pinodorato
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- Joined
- Dec 26, 2015
- Messages
- 32
CC #43 Mick Ralphs
CC owners - What's Your Number?
- Thread starter J T
- Start date
LeonC
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2002
- Messages
- 804
Once again, I invite anyone researching or who owns a CC guitar to use this spreadsheet that I created last year:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YvL0rEot0GCMbnTngVTPwMR5FdJ3uSBFA4dwRUtPjCI/
If you own a CC, please consider sending me info on your guitar's pickups and I'll update the spreadsheet. (My interest here is both simply informational and in seeing how consistent they are from one instance of a model to the next.)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YvL0rEot0GCMbnTngVTPwMR5FdJ3uSBFA4dwRUtPjCI/
If you own a CC, please consider sending me info on your guitar's pickups and I'll update the spreadsheet. (My interest here is both simply informational and in seeing how consistent they are from one instance of a model to the next.)
Avalon
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- May 31, 2016
- Messages
- 10
CC #24 089
mrbeasty
New member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2002
- Messages
- 114
CC12A - 005
mrbeasty
New member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2002
- Messages
- 114
Have you considered a similar database for non-CC models? I’d love to see detailed information on the Bonamassa R9, Pearly Gates R9, and Page #1 R9.
LeonC
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2002
- Messages
- 804
Great suggestion. It'd be very easy to add tabs for other types of Gibson "replica" type models. The hard part is getting people to respond
. I've renamed the spreadsheet and will start a new thread. I've made the Collectors Choice guitars one section of the spreadsheet and I've added another section for other Gibson replica-type guitars.
I'm going to add a "weight" column as well, so we can compare weight of different guitars within each model.
horacelokhang
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- May 26, 2016
- Messages
- 3
CC37A-069
DtotheK302
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- Nov 5, 2017
- Messages
- 9
ForeverFabFour
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- Apr 26, 2018
- Messages
- 93
A few CC guitars have come and gone since I posted in this thread a couple years ago. I currently own CC#7A 131 “John Shanks” and CC#24A 121 “Nicky”.
I can comfortably say that both of these guitars are likely permanent members to the collection. "Lifers" if you will.
Bought and Sold in the past 14 months:
CC#43A “Mick Ralph’s”
CC#30A “Appraisal burst/Gabby”
I’ll start with #43A... Definitely a great example of a custom shop Les Paul, but just didn’t do it for me. I bought it at the time because it was a fantastic deal and I wanted to own a 1958 reissue. However, out of the five Les Pauls I owned at the time I found myself playing Ralph's the least. It lacked personality and felt dry at times. Aesthetically the color just didn’t look right in person either and the longer I had it the less I enjoyed its aesthetic appeal. Ultimately I think that guitar would have really benefited from a better set up of pickups, but I ultimately parted ways with it as I began to dislike its aesthetic appeal. In the end I only owned it for about three months and was able to almost break even on it.
Now onto CC#30 Gabby...
This one was a big let down. My buddy has a Gabby and after playing his I felt I needed to acquire one. To be completely honest, his Gabby is probably one of the nicest custom shop Les Pauls I’ve ever played. Unfortunately, the guitar I acquired (which was only five serial numbers away from his) was not nearly as nice. Over the years I have found that Gibson has been relatively consistent with all of the collectors choice guitars I've had the pleasure of playing, but there’s definitely a few good ones and a few bad ones in every batch. My CC#7A is arguably the best I've played, whereas the Gabby I owned was definitely one of the bad ones from that run. All things considered it was still a fine Les Paul, I hardly think there is a bad custom shop Les Paul, but some simply aren’t worth the price tag. At the time I owned my Gabby it was the most expensive guitar in my collection but it didn't feel like it. The fit and finish of the guitar was very nice but it just didn’t play as well as I would’ve liked it to. Just as with the Mick Ralph's burst I’m sure I could’ve gone through the saga of replacing the electronics and doing a hardcore set up, but I’m not even sure that would have gotten it to where it should have been. In the end I owned Gabby for about a year and was able to make a little profit on her. I would consider acquiring another Gabby in the future if I could find one that is one of the "good ones" from that batch. Oh, and if they dropped in price... I'll pay silly money for guitars just so long as I get a silly guitar in return!
