Trade Tang Gibsun Les Paul Supreme - order review

[ZMAN]

Any tech worth his salt should be able to fix it. If you looked down the neck did it seem fairly flat and level with no twists?
If it is badly warped that is the only thing they might not be able to fix. Also if the neck is not set in correctly they might have a problem. The overall look of the guitar does not look like a shoddy piece, so it will probably be fixable.
I recently purchased an Agile 3125 chambered light weight for 543 shipped to Maine, no tax or duties, with a Douglas brown case with the shroud. The chambered body was priced at a 50 dollar premium over the normal Agile.
So a normal agile with case would be around 500. If you get the guitar playing good for under 100 you are still in the Ball Park.
As far as Getting a tech to do the wiring, sometimes that can be just as bad. I had a tech do a pickup swap on my Gibby Classic. I used the RS guitarworks kit. The tech was on auto pilot, and didn't realize the RS kit has specific pots for each location. They are clearly marked on the pot in magic marker. It came back with a loud hum. I called RS and they asked for a pic of the set up. They immediately saw the problem. To say the least my guy is a very good tech and his red face was priceless. This was his first RS kit, so I will give him that. Now it works and sounds amazing.

[Eric***]

The tech was on auto pilot, and didn't realize the RS kit has specific pots for each location.

This drives me crazy with most guitar repair shops, and why I don't always trust them to do a good job. They tend to go on auto pilot and don't actually put any detail into making your guitar right. Actually, I should qualify that: usually the lead guy is very competent, but his underlings don't know/don't care, and it's almost like auto pilot is the only option. Drives me nuts.

[guitartango]

This drives me crazy with most guitar repair shops, and why I don't always trust them to do a good job. They tend to go on auto pilot and don't actually put any detail into making your guitar right. Actually, I should qualify that: usually the lead guy is very competent, but his underlings don't know/don't care, and it's almost like auto pilot is the only option. Drives me nuts.

Maybe they take on too much work for a fast turnaround. My tech use to play bass with Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac) and always comes up trumps, he can talk for hours about Strats, but no too keen on Gibson or Gibsuns....

[ZMAN]

This drives me crazy with most guitar repair shops, and why I don't always trust them to do a good job. They tend to go on auto pilot and don't actually put any detail into making your guitar right. Actually, I should qualify that: usually the lead guy is very competent, but his underlings don't know/don't care, and it's almost like auto pilot is the only option. Drives me nuts.

It took me years to find a person who actually listened to what I was asking for and come through with it.
I would say this guy is the best I have ever seen in setting up a guitar. The detail he goes to is really amazing. So you can understand when this happened I was totally shocked. Darren gave me 3 sets of D'Addarios and a free set up on my next guitar because I had to make the 20 mile trip twice. They are really good to me.
I have however been to "Bubba" and it was worse than before. His answer to my complaint was "it is only a Squier what do you expect." I gave it to Darren and it is one of the best playing Strats I own now.
I think you have to be a true "player" to realize what a guitars potential can be and should be with a little TLC.

[Katastrophe]

It is a fallacy that all ebony is completely black. Even really expensive pieces can have brown streaks in it. If it is real ebony, I'm sure it's the cheapest piece they could find which would make the coloring inconsistent at best.

You are absolutely right, marnold... I've seen some beautiful ebony boards on Warmoth's site with chocolate brown figuring.

[syo***]

So any word from the tech? I hope you can get it to play to your liking without too much trouble and cost. It certainly looks nice in the pics.

You are absolutely right, marnold... I've seen some beautiful ebony boards on Warmoth's site with chocolate brown figuring.

Yes, Marnold and Kat are correct. Having bought thousands of violins with ebony fingerboards and fittings this is indeed so. It's hard to tell exactly from the picture but it seems likely to be ebony. If it was rosewood you would know it even if it was stained. The grain texture is very different.

[progrmr]

Just an update here - I haven't gotten the guitar back from the luthier yet...these guys are usually pretty fast so I'm thinking they're having to really work it. Hope to get it back this week.

[Tig***]

They broke off the headstock by accident, but the replacement is almost ready.


