2016 R7 a good year?

markj

Quite interested in a Gibson Custom shop R7.
There’s a 2016 one for sale not that far from me, is 2016 a good year for this model?

guitars4you

You have to take each guitar on its own merit -  2016 is not better or worse than say 2015 or 2017 - Try enough and you might find one with a touch more mojo that suits you better than another- But that one with a touch more mojo could be any year - They are more consistently good today but as I said if you try 2/3 you might prefer one to another  - Some will say avoid 2012 due to lam fingerboards but I’ve sold and played some good 2012 models 

Gibson always find some marketing tag to justify a slight tweak to each year- But marginal gains if any and such tweaks don’t take into account how each feels 

bottom line is to play it and see if you bond with it- No one can tell you how that relationship will turn out - But your hands and ears are the best judge

guitars4you

In short, play the guitar and not the year or indeed the latest marketing tag/tweak

tony99

2016 was considered a "mojo year" to be fair.

Most years prior to brexit vote were.

Wazmeister

guitars4you said:

In short, play the guitar and not the year or indeed the latest marketing tag/tweak

Bingo.

Great wisdom here.

timmypix

I think the only thing to bear in mind in 2016 is that was a year they made a distinction between "True Historic" and then regular reissues, with minor spec differences such as whether or not they used hide glue. 

Other than that, there are good and bad examples in every year; there's generally no such thing as a "good year" unless you're looking at a model where specs changed a lot and you want one spec over another. Reissue specs have changed gradually over the years but nowhere near as much or as frequently as regular USA models.

crunchman

Definitely play before you buy.  I've had 3 Custom Shop Les Pauls, and sold all of them.  All three of them sounded different.  One of them had too high a neck angle (2010 R8).

I actually prefer the Standard from the regular production line that I have now.  It's a bit heavier, but I can l live with that.

spirit7

I have an R7 and an R9 from 2016 - both fabulous guitars.  

Nerine

And to muddy the water I have a True Historic R8 from 2017 and it’s better than any Les Paul I’ve ever come across in any capacity, so the year is pretty irrelevant. A lot of people say 2013 is good. Dunno why. I’ve played a couple of crappuns from that era. 

What it boils down to is this:

No one is really going to have owned/played multiple examples from each year for a meaningful amount of time to give an accurate synopsis so it boils down to people essentially cherry picking/having an opinion on years they DO have experience of and then forming anecdotal evidence based on that. 

Most of it is utter bullshit. 

Try the guitar. Buy it if you like it and literally flip the bird to the naysayers because 99% of these folk that like to talk loudly online with assumed authority are fucking clueless.

Yesterday I saw a post on the Gibson Les Paul Facebook page. 

Some absolute clown had swapped the bridge on his R9 to an original specimen from the 50’s. 

He claimed more “compression” and “bite”, depth to the sound, smoother etc. y’know, they usual garbage and I had to just ask him a couple of questions about his methodology and he deleted his post from Facebook. 

They’re clowns. They know nothing other than regurgitated sound bites that make them *think* they sound clued up. The internet isn’t wise. You’re wise. Try the guitar. Fuck the year.