Thoughts on Nicky and Shanks:
As I said previously, I think I’ll own these two for a lifetime. Both have really itched a scratch I once had. Surprisingly the Nicky is more like a 1960 with the thinner neck and hotter pickups of the two. The shanks is more like a 59 or 58 with a fatter neck and thicker lower output pickups. Even though they’re both bursts, they’re very different and distinctly their own flavor. I think these two collectors choice guitars will satisfy me for quite some time, but I hope to add another one to the collection in the coming years. Both guitars played amazing right out of the box and it had a little done to them. Nicky is a true historic guitar and is basically stock other than the replacement of the poker chip. Shanks has has all the plastics upgraded and had a new wiring harness. Both guitars have the stock pickups in them and they sounds great!
Shanks
Bridge: 7.26k
Neck: 7.86k
Weight: 8.48 lbs
Nicky
Bridge: 8.44k
Neck: 8.48k
Weight: 8.09 lbs
Nicky:
Shanks and Nicky:
:
I can comfortably say that both of these guitars are likely permanent members to the collection. "Lifers" if you will.
Bought and Sold in the past 14 months:
CC#43A “Mick Ralph’s”
CC#30A “Appraisal burst/Gabby”
I’ll start with #43A... Definitely a great example of a custom shop Les Paul, but just didn’t do it for me. I bought it at the time because it was a fantastic deal and I wanted to own a 1958 reissue. However, out of the five Les Pauls I owned at the time I found myself playing Ralph's the least. It lacked personality and felt dry at times. Aesthetically the color just didn’t look right in person either and the longer I had it the less I enjoyed its aesthetic appeal. Ultimately I think that guitar would have really benefited from a better set up of pickups, but I ultimately parted ways with it as I began to dislike its aesthetic appeal. In the end I only owned it for about three months and was able to almost break even on it.
Now onto CC#30 Gabby...
This one was a big let down. My buddy has a Gabby and after playing his I felt I needed to acquire one. To be completely honest, his Gabby is probably one of the nicest custom shop Les Pauls I’ve ever played. Unfortunately, the guitar I acquired (which was only five serial numbers away from his) was not nearly as nice. Over the years I have found that Gibson has been relatively consistent with all of the collectors choice guitars I've had the pleasure of playing, but there’s definitely a few good ones and a few bad ones in every batch. My CC#7A is arguably the best I've played, whereas the Gabby I owned was definitely one of the bad ones from that run. All things considered it was still a fine Les Paul, I hardly think there is a bad custom shop Les Paul, but some simply aren’t worth the price tag. At the time I owned my Gabby it was the most expensive guitar in my collection but it didn't feel like it. The fit and finish of the guitar was very nice but it just didn’t play as well as I would’ve liked it to. Just as with the Mick Ralph's burst I’m sure I could’ve gone through the saga of replacing the electronics and doing a hardcore set up, but I’m not even sure that would have gotten it to where it should have been. In the end I owned Gabby for about a year and was able to make a little profit on her. I would consider acquiring another Gabby in the future if I could find one that is one of the "good ones" from that batch. Oh, and if they dropped in price... I'll pay silly money for guitars just so long as I get a silly guitar in return!
Thoughts on Nicky and Shanks:
As I said previously, I think I’ll own these two for a lifetime. Both have really itched a scratch I once had. Surprisingly the Nicky is more like a 1960 with the thinner neck and hotter pickups of the two. The shanks is more like a 59 or 58 with a fatter neck and thicker lower output pickups. Even though they’re both bursts, they’re very different and distinctly their own flavor. I think these two collectors choice guitars will satisfy me for quite some time, but I hope to add another one to the collection in the coming years. Both guitars played amazing right out of the box and it had a little done to them. Nicky is a true historic guitar and is basically stock other than the replacement of the poker chip. Shanks has has all the plastics upgraded and had a new wiring harness. Both guitars have the stock pickups in them and they sounds great!
Shanks
Bridge: 7.26k
Neck: 7.86k
Weight: 8.48 lbs
Nicky
Bridge: 8.44k
Neck: 8.48k
Weight: 8.09 lbs
Nicky:
Shanks and Nicky:
:
Last edited:
dleake
Member
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2016
- Messages
- 52
CC#7A 143 here. Looks very much like your Shanks with the nice mismatched top. I'd have to echo everything you said about yours. Amazing guitars. What rings and pick guard did you use? I'm looking to upgrade both on mine. I replaced the grovers with some aged milk bottles style.
Torshalla
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2020
- Messages
- 196
Amazing guitars and pics guys!
I don t yet own a CC... it has been close a few times but in the end I opted for sig LPs instead (Skinnerburst, Perry 59, Slash AFD and 58 first std)...
These pics are giving me gas though lol
I don t yet own a CC... it has been close a few times but in the end I opted for sig LPs instead (Skinnerburst, Perry 59, Slash AFD and 58 first std)...
These pics are giving me gas though lol