look at how nice the Japanese 2017 are ,,,,,,,,

check out this guys inventory - scroll till you get to the 2017 historic's - wow



https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_od...R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=les+paul&_sacat=0




this one I want bad :


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gibson-Cus...374223?hash=item23938d6b8f:g:czAAAOSw43haFrb~

look at paint job on this one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gibson-Cus...557970?hash=item25d7dfcb52:g:UBwAAOSwaeRZLl-~

Gibson does not mess around when they make a guitar for Tokyo - they know that the Japanese buyer is 2 things

1) smart

2) picky

I'm pretty sure that legislation was recently enacted decreeing that if you list a Les Paul reissue on eBay, the item location has to be Japan. (Not all eBay members appear to be complying, however — for example, if you scroll through Les Paul reissue listings continuously for 90 minutes, you can generally stumble upon one or two Amercian sellers who missed the meeting.)

The Japanese may be discerning like the rest of us but smart.......now there I'd draw the line.
The asking prices exceed the US(especially on the used ones by a big margin).

price aside they are much more detail oriented.

it is extremely more difficult to pull the "wool over their eyes" and sell them an esthetically inferior item

I know this first hand having spent time in their guitar shops

for example :

look at this Japanese market Tak historic:

http://www.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/2016/Custom/True-Historic-1959-Tak-Matsumoto.aspx


look at the color, the detail to wood selection - the dark almost black fingerboard - the color of the back - trust me they are picky

notice this guitar looks like a historic makeover right from the factory

Having spent time in Japanese guitar stores (all over Japan) as well as US stores, and stores around Europe and Asia; I’m from the UK (london) and it goes in this order:

Japan gets the pick of the litter
US is a close second
Europe / especially the UK get most of the dogs
the rest of Asia (south and south east) get the turds

Not sure about South America or Africa ... but I’m not hopeful

Yes you're right about 'the rest of us getting the turds and dogs' :lol
I've bought my LPs from the US over the years apart from a dog '88 Standard I got in '91(now long gone thank goodness).
Gibson must literally agonise with the product that goes to Japan:hmm

Patek said:

Having spent time in Japanese guitar stores (all over Japan) as well as US stores, and stores around Europe and Asia; I’m from the UK (london) and it goes in this order:

Japan gets the pick of the litter
US is a close second
Europe / especially the UK get most of the dogs
the rest of Asia (south and south east) get the turds

Not sure about South America or Africa ... but I’m not hopeful

Click to expand...

Sounds like I may have to "go north young man!". I can't seem to smell the turds around here.

picture is worth a thousand words

check out the last 3 minutes of this video with
Murphy speaking to a Japanese group

Maxmc said:

I can't seem to smell the turds around here.

Click to expand...

We've had some shockers here over the decades..............

WOW - I know where I"m buying my next LP.

That guy knows how to take photos, for sure. (Although he does adjust the contrast a bit on the strong.) You can really see what the guitar looks like, unlike some of the dealers in the US.

I'm in love.

How about another example

look at this Japanese market historic

I don't knw about you guys but this is my kind of guitar !



https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gibson-Les...127106?hash=item1a3ab59002:g:UwEAAOSwySVaFt2d

I've bought my Historic's from Japan in the past, but their pricing has gone crazy over the past few years.

Here's a perfect example, great looking R8, but ridiculous pricing https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gibson-CS-2017-Limited-Run-Hand-Select-1958-LP-Model-VOS-Slow-Iced-Tea-Fade/183027772278

tripletime said:

price aside they are much more detail oriented.

it is extremely more difficult to pull the "wool over their eyes" and sell them an esthetically inferior item

I know this first hand having spent time in their guitar shops

for example :

look at this Japanese market Tak historic:

http://www.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/2016/Custom/True-Historic-1959-Tak-Matsumoto.aspx


look at the color, the detail to wood selection - the dark almost black fingerboard - the color of the back - trust me they are picky

notice this guitar looks like a historic makeover right from the factory

Click to expand...

I totally agree with this assessment based upon my experiences in Japan while shopping around on layovers. To clarify, I have yet to make it into a well-stocked guitar shop there but looking at other high-end product lines (cars, watches, clothes) brings one in contact with very well-informed sales staff and the highest qualities. They are particular and the prices are commensurately high. It's also worth mentioning that costs of living in Tokyo, Osaka, and similar metro areas are very [very] high so products passing through this country are going to pick up some cost. BTW, the cities are fantastic, IMO.

