Last year, Gibson invited the top Japanese dealers to Nashville to tour the factory, pick tops for their custom orders and have a nice time in general. As part of that tour, Gibson opened up the R+D Research and Development department and "cleaned house" of prototypes used for recent models. We're talking things like the Modern Supreme, Charlie Starr Junior, Firebird Platypus, Victory, Dealer Customs among many others! After selection, these notable guitars were exported to be sold in the Japanese market only. I imported a few back with the help of a friend!

I initially purchased this as a fun "R+D" prototype, but imagine my surprise when I found a different one I purchased was the guitar Charlie used in the video! That led me to dig deeper and sure enough - this guitar was part of the shoot as well! The serial number is confirmed in Gibson's video at 1:50 and was used as the "B-Roll" Shot Walnut example to create Gibson's promo video. Pretty cool!

This was used as a promo piece - its condition is not perfect. There is some delaminating lacquer on the edge of the 1st fretting area (not loose, just looks weird) as well as a "scar" like scratch on the edge (I provide a few angles of it.) Otherwise, just a few mild impressions/dings here or there.

At the time of my purchase, the signature slide and "Hey Ya'll" were not included and this example has limited other case candy/paperwork. See photos for what all this has.