'57 LP Custom VOS Arrived

[HerrRentz]

My 2007 R7 LP Custom VOS arrived today safely and in one piece. What a relief. The horror stories on the board were really getting to me over the past few days. Chris packs really well and there wasn't a scratch or chip on it anywhere.

Never seen anything like this before. Awesome sound, and playability I've never had in my hands before. The action is so smooth on the ebony fretboard if makes chord work effortless. The touch is so light I can barely tell I'm pressing a handful of strings.

The fit and finish is first rate. I've seen some sloppy manufactured and finished guitars hanging in stores but this never was one of them. The faded cherry is absolutely wonderful and not as faded as the web site pictures I posted a week ago from Chris's web site. The gold is faded as expected for an historic re-issue. I don't like that aspect of it very much, but it would eventually wear off anyway so what the heck.

The pots are tight and it uses the Bumblebee caps and Switchcraft toggle. Not sure what the pots are. Maybe CTS? I didn't take off the cover to see. I was too busy waxing the finish with a carnuba paste wax.

Anyway, I'm impressed all to heck with this guitar. It's my first real Gibson and they hit it out of the park with this one. I still can't get over how slick this thing is to play. Damn!

I don't seem to be able to find much information on the '57 VOS in faded cherry. Does anyone know if this was less popular than the gold top and the BB? After an extensive search I've only found two other '57 VOS LP's in faded cherry and only one was a Custom.

[Rockinrob86]

They arent entirely uncommon, but are definitely less common than the black ones. The only color these were offered in in the 50s was black, and that is why most of the reissues are black.

Sam ash had a run of these that they made a good bit of in the early 00s, and since then they come up occasionally.

Cool guitar!


Make sure any products you use on it are compatible with nitro lacquer. I am not sure about carnuba paste, so you should look into that.

[HerrRentz]

In Gibson's small owners manual it says carnuba wax is OK on lacquer. I got it off of that stand right after the pictures were snapped though.

Never had anything with a lacquer finish so I'm being very careful with this guitar.

Thanks for the info on the faded cherry finish. I didn't know if they had offered this back then or not.

[bettset]

this is a nice guitar. i thought about getting one back in 00', but passed because i have enough gibsons. i like the finish, & it played nice. if i didn't already have gibsons, i would have bought one. i'm not a big fan of gibson's qc, but the vos like this one i played was very nice

[tsar nicholas]

Wunderbar!

[gmann]

That is a fantastic lookin' guitar Bro'! BB' are very cool but very common too, this is like fresh air. Don't baby it, play the hell out of it!

[HerrRentz]

I plan on giving it a good thrashing Sunday night or most of Monday.

The neck is fantastic on this LP. I had been reading about baseball bat sized necks on the '57 & '58, but compared to the Turner neck this is like playing a yardstick. I love it!

[RJLII]

Very nice! There's another thread dedicated to this model and it features some nice shots of the red fading to a warm brown. It's a killer look in my book. I have a '57 Historic too, but it's a TV Yellow version with Nickel hardware from the '04 Sam Ash run. Mine has the Grover tuners but I much prefer the Kluson style you have. It too is a great player. For your "first real Gibson" you've chosen well. Enjoy.

[mbargav]

Very nice guitar, congrats! You know those VOS finishes, if polished frequently (just cloth), will become glossy, right? If you like the aged VOS patina, keep that in mind.

[HerrRentz]

This was pretty glossy to start with. Not a matt finish at all. I was just bringing up the luster a bit and wanting to prtect it. It looks great.

You can see some of the grain in the lacquer so it cuts down slightly on the glossy look.

[DRS]

There is one at the Long and McQuade in Vancouver. Very cool guitar.

[MightyGuru]

Originally Posted by mbargav

Very nice guitar, congrats! You know those VOS finishes, if polished frequently (just cloth), will become glossy, right? If you like the aged VOS patina, keep that in mind.

+1

My R7 VOS GT glossed up easily with a little polishing, light buffing.

[HerrRentz]

I got to play it a little bit tonight through the VOX. Man what a sound. The pickups are really ballsy in this Custom. I'd swear they were active.

They have a lot of bite and the attack sounds wonderful in the treble position. I wouldn't have expected the attack to be so pronounced on a mahogany body, but I guess the ebony fingerboard helps there. That fingerboard is really slick. I can't believe how fast and how effortless chord changes are.

I didn't hardly play in the other two positions I was so fascinated by the treble position. I didn't play long either. Long enough to set up the amp and fool around with the tone control a bit.

Awesome guitar. I'm truly impressed and I should have bought one of these years ago.

[fritferret]

are all customs hog tops?

[HerrRentz]

I want to say yes, I believe they are, with ebony fingerboards. There are probably many exception to this, but I'm not a Gibson history buff. I just like the guitar and it's going to get played.