Whitstable Guitars
A selection of good quality, used guitars and specialising in imports from Japan since 2008
1996 Orville Japan Les Paul Special Heritage Cherry & new fitted hard case.
£849.00 + shipping
JAPAN IMPORT
Here we have a nice, and seldom seen Orville Les Paul Special. Orville guitars were built under the Gibson umbrellain Japan from 1988-1998. Orville being the christian name of Gibson. This guitar was built at the Fujigen-Gakki facility in January 1996. Guitars were also built at the Terada factory. There is no difference in the quality between the two factories that I have seen or know of.
There are two types of Orville guitars, Orville & Orville by Gibson. Orville by Gibson guitars are fitted with Gibson USA pickups & Orville guitars that's the only difference I am aware of. However, there were many different models of both the Orville & OBG range. Some having Poly finishes, some with Nitro and I think it creates confusion with people thinking that all OBG's have Nitro finishes. They don't. Having said that, I am no expert and I get most of my info from excellent websites like these:
https://www.guitarsjapan.com/orvillegibsoninfopage.html
The overall condition is good for a 25+ year old guitar although I would call it "roadworn"and there are a few knocks and dents around the edges but these marks add character IMO and the guitar just looks great. The neck is lovely. It's slim & a C profile and very playable. The frets are still excellent with no pitting.
All the dents and scrapes are highlighted in the gallery photos. Also note that there has been a repair to the binding on the upper side of the neck. The binding looks to have come away and then glued back down. It's a good repair and difficult to see. None of this affects playability
Orville Japan Les Paul Special Heritage Cherry
Body: 2-piece Mahogany body
Neck: Set Mahogany neck
Weight: 4140 grammes (9lb 2oz)
Rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays
Open-book headstock with Les Paul screenprint
17 degree headstock angle
Long tenon neck joint
22 medium frets with dot inlays
2-screw bell TRC
Bone nut
24.75" scale
1.65" nut width
Electronics: Japanese P-90 pickups
2 Vol. 2 Tone controls
3-way selector switch
Hardware: Chrome hardware
Grover tuners
ABR-1 bridge with stopbar tailpiece
Vintage style deluxe small button tuners
3-ply pickguard
Colour: Heritage Cherry (HC)
Hardcase: Generic fitted hard case from Thomann
Hard Case
As said many times, all my guitars come shipped in a new black hard case which is included in the price. I find this is the safest way to avoid damage in transit. Please contact me before purchasing if you would like this. Alternatively, if you are collecting the guitar and, like some buyers have cases coming out of their ears, that's no problem, I'll adjust the price (usually around a £50 discount) and I can usually find you an old gigbag to take the guitar away in. The only hard and fast rule I have is that i won't ship a guitar in a gigbag.
If you are further interested in this guitar, you can either email me with any queries & I'll do my best to get back to you within 24 hours.
Or, you can buy quickly and safely using the PayPal "buy now" button and I will ship to most UK addresses the next working day. Highlands and Islands can be slightly dearer but I'll keep the cost as low as I can.
I can accept credit card payments by phone and will also offer a small discount to purchasers using bank transfer payments.
Overseas customers are very welcome but please email me first for shipping quotes.
