Played a Bonamassa sig today

[Jimi75]

Folks,

The weather is lovely and it was perfect to go to my favourite guitar store to check the J. Bonamassa sig LP. One of the first that cam to Europe. The guitar cost 3.700€ which is approx. 7000 USD - most of you stop reading here, right? Well, I was very objective while playing this guitar, because I am currently not under GAS alert for a Paul. The quality is good, not like what I have seen by Gibson over the past few years. I have compared it to a LP Standard that was about 1500€ less and I could not detect any big difference. I disliked the black lacquer on the backside of the guitar, this may be personal taste, but to me it seemed uncomfortable. Most outstanding on that guitar was the long sustain and beautiful shaping of the tone. The model I played was very light, I was really astounded by the weight. The sound is very clear and transparent and the Buckers do a good job on both, clean and distorted sound. See, my biggest problem was that this guitar had no "personality" although being a sig it just lacks the special moments oyu have when you hold the "right" guitars in your hand. The guitar wasn't adjusted very well and it had a tuning issue on the b-string. I do not want to provoke any "bad Gibson quality" talk, so let me tell you that this guitar sounded better than my ESP Les Paul, better than the Vintage copies and better than the Epiphones, but the difference to the LP Standard was so small that the price difference is not justified at all.

[ZMAN]

Jimi: A very good review. I believe that the black back is just a lazy way of finishing the guitar. But remember this is to Joe's specs. HE likes the black back. I think that on a Les Paul you should be able to see the mahogany grain. In the past couple of years I have purchased several Gibson guitars, and as far as finish goes I can find no faults, other than the sticky Nitro. As far as playability I think that this is where Gibson is missing the boat totally.
When people pick up a 5000 dollar guitar (a generalization) the general consesnus is that it should almost play itself. I do not think that enough time is taken on the set up of these guitars at the factory.
Gibson and any of the high end guitar makers will say that they are set up neutral because not everyone likes the same set up. That is true for string height, but intonation should be done and be spot on as well.
I have found that every guitar that I have purchased new over these years has needed a complete pro set up. I have taken it for granted when I look at a guitar in the shop no matter how it feels, it can be better!
As far as a signature series guitar being about the same as a Standard, you are correct. This guitar is Joe Bonamassa's dream guitar. The colors the pickup selection, and I am pretty sure you could do the same with a Standard at half the price. Now if this WAS Joe's actual guitar that he played many many times on stage then it might be worth 7000 US to a collector.
Just to put things into perspective, I have purchased, a Gibson LP Classic, LP Studio, and an Elitist Les Paul brand new for 3100 U. S. and a used mint ES335, and LP Standard for 2700 U.S. So you can buy a lot of guitars for 7000 bucks. In fact with the extra 1200, I purchased 5 Squier Strats.
And I don't live in the U.S. and have to pay a "landed" price.

[Robert****]

Still cheap compared to the Custom Shop Yngwie Malmsteen strat! - http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/p...tar?sku=526795

$12,500

[oldguy]

Thanks for the review, Jimi!

I'd agree that the back of a Paula shouldn't be painted black.
I don't see new guitars set up ready to play anymore, it used to be the norm in most shops. This takes away from the "personality" factor for me.......... if the guitar was set up properly, and still has no mojo, it's a dud IMO.

[ZMAN]

Still cheap compared to the Custom Shop Yngwie Malmsteen strat! - http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/p...tar?sku=526795

$12,500

It must cost a lot of money to scallop those finger boards
BTW what the hell are scalloped finger boards?

[oldguy]

from wiki..........

"A fretted fingerboard can be scalloped by "scooping out" the wood between each of the frets to create a shallow "U" shape. The result is a playing surface wherein the players' fingers come into contact with the strings only, and do not touch the fingerboard.

The process of "scalloping" a fingerboard, if done by hand, well is tedious work, usually done by careful filing of wood between the frets, and requires a large investment of time. Consequently, it is relatively expensive to have done. Generally scalloping of fingerboards is done by a special milling machine which has 22 or 24 (according to the neck dimensions and number of frets) wood cutting tools. This equipment saves time to the process and dimensional stability like scalloping the wood in the neck's radius same in all fret spaces.

Scalloped fingerboards are most commonly used by shred guitarists, most notably, Yngwie Malmsteen, who, inspired by Ritchie Blackmore (of Deep Purple fame) in his use of scalloped fret boarded stratocasters, had a signature model of Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster developed with Fender. The famous Ibanez JEM series guitars, designed and played by Steve Vai, come standard with the last 4 frets scalloped. In 2008 Ibanez made available their E-Gen model, a Herman Li signature, which includes four scalloped frets.

Experimental luthier Yuri Landman made an electric guitar for John Schmersal of Enon called the Twister with a partial scalloped neck for only the thin strings, (like little playground slides).

Other examples of lutes with scalloped fretboards include the South Indian veena and Vietnamized guitar (called đÃ*n ghi-ta, lục huyền cầm, or ghi-ta phÃ*m lõm).The Japanese multi-instrumentalist and experimental musical instrument builder Yuichi Onoue made a deeply scaloped electric guitar for Vietnamese microtonal playing techniques[4].


Scalloped fretboard of a South Indian veenaScalloping can be:[5]

Full, i.e. all frets from the first to the last are scalloped.
Partial, when some of the top frets are scalloped for fast soloing. Popular examples include half scalloping (12th to the last fret, used by Kiko Loureiro of Angra[6], among others) or few top frets scalloping (19–24, 17–22, etc), utilized by such guitarists as Steve Vai. When done by hand, sometimes fretboards can be scalloped half below D or G string, as in the case for Turkish luthier Kenan Turgut.
Note that filing the wood while scalloping also touches inlays, thus fingerboards with complex and intricate inlays usually aren't conducive to scalloping, as it would damage the artwork. Simple dot or block markers survive the procedure well.


[edit] Advantages and disadvantages
The "scooped out" nature of scalloped fingerboards creates a number of changes in the way the guitar plays.

Most obvious, is that the fingertip only comes into contact with the string, not the fingerboard itself, creating less friction for bends and vibratos, which results in more overall control while playing.

However, that is also one of the main disadvantages. Many players, especially new players, may find a scalloped fingerboard to be too different to play easily — if the strings are light for the player and/or the player has the tendency to press too hard on the fingerboard, it does take practice to play in tune on a scalloped fingerboard. The player must first become accustomed to not actually touching the fingerboard, which may take some time. Playing a scalloped fingerboard requires a careful application of pressure: too much can change the pitch of the fretted note, as during a bend, and too little pressure can cause fret buzz. As a result, the majority of guitar players choose to use a traditional fingerboard on their instruments."

[Jimi75]

The price for the Malmsteen Strat is ridiculous, but it is limited in quantitiy and it is a lot more work to produce this guitar, because it is handbuilt - each and every single YJM sig that leaves the Fender warehouse!!! Please do not forget this, we are talking about a "Master Piece", the Bonamassa is a 2-piece LP that is manufactured in standard procedure, nothing special though.