Quote:
Originally Posted by decoy205
DAAAAAAAAMN!! AS USUAL!! 
You never cease to disappoint with your collection. You have an eye for those tops.
What the hell was going on in '98? These are some of the nicest historics out there. I never realized. |
Thanks decoy!
I wasn't into collecting guitars back in '98, but I think the reasons for the beauties back then are as follows:
1. That's what people wanted! Monster tops were "in", and the nicer the the top, the more money they commanded. I guess that's still the case today, but it seems what most people want now are more realistic tops.
2. Gibson was enhancing/double staining the tops back then to really make those figured tops "pop", probably because of #1 above.
3. And lastly, although I don't see this mentioned much, '98 was the 40th anniversary of the '58s. So maybe Gibson was giving the Les Paul community a special anniversary edition without necessarily promoting it as such (or maybe they did promote it, and I'm not aware of it).