I hate to rag on any guitar brand. Honestly, I've always wanted a Gibson and I'd still like to add one to my collection some day. But, I saw something last night on my visit to Guitar Center that has made me take notice again of Gibson and their ongoing quality issue.
Last night, I decided that I should try some of their custom shop Les Pauls just for fun. I pulled out a nice LP Custom (Tobacco Brown Sunburst) off the rack and played it for a while. Nice guitar, a custom shop model even. It was about $3000 too. Then I started examining the guitar neck. The glue joint around the set-in neck was cracked. You could actually push on the neck by the headstock and watch the glue joint whould flex as if the glue had dried out or something! I couldn't believe it. This shouldn't be happening on a custom shop guitar from ANY brand.
Then I picked up a beautiful black LP, also from the custom shop. I started examining the neck, etc. I found a bunch of areas on the back of the headstock where it the finish was not smooth at all, very rough. It looked like someone did a half-*** job of sanding the guitar then slapped the finish on and called it done. This is supposed to be a custom shop guitar and it costs over $3000. What's the deal?
I love Gibson's guitars and I want to own one. But this kind of thing scares me to the point of making me look for alternatives. If I was to ever put out this kind of money for a guitar, I want that guitar to be worth the money and not some headache that I'm having to fuss over as soon as I buy it. There are some good guitar companies who are still delivering quality for the money, but right now I don't think that Gibson is one of them.
-- Jim