ChevChelios
Member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2012
- Messages
- 774
Inspired by the wonderful pictures of that amazing R7 Custom http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=178801 I finally decided to send my precious and deeply loved R8 from 2002 to Kim and the guys for a makeover.
I recently had the pleasure of playing an original 60s at Emerald City Guitars (posted a short essay of that happening here: http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=181575 ) and just couldn't get over the fact that despite the fact that the R8 came extremely close to the sound of the Burst, it just didn't feel right. And it also didn't look right. The neck felt cumbersome, the sunburst was all too bright, the binding looked weird, etc.
So after seeing the results of the makeover of that Custom, I called Kim and sent in my guitar.
The tricky thing was that I did not want to change too much of the sound of the R8, so I decided to keep the neck and fretboard as they are (it is some particularly nice piece of fretboard, anyway), but wanted to get rid of the original paint and those rounded inlays. The appearance of Alberta (the 60s burst) totally knocked my out, so after a couple of e-mails we settled on a very faded burst, which still shows some good amounts of green in the faded areas.
Long story short, Kim and the guys nailed (and eventually exceeded) my expectations. What a beautiful guitar that is! I'll post some pictures of the final guitar as soon as I get them from Kim.
Here are two pictures of the R8 before the makeover
Here she is with Alberta
And here she is at her current state (before the distressing and with unmatched plastic parts)
Here's a picture of the fretboard
I'll post some new photos, as soon as the distressing, etc. is done. Can't wait to get her back next year ...
I recently had the pleasure of playing an original 60s at Emerald City Guitars (posted a short essay of that happening here: http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=181575 ) and just couldn't get over the fact that despite the fact that the R8 came extremely close to the sound of the Burst, it just didn't feel right. And it also didn't look right. The neck felt cumbersome, the sunburst was all too bright, the binding looked weird, etc.
So after seeing the results of the makeover of that Custom, I called Kim and sent in my guitar.
The tricky thing was that I did not want to change too much of the sound of the R8, so I decided to keep the neck and fretboard as they are (it is some particularly nice piece of fretboard, anyway), but wanted to get rid of the original paint and those rounded inlays. The appearance of Alberta (the 60s burst) totally knocked my out, so after a couple of e-mails we settled on a very faded burst, which still shows some good amounts of green in the faded areas.
Long story short, Kim and the guys nailed (and eventually exceeded) my expectations. What a beautiful guitar that is! I'll post some pictures of the final guitar as soon as I get them from Kim.
Here are two pictures of the R8 before the makeover
Here she is with Alberta
And here she is at her current state (before the distressing and with unmatched plastic parts)
Here's a picture of the fretboard
I'll post some new photos, as soon as the distressing, etc. is done. Can't wait to get her back next year ...
