Trade Tang Gibsun Les Paul Supreme - order review

[syo***]

You ultimately get exactly what you pay for.

I'll go ahead and disagree with that outright. You think all profit margins are the same?

I'm with Eric on this one. As for getting "exactly what you pay for", I could buy the same guitar that progrmr did for probably 40% less. Would this mean that we both got what we paid for?

I'm also in the financial sector and will repeat what I said. All goods are manufactured to a price point. That's a fact. What separates good guitars from mediocre from bad are the quality of the parts used and the attention to detail/setup - all reflected in the price point the manufacturer has set for maximum profit.

Regarding manufacturing to a price point, I'm not really sure what you mean in this instance, stingx. What progrmr bought here is not a typical Gibson-sold-in-GC kind of thing. These guitars are often being sold by factories to middlemen who sell them to westerners. Sometimes different sellers are selling the same guitars for very different prices. Therefore I would say that at the stage that progrmr received it, any price point from the manufacturer wasn't terribly relevant.

Regarding what I think separates good guitars from bad:

1). Quality/compatibility of components. We basically agree here.
2). Accomplished level of craftsmanship AND quality control. A setup has not much to do with whether your guitar is good or bad, just how playable it is (or not) when you've received it. A good guitar with a bad setup can still be a good guitar however a bad guitar, even with a good setup, well...sucks...!
3). Luck (or lack of it).

My 2 cents (or is it 4?)