Good to know, I have noticed that they've been doing little teaser things like that over the past several years - sneaking in things like ABR bridges, burst bucker pickups, etc on the Gibson USA models. I think that's a good thing by the way.toomanycats wrote: ↑Wed Dec 22, 2021 6:58 pm Both my 2019 Standard 60s and 2020 Standard 50s have metal inserts.
I really have way more guitars than I need, but a bona-fide R8 or R9 has always been my holy grail of GAS. Thing is the USA models are so close that I'm still not sure I can justify the additional expense, especially since the CS prices have literally gone bonkers like everything else as of late. It wasn't all that long ago that you could pick up a nice R8 used for $2500, but those days are long gone.
Additionally, I have a 2013 Traditional which has been my "poor man's" R8 and is awfully close to the real thing. 2013 got you a full slab body ( no weight relief of any kind ), 57 classic pickups, vintage tuners, a big fat 58 neck, and old school pots/bumblebee caps. I was also fortunate to grab it from Sweetwater back in late 2013 when they had somewhat of an unprecedented "blowout" sale on Gibsons. They were selling traditionals for $1499 and Standards for $1899 IIRC ( @Floridian FX can confirm as I believe he grabbed a standard at the time ) in many colors and I got to pick my top/weight from about 30 different caramel bursts.
So really all I'd be gaining is the cosmetics of the custom shop ( VOS, period correct binding width and such ) and the one-piece back. I would imagine some day I will do it when the right deal comes along, but for now it's still nice to see them putting a lot of effort into making the USA models closer and closer.