90s "good wood " era vs post 2013 era ....... ?

[AA00475Bassman]

 

[Dr. Green]

 

[FenRx]

Wait, I thought 2007 was the good wood year

 

[6L6]

I like to think of the post 2012 models as the "good glue" era.

 

[Tommy Tourbus]

If it sounds good and the neck is stable, it's "good wood"

 

[Jimi's LP]

this is extremely funny
I googled " good wood era" and found a ton of posts about it

the funniest is this one off another music web site


" The so-called Good Wood era is a specific period referred to with respect to Les Paul Historics made between 1996 and the early 2000s.

The term started appearing in the Les Paul Forum, to identify R9s that had a particularly spectacular flame top.

So to clarify, it is quite specific, it does not apply to all guitars or all wood types, it is not related to tone or weight, and yes, it makes no sense. " - Surf freak

Here's my 1998 Gibson R9 that it's referring to Goodwood era between 1996 to 2000s. It definitely gives me good wood.

 

[jimmi]

.

 

[Standard Magic]

Although we constantly search the globe for the good wood , PRE 2014 Good Wood was ruined by using Bad - wrong glue !

And truss rod sleeve. Though I don't know how much difference they make.

 

[AA00475Bassman]

And truss rod sleeve. Though I don't know how much difference they make.

It just amazes me how any of these Pro musicians can make all these sub par Historic's & standard guitars sound so wonderful & here's a big one for all you Gibson slingers most of these pro's are doing it without a Florian neck set !

 

[Subliminal lanimilbuS]

Maybe you started at the right time. I have had historics from the periods you are asking about and the ones I kept are from in between. As has been said, though, I have found favorites from many decades going all the way back to the 30's.

 

[Wizard1183]

It just amazes me how any of these Pro musicians can make all these sub par Historic's & standard guitars sound so wonderful & here's a big one for all you Gibson slingers most of these pro's are doing it without a Florian neck set !

The most subpar reissue to one man can sound like gold in another’s. And then? All of a sudden if they heard it they’d want if back…..

And still wonder why they’re not sounding like the man on the stage?

 

[garywright]

Here is a 1995 r9 flame top. The wood looks pretty good to me!
View attachment 15550

beautiful but reversing the slight chevron sergeant stripes would have pushed it over the edge ( imo )

 

[Subliminal lanimilbuS]

I can remember the "Good Wood Era" term showing up in the mid 2000's on ebay a few years after Gibson changed specs for their tops to Eastern Maple unless otherwise specified (usually a Quilt Top). Sellers using that angle to push their more vivid and uniform Western Maple tops. I find it kind of funny as Gibson switched away from those tops because of demand from North American and Japanese markets for Eastern Maple tops. I never once heard the term "Good Wood Era" used in the 90's when they were being built.

 

[60thR0]

I never once heard the term "Good Wood Era" used in the 90's when they were being built.

Slightly off topic but at least my local dealer in 2001 was heavily hyping his “last” custom shop historics and claiming Gibson was going to discontinue them due lack of suitable (good?) wood… mind you he wasn’t actually Gibson dealer…

 

[Subliminal lanimilbuS]

Slightly off topic but at least my local dealer in 2001 was heavily hyping his “last” custom shop historics and claiming Gibson was going to discontinue them due lack of suitable (good?) wood… mind you he wasn’t actually Gibson dealer…

Must have been using the scare tactic as finding Western Maple with more continuous full flame suitable for a guitar top is much easier than finding the same with Eastern. Gibson did, however switch specs in 1993 because of problems in finding suitable flame maple. The specs for the tops on their Historic guitars was set as Hard Rock Eastern Maple. They quickly found it was hard to get this in a regular supply and switched to using both Western and Eastern Maple of any type. You see more of the Western being used in the 90's. In 2003 they switched specs to using Eastern Maple again. In 2008 they switched specs again to using both Eastern and Western Maple.

 

[hopkinwfg]

How about the fretboard did gibson used on their regular historic line? I own a 2008 R8 plain top in bourbon burst it plays well and sound good in my opinion but i see very unsual fretboard i have on mine... it has most of the brown and darker part of it in some stripes.... i heard they used madagascar rosewood?

Contrast to the historic i seen prior 2020 i read some used dark indian rosewood and pictures are really dark black almost ebony like....

 

[Wizard1183]

How about the fretboard did gibson used on their regular historic line? I own a 2008 R8 plain top in bourbon burst it plays well and sound good in my opinion but i see very unsual fretboard i have on mine... it has most of the brown and darker part of it in some stripes.... i heard they used madagascar rosewood?

Contrast to the historic i seen prior 2020 i read some used dark indian rosewood and pictures are really dark black almost ebony like....

It won’t make a difference. A fretboard is like what? Maybe .05% of the sound you wouldn’t hear it anyway. Stephen Desins put his PAF replicas with pots and caps in an Epiphone and it sounded exactly like a burst. It’s electronics pots caps and pickups and he probably could’ve put it in a fender and it’d sound the same lol

 

[hopkinwfg]

It won’t make a difference. A fretboard is like what? Maybe .05% of the sound you wouldn’t hear it anyway. Stephen Desins put his PAF replicas with pots and caps in an Epiphone and it sounded exactly like a burst. It’s electronics pots caps and pickups and he probably could’ve put it in a fender and it’d sound the same lol

Mmmmm i am not too sure but many will lies on the money and quality it comes with.... if its madagascar rosewood it will be rather rare than indian rosewood....

This fretboard on my R8 2008 era is definately different then the usual rosewood i see ie ibanez and suhr ... none of it has that brown color with the striking darker almost black kinda streaks... and pores are rather lesser than rosewood whom i see...

 

[hopkinwfg]

I would like to take this chance to know of anybody of you here could help if this is a western flame or eastern flame? .... but from what i read and i percieve it to be a western flame please correct me if not wrong... as i will be getting this soon into my arsernal its a 2006 era R9...

But soon as i browse i seen alot of the crazier tops with larger chervon flame style and with the earlier burst is just nicer and more gradual

 

[Big Al]

The term was used here after Gibson stopped double staining the tops, which makes the figure appear more vivid. They did have some beautiful maple. You can find extraordinary tops in any year or group of years, though there was an abundance back then due to a reliance on easily stained and easily found highly figured Western Big Leaf Maple for tops. There were some nice Eastern Hard Rock Sugar Maple tops, but by far it was the big western tops in the majority.

Post 2013? I own a pair, as well as a pair of turn of cenrury R9s, a 1999 and 2000. They are well chosen all and any one of them scores high for build, playability and most importantly uber Les Paul tone. Small changes in spec, not tone. Any carefully picked post 93 will deliver on that promise, IMO. Regardless the yom.