Last spring I visited a jeweler that specialized in Grand Seiko watches. I asked to see one sharp-looking world timer and almost immediately felt quite "unworthy:" $14,500 USD. :ganz "Oh! Time for lunch, thank you..."

:hank

Red Baron said:

I've bought my Historic's from Japan in the past, but their pricing has gone crazy over the past few years.

Here's a perfect example, great looking R8, but ridiculous pricing https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gibson-CS-2017-Limited-Run-Hand-Select-1958-LP-Model-VOS-Slow-Iced-Tea-Fade/183027772278

Click to expand...

Based on the photograph, looks like the same seller as the OP listed. But it's not.

Is there some shenanigans going on?

What a load of malarkey and hokum. :bigal

Big Al said:

What a load of malarkey and hokum. :bigal

Click to expand...

it absolutely is true

Different strokes for different folks. None of those listed in the OP do anything for me.:jim

There is a point to be made here -

I don't think that the OP or others on this thread (including myself) are implying that these guitars sent to Japan or those being resold from Japan are better musical instruments. Japanese merchants will demand and make a market in what they perceive to be the best attributes of a given product. When it comes to the out-of-hand, higher-end Gibson Les Paul market, that means aesthetics and paper-order specifications - not necessarily a serious musician's metric. When one shops CS LP's from this market, that's what they're going to see.

Read most of the braggadocio on this forum, and it relates to aesthetics and model specifications. Charlie, a fair amount of that comes from you (no complaints, just an observation). It's not my world, but I appreciate the fact that it drives the Custom Shop LP market. If it didn't, there probably wouldn't be a Custom Shop LP market.

K

CDaughtry said:

Different strokes for different folks. None of those listed in the OP do anything for me.:jim

Click to expand...

would you be so kind as to post a few non reliced historics that you DO like ?

( I am curious )

I keep a fairly close watch on the Japanese market, and have for quite some time. :biggrin: The idea that Japan gets the best ones "had" some merit up until 2006. After that, they get pretty much the same deal as any other distributor... with a few exceptions.

First off... before 2006, Yamano Gakki was Gibson's main distributor here in Japan and their contract with Gibson stipulated that they had the right to return any guitars which didn't measure up (aesthetically or construction-wise) ON GIBSON's DIME. No other distributor in the world got that deal with Gibson. Japan is roughly the size of California and Japan in and has been Gibson's #2 market. So there was an added layer of quality control to ensure that the guitars didn't come back... because it was guaranteed that if there was the slightest problem with it, it would be on the first plane back to Nashville. Yamano's contract expired in 2006 and after that several other shops became distributors and that right of refusal was no more.

As far as still getting aesthetically superior tops it depends on the distributor. Miki Gakki, for example, has their guys fly to Nashville several times a year to hand pick the tops to be used for their Gibson Customs Shop line. I know those guys pretty well and they have damn good eyes... after doing it for 10 years they can envision the final project uncannily. Their shop is consistently packed with some amazing eye candy and their presence at SoundMesse in Osaka shows off the best of their offerings. Other distributors put varying degrees of effort into the process, and so the results vary. Used shops, like Nico Nico, make an effort to sell only amazing looking specimens... and so their eye candy is also quite droolworthy.

As far as prices being crazy high here that is not really accurate. Taking the yen/dollar conversion rate into account prices are on a par with the States (if not much better when the yen dips). There are recently a ton of ebay scammers, that go to sites like Rakuten and Digimart and copy their listings and put them on ebay. Especially since the CITES update most shops in Japan won't export rosewood anymore but the scammers are willing to roll the dice and they add a healthy premium for that roll. Quite a few of the ebay listings fall under that category... the seller doesn't have/own the guitar, but they will go buy it and send it if you are willing to pay the mark-up. Some folks believe they are providing a service, but most (including myself) think its a scam.

I've seen amazing examples from both sides of the pond, so Japanese ones are certainly not unique. Japanese are more detail oriented and construction flaws can still be returned (or discounted) so it is easy to assume that they have the best offerings.

Or something like that... :spabout