Oh, and they managed to get inside the body for those mod's you ordered.

[bcdon***]

They broke off the headstock by accident, but the replacement is almost ready.

HAHA. Thanks for the laugh!

[progrmr]

Lol!

[progrmr]

So finally for the final word on this purchase

I got the guitar back from the luthier and they were able to make it work. The bridge posts were not full seated so they were able to re-set them and got a bit more room - enough to get the action comfortably low without buzzing.

** PHEW! **

The guitar guys said the workmanship on the guitar overall was good and that it was strange that they missed THAT detail given how much other work appeared to go into the guitar. They wondered why chinese makers didn't just put their own name on the guitar and sell under their own brand. Pretty decent comments given that these are guitar makers.

Still - I don't think I'll be buying from Trade Tang again...this was just too close to getting a guitar that was unplayable. At least if you buy from a Rondo or Guitar Festish or Squier - they most likely pick through some of the stock to find the lemons so you don't get one. Also you can easily send it back if needed. Not a very viable option for a Trade Tang purchase.

I'm pretty happy that I've got a decent guitar out of the whole thing. At least it worked out.

[Eric***]

Cool! Thanks for your review -- I'm glad you wound up with a decent axe in the end.

[Bookkeeper's Son]

Thanks for sharing your travails; I'm sure it's been enlightening for a lot of potential buyers, regardless of source or price. There are obviously a lot of things to consider when buying gear, and chronicles such as yours are certainly helpful for buyers. I'm glad that it all worked out and that the guitar wasn't totally FUBAR.

[whiteop]

My brother just bought one of those infamous Tradetang "Gibson" Les Paul Supremes with the rootbeer finish and brought it over for me to look over. Now I've owned several Gibsons and currently have a Gibson Les Paul Traditional Pro and an Epiphone LP Ultra II so I can speak on both counts as far as comparing them (plus I've been playing for about 35 years and mod guitars all the time). The Tradetang Les Paul doesn't even come close to the quality of a Gibson Les Paul. Here's what I observed right after setting up my brother's Tradetang special:

• Tuners - very stiff or loose depending on the tuner, inconsistent and obviously don't have quality gears in them. In addition they loosen and don't keep the strings in tune very well. You will have to replace them if you want them if you want your guitar to stay in tune.
• Trussrod appears to be non-adjustable. When I opened up the cover there was not what I would call a typical trussrod with a nut on the end. The cavity where the trussrod was packed with what appeared to be sawdust.
• Nut - very poor quality plastic nut that was seated incorrectly when it was glued in and doesn't appear to be placed or filed correctly.
• Finish - obviously polyurethane and there were blemishes on the neck near the nut where the finish flaked off and finish defects on the body of the guitar as well.
• Hardware in general - inferior even to Epiphone standards, in particular the saddle bridge.
• Pickups - not on par with the Gibson or Epiphone in quality, however, not too bad. Not quite as much chime or bell tones as you get on a real Gibson but not as bad as I thought they would be. The neck pickup is pretty weak, even weaker than a Classic 57.
• Case - not even close to the quality of a real Gibson case which is usually contoured. Looked very cheap up next to the real one though they did get the lettering / logo to look like the real deal.
• The body is chambered but appeared to feel lighter than other chambered Gibson Les Pauls I'ved picked up before. I'd guess the bulk of the guitar s probably made of cheap basswood.

My personal opinion: Don't waste your money. The real Gibson Les Paul smokes them by a mile and they are not even up to the quality of an Epiphone IMO. You will spend about $300 on the guitar alone, plus another $80 or so on the case, then pay about $125 for shipping to the U.S. My advice save your pennies and buy the real deal. No comparison.

[progrmr]

....My personal opinion: Don't waste your money. The real Gibson Les Paul smokes them by a mile and they are not even up to the quality of an Epiphone IMO. You will spend about $300 on the guitar alone, plus another $80 or so on the case, then pay about $125 for shipping to the U.S. My advice save your pennies and buy the real deal. No comparison.

