You might have seen the thread about my tour to the Gibson facilities in Tennessee, June 2012. I've gotten the once in a lifetime chance to order a Custom Shop Historic Les Paul built to my own specs. I've chosen a wild grain maple plank to be fitted on to an R8 with Darkburst paint, Grover tuners and double cream pickups (DiMarzio 36th Anniversary PAFs).
The guitar ("Faye", as I've always loved the darkburst/double cream look of 9 2314) turned out to be amazing.
After knowing Kim LaFleur from the LPF for years, I finally met him at the Arlington guitar show in October 2012. Actually, we met on the hotel shuttle at DFW airport.
Kim had brought a bunch of Historic Makeover Les Pauls to the show and he opened the cases right there in the hotel lobby and put them into our hands. It was a jaw dropping experience, the finish, the feel...
So my little Faye went back overseas to get a Historic Makeover. Color is not going to change a lot (less orange/red and a thinner rim), pickups will be Rick Norman Racquels from Dr. Vintage. I liked these a lot at Rick's booth in Arlington.
This is all very exciting as the guitar is special to me since I selected the raw wood plank and I think a Historic Makeover is bringing Historics as close as possible to vintage Les Pauls.
That said, I think the new Gibson 2013 features are great. But a Makeover is much more than binding, hide glue and TR condoms. The re-carves, the fretboard (with inlays and nut) and especially the lacquer,...