Anyone checked out Gibson lately?

[Katastrophe]

Looks like Gibby has taken a look at their pricing structure...

Just in the Les Paul line...(prices from MF)

The Les Paul Melody Maker - $539
Junior (in TV Yellow! GAS) - $699
Studio Faded (with a killer new faded blue finish) - $799
Junior(2TSB) - $839
Studio Tributes (50s and 60s w/ p90s) - $849
Specials (2 different colors) - $999
BFG Gator (Serious GAS for this one) - $1079

All Les Pauls, all American Made (if that makes a difference), and all under $1100. Nice to see an American company besides Fender producing a guitar that is priced to compete with the imports. The new Juniors and the new Melody Maker Special (2 p90s, $700) look awesome.

[Radioboy950]

The 60's Tribute Goldtop with P90s is absolutely gorgeous. I've been eyeballing it for a little while now.

[otaypanky***]

The 60's Tribute Goldtop with P90s is absolutely gorgeous. I've been eyeballing it for a little while now.

I'd suggest you jump on one ~
That's just like my 50's version except with a bit different neck profile. I am still in the honeymoon phase and I've had it about a year or so. I just love it.

[Eric***]

Huh. That's good news, I suppose. Thanks for the heads up.

[riverrick]

I pulled the trigger on one of those LP Studio 60's Tribute. I didn't have a guitar with P-90's. When it first arrived man was I disappointed. The action was way high. and when you slid your hand along the edge of the neck the fret just ripped you up. Come Gibson how about some quality control HUH!!! This has what they call a worn finish, again a first for me. Not a real fan of the flat finish. I like 'em shinny!!! And this thing has a real funny smell. After a trip to the guitar tech and $100 later this guitar is actually playable now. Much happier with it now....except for the smell...lol

[deeaa*]

Those 60's tributes are really the cheapest they make, aren't they? FWIW, Gibson QC hasn't been up to their tasks in years, IMO anyway...I'd be VERY hard pressed to find a Gibson with a comparable finish & setup like my Epi Prophecy has for instance. Maybe at six times the price...

[Tig***]

I noticed the higher end Epiphones I've played in the stores the last few years were all set up and finished well. I can't say the same for the lower Gibsons and the lower Epiphones. Still, if all it takes is some setup work and the rest of the guitar is solid, I wouldn't mind having one myself.

[deeaa*]

I just visited a couple of local music stores, and since my Prophecy SG has been my fave guitar for a while now, I checked out every SG they had. Coincidentally all they had were Gibson standard SG's or similar models, I didn't check the nominations but I'm guessing they were all STD's...no, wait, some of them had dots and some trapeze inlays so they can't have all been the same. Most had those plastic Kluson style tuners. Anyway. All were $1000 plus.

They all looked good, most were in wine red, some black...all had the same very thick neck which means I'm not interested...I like a bit more slim taper neck than these baseball bats which make the guitars terribly neck heavy too...hell they seem thicker than the SG body is :-)
The finishing just isn't as good as on even Epis. All of them for instance had this quite clear 'step' on the side of the neck, meaning the fretboard was a hair narrower than the actual neck wood, generating a slight but quite easily felt ridge there. Furthermore some fret ends were also tangibly a hair too long...all this indicated to me the fretboard wood has likely dried more than the neck wood.

The fretboards were all very pale for rosewood too, more like yellowish than deep dark brown. The lacquering was nice and looked good, and buffing for the most part good, but when looked against the light, there were some spots in hard-to reach places like the side of the near the body that had a clear orange peel bumpy surface.

And to top the experience off, all had too much bow to the neck and waaayyy high action. Still playable, but, whoa, at least for me insanely high, like you could slide a pencil between the string and the last frets. The neck seemed good so that's likely just an adjustment issue but I'm amazed nobody had adjusted them fore putting on display & sale.

On the wine red transparents, body & neck woods looked good quality, and one-piece body even, but both had a smallish dark knot on the back. Nothing bad, but still quite visible from even a distance, as the wine red is quite transparent indeed.

So all in all, I could not find a single thing exceptionally good about them, except they all did sound good unamplified. No fret buzz at least :-) but as to how much difference that makes amplified, well...

The verdict is that those axes offer nothing for me. Nice looks, but I want a clearly thinner neck, and I'd swap the pups anyway, so I don't see why would it make sense to pay the premium when I can get a more playable Epi or most any copy SG at one third the price. Hell if they were the same price I'd still pick the Prophecy over these STDs.

[deeaa*]

Check this out...REALLY bad a photo, you can't really see it even properly, but this is a brand new $1000+ made in US Gibson and it has this big white area where the lacquer has milked somehow, on the side of the neck...I can't believe that blob of lacquer has passed QC. You'd NEVER see that on a chinese guitar no matter how cheap. The camera doesn't even show the orange peel surface of the lacquer to the left of it at the headstock joint...just incredibly shoddy work for such an expensive axe!

[Tig***]

...I can't believe that blob of lacquer has passed QC. ...just incredibly shoddy work for such an expensive axe!

A sad day for Gibson, in a series of sad days

[jpfeifer]

I have a love/hate relationship with Gibsons.

I love the ES-339, ES-335, Johnny A model, Les Paul Standard, etc. I drool over these guitars every time I see one, and would love to own one.

Then, I see a guitar like this Firebird X Guitar and wonder what brilliant marketing person came up with this idea? Does this guy actually play guitar?
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guita...lectric-guitar
It leaves me wondering who would pay $4000 for it.

I'm still a Gibson fan, just think that they occasionally come up with some really dumb things rather than focusing on what they do so well.

--Jim

[bcdon***]

Then, I see a guitar like this Firebird X Guitar and wonder what brilliant marketing person came up with this idea? Does this guy actually play guitar?
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guita...lectric-guitar
It leaves me wondering who would pay $4000 for it.
--Jim

Don't get me wrong, I do not have any desire for that ugly thing but if Gibson were to blow them out, what price point would make you buy one? $500?

[Eric***]

Don't get me wrong, I do not have any desire for that ugly thing but if Gibson were to blow them out, what price point would make you buy one? $500?

I don't mean to be cynical with this, but probably $250 or so. Honestly, that's how much my curiosity would be willing to pay.

[deeaa*]

I kinda like the Firebird X...such an ugly MF that it is already cool somehow. In some less-than-crazy color scheme it has some great features and could be VERY interesting.
I'd pay a little premium for all the crazy hardware over a traditional guitar...so, let's say if it were something like...450...no, that I'd pay for it in a heartbeat...maybe 600 or so would be max, but it'd depend on the situation. If I had lots of money to spend...anything is possible, even a four-digit number perhaps. I have entertained a notion I could some day pay a thousand for a guitar, if I could find something worth that kind of a price tag, but I keep finding better guitars for circa 400 all the time than anything I've seen past 4 digits.

[jpfeifer]

I suppose my point is that I wouldn't buy this guitar at any price point. I'm thinking that it would be way more appealing if they did a guitar like this (with all of these features) in an instrument that was more traditional, like a Les Paul or 335 design. This one is just so extreme and so expensive I'm wondering ... why? Gibson could own the guitar-modeling genre if they really focused on building something that players really want, a guitar with lots of tonal options that can cover any musical situation, that looks nice and plays well, like a Les Paul on steroids. Instead they build this thing that looks like it's from a science fiction movie and price it at $4000. Maybe I'm not the right demographic for an instrument like this :-)