Gibson Custom Shop ~Japan Special Run~1968 Les Paul Custom Reissue VOS Ebony s/n 060778

Very odd....and the actual Gibson paperwork included in the Tom Murphy aged 1959 Reissue mentions it was built by Gibson Custom in cooperation with top Japanese dealers...apparently, the Japanese affiliation with Gibson have been happening for a while now???

This would explain the lawsuit regarding the Dave Grohl and Clapton Japan built 335 Gibson bodies????
 
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Quite a number of dealers have had Gibson build special runs of guitars for them. Anderton’s in England have their own CS Les Pauls, for instance.

Nothing odd about it, really. It is still built in the US, but only for the Japanese market. Lovely guitar, by the way!
 
Gahr said:
Quite a number of dealers have had Gibson build special runs of guitars for them. Anderton’s in England have their own CS Les Pauls, for instance. Nothing odd about it, really.
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Correct, models made for the Japanese market are not uncommon.

However, several of the Dave Grohl and Clapton Signature Gibson bodies have actually been built in Japan by a subcontractor (Terada) and shipped to Nashville for final assembly at Gibson's Custom Shop.

After hearing an hour and a half discussion about this from a pissed off Clapton 335 owner, I did a little digging and I came up with several discussions about the incorrect shape of these guitars:

"The body shape of the Clapton 335 unlike any guitar produced by Gibson USA, and is identical to recent Japanese Epiphones. So is the center block construction. On USA made Gibsons, the center block is wider than the top and back braces so there is an overhang. On Japanese 335's and the Clapton 335, the center block and braces are exactly flush with each other. I cannot believe that Gibson would do this only for one model and never do it again. If they had the skill to make the center block and braces flush, they would be doing this currently on all new 335s...."
 
Robert Herndon said:
The card even mentions something about the wood being sourced in Japan....did anyone read the card???
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They don't source the wood from Japan. The customer goes to the Gibson factory and chooses the wood for the guitars personally from the timber they have in stock at the time. That's for the Custom Shop. For USA runs they don't get to choose the specific pieces of wood they want.

The special runs are done all the time. 4 of the 7 electric guitars I own were done as special runs: my LP Trad was a Sweetwater special run, my SG Standard and Firebird I were AMS/ZZounds special runs and the non-reverse Firebird was a Musicians Friend special run.

Oh, and that story about Grohl and 335 bodies being built overseas is a fairly old internet hoax. Total B.S.
 
gball said:
They don't source the wood from Japan. The customer goes to the Gibson factory and chooses the wood for the guitars personally from the timber they have in stock at the time. That's for the Custom Shop. For USA runs they don't get to choose the specific pieces of wood they want.

The special runs are done all the time. 4 of the 7 electric guitars I own were done as special runs: my LP Trad was a Sweetwater special run, my SG Standard and Firebird I were AMS/ZZounds special runs and the non-reverse Firebird was a Musicians Friend special run.

Oh, and that story about Grohl and 335 bodies being built overseas is a fairly old internet hoax. Total B.S.
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I have no clue, just passing along what I heard.
 
I have an SG SPecial --- special run for LONG & MCQUADE of Canuckistania --- the color really only -- you can get red ones and brown ones from Musicians friend-- but NOT the burst ----w/ mini hums that was a 1 year only run got it from a New Yorker who was from Canuckistania
SG min1.jpg
 
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