies, 3 pieces neck (what might make a more stable neck , for better tuning ), slightly different pu's (that still sound good to my taste but not everybody like them) .
also, they usualy are teh heaviest gibson guitars.
80's ones are different, coming closer to what we have now.
i think you can find some good les paul historic / vos if you put some good pu's inside (i haven't tried the burstbucker 1 & 2 but don't like the classic 57 that much.
also, buying a 30 to 40 years old guitar ( like a custom 68 or gold top 68, that might be good guitars or later ones ) is not as safe as buying a new one.
i recently experienced a sad experience buying a 69 SG standard that had been put on ebay.
it should have been a one piece body and neck, with no break or repair (just grover tuners installed at one stage and kluson put back later) although it had a slight crack on the veneer of the headstock but the guy said it was superficial (a guitar dealer on ebay !!) .
i asked many questions to teh guy to be sure it was in good shape and as he said he was touring through USA to buy guitars and sell them, i thought i could believe him.
i asked him if the pu's where untouched and original he said yes, or asked if there was any crack or repair ..etc
the pu's should have been untouched .
the guitar was having heavy weather checks but was said in good shape under.
when i received the guitar, i saw the slight crack on the veneer was in fact a crack on all the top half of the headstock and had been repaired a long time ago.
all four pu's had the solder joints removed , covers were still holding on the pu's a they were quiet tight.
i suppose the past owner had removed the covers.
also, i saw it was not a one piece neck but a 3 pieces neck (although really well done , with a perfect smooth neck joint , what makes a very stable neck.
and it seems i will have to refret it soon as well !
so, i conatcted the guy that proposed me 500 $ what was too little seeing the differences !
i finaly got 1000 $ back but it was not the guitar i bought in a first place.
then, the day i got teh 1000 $ refund, i saw that it's impossible to relief the neck as the truss rod nut seems to be able to tighten the truss rod but when i turn it teh other way, it simply come up the axis and i can take it off but it doesn't release the neck !!
so it seems teh truss rod has reach the point where it can't be relieved anymore !!!!!
the neck is quiet straight and there's barely a millimeter left when i check for neck tension fretting the strings at the first and last or 12 th fret and checking at the 9th or 6th fret the strings height !!
it sounds good but it shows how buying vintage guitar (especialy on internet) can turn out to be a different experience from what what was planned in the beginning.
i sent an email to the guy telling him about that problem and saying i want to send the guitar back for total refund as i think it's not serious or even dishonnest from a guitar seller to sell a guitar in that condition and tell the customers it in " excellent condition, with one piece neck and body, no break or repair ... " ; i will see what is his answer...
i never had this kind of problem with more than 20 new or not more than ten years old guitars i bought !
the wood in some old guitars like that has moved , just read the beautiful book " the beauty of the burst "
(with tons of 50's les paul pictures ) and you'll know what i mean .
many of those beautiful old guitars seem to do not have a good playability now, even if they sound very good.
i will certainly make a topic about that as well as about buying speakers on ebay ( i might have bought more than 150 vintage speakers and some actual ones through internet in teh USA, so i'm quiet used to this subject ! lol ) and amps , as i bought many as well .
Last edited by
electricskychurch on Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
