Glad I found this forum now, as I wanted to share this.
I bought an 01 R9 (as an investment rather than a player) a couple of months ago. It had a non functioning neck pickup volume pot, and buzzed and choked on the sixth fret, even with a moderately high action. It looked like it had been played maybe twice in its life. I was surprised to see it did not appear to have been set up at all well, not even by the dealer that sold it. It didn't even seem like the intonation had ever been set.
The top looks great, all of the woodwork is neat and tidy, the laquer is sinking into the grain in the most beautiful way. However the red die has bled onto the binding a little more than I'd hope for, and the laquer is a little thick on the sides of the neck.
Last week I leveled the frets and gave the guitar a proper setup. The first fret was just ridiculously high, like they missed it when they fretted the guitar new. The rest of them took a little bit of work too, spent most of a day getting the thing set-up nicely.
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Originally Posted by J S Moore
Every time I pick up my R8 to look for defects I end up playing it and forgetting to check. Must just be me.
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Well that's the thing. Since I set the guitar up I just can't put it down. Even acoustic it now sounds fantastic, and when I stop playing I can't help but just stare at it. It's honestly one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, but the way it plays and sounds was totally transformed by setting it up properly.
So, rather than keep it mint as an investment, I might go out and gig with it. Been playing guitar for 25 years now, and it's only the second time I've been this "smitten" with an instrument.
So if anyone's not sure about quality of workmanship on a Les Paul of any type, take it to a decent luthier/tech and find out how good they really are...might have been Plek'd in the factory (mine wasn't, of course)...but let the wood settle down, and then treat yourself...