You do realize that a new Gibson LP Supreme is $3500 right?? And honestly what I got is what I'd consider to be a typical Epi LP copy. Granted, not an Ultra - but those are $550 before shipping and setup so probably twice what I actually paid.

To your list that you saw with your brother:

The trussrod on mine is adjustable - typical allen wrench adjustment that you see on most cheapie guitars (Epiphone LP's included).

The trussrod pocket on mine was packed with tape to cover the recess during painting I'm guessing. It came out easily with a small screwdriver. Granted you'd never see that on a real Gibby (maybe lol!) but it was not a big deal

I'd agree on the pickups - I don't think they're wax potted and will feedback with distortion.

The stop bar and bridge are on-par with an Epi LP IMO. The bridge on mine does buzz a bit but I've had that on a lot of the LP copies I'd own.

Case - meh, it's actually plenty solid to protect the guitar. Not sure I'd want to spend more on a "better" one. It's well padded and solidly built.

Nut - typical plastic crap you see on cheap LP copies (Epi LP's included). It works but tone would definitely be improved with a better one.

Wood - can't tell but mine isn't light like basswood at all. It does fell chambered which I assume is from the fact that there's no access to the wiring so the chambers are larger to accommodate access to the electronics from the bridge pup access. I'll have to open mine up when I get some new pickups and see what I can see. And honestly I've have guitars and basses made from basswood - it's a fine tone wood IMO. In fact some extremely expensive basses are made of basswood, not sure on guitars but I bet they exist.

Given that a real LP Supreme cost 10X more than I paid I think these guitars are a decent deal. Even with the bridge issue I ran into it was correctable and the more I play it the more I feel like I "got over" on Gibson and their ridiculous pricing tiers (IMO). No doubt a real Gibson would be WAY better than these guitars but 10X better...that I'm not sure of.

[whiteop]

Let me rephrase then - if you have owned a quality Gibson product before and are used to quality guitars, the Trade Tang will probably dissapoint you. There are better knock-offs for the money.

[progrmr]

Let me rephrase then - if you have owned a quality Gibson product before and are used to quality guitars, the Trade Tang will probably dissapoint you. There are better knock-offs for the money.

Agreed - there are also worse for the same money. I owned several Epi LP's that cost more than this copy and weren't as good. I've also had an Epi that I got for $350 that totally blew it away. In fact that $350 Epi blew away the Gibson LP Studio I had a couple years ago. It seems to be hit or miss with every knock off - there's good and bad examples.

I have owned "quality" Gibson products in the past and I've played more than I've owned. There are lemons there too - and quite frankly far too often for the price.

To each their own I guess.

[sunvalleylaw]

Nice review and journal of this purchase! You have satisfied my curiosity. When/if I get a LP type guitar, it will be one of the usual knockoff suspects you mention, or a Hagstrom, used LTD, something like that. but it looks like you got a nice guitar in the end of this process.. Thanks again for taking time to detail it!

[stingx]

The parts used and the amount of time to correct should be taken into account when buying "cheap" guitars. Example, the Squire CV series uses quality Alpha pots and correct caps. The wiring is very good too. Perfect as is and an excellent modding platform should you desire.

Before buying any questionable, Chinese or Asian knockoff put the 300 or so bones towards a parts built guitar. I just had my tele done for under $500 and all the parts are top shelf and picked by me. There is simply no reason to take the chance on buying from some unknown vendor overseas.

As an example, and not to pimp a product. Go to Fretteck and look what $550 bucks will get you. Strat? Tele? Take a look. You pick the neck of your choice from Allparts, you get a custom bone nut, CTS pots, the whole nine and it's done by a quality builder with a great rep. I've got a strat build being planned out now. $550 or so spent this way will yield you a far superior instrument than what you'll get from Agile, Epi, etc. There is no skimping on the electronics - no need to swap and waste more time and money later.

I'm also a big proponent of buying used equipment. Some of the best guitars in my collection were obtained that way with a huge savings as a result. There is simply NO REASON to buy a cheap, knockoff guitar unless you are truly new to this game and have no one to guide you in the right direction when it comes picking out a good playing, quality instrument.