Gibson Les Paul Custom Shop VOS - R7 - 2008 From the Kloppmann collection

Gibson Custom Shop VOS Les Paul Gold Top R7 - 2008 -

My 2008 R7

Around 2005, I met the managing director of the Gibson Custom Shop through a good friend from Berlin. At the time, it was a Gibson showroom that Gibson had set up to manage its European artist relations from there. Only selected instruments were on display there, which were made available to bands touring in Europe, etc. . . .

In any case, I visited there a few times and always mentioned that I was interested in an R7. In fact, at some point I got a call saying that something very interesting had arrived, 2 R7s from which I could choose one. That's how I got this wonderful Les Paul, which was to give me a lot of joy for a long time.

I played the guitar live from time to time until around 2012 and then sold it to a good customer who wanted it. In 2021 I bought it back from him. It has an HB PW set from around 15 years ago. The guitar sounds big and fat, as you would expect from a Goldtop. It has that rare midrange that I always look for when I test guitars. For this reason, I specifically chose this guitar back then. However, I now have so many Les Pauls that I could/should part with some of them.

The lacquer surface is relatively clean except for a long crack in the lacquer that starts at the base of the neck under the switch and runs all the way down. Another crack in the lacquer from the bridge pickup to the stoptail piece.

The neck is relatively rich and fat, as you would expect from the VOS years. The sound is correspondingly fat. The frets are in relatively good condition, hardly any notches visible, played fairly evenly. The fretboard has now taken on this wonderful dark chocolate color in the higher registers, as you know it from old Les Pauls. The guitar weighs 4.3 kg, exactly the weight of various old Bursts that I had the honor and pleasure of playing and weighing (;-D).

With original case and certificate!