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Fret wire on r9 vs r8

nuclearfishin

Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
45
What's the difference in fret wire between a 99 R9 and a 03 R8? Which one is more historically accurate?
 

reswot

Active member
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
3,295
There is NO difference. They've used the same wire for a number of years.
 

markguitar

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2001
Messages
2,375
What's the difference in fret wire between a 99 R9 and a 03 R8? Which one is more historically accurate?

The '99 will have the same taller and more narrow wire like the std. production guitars. That wire was used thru 2000. Then in 2001 the Custom Shop switched to the more accurate wire that they are still using in '09. But for all of the years of the reissues, no model in the same year would have different wire. So a '99 and a 2003 WOULD have different size fretwire.
 

nuclearfishin

Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
45
The '99 will have the same taller and more narrow wire like the std. production guitars. That wire was used thru 2000. Then in 2001 the Custom Shop switched to the more accurate wire that they are still using in '09. But for all of the years of the reissues, no model in the same year would have different wire. So a '99 and a 2003 WOULD have different size fretwire.

That makes sense, my 99 has much taller fretwire than my 2003. I like them both, I was just curious if one was more accurate than the other. Back in 1958 and 1959, did Gibson use the same size fretwire between those two years?
 
R

R9.

Guest
Is there any chance that Gibson does use different size wire sometimes?
I know they're all the same but a few guys at the other forum kept insisting that some of their newer reissues have different size wire.

One guy said his (can't remember the exact year) 2005 R7 had thinner frets than his R9. One other guy said his R7BB has lower frets than his R8.

Every reissue I've played has had the same sized frets. Never played a '90s historic.
 

Black58

New member
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
10,139
That makes sense, my 99 has much taller fretwire than my 2003. I like them both, I was just curious if one was more accurate than the other. Back in 1958 and 1959, did Gibson use the same size fretwire between those two years?

'58 into early '59 was smaller.
 
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