2002 Gibson Custom Shop Class 5 Les Paul electric guitar, ma...

Hammer

£2,500

2002 Gibson Custom Shop Class 5 Les Paul electric guitar, made in USA; Body: copper metallic matt finish, light lacquer lines, a couple of very small dings to top; Neck: good; Fretboard: rosewood; Frets: good; Electrics: working; Hardware: good; Case: original hard case with certificate of authenticity; Weight: 4.32kg; Overall condition: good

* An unusual finish for the Class 5 model being matt copper. Whilst Gibson have not been forthcoming with precise details for this guitar, previous correspondence with the vendor and Gibson have been stated as follows:

"I bought this back in 2006. At that time, Gibson were a lot easier to contact and you could actually get through to the Custom Shop by phone.

I spoke to a guy about it and questioned the "Class 5" designation as those all seemed to be highly figured tops. I am sure he told me that they also used the Class 5 designation for "specials" that did not fall into the normal production models.

 I asked him how many had been produced and he searched their SKU codes taking the one for mine as a basis. He came back with 6 having been produced for Yamano. 2 black, 2 silver, 2 copper. Presumably they were all in this strange matt finish which I later wondered might have been a forerunner to the VOS finish.

Mine showed as having been supplied to Russo Music in New Jersey, despatched 8th October 2002. He could not explain why it had not gone to Yamano.