FS: 2003 Gibson LPR-8 Lemon Plaintop with Shaw PAFs

wishbones

Relisted now with genuine Tim Shaw PAFs and lower price

Beautiful 2003 Gibson LPR- 8P Lemon Plaintop, been in my ownership last 5+ years. Well looked after and well gigged, lovely neck, typical 58, big but not huge, original frets in very good shape, some buckle rash and wear to the back. Genuine Tim Shaw PAFs - ’81 in the bridge and ’83 in the neck (not Shaw ‘era’, these are the real deal), no longer have the original Burstbuckers. Graphite nut fitted in 2007 in the US, double ring replacement Schaller tuners which look the part and more importantly hold the tuning very well. Original CS case, COA, all hang tags, case candy and miscellaneous receipts, weighs 9lb 2oz. Lovely dark, tight grained board, (outside Gibson’s published serial number range for Brazilian board for this year/model). Plays and sounds fantastic.

£2400, collection or meet. PM me if interested.

More pix @ ;http://s936.photobucket.com/user/badknees2/library/2003%20LPR8P

Brize

That board looks Braz to me as well - it's a shame it's so far outside the verified range.

tone1

Bloody Hell Glen!! It's my Birthday on Thursday too

wishbones

RE: Brazilian board, I'm not making any claims as I've never checked it with Gibson, perhaps I should and up the price a bit? I had a 2003 R4 a couple of years ago that had a Brazilian board (confirmed) that was out side of the 'known' range. Of course it could have been a factory order? 

andyoz

Even if it's not Braz (think it is)...it's a lovely looking board.

Elwood

If it's Brazilian and an import it shoute have a CITES cert (not sure when they were introduced though).

Brize

wishbones said:

RE: Brazilian board, I'm not making any claims as I've never checked it with Gibson, perhaps I should and up the price a bit? I had a 2003 R4 a couple of years ago that had a Brazilian board (confirmed) that was out side of the 'known' range. Of course it could have been a factory order? 

At the risk of breaking the rules, I think your price is already at a point where a confirmed Braz board isn't going to make any difference (although it may help to shift it quicker). Keep in mind that most used R8s go for around £1,750 and upgrades never have a positive effect on the price. In fact, most people want guitars that are bone stock.

Brize

Duplicate post.

wishbones

Its all very subjective, everyone has an opinion, in the end the market decides and I'm happy with that.

PC1971

Good Lord. That is stunning! ;-O

stuagu

Hi , lovely guitar. Iv got a ronn david/ tom murphy 58 from the same year. The board on that looks exactly the same as yours... Could be the same bit of wood! My serial no. is outside of the gibson braz. Verified numbers and is in my opinion, just very good indian rosewood. As for upgrades, i find it very much depends on the buyer and the upgrades, you get those that prefer all gibson original hardware, and those that are looking for those upgrades in a guitar theyre looking to buy. I definately believe pickups of that quality add to the price you can expect over a burstbucker loaded guitar. Hope the sale goes well.

wishbones

stuagu said:

Hi , lovely guitar. Iv got a ronn david/ tom murphy 58 from the same year. The board on that looks exactly the same as yours... Could be the same bit of wood! My serial no. is outside of the gibson braz. Verified numbers and is in my opinion, just very good indian rosewood. As for upgrades, i find it very much depends on the buyer and the upgrades, you get those that prefer all gibson original hardware, and those that are looking for those upgrades in a guitar theyre looking to buy. I definately believe pickups of that quality add to the price you can expect over a burstbucker loaded guitar. Hope the sale goes well.

Thank you, we agree! On reflection I'm happy for it to be very good piece of Indian rosewood. If it's declared as Brazilian Rosewood without the correct certification, it could get impounded and destroyed by some over zealous customs man in the future. I've heard a few stories on that one.

hoops

Beautiful guitar - have a bump on me.

Dominic

plus 1 for better pick-ups .............it's not as if the burstbuckers were anything special or the guitar itself a collectable classic

they make a very good guitar great

wishbones

LATEST: This was accepted for a specialist guitar auction in September, however the auction house has just informed me that despite being outside of Gibson's declared serial number range for Brazilian boards in 2003 (confirmed in an email from Gibson Customer services), their expert has just declared it to be BRW. So they have had to remove it from the catalogue in the absence of certification. This confirms what I originally thought and that there were BRW boards used and not documented. Once I get it back from the auction house it will be available for sale to UK buyers at a lower price £2400, realistically priced p/ex considered (see original post).

the_passenger

Let's not forget that between 2002-2009 Gibson used Madagascar rosewood exclusively - not Indian - on the Historic Reissue models, which is in many cases visually indistinguishable from Brazilian. Madagascar rw is the closest species to Braz and it can look, feel and play just like BRW. For this reason some 2003 Historics with an exceptionally nice and darker colored MRW board can easily appear to have BRW. 

Brize

^^

Yep, I'd be astonished if the OP's guitar has BRW. That run in 2003 was well-documented and heavily promoted. If Gibson had gone to the trouble of fitting that guitar with a Braz board you can bet it would have been sold and documented as such.

For what it's worth I had a 2003 R9 that was just outside the documented range and had a very Braz-looking board. It wasn't, though.

The OP's guitar does have a very nice-looking board - much nicer than some of the dry rosewood that they put on the Historics these days.

wishbones

Good point! Lets hope the authorities that have been seizing these guitars at borders have the level of expertise to distinguish! Seems its more of an issue for reputable auction houses and dealers who market for worldwide sales, they are not going to take any risks and I get that. 

matone

Would love to know how the expert I'd,d it......

wishbones

Relisted now with genuine Tim Shaw PAFs and lower price

hoops

This guitar sounds fantastic - great pickups.