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"From the serial number we unfortunately cannot tell you for sure if the your R4 has a solid or a bi layered Rosewood fingerboard. The serial number 4 20XX proper conveys [that]...... apparently the guitar was made more towards the beginning of the year, meaning it was fabricated in a period of transition from one specification to another. By February 2012 all Custom Shop guitars had a layered fingerboard. It might be that your guitar still had a solid fingerboard, however, we do not have records how many Reissue guitars were made in January, so we cannot be sure."
There is no conclusive evidence that Gibson had a had a first in, first use stock policy, or any workforce that abided by it. 2012 appears to be the year when you could say with some certainty that Gibson's used a laminated board. However, my 'made in 2012' Gibson (date stamped 2013 model) didn't ?
Gibson and consistency don't sit comfortably with each other, so I doubt matching a one piece board with a coloured certificate book is plausible.
I've recently seen a 2014 Les Paul with a two piece board, demonstrating that old stock is still being used. There are also plenty of examples from late 2013 (Nov and Dec build numbers) with laminated fingerboards. Unless you take the nut of your recently acquired Gibson, you'll never know.
Don't worry about it, that glue is really not going to spontaneously fall off.
Presumably this means there are significant numbers of people actually taking the nut (or maybe the end binding) off their LPs just to check if they have bi-layered boards.
I know it's not major surgery, but it's not something I'd want to do unless the nut actually needed replacing. :-S
As pointed out above, it's not much different from a round-lam '60s Fender. And it's basically only a bit more glue. All Gibsons are held together with glue.
I did with mine because I wanted a laminated fingerboard for extra stability ( it was going to be kept in an unfriendly environment), except mine was one piece. My friend removed the nut from his newly acquired 2014 Les Paul Standard out of curiosity and was really hacked off to find a laminated board lol.
Don't worry, no guitars were harmed during the process, my friend is a master cabinet maker. We were kind and loving towards the little Gibson rascals. No one would even know they were de-nutted.
You may have noticed that ebay sellers will use any form of words to avoid identifying their guitar as a 2012 model. For example - saying it was purchased brand new "last year".
I would buy a 2012 Historic if it was a great player. But 2012 guitars for sale at 2013 prices seem destined to be a frustrating experience for the seller. I feel a little bit of sympathy for the guy on Gumtree/ebay who is wanting more for his 2012 Aged R8 than Sounds Great are asking for a brand new (old stock) identical guitar.
Don't worry about it, that glue is really not going to spontaneously fall off. [/quote]
In the interests of pure pedantry, it would be 23 pieces on a 22 fret fingerboard and 22 on pre-CBS Fender....
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Check the board and then fit a decent one.
That's a good point. I had been vaguely thinking about selling my R4 but I'd probably get rubbish money for it.
Had I known about the bi-layered fingerboard thing before I bought it, I would have hesitated. I really doubt that it has any detrimental effect on the tone or longevity of the guitar, but Gibson were really, really stupid to think that it wouldn't piss people off.
Still, to come back to the start of this thread, it does have a black case and black wallet for the CoA, so maybe I can use that as a selling point.