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Are thre any 2002 R9's?

MikeG59

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Jan 17, 2003
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I NEVER see any of these anywhere. Any one here have one? Not signature models.
 

vintage58

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Apr 13, 2003
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They were not cheap when they came out (as I recall, an R-9 price increase went into effect on the 2002's, no?), and compared with R-9 production totals from years after '02, not terribly many were produced in that year. I also seem to remember Ronn David having a handful of nice-looking ones on his Vintage World site right after these guitars debuted, and that all of that handful had eastern maple tops with fairly "big" figure. Anyway, you're right — not too many pics of the 2002's have surfaced around here lately.
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delawaregold

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Jun 27, 2005
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Not mine, I found it in the files.



92160.jpg





 

hoss

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The 2002 seem to be pretty rare. I just checked the HLPDB and there are only 3 out of 270 total R9s
 

Plankspanker

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Jul 16, 2001
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I owned a 2002 R9 that I bought from Ronn David. There was some unique feature that appeared that year.I can't remember specifically but it could have been the first year for
BB caps or something like that. I remember the R9 having a very nice "big "Top", and was expensive; I don't think they made a lot of em that year. I kept it for a few months and ended up selling it and buying another R9. I don't recall it being a particularly great sounding R9, it was heavy and not that conductive tone-wise,
 

vintage58

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Good to see you here, Robert — haven't seen you post in a while, hope you're well these days.

Here's a Vintage World pic of one of these guitars; not sure what serial number this one was, but this was one of the handful that VW had, that had eastern maple tops with big figure:
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lpf2012_00040.jpg

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vintage58

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....and here's another '02 that was originally at VW:
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lpf2012_00041.jpg

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markguitar

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Nov 27, 2001
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There were only around 300 '59's built in 2002 and they were only available at about 4-5 dealers. They sold for $5500.00 and they came with some extra goodies including a Gibson Jacket. Some new exclusive appointments that then showed up on the whole line in 2003, new inlays and tuner alignment. Also exclusive to those guitars was NOS CTS pots and special yellow caps which then were covered in the plastic shell and became the Bumblebees in 2003. First guitars to have the lighter colored gold knobs as still currently being used instead of the previous dark amber color.
 

J.D.

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May 24, 2006
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10,030
Yep, and you forgot the no-wire ABR-1 bridge, which is the same as the pre-2009 version except not drilled for the retaining wire, and AFAIK only installed on 2002 R9s.
 

lpflametop

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Messages
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Good to see you here, Robert — haven't seen you post in a while, hope you're well these days.

Here's a Vintage World pic of one of these guitars; not sure what serial number this one was, but this was one of the handful that VW had, that had eastern maple tops with big figure:
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lpf2012_00040.jpg

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I owned that one, Jimmy Murray has it now!
Here is a picture of it....far right..
I remember the big gullwing flame above the tailpiece..
100_0047.jpg

I top would go from almost plain to killer depending on the angle.. very cool guitar.
 

pinefd

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Jan 22, 2004
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A "special order" '02 R9, with Braz, Murphy painted and aged, vintage '59 profile neck, hand selected wood, and weighing it at 7.6 lbs., unchambered (and now sporting a set of vintage zebra PAFs):

Sue_B_W.jpg



Frank
 

Ryan Givhan

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Apr 13, 2009
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A "special order" '02 R9, with Braz, Murphy painted and aged, vintage '59 profile neck, hand selected wood, and weighing it at 7.6 lbs., unchambered (and now sporting a set of vintage zebra PAFs):

Sue_B_W.jpg



Frank
Yessir!!!
 

BIG Dave

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Aug 18, 2001
Messages
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Ronn David's Vintage World was located about a mile from my home. In 2002, I dropped in to look around. The R8's had figured tops that year so I checked out both the R8's and R9's Ronn had on the wall. The R9's were going for (if I remember correctly) about $5K and change. The R8's, which looked pretty close to the R9's, were going for $3K plus change. I figured I'd save myself $2K so I walked out with an 2002 R8 for $3,200. See below...

R8_1.jpg


R8_2.jpg


R8_3.jpg
 

guitarbob123

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Jan 2, 2009
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A "special order" '02 R9, with Braz, Murphy painted and aged, vintage '59 profile neck, hand selected wood, and weighing it at 7.6 lbs., unchambered (and now sporting a set of vintage zebra PAFs):

Sue_B_W.jpg



Frank

Is that guitar part of the law suit thing where Gibson made a pair of very close replicas?
 

Todd Louis

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Aug 7, 2002
Messages
14,526
There were only around 300 '59's built in 2002 and they were only available at about 4-5 dealers. They sold for $5500.00 and they came with some extra goodies including a Gibson Jacket. Some new exclusive appointments that then showed up on the whole line in 2003, new inlays and tuner alignment. Also exclusive to those guitars was NOS CTS pots and special yellow caps which then were covered in the plastic shell and became the Bumblebees in 2003. First guitars to have the lighter colored gold knobs as still currently being used instead of the previous dark amber color.
You beat me to it..:salude
I had 2 one with a BRW board
 

MikeG59

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Jan 17, 2003
Messages
1,884
A "special order" '02 R9, with Braz, Murphy painted and aged, vintage '59 profile neck, hand selected wood, and weighing it at 7.6 lbs., unchambered (and now sporting a set of vintage zebra PAFs):

Sue_B_W.jpg



Frank

Wow, the best
 

John Potter

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Mar 18, 2009
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2002 was a big year for the '59 changes:
BB2 & BB3 (later on in the production cycle the 58s got them too).
Non-Gibson marked Klusons. Plain, not marked with Kluson either.
Wireless ABR (with bridge pieces that fall out).
Thinner jackplate and toggle switch.
Sharp inlays.
Tuning pegs lined up correctly.
Better coloration on knobs.
Lifton case.
A bunch of "goodies" - framed Les Paul 'swatch', cable, strap, etc.

The 59s went for $5,500 ($1,000 more than the 1999s) and the 58s (washed cherry and flametop) went for about $3,200.

When they started production on the 2003s, I believe that every model started getting these features (but they changed to BB1 & BB2) and the priced dropped back to $4,500 for the 59s.
 
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