Ax of the Month

The FUTURE

The R9—the ultimate replica—did not settle the Les Paul Reissue issue, at least not for those who want to know whether a Reissue will increase in value. Again, the appeal is based on the accuracy of the replication and the curl in the top. Unfortunately for those who would like to bet on a sure thing, neither of these characteristics is settled.

One would think that a curly top will always be appreciated and valued. After all, curly maple has been loved by instrument makers for centuries (note that any photos of fine violins always show the back as well as the front). It's the flame that gives each instrument not only its beauty but also a unique identity. Vic Da Pra's book, Sunburst Alley illustrates the effect that flamey pieces of wood can have on a guitar lover. They inspired an entire new lexicon to describe flamed maple, including such terms as ribbon curl (regular, irregular, medium and heavy), 3D curl, pinstripes, variegated curl, light blister, heavy medullary grain and deep striations. Exceptional examples inspired such descriptions as "chevrons of maple figure ascending heavenward" or "fractionating, shattering and radiating" as well as such terms as lovely, luscious, dramatic, incomparable, bewitching, sinuous, striking, spectacular and drop-dead killer.

In addition to curly maple's visual appeal, it's a well-known fact that it's rare, occurring randomly in something like 10 percent of maple trees. But that doesn't mean it's scarce. As the Reissue gained in popularity, Gibson foresaw a shortage and set about securing a supply for the future. "One of the problems in 1994, when I first came to work here, was that they had maybe 75 curly maple tops a month, and they lost about half in the kiln," said Gene Nix, head of a woodbuying team that Gibson put together in 1994. "And what they were buying was actually defective before they turned it into a guitar. The material they wanted was hard maple, and that's not near as intense with the figure as the soft maple is. The other problem was the sourcing. They were looking in all the wrong places. We put together a wood team here at the plant and defined what we wanted and then went out and developed some suppliers."

Soft maple rather than hard maple? Nix looked at the tops of originals and discovered that some were soft maple and some were hard maple, so his quest for soft maple did not represent a deviation from original Les Paul specs.

The next step was to develop and educate suppliers. The wood was out there, but it was not economical to produce. Because soft maple has more defects than hard maple, a log of soft maple produces less wood. And it has to be quarter-sawn to get the most flame. Furthermore, the difficulty in matching various pieces of curly maple makes it less than desirable for the furniture market, so sawmills didn't want to fool with it. But with Gibson as a willing buyer, suppliers began going to the log yards and picking out potentially flamed maple logs before they were run through the regular milling process.

The result of Gibson's wood team efforts is a ready supply of flamed tops. The $400-500 "value" that Gibson had assigned to flamed tops in the early 1990s became a moot point in 1998 when Gibson abolished Premium Plus and Plus tops in the regular Les Paul line and even abolished the sunburst finish on the Classic. Now there was no way to get a flamed top on a Standard unless it was a Reissue (or some other Custom Shop creation). Despite the appearance of scarcity, however, highly flamed tops abound in the Les Paul line, on the popular new Double-Cutaway Standard and on the Joe Perry signature Les Paul Standard.

Also, a funny thing happened on the way to the Flametop Appreciation Society. Some people decided that flame didn't matter at all, at least not at the premium price Gibson was asking. They ordered a Reissue, but hold the flame, please. By the end of 1994, Gibson was offering a '58 Plaintop Reissue at around half the price of the Flametop version. (The year 1958 was not known for yielding more plain tops than curly tops; it was just the only year still available from the sunburst era.)

The question of accuracy of replication was settled with the R9 in 1993-almost. The top carving may be questionable from time to time, but there's still the matter of the finish. Initially, the R9 (as well as previous Reissues) was finished to look the same as an original 1959 Les Paul Standard looks today-like a 40-year-old guitar, with the cherry finish faded somewhat, with the binding and fingerboard inlay yellowing with age. Buyers did not want a new-looking guitar. Gibson's Heritage Cherry Sunburst finish provided that slightly faded vintage look, and it was the preferred finish over the optional Dark Cherry Sunburst finish, which had a brighter cherry look that made the guitar look brand new.

So what is the correct finish? One fraction of the market believes that the best finish Gibson ever put on an R9 was done by Tom Murphy. People call Gibson asking if a certain Reissue were made in the Tom Murphy era. It's gotten to the point where people are buying new Reissues and then sending them to Murphy, who is the proprietor of Guitar Preservation in Marion, Illinois, to strip and apply the "correct" finish.

But the "correct" finish for a Les Paul Reissue is a changing notion, Murphy says. For some now, it is the "Brockburst," a reference to the guitar, formerly owned by Brian Brock, that graces the cover of Tom Wheeler's American Guitars. That's a darker cherry than the standard Reissue finish. "I saw a change in taste starting about late '95," Murphy said. "People are seeing guitars with bold enough tops that they could handle a darker cherry sunburst. Now they're ready to take that darker sunburst on some of those killer tops. I've had several requests for that style of color on the top. Maybe the Reissue is so established that we could look at them like they'd look brand new. It couldn't happen before because the guitar was so inaccurate. I thought that was pretty good testimony for the guitars."

But once again the '58 Plaintop Reissue (R8) skews the sample. In 1998 Gibson started offering it with a curly top-though not nearly as curly as the R9-for an upcharge of $525. To avoid getting caught up in the curly top confusion of the Plus and Premium Plus, Gibson offered the R8 only in Butterscotch and Vintage Red finishes. And people bought it.

Then there's the issue of rarity- an important issue in the collectible/investment market. The R9 is not rare. Production has been averaging around 500 per year, although it may be cut back from time to time so that Gibson's Custom Shop doesn't end up with all its fortunes riding on one model. But there are already more R9s than there were original sunburst Les Paul Standards.

The future of the Les Paul Reissue market is dependent on several factors, none of which is absolute. Degree of accuracy makes a difference-the R9 is likely to be more desirable than the previous versions. An accurate finish is important to most, but not all buyers, and even then, "accurate" is a matter of disagreement. Degree or quality of the figuration of the top makes a difference. That's obvious from the descriptions of instruments for sale; they almost always include an assessment of the top. But again, not to all buyers. And rarity is yet to be established; production is ongoing and subject to Gibson's whim.

The Les Paul Reissue does have a future as a collectible and/or investment, due to the fact that people like a cherry sunburst Les Paul Standard. No, people love a cherry sunburst Les Paul Standard, and they're always going to. Younger recording artists like them, too, so there's not likely to be a market-killing generational change of preference. People love a sunburst Les Paul more if it's in its classic form, which is to say 1958-60 specs. And most people love it more if it has a flamed top.

With this much information, the future of the Les Paul Reissue market would be easy to predict, except for the fact that it's still in production and still subject to interpretation. A whim in the marketplace, or a nod from an influential guitarist toward a certain version of the model, could change everything. Just as the appeal of the Les Paul Standard is a personal, subjective thing, perhaps the best advice to a prospective buyer is to check prices and then to make it a personal, subjective decision. The love of an instrument may turn out to be the best hedge against an unpredictable market.

About the Author:

Walter Carter has been involved in the Nashville music world as an author, journalist, songwriter and musician since 1971. From 1993-98 he was the historian of the Gibson guitar company, where he wrote the book Gibson Guitars: 100 Years of an American Icon. His three books co-authored with vintage guitar dealer George Gruhn have become primary source books for vintage guitar photos and identification. He has also written books on Martin, Gibson and Epiphone. He is the co-writer of the 1988 hit country song "Life as We Knew It" by Kathy Mattea, and he currently plays mandola in the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble.

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