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View Full Version : Gibson Les Paul Traditional Gold Top



Jimi75
June 3rd, 2009, 07:16 AM
Hello friends, after having spend some days now with the new guitar, here's a review.

First of all, I think the Traditional is Gibson's "homerun". The Traditional series has a non chambered body, instead the body has 9 cheeseholes. Comparing different Traditionals, they all weighed more than 8.5 lbs at least. Mine weighs 9.3 lbs. The acoustic sound of the guitar is rich and transparent. The overall work on the guitar is pretty good. Gibson is known for not always working flawless, but most of the models I had in my hand of the Traditionals had very good craftmanship. The neck on the Traditionals is shaped after the 50's profiles. Attention, this is a pretty fat neck, altough it is slightly rounded. to me it felt right from the first moment on. The playability is awesome, no problems with bends or fast licks, I have found out that one get used to the chunkier neck pretty fast. the Classic 57 pus sound smooth, the tone articulaion is wonderful, very direct and balanced. Feels great for Blues and Classic Rock. Some poeple say they sound shrill or bright and I can not agree on this. You have to work with the potis and backing the tone poti on the bridge pu is the easiest way to get rid of too many highs. The guitar was very well set up. It features a pleked neck and here is where you feel a big difference towards other guitars. The octaves sound clean an all neck positions. The string action is perfect, no buzzing, no dead spots. The transition from neck to body is kinda chunky so you have to strech a little to play upwards from fret 15/16, nothing severe though, I still can play perfectly up there. You do not really have to fight to get the notes on this guitar, the overall feel is entirely different from a Strat. Not better, not worse, just different, so do yourself a favour and stop comparing. Most Strat players buy a LP and want them to sound like their Strat. Mistake! The Traditional is a pretty unmodern guitar, like the name already indicates. It fells "vintage" playing this guitar. You can rip of classic tunes played on LPs immediately. My favourite pu position so far is the middle position. The Traditional is very versatile. Only yesterday I have played her for 30 minutes through my Marshall JTM45. I was afraid of that the guitar would distort too much and that it would not be suitable for Blues. The sound was heaven! Clear, well shaped, very controllable and thick, the guitarsound filled the room. It sounds inspiring. Now here's two things that I would "maybe" change. The nut. I'd put a bone nut on it. The potis/capacitors. Changing from 300k to 500k. The changes are a big MAYBE. Playing the guitar yesterday under "live" circumstances showed a completely different picture that you got it when playing at home. So many possibilities, the controles reacted fine. kicking in my Fulltone OCD the guitar shifted into Classic rock gear. Very very elegant overdirve/distortion, if one can say it this way. This has nothing to do with Metal or such, we are talking Bonamassa, Allman Brothers, Skynyrd overdrive here. None of my guitars delivers a better articulated overdrive. Nothing is lacking, the harmonics come through full and rich. I like the jazzy bottom that the guitar delivers. Playing Jazz lines sounds "real" with this guitar.

The tuners work fine on that guitar, no reason to exchange something. Like with all my guitars I use nutsauce. The Traditional stays nicely in tune.

The Gibson Traditional comes with a beautiful case, featuring white plush on the inside that looks very sharp.

I think I need some more weeks to really be able to write about all features, all ups and downs, but so far this my experience after a few days of not letting it out of my hands. This guitar has an addictive magic.

Robert
June 3rd, 2009, 07:46 AM
Congrats! And thanks for the review. It's a marvelous guitar.