Original owner, near mint!
Only thing keeping from mint are some hairline marks on the pickguard from use after only recently removing the protective cover. There may be a few signs of light play elsewhere. Truly excellent condition. Very little play, still has the fresh vanilla nitro smell! Comes in original heavily padded soft case.
Buyers turned up their noses at these on release as they used humbuckers and a non-reverse headstock. For my part, the headstock gives the right tension to the right strings in a way that felt really nice and the humbuckers sounded absolutely stellar. The sound is extremely reminiscent of an SG with 498/496’s but its more hi-fi and clear due to the ceramic magnets and can handle more gain too. It cleans up beautifully and performs wonderfully for all genres I tried, both clean and dirty – it sounds uniquely Gibson. I actually had a set of Pioneer The Popes in here and went back to the originals (fixing the microphonic pickup selector wire in the process – was an issue with a lot of these I’m willing to bet due to its length).
I don’t really want to sell it but I’ve finally come to a point of needing the money enough to list it. Its an absolute joy to play and records incredibly well. Has all original materials, notes, bench-pics from Gibson, etc. including the fretboard cover.
Specs from the web:
Body:
Mahogany
Pieces: 2
Grade: A
Neck:
Mahogany
Pieces: 1
Truss Rod: Firebird
Profile: Slim Taper
Fret 1 thickness: .8″
Fret 12 thickness: .875″
Headstock angle: 14 degrees
Nut: Tektoid
Width: 1.695 (filed for 9’s)
Fingerboard: Rosewood, 1 piece, dark
Radius: 12″
22 Frets
24 3/4 Scale
Mini Grover Kidney tuners 14:1 chrome
Electronics:
Rhythm – 496R (winds 5250/5250) – 8.42Ohms
Lead – 496T (winds 5250/7500) – 11.965Ohms
Ceramic magnet, chrome covers
500K non-linear pots for volume and tone
Hardware:
Aluminum tune-o-matic bridge – chrome plated
Aluminum tailpiece – chrome plated
Aluminum strap buttons
Gold plated contact output jack
Black Tophat knobs with silver insert